The Worst

Chapter 8

Zayn's POV

I hear a gasp and I'm praying to fucking God it's not who I think it is. But naturally, when I look up, Charlie stands in the doorway with Marley in her arms. She looks-well; she looks like a combination of disgusted and sad, rather than confused or even angry.

Why would she be sad though?

I quickly untangle myself from Siobhan, careful to keep the cover over me (much to Siobhan's dismay-but she'll have to use the sheet or something; who really gives a shit); I wouldn't want Marley to be more scarred than he already is.

Charlie stands there, almost frozen, like she can't believe what she's seeing in front of her. Or if it's even real.

I feel bad and to be quite honest, I don't know why. I see Charlie completely lose herself to her thoughts-probably calling me some pretty bad names in her head. And I know this looks so bad-so, so fucking bad. But I have an explanation for it-not that it's like, you know, pretty self explanatory.

She seems to shake off whatever thoughts she's having and turns around, scurrying out of the door. I quickly switch out the cover draped around me for a pair of sweats lying on the floor and chase after her, only to find that she's at the end of the stairs by the time I can even get to the top.

 Man, she moves fast for someone with a baby glued to her hip.

"Fuck! Charlie, wait! I can explain that," I plead, as she sets Marley down in his car seat in front of the television. But she turns the television off and slams the remote down on the table (Okay, so note to self: Don't let him watch television.)

"Charlie," I say a bit louder, as she stands in front of Marley with her head hanging down. "Listen to me. Please," I plead, grabbing onto her arm and turning her around. She gives me a murderous glare and if she didn't look like such a fucking weakling, I'd think that she would kill me right here and now.

But I think what's worse is that disappointment reigns heaviest over every other emotion. Now normally disappointment doesn't faze me at all because well, I'm used to disappointing people. Nothing new, really. But this is different. I actually want to explain myself and believe it or not, I find myself caring about what she thinks right now. "I just. Well...Siobhan came over and...we uh, well. Fuck," I run a hand through my hair. "I know how this looks." I've got nothing. I was horny? Something tells me that that's not really going to go over well.

"I had sex?" I state as more of a question than I would like. This whole take responsibility for your actions and apologizing shit isn't really up my alley if you couldn't tell. And I'm still very conscious that I'm holding onto her arm-probably with more force than is necessary. But somehow, I feel like if I let go, she'll fade away before I have a chance to kind of make this right.

"You having sex is not the problem," her hoarse voice rings out. She runs a hand through her wild hair. "You're an adult and you're not in a relationship to my knowledge. So feel free to have sex." She's eerily calm, and it's frightening me. It also takes me by surprise; even more than her screaming during the last fight we had.

I let her arm go.

I'm not sure if that was a good idea. Cause like, she might strike at any moment, you never know.

"Then what--"

She throws her hand up to stop me. "I just didn't think you were this stupid," she says, still maintaining a calm voice. Okay Charlie, yell, scream, do something. Just stop being so...calm. 

"Stupid? That's all you have for me?" I say, but I think that came across a lot more indifferent and asshole-ish than I meant for it to.

I can see her temper starting to take over, and I know she's about to turn really angry really fast. "Seriously? That's all you have for me," she mocks with her hands and a teasing voice. "No that's not it. What I mean is that I just didn't think you were stupid enough to leave your barely three month old newborn downstairs in front of the television while you were upstairs screwing around. I didn't think you were stupid enough to have sex with someone in the bed that I slept in last night. I thought maybe, just maybe you'd have a little more respect and be a little more responsible than that."