Retrograde | ZS

V. Time

Zayn enters Harley's Bread and walks over to the lady whose got a planner on the table and her cellular in her hand. A choked, dry voice comes out from Zayn that he didn't expect, "Anne? Did you call me?"

"Yes I did. Take a seat." Anne slides her planner aside and nudges with her chin, the barstool that is beneath the high table. Zayn cautiously slides it out and nervously sits down, not knowing what to expect.

When Anne finally makes the contact with Zayn, that he's been aching yet wanting to badly avoid, Anne makes a dramatic sigh, "I don't want my son to associate himself with you. Don't want you near him. Don't want him to talk about you, always want to invite you. Don't want him to remember you. I already know he doesn't remember the past with you included in it, and it should stay that way."

"No, no, no, Anne. You can't do that! He came back into my life little than two weeks ago and he's been a great friend the whole time. You can't take him away again. I'm not trying anything on him I swear." Zayn pleads with a wary voice. The thought of Harry being taken away from him terrifies him. The last thing he'll let happen is for Harry to forget him, again.

"Should of thought about that in the past. You knew he went missing. You never came by." Anne says bold, a cold voice echoing as it surfaces Zayn's ears, almost feeling as if her words are floating lyrics that wrap around his neck due to guilt. He can't find his voice, nor does he know what to say. Because that's the first time he's ever heard that before.

"I never knew he went missing." Zayn says quiet and softly. "I didn't know. Never knew. All I know is─ is that... Someone pushed him, off a cliff." Zayn remembers the day clearly, vivid, as most rememberable as possibly a mother hearing news that her son has gone missing.

Zayn was at the beach miles away from his parents home in downtown. Since he was going to graduate middle school, his parents gave Zayn and Harry instructions on how to use the bus. Gave him different routes to get to the destination they wanted too. They wanted a little incentive for Zayn and this was the best idea they came up with since nobody could drive the two to the beach.

It was the best day of Zayn's life. He got to spend it with someone that he loved. On top of that, it was the last day of school, the day after his graduation ceremony.

At the beach, there were a couple of kids messing around by the cave. Zayn already knew he wanted to take Harry there but he didn't expect a ton of high schoolers around. They didn't cause too much problems. Simply let Zayn and Harry go towards the edge while they leaned against the rock. But Zayn knew they weren't as welcoming as they seemed, but still Harry already walked off without Zayn and entered the cave.

This was the phase where Harry was dis coving a little more about himself. During this time, Zayn was fascinated by the idea of Harry wearing the color pink and skirts and dresses. Though, he honestly packed those clothes in his backpack because his mum didn't know that side of him. Just like Harry's mum, the kids who marked the cave as their territory didn't like the idea of a boy in feminine clothing.

"Wow, it's so pretty here. Look, the waterfall!" Harry cooed to Zayn as he took a kneel down and let his feet dangle off the cliff that was relatively ten feet. "Shove him." Zayn heard one of the built teenagers demand with a dark, deep voice that feared the soon to be freshman.

"Shove him in or we will tell Anne he's a fucking gay boy. We know Gemma. We know they won't like that." He says with a grin, another teen comes from the side adding upon the boy's ruthless attitude, "That boy over there is getting his faggot infections on our rock."

Zayn didn't know if he actually shoved Harry or if someone else did, but all he saw was Harry flailing forward without a sound escaping his lips, only a rough crash hitting the water's surface, and it wasn't the waterfall.