Zayns POV
It was currently the morning and I was totally dreading what was going to happen today. We had to take a trip to the gym because management wanted the media to see us all working out like typical guys. I really didn't mind working out at all, but I was feeling so sick this morning I could barely even stand. I'd been up the all night sweating, shivering, sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose. At one point last night I couldn't stop sneezing for some reason and I could have sworn to god I nearly suffocated myself.
I tried to be quiet so I wouldn't wake up the lads because I knew they'd get mad at me, but it was really no use for trying to prove them that I wasn't sick. They never believed me and I had no intention in trying to convince them. I could barely even talk with the amount of pain it would cause my throat. Last night it was super hard to fall asleep. Aside from the fact that I was sneezing every single second, I couldn't stop coughing and it made my throat sound dry and sore.
I tried to scratch my throat this morning but I ended up getting into a massive coughing fit which pained my stomach, chest and throat. Every cough made my stomach even more sore and everything was so dizzy. I got up from my bed blowing my nose into a tissue and I decided that i'd have to do something to help myself. I knew I could barely talk, but this was ridiculous with the fact that I was getting no care for myself. My fever was probably rocketing above 102 degrees and I knew I was in no shape to go to the gym like this no matter how bad management wanted it.
I walked out of my room with my hands wrapped around my throat trying to massage it and I walked out seeing Harry cooking us some breakfast for the day ahead of us. As soon as I walked out he looked at me once then turned his head back to what he was doing. I thought it was only Harry in the room here at first, but then I saw the other lads walk from the patio to the couches. They all had their eyes set on me and they were just looking at me like I had committed some crime.
I was going to say something to them, but I knew it would be hard to talk, and that i'd probably lose my voice during the process. Then all of a sudden, I felt a nice warm hand on my back. I turned around wondering who was showing such compassion considering I hadn't gotten any in days, and when I looked it was Harry. He had a plate of warm soup in his hand and he held it out to me with a thick cloth so I wouldn't burn my hands. I looked at him and he smiled slightly while he handed me the soup.h
I wasn't at all sure of what that had meant, but I took the soup anyways and I sat down at the table accepting the fact that maybe Harry believed me. He seemed to be the nicest one so far and I was thinking that I could probably trust him out of everyone if I had to choose. I was glad that I was even getting something to eat because the cold shoulder was given to me for hours from almost all of them. It felt so good having the warm broth rub against my throat. For a couple of minutes I could actually swallow without having the horrible sensation to cough. Though I could tell that Harry's sincerness was over when I saw Niall go to talk to Harry in the washroom. When Harry walked out he had a super guilty look on his face and he just started to ignore me as we went on our way to the gym.
I was thankful because I at least got something to eat, but all the lads were still mad at me for thinking that I was faking and I was actually feeling more sick than ever. My head ached even worse every time we hit a bump in our car. Before we got to the gym, we were told we'd all be in one car together and that was gonna be hard for me. Louis was sure to pop my head off with the amount of crap I was doing. To be honest the only person who really noticed my condition was Harry, but it seemed that he couldn't be bothered after a while.
The entire car ride was silent and the only things you heard were moans that were coming from my mouth the whole time. I tried not to be loud, but my throat was just hurting so bad and I was pretty sure that by now i'd gotten bronchitis. I tried not to be noticeable, but I just had to say something and I was raging at the fact that my best friends could be so goddamn stubborn at this point. Though all I knew was that things were about to get heated.
"Guys." I whispered trying to get their attention. Liam looked at me, then Niall and the rest of them.
"You're not getting out of this." Louis said looking me up and down with sassy eyes. Louis was my best friend, but sometimes he just acted too much like a smart ass and it was very annoying. I was going to respond to his sass, but before I could say any response a sneeze interrupted me and Louis pretty much lost his temper on me.
"Can you fucking behave yourself?" Louis yelled in the car. By now we were parked in the parking lot of the gym and luckily there was no driver there so it was only me and the four other lads.
"Can you have some sympathy?" I said a bit louder. By now all of the other guys were looking at me and Louis and it was just bare tension filled in this little tiny space while we waited for an escort to the gym. I could hear the amount of congestion I had in my system, and so could the other lads. Liam looked at me a bit shocked hearing that I actually did sound really sick.
