One Direction Imagines

14. Forgetting

Liam: "I’ll be back before you know it," he had said, "I could never forget about you." You had nodded, blinking back tears as you watched him slip away, off to live his dream. After all, who were you to hold him back? He’d be back, he’d said that, and you had trusted him. But eventually, despite the promises, your relationship had succumbed to the distance. Phone calls became less and less frequent and the conversations shorter and shorter until they had stopped altogether. Then, one fated day, the call came, the one that you had been dreading, the one that had shattered your heart and tore you at the seams. "I don’t think this is going to work out," he had murmured quietly, his voice soft with emotion, "The distance is affecting our relationship too much." And you had nodded, trying to accept that your relationship had come to an end. So that was how you found yourself sitting on your bed, knees tucked under your chin and a box of tissues by your side as you tried to come to terms with the end of something that he had promised would last, but, in the end, he had forgotten. "You said you wouldn’t forget," you murmured to yourself, stroking the edge of the picture frame. "We were supposed to have our forever, remember?" He had dreamed big, and you had known that, but eventually his dreams had become too big and your relationship too hindering, causing him to let you go, freeing him for something bigger. He had forgotten, and you wished that you could too, because remembering what once was was squeezing your heart, tracing cracks upon the surface, threatening to break it. As you ran your finger upon the edge of the frame once more, you were struck with a sense of longing. Maybe you needed to call him, clear the air and understand. Maybe that was what you needed to move on. Putting the picture aside, you hesitantly dialed the familiar number-deleting it had done nothing for you, the numbers were engraved into your heart and mind alike-and held your breath, listening to the monotonous ringing that made your heart race. After a few moments of bated breath and nervous scrambling, Liam picked up, making your heart stutter and your cheeks flush. "Hello?" The smooth, calming voice was exactly as you remembered, and you sighed with the familiarity, momentarily forgetting what had happened. "I-It’s Y/N," you murmured, tapping your fingers on your thigh nervously, "I just… I just needed to understand. I need to understand why it happened, Liam." As the words left your lips, you felt a weight lift off your shoulders and the the iron bands around your heart seemed to loosen slightly. The other end was silent, and you waited quietly for Liam’s response. When it seemed you couldn’t handle the tension much longer, the silence was interrupted. "I’m sorry, I don’t seem to remember who you are." And with those words, you knew, you knew he had forgotten, and that it was truly the end. So, with silent tears and an aching heart, you hung up.

Zayn: "Hey, mate, can I get another beer? This one’s empty." Zayn downed another drink, shuddering as the familiar liquid burned its way down his throat, the pain nothing compared to the aching in his chest, the one that threatened to leave him a shaking, sobbing mess. Wiping at the countertop, the bartender peered at the forlorn boy carefully, his expression that of a concerned father. "You can’t do this, you know," he ventured tentatively, gripping the beer tightly, "This is the seventh drink you’ve had." Despite the concern laced in his voice, his words fell upon deaf ears, and Zayn gestured for the bottle. "I… I don’t care," he slurred, his gaze unfocused and wary, "She left me, man. She left me…. She said she’d never leave me." Tossing his head back and gulping down the amber liquid, he laughed dryly, "I-I don’t know… know what to do. I c-came home, and she was gone. Bags were all gone. Couldn’t even tell she was there." Holding his head in his hands, he gestured for another drink, "I just… I need to forget right now." And drink after drink, he tried, tried to forget the gaping hole in his chest that once held his heart, the very one you had taken with you when you had left him. The drinks did little to help Zayn forget. Instead, they made his thoughts duller and the hurt sharper, leaving immobile from the pain lacing his heart and overwhelming him. "I just want to forget," he mumbled between every drink, the once-brilliant light in his eyes growing duller with every sip, "I want to forget what we had. I want to forget the promises." But they wouldn’t fade; the broken promises rang in his head, mocking him and making him see red. Forgetting was difficult, he decided, but a few more drinks, they couldn’t hurt. Every now and then, he’d swear that he saw you, heard your laugh, smelled that perfume that he loved so much, and every time he was left with the sinking disappointment that settled in his stomach like a stone. And with the drinks came the remembering. Zayn remembered every kiss, every whispered "I love you"… everything. He remembered your promises to always love him, and he bit back the sobs that racked his body, gritting his teeth and tightening his jaw as they threatened to escape him. Nothing helped, not the words of the kindly bartender, not the beers. Even the pretty girls unashamedly draping themselves all over him did nothing to ease the ache in his heart. A you-shaped hole had made its way into his heart and he knew that the only way to fix it was by having you back or forgetting. "I just need to forget," he mumbled to himself over what seemed to be the hundredth drink he’d had, "I just want to forget the promises."

Louis: "You… you’ve changed. You said you never change, Louis, but you did." With your every accusation, Louis took a step back, feeling like he’d been stabbed in the heart. He hadn’t mean to change, hadn’t meant to forget himself, and he especially hadn’t meant to neglect your relationship. Looking around him, he saw the broken remnants of something that had once been beautiful but was now shattered. With a pang of realization, Louis saw how he’d changed, how he’d neglected your relationship until you had gotten tired of holding on. He saw the holes he’d created and he was stunned; it was never supposed to happen like that. He was always supposed to be there for you, and he’d forgotten. He had neglected the most important thing in his life and he’d realized much too late. "Yesterday," you breathed in a shuddering breath, fighting back the tears, "yesterday was our anniversary. You forgot it, Louis. I… I reminded you, but you still forgot." Looking away from those blue eyes-a blue so deep you could drown in them-you sighed exasperatedly, "I just can’t keep doing this," you murmured quietly, "I can’t keep hanging onto something that’s so broken. This relationship-if you can even call it that-you obviously don’t want it, and I don’t want to be with someone who so obviously wants to forget that he has a girlfriend." Fumbling for words, Louis tried to approach you, to apologize for everything he had done. He hadn’t meant to forget, and the guilt traced cracks in his heart that he had never noticed before. Reaching for you, he tried to find the right thing to say, the right thing to make you stay. "Y/N, I forgot, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t… If you could just give me one more chance, I’ll make it back to how it was, I won’t forget…" His words were met with a pitying glance and a gentle shake of the head, "No, Louis. You’ve completely forgotten yourself and everything you stand for… And I’m sick of that." Gently tugging your hand from his grip, you headed towards the door, feeling a sense of longing and loss settling in the pit of your stomach. With your hand on the doorknob, you gazed straight ahead, steeling yourself for the next words about to leave your mouth. "Maybe you should just forget about me, too, Louis." And with those words, you left, leaving him stunned and broken, unable to forget the only thing that he wished he could.

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not mine xx