Love & Hate and Friends & Lovers (Zouis/Larry)

19. Birthday Party

I run towards my home as quickly as I can. Luckily, Hazza’s house isn’t that far so I think I will manage without dying. At most I will be gasping for air.

When I woke up in Hazza’s arms he was already half awake. I felt so exhausted and I still felt the beat pumping through my head. Even though I knew that I would see Zayn in a couple hours, it still didn’t make me excited. I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t want to do the party and dress up like a fucking clown! And that’s when it hit me. My mother. I quickly searched for my phone in my backpack, my jeans and I searched on and around the bed. Friday afternoon she had an appointment with the doctor and she would finally hear the results. I went straight to Hazza after school, but she would call me if she heard the news. I completely forgot about it and apparently I also forgot my phone. Hazza tried to comfort me as I freaked out about my mother. He soothed me as he rubbed my back and he said that if it was something really bad that she would have called him or his mum. I relaxed under his touch and to calm myself I agreed, but I still went home as quickly as I could.

I finally arrive home, completely out of breath. I step inside the house and my little brother practically jumps on top of me.

“Party, party!” He yells.

Normally, especially after just a couple hours of sleep, I would be so irritated, but right now I can only smile. He is just excited about his birthday party and I don’t want to ruin that.

“Yes! We are going to have a lot of fun soon.”

His eyes shine happily and I quickly ruffle his hair affectionately and walk past Tom to the living room. “Shit. I’m so sorry mum.” I say as I barge into the room.

My mother is reading a magazine on the couch while my father is watching television. It looks completely normal, nothing unusual, but is it?

She looks up. “Hey.”

“I totally forgot about your appointment! And I forgot my phone, dammit! But Hazza said that if it w-” I ramble until she cuts me of.

“It’s okay dear, did you have fun?”

I nod. “So what happened? Did you have the results?” What if she has something really bad? What if-

“They still don’t know what it is.” My father begins, eyes drifting away from the television and he looks at me. “She tested negative for a lot of things, but they think it might be a virus.”

I sit down next to my mother and take her hand in mine. She looks completely drained, I don’t have another word for this. I feel so sorry for her. She is just like me, she hates it if she can’t do a lot of stuff. She hates being sick.

“So what does that mean?” I ask them.

“They have given her antibiotics and we have to wait another two weeks to know if that will work. And if that won’t work she has to do more tests.”

“But can they just give antibiotics without even knowing what you have?” I ask confused. I feel sort of relieved that, at least for now, it isn’t something bad. But it is still so frustrated that we don’t even know what she has.

“Apparently.” My father says with an exhausted sigh. I always feel like things don’t really effect or bother him, but as I look at him right now I can see the tiredness in his face. It’s just a fucking frustrating situation.

“Hey.” My mum says and she lays her hand on my shoulder. “Sweety, I know it will help. I’ll feel better in no time and I can do things again!” She says with a demanding look, but there is a glint of worry in her eyes. I feel like she doesn’t really believe her own words, but wants me to believe it. She doesn’t want me to worry.