Part Six
Zayn’s POV
I was frozen in shock, for the second time today, but this time I was more scared.
I was scared for Lia’s safety; I can only pray that Dylan hadn’t heard Lia on the phone; if he had… I don’t even want to think about it.
She deserves better than Dylan. Even if that person is not me, I just want her to be with someone who loves her, the way I do, someone who would do anything to protect her, the way I would, someone who would never ever hurt her, the way I’d do my best not to. Someone who isn’t Dylan. Someone who is me.
Stop it Zayn, I mentally cursed myself, Lia doesn’t like you and she won’t ever like you, well not like you want her to. She has a boyfriend… who apparently she loves enough to break off our friendship.
I have never hated anyone before, but I know, I know now that I hate Dylan, and I will do all I can to stop him hurting Lia.
“You ready?” Liam poked his head around the corner; breaking me from my trail of violent thoughts towards Dylan.
I didn’t say anything… I couldn’t say anything. My throat was dry and my stomach felt as if someone had just punched me several times. Liam looked at me quizzically, I just shook my head in response and handed him my phone, before silently walking back to the boys.
“What’s up mate?” Liam asked, catching up with me.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, my voice was barely above a whisper. I didn’t want to talk about it just yet.
“Oh wait; can I have my phone for one minute please?” I asked Liam.
“What for?” He asked.
“That girl that kissed me earlier has tweeted that she’s my girlfriend and it’s all on Twitter,” I sighed.
“Sure,” He smiled and handed me my phone. He then pulled his out.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Tweeting that she’s not your girlfriend,” Liam smiled at me.
“Thanks,” I smiled back.
I quickly typed a tweet out basically saying that the girl wasn’t my girlfriend, that she was a fan that kissed me by surprise and I’m still single. Liam tweeted something similar and then retweeted my tweet.
“Guys, go and retweet our latest tweets please,” Liam announced as we met up with other boys.
“Why?” Louis asked as they all whipped out their phones.
“The girl is saying she’s Zayn girlfriend, we need to put things straight before it gets out of hand,” Liam explained.
They nodded in understanding and tapped away on their phones.
“Everything’s ready, so let’s get this rehearsal started,” Paul walked over to us and we nodded, before putting our phones away and walking on to the stage.
I took a deep breath and followed the boys into the stadium.
We all put our microphones on and the music for the first song started playing. We were practising the entrance first.
The song line up was…
1. Na Na Na
2. Stand Up
3. I Wish
4. I Gotta Feeling/ Stereo Hearts/ Valerie/ Torn
5. Moments
6. Gotta Be You
7. More Than This
8. Up All Night
9. Tell Me A Lie
10. Everything About You
11. Use Somebody
12. One Thing
13. Save You Tonight
14. What Makes You Beautiful
15. I Want
We only practised a few songs though, we practised, the entrance (like I said before) and the first song, then we skipped forward to ‘Gotta Be You’, then we went back to the campfire bit, where I sing ‘I Gotta A Feeling’, Niall sings ‘Stereo Hearts’, Louis sings ‘Valerie’ and then Liam starts singing ‘Torn’ and we all join in. After that we sang ‘Up All Night’, ‘One Thing’ and ‘What Makes You Beautiful’.
After we’d finished practising we went backstage and began to get ready.
Liam was scrolling through Twitter, and thankfully the rumour of my new ‘girlfriend’ had been stopped. I was currently getting my hair and make-up done, as was Niall. Harry, Louis and Liam already had their hair and make-up done. Liam was completely ready, and Harry and Louis were currently getting their first outfit on.
“Zayn, are you okay?” Niall asked me.
“I’ve been better,” I replied with a forced smile.
“Zayn,” He said seriously.
“Lia told me to stop contacting her,” I muttered looking away from him.
“What? Why?” Niall asked loudly.
“Shush!” I said quickly; it’s not that I didn’t trust the others, it’s just I didn’t want everyone to know.
“Sorry,” Niall mumbled.
“It’s okay,” I sighed, “She said that she has a boyfriend and she doesn’t want to have contact with me anymore… but, I’m worried about her… she sounded scared on the phone Niall, and Dylan came home at the end of the call, I just hope he didn’t see her on the phone, or… something bad might happen…”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Niall tried to reassure me, but I could see the doubt on his face. He also looked worried for Lia as well.