"Just fucking straighten up you prick! Faking sick won't get you out of anything!" LOuis shouted almost lashing out on me. Harry had to hold him down because he didn't know what Louis was gonna do. At this point, I just wanted to go to bed and explain how sick I was later, but I just had to get this settled now and I figured that I should just get this gym day over with. But before we went out of the car, I decided i'd give a speech in hope that they would see through their stubborn shields.
"You know what, maybe i'm lazy but you guys are all inconsiderate stubborn pricks! How can you bastards just look at me like this and just think that i'm faking? I can barely even fucking speak with the amount of pain i've been in from the last few days!" I yelled as loud as possible. It hurt so bad to say one sentence, but it was worth it considering I got all of their attention. They all looked at me with their eyes wide and open.
Before I knew it I was in another cough attack and this time someone was patting my back to help me, but I found it as no use. The coughs racked my body one after another and as soon as it died down I had no hesitation but to just walk out of the car to get away from them. I knew that it was a bad idea to go exercising in my current condition, but at least they'd get what they wanted.
Liams POV
The lads and I were just in one huge conversation, but then it all got too much for Zayn and he walked out of the car. Things escalated pretty quickly considering the fact that none of us had actually thought of the fact that he'd been telling the truth and he'd gotten into a massive coughing fit because of how loud he was talking. You could hear the obvious congestion in his voice every time he spoke and he sounded unbelievably unwell.
"Well now what?" Niall asked putting his head in his hands. I could tell he felt guilty about what just happened. We all did. I decided it would be best if someone went after him, so that's exactly what I did. I needed to calm him down and I really didn't need him working out right now because he was in no mood.
"Zayn! Zayn!" I yelled. I tried to get him back, but before I knew it he entered the gym without us. I ran back to the car with the rest of the lads and told them that I was going off to get Zayn and they should come too and soon we were all running to the gym in hope that Zayn would forgive us for our dreadful behaviour. We knew Zayn looked a bit sad for this week, but the fact that he was actually sick made us feel like assholes instead of brothers.
We walked into the building being guided into the gym where Zayn was sitting on the gym bench. As soon as he saw us all walking towards him, he instantly walked into the corner farthest away from us. We could all see that Zayn was really unwell now. Beads of sweat were getting collected on his forehead and he kept on shivering every second.
"Zayn, we're really sorry about all of this." Niall said sitting beside Zayn. He wrapped his arm over Zayns shoulder, but Zayn didn't say anything in response. He just sat there looking at the floor with tears developing in his eyes. I could tell he was beginning to cry but I wasn't sure if it was because he was just really sad or he was in physical pain. I saw one tear fall from his eye seconds later after Niall tried to apologize and it broke all of our hearts.
Louis was the first one to sit on the other side of Zayn and literally hug the shit out of him but he immediately pulled away from Zayn looking at him with a concerned face.
"What's wrong?" I asked seeing that Louis face was describing pure worry.
"He's really hot and he's sweating!" Louis said feeling Zayns forehead. Zayn actually did look really weak at the moment and he could barely even sit up straight while he was leaning against Niall.
"Zayn, look at me. Are you feeling ok?" Harry asked kneeling down in front of Zayn. It truly hurt to see Zayn like this. I bet Louis felt guilty as hell right now, he could barely keep his eyes off of Zayn. But the problem was that Zayn was barely answering anything and he looked really dazed.
"Did you lose your voice? We can get you a lozenge or we can go back to the hotel. It'll make you feel better." Louis said.
"I just need space!" Zayn said as loud as he could while trying to move away from us all. It was almost a yell, but his voice cracked on the first word which left him voiceless for the rest of the sentence. It was really unfortunate at the fact that just because we didn't believe Zayn, he got so sick. He could barely even say a word to us without coughing harshly into his elbow and it sounded like he'd gotten bronchitis in the process.
"Zayn wait, you can't go out like this! You're sick!" Harry yelled trying to get Zayn back onto the bench.
"Oh so now you believe i'm sick?" Zayn whispered while walking out of the room.
