Battle To Be Free (z.m) ✔️

Chapter 34

The car strolled to a stop and everyone got out before me. I took a single deep breath before heading outside the car and into the café.

“Dude, are you okay?” Harry asked, looking at me as if I was an alien.

“I'm fine.” I grumbled.

He stopped me by laying a single hand on my arm. “It’s okay to want to see her you know,”

“No. It’s really not.” I snarled. “You better not be thinking of yourself when you say that.”

Harry scoffed. “You and I both know it’s not me I’m thinking of,”

“I don’t have a clue who you’re on about.” I brushed off.

“Zayn I know in some way or another you like her.”

I froze, who was he a fucking mind reader or some voodoo shit? He noticed my flustered expression and grinned smugly.

“You don’t exactly hide it very well,” He told me.

I softened my expression figuring there was no point in lying to him. “I need to.”

He thought about it. “Yeah, it might be the best idea.” He sighed. “Adrian definitely wouldn’t like it.”

“Nobody would.”

We headed back with the rest of them as we approached the café doors. I hesitated slightly; not really wanting to go in there. What if I ended up hating her? I don’t think I could stand that. After all that procrastinating do you know the first thing I realised when we finally entered the café?

She wasn’t fucking there.

I was just about to storm out of the place when Harry stopped me yet again.

“She’s still got time yet. Just wait for her, yeah? She might still come.” Harry reasoned.

A gut feeling was telling me that she wouldn’t but I nodded anyway. “Fine.”

Harry or the others didn’t look to confident either and I felt sympathy towards Finn who was sat there looking like a broken hearted puppy. He obviously blamed himself, but with what he said to her I would be blaming myself too.

We sat down at the booth, none of us speaking. The silence just made the clock tick slower and slower until it reached 12:30 and she wasn’t there. I groaned in disappointment and made a move to leave. However as I left the door I bumped into a girl, hard.

She cursed me out, swearing violently until she looked up. Her blonde hair was covering her eyes and her blue eyes were oddly deflated into her face, making her features look unhealthy. But the obvious thing wrong with her face was the massive hand shaped bruise on her cheek.

My hand shot out unconsciously to stroke her cheek, an action to which she didn’t flinch back. I was just staring at the shockingly purple bruise that covered her face oddly wishing I could take it away.

A cough brought me back to the real world and I immediately dropped my hand. She looked down with a faint flush covering her cheek, but even that didn’t make her look any happier. Clearly she’d had no sleep, there was a drowsiness in her eyes which was accompanied by a dead look that I didn’t think had anything to do with a lack of sleep.

Harry gave me a glare as we walked to the table but otherwise kept his eyes locked on her small figure along with Finn and Louis. Their eyes stayed doubtful as if they expected her to pull a gun on us at any second.

She sat down with a small wince, her eyes scrunching up slightly at the corners. Her back rested heavily on the seat behind her and I wondered briefly whether she had eaten anything within the last couple days. Unfortunately, looking at her, I had my answer.