A/N: This is the re-edit. Much better. :)
From the minute that Zayn Malik had entered the classroom, Harry Styles knew something was up. From his past behaviour in his lessons, any other teacher probably would have thought that it was an act, where Zayn would waltz in, say a few little witty things before taking a seat, but this was different. For one, he was clinging onto his left arms as if it had been broken. There was an air around him that just seemed different, but most importantly, as Harry had watched the young boy walk in, he had seen that there was an empty look in his chocolate eyes.
So naturally, after pondering over all of this, when the sound of the boy collapsing from his table and chair and landing onto the floor with a harsh thud, Harry’s skin shivered in fright. For a quick moment, he stood still, unable to process what he had seen. It was like Zayn had just plunged lifelessly from his desk. The rest of the small A-level class turned around, and a few of them rolled their eyes, pulling a face.
“He’s faking it, sir.” One of the boys told him, but something deep inside Harry told him that Zayn wasn’t. Harry dropped what he was doing and rushed over to the student, pulling the desk away from him and the chair from him. HE looked over him, frowning in worry.
“Zayn, seriously Zayn, this isn’t funny.” Harry said, as the rest of the class watched him. He suddenly felt a body next to him, and saw Liam Payne, Zayn’s best friend looking over him in worry. Zayn wasn’t reacting to Harry or Liam’s voice, and the class went from moaning at Zayn to get up, to total silence.
“Zayn, oh my God, Zayn!” Liam burst out, before putting the boys’ head onto his lap and gently slapping the side of his cheek, trying to get something out of him.
There was nothing.
Harry watched him for a moment, before grabbing the boys’ wrist and pulling his sleeves down, in search of a pulse. What he found instead, was small, little blue bruises that ran around his wrist like a daisy chain. Harry immediately felt sick, before trying to find his pulse, his fingers trembling as his skin grazed along the ruined skin of Zayn.
“Sir, I don’t think he’s faking this, he wouldn’t do this, he wouldn’t go this far.” Liam told Harry frantically, obviously worrying about his friend. Harry concentrated on the tiny pulse he could feel on his fingers, trying to block out everything around him, desperate on finding some sort of pulse from the boy. Zayn’s skin was ice cold as Harry felt for a pulse that wasn’t showing itself to him. Liam hadn’t gotten any reaction out of him. Harry forced himself into action mode.
“Liam, stay here with him, keep trying to get him, we need help.” Harry told him, before jumping to his feet, trying to figure out what he should do. He ordered a couple of students to go and get the school nurse or a first aider, before he rushed over to get a bottle of water, telling the gathering crowd of students to back off, even telling some to open windows. Liam had been sat trying to get some life out of Zayn, but, as Harry looked over him, and slowly sank back down to his side, he would’ve thought he was dead. That made Harry’s skin turn white, at the thought of it. His stomach churned as the blood fell from his face. He tried to snap himself out of it, madly trying to find his pulse again, his breathing frantic. There had to be some kind of explanation for this.
“Liam, does Zayn have some sort of health problem that would make him do this? Allergies, something like that?” Harry asked, looking at Liam for some sort of answers. Liam shook his head, his face full of fright.
“Oh God, please wake up.” Harry mumbled under his breath, as the first aiders rushed into the classroom, one of them almost pushing Harry to one side. The crowd of students all moved aside for them, and Harry stood back and let them do their job, even though he knew that they’d end up calling an ambulance or something. He told the other students to stand aside as the first aiders started to do exactly what Harry had done, check the boys’ pulse, temperature and breathing rate. Liam was still sat there frightened out of his life. Harry walked over to him, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Zayn’s face. It was going to haunt him forever. He dropped down next to Liam again.
“Do you know what’s wrong with him? He was just acting strange when he came in, I thought something was wrong…” Harry started, wanting to add some information, do something, he felt so useless just stood there, watching and wishing the boy would be alright.
“Sir, you just told him he was late,” One of the cocky students started, before Harry flipped. He had Zayn Malik on his classroom floor covered in bruises and practically lifeless, his heart was beating against his chest like a fucking boxing ring, he didn’t need some cocky shit trying to act cool. He jumped to his feet.
“Right, all of you get out, right now, end of lesson, get out.” Harry demanded them all, watching them all file out, all being disappointed they couldn’t carry on what was happening with Zayn. Harry watched them go before taking in a breath and ruffling up his hair. He thought back to his conversation with Louis. Louis knew he liked him, and now, as Harry looked down at the boy, being played with by the first aiders, his heart leapt for him. And he felt them, he felt the feelings he had had for Zayn all along.
Once the students had left, he knelt back down next to Liam, as the first aiders tried to figure out if the boy was breathing or not.