“You boys are done, you can go and get ready now,” Our stylist smiled and we nodded before hurrying to get our first outfit on, as it wasn’t long before we had to go on stage.
“Everyone ready?” Paul shouted after a few minutes.
“Yes,” We all answered.
“It’s time to go on,” He announced and we nodded before hurrying out the dressing room and took our places ready to go on stage.
I could hear the buzz and screams of the fans that were waiting for us to come on stage. I was nervous, but I felt like this before any concert- well that’s what I kept telling myself.
Soon we heard our cue and we hurried under the stage where we were soon to pop up on. I looked down the line and saw all the boys smiling hugely. We were all listening intently, and soon our cue came again and we began popping up in turn on to the stage.
We’d just finished singing ‘Gotta Be You’, and I was already struggling. Especially when we sang ‘I Wish’ because it reminded me of Lia, but the song I was dreading was up next… ‘More Than This’. ‘More Than This’ and ‘I Wish’ are the two songs I struggle the most with because they are quite similar in terms of the sort of story behind the song.
The band began to play the introduction to ‘More Than This’.
My heart rate picked up immensely, and I was breathing heavily.
In and out, in and out, I kept telling myself, trying to calm my nerves.
“I’m broken, do you hear me?
I’m blinded, ‘cause you are everything I see,
I’m dancin’ alone, I’m praying,
That your heart will just turn around,” Liam started singing.
The boys were doing the little routine, but I couldn’t move; I was focusing more on not passing out. It felt as though the room was boxing me in and I couldn’t get out, there wasn’t enough air, I couldn’t breathe.
My body was clamming up. My hands began to get sweaty. Everything was sort of mute around me; I had no clue where we were in the song. I had no clue what I was doing.
Am I having a panic attack? I questioned myself.
I noticed Niall looking at me worriedly, he was trying to get my attention, but I didn’t respond to him.
Suddenly the music came loudly to my ears, each word the lads sang pierced into me like a knife.
“When he lays you down,
I might just die inside,
It just don’t feel right,
‘Cause I can love you more than this, yeah,” The boys sang, I was meant to be singing with them, but I couldn’t. My throat felt like sand paper.
I knew that was my cue. My solo was next.
I felt everyone staring at me as they waited for me to sing, but I couldn’t. I sent Liam a pleading look and he understood. He quickly continued to sing my part as I slipped off backstage.
“What’s going on Zayn?” Paul asked me.
I ignored him and anyone else that asked me what I was doing. I just ran to the dressing room and filled my hands with cold water, before splashing it across my face. I did that a couple more times, but stopped when I heard Louis start speaking.
“So, how are you all?” Louis shouted into the microphone. I realised he was stalling.
“Zayn, mate, are you okay?” Niall ran over to me.
“I can’t do it Niall, I just can’t do it,” I mumbled and collapsed on the floor, my head in my hands.
“Zayn, you can do it, come on, just get up and get back on the stage, we don’t have long to go now,” Niall tried to get me to go back on stage.
“I can’t Niall,” I shook my head.
“Alright mate,” He muttered and walked out the room, putting his phone to his ear. I wonder who he was calling?
Lia’s POV
“I’m back,” Dylan said opening the front door as I was talking with Zayn on the phone.
“I’ve got to go, just please stop Zayn,” I whispered a quickly and hung up, shoving my phone in my pocket and turning around to face Dylan.
“What were you doing?” He asked me.
“I was cleaning, but I’ve finished now,” I answered confidently.
“I don’t believe you,” He stepped forward.
“Well that’s not my problem, I’m telling you the truth,” I stood my ground.
“Okay,” He nodded.
Wow… he backed down easily.
Suddenly, I felt a harsh slap across my cheek, sending me sliding on the floor.
“You think I would just believe a stupid lie like that, from someone as worthless and pathetic as you,” He spat, his body looming over me.
“I wasn’t lying,” I whispered hoarsely as I fought back tears.
“I saw you on the phone!” He shouted and slapped me again.
“No,” I whimpered.
“You are pathetic,” He spat, “I don’t even know why I waste my time on you.”
He then stormed out the house.
I dragged myself off the floor and on to the sofa. I turned on the television and flicked through the channels. I really wanted to call Zayn and tell him I still wanted to be friends, but I couldn’t…
If you love someone you have to let them go.