twenty four- solutions
song for this chapter: “under the pressure” by The War on Drugs
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Harry cleared his throat, fiddling with the ends of his half unbuttoned shirt, his eyes averting the half naked man in the doorway, cheeks red. “Ah, I’m sorry, is Perrie home, I mean, I’m sorry if we’re interrupting-”
The man had his sharp blue eyes on Zayn, eyes widening in realisation. Zayn shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, knowing at once who he was, the one that caused all this to happen. Perrie’s lover.
“What do you need Perrie for?” He said harshly, not looking away from Zayn.
“We need to talk to her.” Louis said. “It’s important.”
He didn’t look at Louis as he spoke, only looking at Zayn. He looked like he was struggling on whether to slam the door in their faces or let them in, but he sighed and stood aside, mumbling that Perrie was in the kitchen making a late lunch.
The apartment was spacious, though her apartment had only one bedroom. It was plainly decorated, but Perrie was barely home enough to add any permanent personal touches to it. Zayn felt slightly uncomfortable but tried to hide it, knowing that this conversation needed to be had.
Perrie was singing in the kitchen, and Zayn couldn’t help but smile at hearing her voice. She was so talented and great at what she did, which was something that they had in common. Their passions were music, and that still hadn’t changed and that brought a feeling of normalcy back to him.
“Oliver, who was at the-?”
Perrie walked out of the kitchen, a loose t-shirt on, with a wooden spoon in her hand, her hair a mess and with no makeup on. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the four of them standing there, the tension in the room rising.
“What are you doing here Zayn?” She asked, looking worriedly at Oliver, who had his jaw clenched and arms crossed over his chest.
“Nice to see you too.” Zayn said grimly, a little stung at her less than warm welcome. “We need to talk.”
She bit her lip, looking worried. “Where’s Liam?”
“Not here.” Louis said quietly, and Zayn could hear the bitterness in his voice. He realised that Louis hadn’t forgiven Perrie for what had happened, and was holding what had happened and what was happening against Perrie.
“Please.” Harry said, his green eyes wide. “It’s urgent.”
Perrie sighed, looking defeated. “Make yourselves comfortable, I’m just going to finish up.”
Zayn sat down on the couch, Harry and Louis sitting on either side. Oliver stood there awkwardly, before following Perrie back into the kitchen. Zayn put his head in his hands, knowing that she’d never agree to any wedding, even if it was a fake one. He could hear murmurs floating over from the kitchen, the worried and tense tone making Zayn feel even worse.
“How can we ask this of her, of them?” Zayn said quietly. “I know I wouldn’t do this, it’s not fair.”
“We’ll talk about it first, maybe Perrie has some ideas.” Harry said hopefully, voice low. “If there was a different option... If there was anything that I could do to stop Liam being in the midst of this hysteria that the media has created, then I would do it.” He paused, pursing his lips. “But I have no idea how to do it.”
Louis remained quiet, and Zayn knew that he had silently given up, but didn’t want to worry Harry any more than he was. The two of them had a strong relationship that he himself couldn’t understand. They acted like brothers, though there was always something in the back of Zayn’s mind that wondered if there would ever be anything more.
But Louis had made it clear that he wasn’t gay or bisexual or any other sexual orientation that wasn’t heterosexual. He was touchy about the subject, and Zayn knew Harry was as well, though as time passed he seemed to be less bothered by it.
Zayn tensed slightly as Perrie walked back in, having put on a pair of tracksuit pants and carrying a bowl of pasta in her hands. Oliver followed suit, also with a bowl of pasta and having put on a t-shirt. They sat across from them on the love seat, Perrie looking awkward and Oliver looking apprehensive, as if he knew that the boys weren’t here for a friendly chat.
“You don’t mind if we eat, do you?” Perrie asked after an awkward silence, gesturing to her bowl of pasta.
“Of course not, it’s your apartment after all.” Zayn said with a small smile.
Perrie laughed, and some of the tension eased. “Alright cool, didn’t want to be rude. Now, what are you boys here to talk about?”
Louis and Harry looked at Zayn, and he almost rolled his eyes at how the responsibility was dumped on him. He cleared his throat and ruffled his hair. “We’ve got a bit of a problem, and we have no idea how to fix it.”
“Even management has no idea.” Louis added, wringing his hands nervously.
“Liam’s become the centre of the media’s attention, and not in a good way,” Zayn continued. “And we need a distraction, something big so that there will be no more focus on Liam, so he can recover properly.”
Perrie bit her lip, placing her bowl of pasta down on the coffee table. “And where do I come into this?”
Zayn didn’t want to say what their stupid idea was, and sighed, about to blurt it all out when Harry cut him off.
“I got it!” He said excitedly, eyes bright and hopeful. “An idea that won’t completely ruin our lives!”
Perrie looked even more confused. “Wait, I’m still confused, what is my role?”
“Just give Harry a second, and then I’ll explain everything.” Zayn said, hoping that the goofball actually had something good.
She frowned but remained silent. Oliver wrapped an arm around her and drew her close, staring the boys down as if to challenge them. Zayn almost smiled at how protective he was being, and figured that if he was in his position he’d be doing exactly the same thing.
Iris.
He shuddered violently, which didn’t go unnoticed by Oliver, who glared at him, a scowl on his face. Zayn mentally cursed at how ill-timed it all was, and tried not to think of Iris, though his chest was aching horribly.
Harry cleared his throat awkwardly, sensing the hostility in the room. “Well, uh, I was just thinking about how the media doesn’t know about Zayn and Perrie not being together anymore.”
Zayn looked proudly at Harry, already guessing what his idea would be. How lucky he was.
“Keep going, Harry.” Louis encouraged, making Harry smile in relief.