I knew we screwed up and it was heartbreaking seeing him in so much pain to the point that he was in tears. He had been sick this whole week and that meant that every single sneeze or cough wasn't a lie or act and he was in actual pain. He wasn't just wet because he threw water on himself, he was sweating and that's why he'd smelt like sweat for the last few days. I could tell it hurt him a lot with the fact that people that were supposed to be his brothers didn't believe him. He couldn't even speak but he just wanted to be away from us so badly that he just spoke and get it over with.
For the next five minutes, we all stood there in the tiny little bench room while Niall was in tears with everything that just happened, Louis and Harry were sitting on the bench with their heads in their hands and I was just looking at the door that Zayn just exited through. I wanted Zayn to relax, but I couldn't let him just walk around like this. What if something happened to him while he was wandering the gym alone? He was burning up and with the fact that he had a fever and he was so emotionally unstable, it wasn't a good sign and we needed to get him checked out as soon as possible.
"I'm looking for Zayn." I said walking out the door. I took a few steps out but by the time I stepped out and went to the gym room, I saw no one there. I looked around for some black clothing and sweatpants knowing that's what Zayn was wearing for today, but I saw nothing. I noticed that the other lads were also behind me and they told me they wanted to help find Zayn too. It was hard to look around a big gym area for one person because we were the only ones there, but then it was completely silent and we heard heavy snores coming from the downstairs area.
I knew it was Zayn because you could hear the congestion and constant coughs coming from him. Me and the lads looked at each other and within a matter of seconds we saw poor Zayn sitting with his back against the wall sleeping. He didn't look comfortable at all and with the fact that he'd rather sleep alone at the bottom of a gym then go to the same hotel with us was seriously paining me in the gut.
We decided that it would be best if Zayn slept for the time he could because Zayn always complained that he could never sleep when he was sick. He would always be awoken by shivers, coughing, sneezes or a runny nose and right now all we wanted was for Zayn to feel comfortable. Though he was soon awoken by a couple of sneezes. We heard it and turned around seeing that Zayn was finally awake and we immediately ran to him in hope that he would finally talk to us.
"Hey. Are you okay?" I whispered in a low voice while ruffling his hair. Zayn always loved it when I did that and it always brought a smile onto his face. This time he didn't smile, but he did look at me in the eyes for the first time in days. His eyes were watery and red and it made me feel guilty at the fact that he wasn't in bed drinking hot soup and instead he was here sleeping in the corner of a gym.
"I feel sick." he said leaning into me. As he leant into me more, I felt him shivering and I felt a large amount of heat against me and I knew it was his fever. I raised his head with the palm of my hand so I could look at his face entirely, and he looked absolutely distressed. Not to mention his nose was running and he was sniffling loudly every single second.
"We're so so sorry Zayn. Let's get you to the hotel right now." I said helping him up. As he got up he started to walk, but then stopped for a second and leant on to the wall.
"Are you ok?" I asked running to him seeing how he stopped.
"Tired." he said rubbing his eyes. I wasn't even sure if he remembered what had happened about half an hour ago with all of the heated conflict in the room considering he looked so beaten down and weak.
"Do you need help?" Harry asked walking over with Niall and Louis.
"He said he's tired." I whispered to them. They all exchanged worried glances and then told me that they'd get the car ready to meet us directly outside the hotel gym so Zayn wouldn't have to wait for long. The last thing he needed to do right now was stand for over two minutes because he looked like he'd fall over.
"The cars coming so we can get you some rest at the hotel alright?" I told him. As soon as he heard me we continued walking slowly to the exit together. Zayn occasionally stopped walking a couple of times to end up in a sneezing or coughing fit, even both at the same time which looked exhausting for the poor lad. But soon we made our way into the car with the other lads and now it was time to get him better and make a proper apology for all that we did to him.
Authors Note:
I'm so sorry about all of the rough arguements in this chapter, but I can promise you the next chapters will have a bunch of fluff in it and i'm gonna make it as cuddly as possible! And sorry this took so long to post, but I was kind of busy with work and stuff and I literally just finished this chapter so I hope it didn't seem that low of quality. Anyways i'm still debating on whether or not I should post two more chapters or have the next chapter be the last one, but i'm pretty sure i'm gonna write two more chapters because I feel like I can add a bunch of fluuf into it ^_^ And thanks so much for reading this book if you've come this far! It meant a lot and I hope you enjoy the next chapters that will come soon! <3