Moment of Silence

Chapter 21.

Chapter 21.

I stretch lazily and glance at the digital clock. It's 5:45 am.

I rub my eyes and yawn before I realize I'm still in Zayn's room even though he's nowhere in sight.

I see my notebook lying neatly on the nightstand. Did he finish reading?

I slowly get up and walk over. I open up the notebook and see a note scrawled in neat handwriting on the first page.

'Thank you for letting me in on your secret. I understand why you kept it. -Zayn'

He told me he had a secret to tell. When was he going to tell me?

I flip though the pages of the notebook, through all of my work, and find another note in the same handwriting on the last page.

'Look in the first drawer, right side and you'll find it. I don't want any pity. I'm done with it now. It's in my past.'

I can see a spot on the page where the ink has bled. It looks like a teardrop. Maybe Zayn isn't over everything he says he is.

First drawer, right side. I look at the small dresser and smile when I see that the first drawer on the right side is cracked open.

I get up and open it all the way. Another notebook comes into view. This one looks older. I examine it with careful hands and find that it's a lot like mine. Same black cover, same pain with no way out.

I carefully open it and sit back down on the bed. My eyes trace the beautifully carved words and try to ignore the disfigured letters and crusty paper where a drop of salty sadness once fell.

'It all started when I was born. I guess that's where all stories start right?' Zayn's story began to swim before my eyes and my brain became trapped in his reality.

'January 12, 1993. I, Zayn Jawaad Malik was born. I didn't think anything of it at the time. But then again, I was a baby and babies don't do much.' I let out a small chuckle.

'I grew older and soon my family grew. I had three sisters. Doniya, Safaa, and Waliyah. I loved them all dearly.

It just so happened that when I was in high school, Waliyah was in middle school. I didn't know it at the time, but she probably had almost as many secrets as me, maybe even more.

I wish I could've been there. I wish I would've recognized the signs. But I didn't. And now, I only have two living sisters.'

My heart pounds with sadness for Zayn as the realization hits me. I carefully place a finger over another teardrop that splattered on the page from when he was writing this.

'Anyway, one day Waliyah came home and chopped off most of her beautiful black hair. I didn't think anything of it. She was in middle school and was probably experimenting with different looks.

The next day she applied a heavy black ring of eyeliner around her eyes and painted her nails black.

I just figured she was going goth. No big deal.

What I must have failed to notice was that every night, she cried herself to sleep, letting black lines of mascara run down her face. In the morning, she must have cleaned it all up and reapplied a new layer. How she did it with no one noticing, I have absolutely no idea.

She continued to go to school wearing nothing but black until one day, she wouldn't come out of her room.

I was sent by my mum to go check on her. I opened her door and found her lying in bed.

"Wally, what's wrong?" I asked and sat on her bed. She said that some kids were being mean at school but I figured she was overreacting. Mum let her stay home that day.

I went to school as normal, and the rest of the family went off to work and school as well.

I came home from a great day at school only to find Waliyah not in her bed and not in the house.

This caused some panic to rise inside of me so I searched her room. The only thing I found was a note that said she was going somewhere.

I shrugged off my panic and set to work on homework. The phone rang and a nurse told me my sister was in the hospital. I told her I didn't know what she was talking about.

The nurse said that my sister had overdosed on sleeping pills. I didn't believe her until she told me that Waliyah was dead.'

Tears form in my eyes and splatter onto the already disfigured page.

Zayn had lost a sister and that was a horrible secret to carry around. How did he manage?

I guess in a way we were exactly the same.

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A/N

So I'm still waiting for someone to ask me to formal :/

Thanks for over 800!

Lets get to 1k?

ily all!

-Julia

(Ps. This chapter is kind of linked to a different story that I haven't published yet ;) )