Back to Where We Started

Chapter 2

As tired as he'd been when he'd finally crashed into his bunk after his conversation with Louis last night, Zayn wasn't able to get much sleep. After dozing off and on for several hours, tossing and turning, he finally crawled out of bed around 6:00am, deciding it would be better to get up and get started with his morning rather than spend his time dreading the inevitable uphill battle he'd face today.

After a quick stop in the bathroom, Zayn padded to the kitchen, intent on brewing a pot of coffee. He had a feeling that he'd need more than a single cup this morning, so he went ahead and made a full pot.

As the coffee percolated, Zayn angled the television that was mounted to the wall so it was facing the table before making himself comfortable and turning it on. Flipping through the channels, Zayn eventually settled on an episode of Friends, hoping that it would be able to distract him from the thoughts that had been consuming him since last night.

After finishing his first cup of coffee, Zayn decided to hop in the shower so he wouldn't have to worry about it later when the other four were trying to get ready for the day. It wasn't until almost three hours later, when he'd finally decided he was ready to eat something, that any of the other lads joined him. The first to stumble into the kitchen was Harry.

"Morning, Haz." Zayn greeted.

The curly haired boy rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands before blinking several times and focusing his eyes on Zayn. "Morning," he mumbled.

Raising an amused eyebrow at the younger boy's antics, Zayn asked, "Anyone else up yet?"

Harry looked as though he was taking a moment to consider the question before finally nodding in the affirmative. "Liam's making his bed and Lou's in the shower." He answered with a yawn.

Zayn nodded in response. "Niall's still asleep, then?"

Harry rolled his eyes at that and gave Zayn a look as if to say, 'well, duh'.

In that moment, Zayn saw exactly what Louis had been talking about the previous night. The fact that Harry felt bold enough to roll his eyes directly at him spoke volumes. Before his departure, without question, Harry would have never dared to roll his eyes at him, not in front of him at least. He'd known that Zayn didn't tolerate that kind of disrespect. Knowing that he couldn't continue to allow things like that to go unchecked and that it would be best to just get started on correcting his errors, Zayn hardened his expression and said, "Excuse me, did you just roll your eyes at me?"

Harry locked eyes with Zayn. The lad looked absolutely stunned.

Feeling emboldened by actually having taken the first step towards taking control of the situation, Zayn raised an eyebrow, this time far from amused, and continued, "I asked you a question, Harry. I expect an answer."

Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times. He eventually looked back at Zayn, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Uh, y-yeah. I guess..." he trailed off, sounding uncertain.

Zayn hummed his acknowledgement of the answer. "Are you allowed to roll your eyes at me?"

Once again, Harry looked utterly confused. The questions he was being asked were simple enough, but for some reason, he felt thrown off by them. "No," he mumbled, eventually breaking eye contact and diverting his attention to the table before him.

Zayn nodded his agreement. "That's right." Deciding that he'd sufficiently caught the boy's attention, Zayn continued, "I understand that you're still waking up, but that is no reason to be rude to me. I expect you to change your attitude, understood?"

Harry nodded sheepishly, continuing to stare intently at the table.

Making note of Louis' presence at the entrance to the kitchen, arms crossed while he surveyed the situation before him, Zayn added, "It looks like Lou is out of the bathroom. Why don't you go hop in the shower while he and I get some breakfast together?"

For a moment, it looked like Harry was about to protest. Before long, however, he simply got up from the table and walked past Louis, who gave him a quick swat as he walked by, causing the younger lad to scurry down the hall.

"What was that all about?" Louis asked once he was confident that Harry was out of hearing range.

Running a tired hand over his face, Zayn answered, "He was just in a bit of a mood this morning and I called him on it."

"Is that it?" Louis asked.

"Yeah. Thing is, you were absolutely right, Lou. He looked so confused when I called him on his behavior."

"I bet he was," Louis agreed.

"To be honest, I have a feeling the only reason he didn't give me a hard time about it is because he wasn't expecting it. There's no way it's going to be that easy to get the boys used to me taking charge that quickly." Zayn mused.

Louis nodded his agreement. "Think we should call a family meeting to let them know what's going on?"

"Nah," Zayn shook his head. "I thought about it, but at least for right now, I think it would be better if I just go ahead and try to work on not letting them walk all over me anymore. It won't take long for them to realize what's going on. It might just be best for one of them to crack and confront me about it."

Louis couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "There's the Zayn Javaad Malik I know."

Zayn rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the refrigerator where he began searching for a collection of fruit to make a fruit salad.

SMACK.

Zayn jumped and turned around, glaring daggers at Louis.

"Excuse me, as you said to young Harry, we don't tolerate eye rolling, Zayn Javaad." Louis lectured.

For a moment, Zayn thought his friend was serious. However, Louis being Louis, couldn't hold the stern expression for long, and broke out in a fit of laughter.

"You should see the look on your face, mate!"

Zayn laughed good naturedly, but not before rubbing the remaining sting out of his ass. Louis may have been joking around, but the guy had a mean swing.

A/N: I am terribly sorry it has taken me nearly a year to post chapter 2! All I can really say is that my life pretty much went to shit (death in the family, miscarriage, divorce...) shortly after I published the first chapter, and it took a lot for me to get back into writing. I still have a fairly good idea of where I'd originally  planned to take this story. I'm very excited to be back. I'm not too sure what my posting schedule will look like for the time being, but my goal is at least once a week, if not more. Thank you to those of you who have voted, favorited, and commented on the story so far! I hope you're still out there!! :)