Christina's pov:
"You have to work with me, for me to help you." I rolled my eyes.
Here we go with this bullshit again. "I don't want you to help me." James looked at me with concern.
James is the therapist Zayn forced me to go to after my last 'mental breakdown'. He has been treating me as if I'm fragile ever since.
"Look let's get this straight," I have had enough of this already.
"I am not here because I want to, okay? I am here because I was forced to so just let me be! I mean go do something useful or just ignore me, I'll sit here till my session ends then go home." I cross my arms.
"Miss Malik-" I stop him mid sentence, "Christina." I correct him.
"Well, Christina, let's look at it from a different point of view, I mean just pretend this isn't a session, why don't you pretend that I am your friend and you're telling anything you want, literally anything." He smiles.
It's quite weird why he's being so patient with me, I have been way too disrespectful, that even I hate the way I am acting but I don't want to go to a therapist! I am not sick! I don't need one.
"I have nothing to say." I roll my eyes again, look for the clock. 'When is this hell going to end?' I groan mentally.
"I just want to help." I felt my blood start to boil. "I am not in need of any fucking help! I am not a charity case." I scream losing my last straw. I grab my bag and storm out.
I walk past Liam and run to the exit door. "Hey! Christina wait!" Liam yells.
After a few steps I decide to stop, which allows Liam to catch up with me. "What the hell was that?!" He screams at me. "I am not sick! I don't need to go to a fucking therapist!" I yelled back.
I was so sick and tried of the way they are treating me.
"I am not a fucking child anymore! You can't force me to do stuff. I don't need anyone to help me. I am perfectly fine." My arms started shaking instantly.
I waited for Liam to lose his patience, slap me, hit me, I don't know..anything, pull any of his unusual stunts...but he didn't. He just stood there with a concerned look on his face.
"Stop looking at me like that!" I pushed him and started running. I had no idea where I was going but I needed to run, just get away from there, that, all of that.
I needed to get away from reality, and I kind of did because the faster I ran the more Liam's voice screaming my name started fade.
I kept running for way too long that I didn't even know where I was, all I knew it was somewhere nice, peaceful. I started to soak in the surrounding area.
The sky looked tired, painted in pale blue with orange and yellow streaks. There weren't much clouds but just enough to grace the view. The deep lake moved smoothly between the stiff rocks, it looked like it was smiling back at me.
I put down my bag pack as if it was weighing me down but it's empty but maybe I could pretend it's not. I mean I'll pretend that it's filled with all my worries, my pain, my past as if they could all fit in this little bag pack which I finally put down so I could breathe.
"Christina?" A familiar voice called. I turned around instantly.
'No way.'
"Derek?" His hair was perfectly made, and his eyes were studying the corner of my face. I realized the corner his mouth was curved upwards; he was smirking.
"What are you doing here?"
"Enjoying the view, I guess." I turned my attention back to the sky whose skin resembled mine; pale.
"Aren't you a little bit curious to know what I am doing here?"
And even though I wasn't looking at him but I could feel his smirk grow bigger. "No."
I paused for a little, "I already know."
"Oh really?" His cologne hit my nostrils, indicating he came closer.
"You're disturbing my peace." And as soon as I say this he laughs, his laugh is somewhat loud and contagious, I kind of I have to bite my lips to stop myself from joining him.
"Well, apart from that I actually live here so I decided to say hi." I looked back to see how close this place is from his house which is a three storey white house.
"Nice house you got there. Bet it's nice to have a view like this to look at every single day."
"I wouldn't know." He said. "What?" My eyebrows crossed in confusion. "I don't like to stay there for long." He sighs. "You know what forget that I ever said anything."
"You know my home isn't a perfect one either." His eyes never left mine for a moment. "I was at the therapist today, then I grabbed my stuff and stormed out." Again, I didn't know why was I telling him this but it just happened.
"A-are you okay?"
Did Derek just stutter?
"I am not really sure I know the answer to this question, but I guess I could be better."