“I mean, I know that it’s not great, but you two could announce that you’ve split. They’ve all been waiting for the wedding for ages now, so the fact that there won’t be a wedding will send them into turmoil.” Harry ended, looking hopefully at Perrie, who looked stunned.
“That’s...” She gulped, hesitant. “That’s a lot to ask of me, boys.”
Zayn bit his lip. Louis sighed. “Well not compared to the other idea.” Louis muttered, Zayn elbowing him hard in the side, frowning at him.
“What was the other idea?” Oliver asked. “Another idea to make Perrie’s life miserable?”
“Oliver-” Perrie mumbled, placing a hand on his leg.
“He’s right, I know.” Zayn said quietly. “Any idea that we come up with... It won’t be easy for anyone. If you don’t want to be a part of this, Perrie, I’ll totally get it, but this is the only idea we’ve got, and trust me, the other one was ten times worse.”
“Fake wedding.” Harry mumbled. “Huge media spectacle, call the marriage off a month later.”
Oliver looked at them in outrage. “How did you even think you could suggest something like that?”
Zayn felt a spark of anger, but swallowed it down, knowing that it wouldn’t help to have a fight. “We had nothing else.”
Oliver clenched his jaw. “Why does Perrie have to be a part of this?”
Perrie sighed. “It’s my decision, Oliver.”
He softened visibly when she spoke, and he grabbed her hand. “I just don’t want you to suffer because of this.”
She smiled and Zayn looked away, feeling as if they were intruding. He saw Louis roll his eyes, obviously not impressed with how affectionate the two were being. Harry also looked awkward with situations, kneading his hands together.
“Look,” Louis finally snapped, frustrated. “We need to know whether you’re in this or not. This needs to happen soon. Liam needs time to heal, we can’t afford to have him suffering anymore, because he’s suffered enough.”
Zayn saw the shame in Perrie’s face, and thought about defending her but realised that it wasn’t his responsibility anymore, and Liam was more important at this stage. Oliver looked pissed off, but kept his mouth shut.
“I’ll do it.” Perrie said firmly, her eyes shining. “For Liam.”
Zayn let out a large sigh, feeling the tension ease and a load fall off his shoulders. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Liam, or how he was going to take it, but for now they had a plan to help him, and really, that was all that mattered.
•
Zayn arrived home to an empty apartment, and immediately went to his room, drawing the curtains shut and putting on a random playlist on his phone, placing it in the dock and turning it up. He lay in the darkness, letting the music hold him, listening to the lyrics instead of the thoughts in his mind.
But despite it all, Iris returned to the forefront of his thoughts and he wondered if he could take it any longer, this separation, this not knowing. He needed her now; she would be his constant in this ever changing and unpredictable situation. He clenched his eyes shut, feeling the tears threatening to come back.
Zayn felt hopelessly heartbroken, and he knew that despite the throbbing his chest and the uncertainty of Iris’ feelings towards him, his heart would forever be hers, he could feel it in his bones.
His bedroom door opened, and he sat up, seeing Liam cautiously peering in. He gave Liam a lazy smile, glad to have him back home. “Hey mate, how was lunch?”
“Real nice, it was really peaceful, food was good.” He said with a smile on his face. “Have you been lying in bed all day? Tell me you’ve been doing something productive.”
Zayn, Louis and Harry had decided to tell Liam what was going down when they were all together, so that they could properly explain it, though Zayn didn’t really want to tell him because he knew how upset he would be. He shrugged his shoulders, grinning. “I don’t mean to disappoint you, but no productive actions or movements have been made since you’ve left.”
Liam rolled his eyes and walked in and sat down on his bed. “Come on, let’s do something.” He said eagerly.
“Can we throw rubbish at the paps outside?” Zayn asked hopefully, looking towards the window where he knew they were waiting outside.
Liam laughed a true, genuine laugh, where his eyes crinkled at the sides like they used to. It truly warmed Zayn’s chest. “I really want to, but maybe not.”
Zayn flopped back down onto the bed. “Imagine the satisfaction of seeing them cower in fear as we pelted them with empty cereal box packets and apple cores.”
“Geez, you really need to do something, next thing I know you’ll have planned a full scale attack against the paps.” Liam said amusedly, shaking his head.
“Maybe I’ll do that later.” Zayn mumbled, staring up at the ceiling, a smile on his face.
He heard Liam sigh. “Move over, I wanna lay down.”
Zayn scooted a bit more to the left, letting Liam lay down next to him, a random song playing in the background. He folded his arms behind his head, continuing to stare up at the ceiling, a twinge of guilt in his stomach about having lied to Liam. He tried to be content with the small moment of quiet and companionship that he and Liam were having, but it was difficult.
“Zayn?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think of Iris much?”
Zayn smiled sadly up at the ceiling. “Always.”
There was a long silence between the pair, with music being the only sound that the two could hear. It was kind of nice not having to do anything, and just be able to lay there.
“Let’s go.”
Zayn sat up, frowning at his best friend. “What are you talking about?”
Liam laughed, his eyes sparkling. “We’re going to see Iris.”
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yo yo yo yo it's nearly 2015 how exciting is that??? hopefully it'll be a better year than this one lolol BUT NO MATTER
ARE YOU GUYS HAPPY WITH LE CHAPTER I REALLY REALLY HOPE YOU ARE BC I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW I WANTED THE STORY TO GO AND I CAME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT WILL HAVE LOTS OF DRAMA AND MIGHT GO ON FOR A LITTLE LONGER THAN THE ORIGINAL IDEA SO YEAH :)
thanks for all the ideas, they were wonderful and some were well thought out, feedback is always awesome :D
next chapter is going to be very feels-y so brace yourselves ok?
have a great New Year my lovely readers, be safe, have fun and be happy x
Sara xx