Beneath the Midnight Sky

Thirteen

The trio opened the door to the empty house. Louis' mother was gone for the week on a business trip. Zayn spent the previous night setting up the scene for what he was about to do. He had been through this before: an intervention with Louis 2 years ago. Apparently, it didn't work. Though he admits, he never have much hope the first time. It was hard on him watching the one he loved so desperately wasting away and seeing himself in such a negative light. Even more so, Zayn knew he loved Louis ever since they were randomly selected to be roommates. It took him awhile to accept that Louis would never feel the same, and he realized he just wanted to be in Louis' life again and hoped he would meet his soulmate soon.

"Lou, I want to show you something." Zayn muttered as he grabbed the small boy by the arm. Harry darted eyes at him but bit his tongue.

"Ok, Z." Louis said as they walked up the stairs.

"Sit down," Zayn patted the bed and retrieved a photo album. "I made this for you. I researched it. You can't see it when you look in the mirror, but maybe the photos, you'll be able to tell because it isn't in the present tense, if that makes sense." Zayn said as Louis and Harry huddled closed to view the photos.

"This is you freshman year. We took this together,"

"At the movies," Louis chuckled. "You said you wanted to get to know the person you'd be seeing everyday,"

"That's right," Zayn smirked. "You were almost healthy looking. This one is later on in the semester when you started going to the gym." He passed the picture to Harry. Harry examined the picture and quickly handed it back to Zayn as if it was on fire; it was too painful to look at. "That's probably when I started to monitor your eating habits," He confessed.

"I started taking these polaroids of you to document your changing body," He admitted again. "This one was the last day of freshman year. You were standing at your car and waving at me for it was time to go back home for the Summer," Zayn's eyes filled with tears. "I wasn't sure we'd be roommates again, but when the 2nd year of college came back around, I was happy to see you in my room. Then that happiness quickly went away when I saw your body. I began to pick out your clothes for you, monitoring your size."

Louis wrapped his arm around Zayn.

"I just thought you liked to play dress up," Louis said. "And I got used to it. When you moved out, I didn't know what to do."

"I'm sorry," Zayn genuinely apologized. "This is right before Christmas break when I decided to get you help. You invited me to spend the holiday with you in this very house and I knew it was time. I told your Mom and she sent you to rehab. You were doing a little better when you came back to school," Zayn smiled as he handed a somewhat healthy picture of Louis to Harry.

"I look so fat in that one," Louis said as he hid the picture from Harry. Harry gave him a confused look. Zayn shook his head at Harry trying to tell him not to argue with him. Harry took the hint.

"And this is the beginning of Junior year, almost to where we are now. This is when we were signing up for classes and I suggested you take Creative Writing in order to have a healthy coping skill." He said. "I didn't know it would send you into a downward spiral and a relapse."

Harry held his head down thinking maybe he caused him to deteriorate.

"And this is you now," Zayn swifted got up and grabbed his camera from his bag and snapped a photo.  He handed it to Louis.

Louis starred at the photo for a few moments before dropping it on the ground.

"I don't see what the big deal here is. I look so heavy. I don't even know what you see in me, Harry," He said as he put his head in his hands. "I don't get why we're here! I don't get it! Zayn, I don't need another intervention! All I need is you be my roommate again, and Harry you need to continue being my....whatever we are!" Louis yelled in frustration.