In A Hopeless Place

Chapter 23

My eyes flutter open and I smile, realizing that it wasn't a dream.

I really am back at the house.

I really am next to Zayn.

I really did tell him that I love him.

I stroke his cheek and his eyes flutter open. He gives me a tired grin.

"Good morning," he murmurs.

"Good morning. How's your stomach?"

"It's fine. No pain. I healed fast and the wound wasn't that big. Josh took out the stitches and now it's just a scar. Although, it does get sore at night."

I nod and there was a knock at the door.

"Are you guys decent?"

We laugh.

"Dani, you can come in," Zayn tells her.

"No...I...I don't feel comfortable walking in on you two."

Zayn rolls his eyes and I give him a kiss.

"But Eleanor and I made pancakes and I didn't burn them this time! So, when you're ready and...yeah... come out and have some breakfast!"

Zayn and I laugh together as we hear her scurry away.

I get up and pull him up gently. "Let's go."

We walk out of the room and walk into the kitchen to find Liam and Danielle fighting over the bottle of syrup.

"Dani, I grabbed it first!" Liam says, pulling it towards himself.

"No, Liam! You saw me grab it and then you went for it! Stop being a dick!" She pulls the syrup towards herself and it goes on and on.

Liam calls Danielle a bitch, she calls him a dick, bastard, douche, fucktard... basically any name in the book.

They remind me so much of an old married couple.

Zayn reaches over and grabs it from both of them and pours some syrup on his pancakes.

They look at him in surprise. "Here you go." He gives it back to Danielle and begins to eat his pancakes.

Then Liam grabs the bottle again.

"Fuck! Liam! Let go!" She yelled. "Stop being such a mustard seed!" She spits at him ruefully.

The room falls quiet before a smile tugs on the corner of Liam's lips.

"Mustard seed?" He asks and they look at each other before going back to fighting and calling each other horrible names.

We all roll our eyes at them and start eating.

Eventually, Danielle gave in and let Liam have the syrup and, of course, she was currently giving him the silent treatment and he was now begging her to stop and that he was sorry.

After breakfast, Zayn and I went and sat in the backyard.

"Zayn," I say and he looks at me. I take a deep breath and prepared myself for his reaction. "I think you shouldn't fight anymore...you guys should stop-"

"What?!" He looks at me in disbelief. "You want the gang...to stop being the gang? Carter, are you crazy? You came back just so we'd stop being a gang? I tho-"

"Zayn! That's not why I came back! I came back to be with you! I just... I don't want you getting hurt like that again, Zayn. I was really scared." I tell him and sniffle as I remember when he fell to the ground and how his eyes rolled back into his head.