“He’s completely passed out, I think he’s unconscious.” One of the first aiders commented, and Liam let out a squeak and looked up at Harry for some sort of reassurance, but Harry was unable to do anything. His eyes were stuck on Zayn’s face. What the hell had happened to him for this to happen? And why the fuck was he covered in bruises? A million reasons why Zayn was like this ran through Harry’s mind, as he looked into the pale face of the boy, his toned structure fading. What if Harry lost him? He felt like Zayn was such a huge part of his life, he may have only been a student, but it was more than that. There was more than that. Zayn couldn’t just do this, he couldn’t just fail, he couldn’t pass out on him, he may have been an absolute asshole, but Harry guessed that was what he liked about him. He kept him on his toes, they both bounced off each others’ banter, but what if something serious happened to Zayn? Harry felt himself panic, before the sounds of footsteps came into the classroom, and Harry turned around and saw Louis walk over to him.
“Hazz, what’s going on?” Louis asked, before he saw what was going on.
“We’re not getting anything, we’re going to have to call an ambulance, I think this boys life is in danger.” One of the first aider’s spoke, and Liam looked up at his teachers wide eyed. Louis took one look at Harry and knew he wasn’t okay with what was happening. Harry felt Louis’ hand pat the back of his neck in support, before Louis leapt around doing the job that he should have been doing. But Harry couldn’t do anything. Zayn was in trouble.
“Liam, c’mon mate, I think you better get some fresh air, Harry, you better call an ambulance,” Louis started to make instructions, as the first aiders started to begin cardiac arrest on Zayn. Louis pulled Liam up to his feet, Liam clinging onto him with watery eyes. The first aiders started to rip Zayn’s shirt away from his chest, so that they could start the cardiac arrest, when Harry saw something that made him fall to his knees.
“No…” Was all that fell from Harry’s mouth.
“Oh God, Zayn, Zayn mate, Zayn!” Liam started to cry desperately, and Louis had to hold the boy back, trying to calm him down.
“Liam, you need to calm down!” Louis told the student once again, although the noises around Harry were starting to disappear, as the first aider tried to feel for a heartbeat.
“Oh my God…” was all that fell out of Harry’s mouth, looking at the skin that had been exposed, and another bruise that was on his torso.
“Harry, stand back, c’mon Hazz!” Louis started to shout over to Harry, still trying to get Liam to breathe and calm down. Harry couldn’t move. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the boys’ chest. Harry felt tears prick the bottom of his eyes.
“Please, please God, breathe.” Harry whispered to himself, his heart breaking as he looked at the pale boy. He scrunched his eyes together, hoping this would all disappear and go away, and he’d be sat in his classroom, Zayn sat at the back, saying something sarcastic and witty, that Harry had to act annoyed at, even though he wanted to through something back at him.
Harry’s eyes slowly opened, and he looked over Zayn again. Before the main first aider was about to start cardiac arrest, a gasp of air came from Zayn’s mouth.
“Oh thank God, he’s breathing!” Harry yelled, relief flowing through him, as he held Zayn’s head up, as the first aiders tried to coax him awake. Zayn’s cold chest started to move up and down slowly, and Harry listened to the rocky, and uneven breaths that left Zayn’s mouth, almost hypnotised by them. Slowly but surely, little bits of Zayn started to regain movement, but Harry was watching his eyes. He had to see his eyes to know he was okay. Once he saw those chocolate pools, everything would be alright.
Zayn’s eyelids started to flicker open, and subconsciously, Harry tucked his fingers inbetween Zayn’s, his other hand placed gently behind Zayn’s head, his fingers feeling the soft black hair.
“Hey Zayn, it’s alright, mate, open your eyes for us.” Harry gently coaxed him. Zayn’s hand gripped onto Harry’s with an extremely strong grip. Harry looked down at his hand, before Zayn took a sudden gasp of air in, grabbing onto Harry’s arm with a tight grip, pulling himself up, gasping for air, his eyes wide open and in absolute fear. He was staring directly into Harry’s eyes, trying to breathe and get as many words out as possible. Harry didn’t know whether to be happy that he was alright, or to be as frightened as Zayn was.
“Oh God he, he, oh God, Harry, Harry!” Zayn spat out a million words at once, and Harry patted his back. Zayn grabbed hold of him and tried to bring him closer, it was obvious he was frightened half to death. Harry looked at him for a moment, and watched as Zayn started to calm down, his body shaking violently.
“Zayn, it’s alright, you were unconscious, it was all a dream, okay?” Harry said softly, almost revelling from the contact from Zayn. He had been yearning for this from the first day he had seen him. Zayn was looking directly into his eyes, still coming down from wherever he had come from. His lips were dry and pale, his chocolate eyes slowly swirling in his eyes, tears peaking out from the corners of his eyes. Zayn nodded, swaying slightly.
“I want this young man in the nurses office for constant attention, if anything else happens it’ll be straight to the hospital.” The first aider said, as Liam came rushing back over, wrapping his best friend in a tight hug, even though Zayn winced and burst into tears. That broke Harry’s heart. Zayn couldn’t even be hugged by his best friend without crying out of pain, it was probably due to all of those bruises on his torso. Harry sat back, and took a moment to regain himself. When he looked back at Zayn slowly, he was incredibly surprised. Even though Zayn’s fragile body was engulfed with Liam’s, Liam’s face scrunched up in the crook of Zayn’s neck, Zayn was looking directly at Harry. He reached out for him desperately, and cried again, until Harry moved over and held his hand tightly.
He wanted Harry.