The next morning Liam looked confused as he saw Harry, Louis and Niall standing there, waiting for him to go to school.
"So I got three bodyguards now or?" Liam chuckled confused.
"Yeah, let's call it bodyguards. We are gonna wait for you there so we can go and do something afterwards."
After Liam had told them that they should stay at home and he will pick them up later and them disagreeing, they made it to school as four.
As Liam made it to his Sociology lecture, the other three lads walked towards Mrs. Fellon's classroom.
They hoped that she would be there and wouldn't have to teach, so they knocked at the door.
A nice, female voice told them to come in and a few seconds later they were standing in front of the confused teacher.
"Oh hello. I recognize you", she pointed at Niall, "You are Mr. Payne's friend, correct?"
Niall nodded and Louis and Harry introduced themselves.
"And what brings you here, why do you enter school voluntary? It's because of your friend, right?" She waited for the boys to explain themselves.
Since Niall had already met her yesterday, he was the one explaining.
"Well, yes we are here because of Liam. As you know, his boyfriend and our best friend Zayn has passed away in an accident." Niall made a quick pause before continuing. "Yesterday he told you that he is ok but indeed he isn't. It is understandable that he is not ok but we think it is badder than "not ok".
I...umm..after I had moved in with him I found something on his wrists...he had cut..himself. And yesterday, when I went to lunch with him, his sleeve accidentally shifted up and I saw fresh cuts."
Louis then took over with talking, since Niall was still a bit overwhelmed with that whole thing.
He told her everything about Liam not leaving his room anymore, how he didn't eat anymore, about the self harm, how he was pretending that he was ok and about the situation when he even took drugs.
Mrs. Fellon listened carefully and didn't interrupt once.
She nodded a few times and seemed professional but her eyes showed that she was shocked. Since she already knew Liam as one of her students and had known him as ambitious, caring and very nice student until now.
"We really don't want him to know about this talk, it's like we betrayed his trust, but he can't think clear at the moment and we think that his mental health is more important. We really don't want a lot, just a little advice." Harry explained to her.
"If I am being honest, I didn't expect something like this. Everybody copes differently with the death of someone important but it is very unhealthy like with self harm, drugs or alcohol. He should definitely see a therapist because we don't know what is going in inside of his brain. I don't want to concern you but he could be in serious danger meaning that he, as observed, uses unhealthy coping methods and may even considers...suicide. "
As all of the three looked at her in shock she quickly explained herself to not completely freak them out: "What I wanted to tell you with that is that he probably should see a therapist because self harm or drugs can be extremely dangerous. And what you guys can do is just be there for him and maybe ask him how he is. He will answer with "I'm ok" but try to like 'crack him open'. Maybe like that you can break his emotional walls down."
She smiled at them and in the same moment the door opened and a few students entered.
"We don't want to bother you any further but thank you so much for the help, we will see what we can do" Niall smiled at the teacher sympathetically and afterwards they left the classroom to go to Liam's class again.
To their bad luck, Liam was already standing outside of the class looking around confused.
As he saw the three he squinted his eyes and asked them with a suspecting undertone: "Where were you guys? You are acting so weird since the morning."
"Ohh, uhh...yeah..so...we were at the bathroom?" As Harry tried to explain, he failed miserably and it came out more like a question.
Louis rolled his eyes at his bad lying and tried to save it. "Well and we had to go to the other building since I had left a notebook there."
"And where is your notebook?" Liam definitely didn't buy their excuse, they were all horrible liars.
"Couldn't find it, it's probably at home somewhere in the depths of the mess."
Liam just mumbled, knowing that they were lying, and started walking.
They all followed him and agreed on going home to watch a film and order some pizza.
After they had arrived home, they ordered pizza and sat in front of the tv.
They were waiting for their food and Louis, Harry and Niall all wanted to say something but they had no idea how to start.
"You know that you can always talk to us no matter what, right?"
Liam looked at Louis confused. "Uhh yea I guess so, thank guys. And also, now tell me the truth. Why were you at school with me?"
Harry's glance at Louis and Niall said "We should tell him" and they decided per eye contact that it would be best not to lie at him.
"Well, we wanted to visit Mrs. Fellon and-" Louis started but was interrupted immediately: "What did you do?! Why do you wanna visit my teacher?"
"Maybe she can like help you? We just needed advice..."
"Help me? Where do I need help?! I am perfectly fine and you don't have to act like I am some kind of psychopath. Just leave me and mind your own business, please."
Liam sounded furious in the beginning but the more he said the quieter and lower his voice got.
He seemed too exhausted to yell at them, so he just stood up and went to his room.
"Our plan definitively backfired. His walls are up in the sky, he won't ever talk to us or trust us again!" Niall whined.
"Someone should go with him, we don't know what he will do..." Harry spoke quietly, looking down at his hands.
Niall stood up and went down the hallway.
"Uhh, I don't know if it's a good idea if Niall goes, he seems so overwhelmed with the situation. He will break out crying any second."
Harry just nodded at what Louis had said. It was true, Niall seemed to be really affected by Liam's behavior and actions. They were all scared about him but Niall particularly.
When Niall knocked on the door, he already felt like crying. He was nervous somehow and didn't really wanna go into the room.
He knew if Liam was crying he would probably cry as well and that was definitely not what Liam needed.
And indeed, Liam was laying on his bed curled up in a ball. His face was hidden in his pillow but the sobs were showing that he was crying.
"Please don't cry, Li. We really didn't want to hurt you. We are just so worried about you. You scare me, Liam."
Niall sat down next to Liam and hugged him from above.
"You all just act like I am a psychopath, it's not fair." Liam cried out.
"No we don't. It's just scary, so fucking scary. It's like the whole vitality has been sucked out of you."
"You know...I can't explain how I feel. When they told me that Zayn was gone, I didn't realize it. It felt like they took the air to breathe.
Like they ripped my heart out, it is physically painful. There's not a second I don't think about him. And not a second where I don't miss him. I can't live without him, he was why I was alive and now he's just gone."
Niall was now also crying. "Liam please don't say that. We can't loose you as well. Zayn wants you to live, he wants you to be happy. Promise me that you will stay with us." He was praying that Liam would promise but he just stayed silent.
The doorbell interrupted their conversation. The pizza had arrived and any minute Louis or Harry would come into the room and tell them to come eat.
And exactly that's how it went, a minute later Harry came into the room and told them that food was ready.
He watched them sadly, as both of them were looking horrible. Niall's face was tear-stained and Liam's buried in his pillow.
"We're coming" Niall smiled weakly and nudged Liam to get up.
He earned the usual "I'm not hungry" from Liam but he could drag him out anyways.
After Liam had checked that he didn't look 100% horrible, they made it back to the living room.
Well, his puffy, red eyes were still showing that he had cried.
At the table they all ate their pizza. Liam also ate a bit but he was slower than a sloth.
"And what are we gonna do tomorrow?" Niall mumbled with his mouth full of food.
"How about you finish chewing? We don't wanna see that pizza mash." Louis said while making a grimace.
"I wanna go to the phone store."
Liam whispered so quietly, that it was inaudible what he had said.
"What did you say Li? Speak up a little."
"I wanna go to the phone store, my phone needs to be fixed."
It had been Liam's biggest fears the last few weeks: To get his phone fixed.
He was scared about one thing, about the messages he had received before the plane crashed...
The messages from Zayn...