Another Moment Passing by...

Prologue

“I know that!” he yelled, finally responded. I jumped back a bit, but stopped being so tense when I saw the tears falling from his wild eyes. And the tears stream down my face… Liam and Louis’ voices flowed through my mind, making my heart clench as I remembered the meaning of that song and recalled all the concerts that Zayn had to take Harry’s solos because Harry couldn’t even bear to sing it.

“So why don’t you listen?” I asked softly. He sat up and placed his head between his knees, trying to steady his breathing. I scooted closer to him, wrapping my arms around him, wanting so desperately to ease his pain in whatever way possible. He was my cousin, and I absolutely hated seeing him like that. Finally, without lifting his head, he began to explain himself.

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to move on. I want to do what she wants me to do, but I can’t love somebody else. Not only would that be betraying Dani, but what if they left me too? I just want to avoid the situation entirely,” he vented while I rubbed his back soothingly.

“You can’t avoid reality, Hazz,” I replied. Though I felt his pain.

“I know, I know,” he responded. “It’s just… I need time.” I nodded.

“Okay," I agreed, kissing him on the top of his curly head before exiting his room and softly closing the door behind me. I sighed, sliding down the door and running my hands through my hair. I wanted so badly to repair him, but how do you fix someone that badly broken? Well, at least I got through to him…

“You should go to bed, it’s late.” I looked up, staring into a pair of golden eyes. I smiled as I took Zayn’s extended hand, thanking him as he helped me up. “I think you should sleep in Nialler’s room tonight. He wants you to, and my guess is you want to as well,” Zayn instructed, smiling knowingly. I smiled and nodded in return. He started to turn around, but I stopped him.

“When do you think he’ll get better?” I questioned softly, obviously referring to Harry. He sighed and turned back around to face me.

“I’m not sure,” he answered. “Whenever he’s ready I suppose.”

“Well yeah, I know that…” I muttered. I instantly regretted it, feeling guilty for being bitter with Zayn. “Sorry,” I apologized, knowing he couldn’t possibly have the answers I was looking for. No one could, really.

“It’s fine,” he assured me with a comforting smile. He pulled me into a hug and I wrapped my arms around his torso, leaning my head on his chest.

“Room for one more?” Michelle’s joking voice came from behind us. I giggled as Zayn and I pulled apart, facing Michelle who wore a smirk on her lips, her blue eyes dancing as always.

“Night guys,” I said, waving as I departed and headed towards Niall’s room. He hadn’t come upstairs yet, so I shut the door and sat on his bed. I noticed something purple and orange peeking out from under various notebooks and random pieces of music sheets. I slipped it out carefully and smiled as I noticed it was the picture of me in his arms, smiling up at him even though I hadn’t wanted to, the one Jacob had taken that all the other boys were cropped out of. I slid off of the bed and rested the picture on his pillow and headed over to the closet. It was a pretty hot late August night, so I just picked out a fairly large tee shirt. Facing away from the door, I stripped off everything but my hot pink and white polka dot underwear that I had bought at PINK just in time to hear the door open and close.

“Looks like I came at a nice time,” an amused Irish accent came from behind me.

“Shit, Niall!” I exclaimed, jumping out of my skin and covering my bare chest with the shirt as I spun around to face the smirking Irish boy. I fake glared at him as he started walking towards me, making my heart race as usual.