"Do you ever just wish you could pause the world for a minute? I mean just so could breathe, that is all I ever want, time, I want time to process all the things I have been through all at once." I huff.
"Been through a lot?" He scratches the back of his head. "Way more than you can imagine." I kind of flinch when I recall of the the awful things I went through.
"Yeah, I feel like I am way older than I actually am from all the trauma." He tells me. "Did you just say trauma?" I side smile. "Ohh come on, I am not 'that' shallow." He pushes my arm playfully. "Oww." I mumble, must have been the bruise from that dreaded night.
"Sorry, did I hurt you?" He jumps. "No, no, it's just my arm hurts a little." I move my thumb over it.
"Are the rumors true?" He asks out of the blue. "Do you get abused?" I can't believe these words came out of his mouth. "W-what?" I stutter.
"I am sorry if I overstepped a boundary, but you know, you are somewhat famous because you're related to Zayn Malik so everyone kept talking about it at school.
"I-I-" I honestly didn't know what to say. "N-no." I replied. I don't think it's a lie or maybe it is, I believe I somewhat get abused at home b-but I don't know-w.
"It's not like that, I mean." He is listening carefully. "It's just that my household believes in corporal punishments and I don't so we disagree at this but it's not abuse." I explain. "At least I hope so." I mumble in a low voice.
"What do you mean corporal punishment?" His voice is a mixture between concern and curiosity. I take a few moments contemplating whether to tell him or not. "I-" I don't know why does it seem so hard.
"My household believes in spanking." I blurt out. "Ooo.." Derek seemed genuinely speechless. "Look, you don't have to say anything, it's just something awful to have to go through all time."
"Hey, I am sorry if I made you uncomfortable but I can kind of relate."
"Wait, what?" I look deeply into his sad green eyes.
"Well, it's not exactly the same but my father...he's really abusive." He confesses. "He hurt mom and I, more than once."
"I am so sorry." I place a hand over my mouth. "Your mother really deserves better than this and so do you."
"It's more complicated than that and sadly I can't do anything about it." He puffs. "You're really strong, going through something like this and still holding on." He actually smiles, "Thank you, you too, dealing with this at home must be hard." I nod. "It really is. I don't even want to go home after yelling at the therapist and Liam then running off." I laugh.
"I can talk to them?" He offers. "Oh really?" I raise an eyebrow, "What will you tell them?" He pauses for a moment and shrugs. "Exactly, and even if you had an excuse to my actions they won't buy it; they believe it's what's best for me." I roll my eyes as I repeat their words.
There was some silence but it wasn't that awkward one, but the relaxing type that you need for a few moments to process everything in the conversation.
"I wish I could run away." We both chorused. "Maybe one day." He smiled. "Maybe." I replied.
Suddenly, everything fell apart when I heard someone calling my name only this time it wasn't as calm as the first time. "Christina Hope Malik, you're in so much trouble." I say a 3 furious guys: Zayn, Liam and Louis. I facepalmed myself, it's about to get humiliating.
"Please go." I whisper over to Derek but he shook his head no. "I'll try to get you out of this." He mumbles back. Instantly, I panic; he might mean well but he might make things way way worse for me. "Derek please no."
"What the freaking hell, Christina?! You take off running like that then not pick up your phone?" Liam yells loudly. "Sir, if I might intervene, she was with me." Liam looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I needed her help so I called her and she came her as fast she could so please don't blame her for running off so fast, I was the cause of this." I stood back and watch Liam's reaction to see if he actually bought what Derek had just said. "Still this doesn't justify her rude behavior." Derek looks at me worriedly, I gave him 'I told you look'. Liam grabbed my bruised bicep and as soon as he did it hurt instantly, "Ahhh.." I try to pull myself out of his grip. "Liam, my arm hurts."
"Let go of her!" Derek yells and this is the the last thing I heard before Derek's fists came flying to Liam's nose. I was just there utterly shocked.