*Harry’s POV*

Getting up from the steps, I walked back towards our table. Sitting down, I grabbed another drink from the waiter and looked towards Niall. He was walking towards me and my body tensed, not really wanting to talk to the guy that had me and my bird in a screaming match. None the less, he sat down with another drink and began gulping it down. Standing up, I nearly stumbled down the steps before Louis caught me by the arm and drug me the rest of the way. Fuck. He always was a happy drunk. I only hesitated a little bit, wanting to give Hannah a little space for us to both just be mad and then have a chance to cool down.

I hadn’t seen Hannah in a while, and I couldn’t keep enough alcohol in my system to keep myself from feeling bad about everything that was going on. It was a holiday for Christ’s sake. Tripping back up the stairs, I scanned the crowd for any sight of her dress that should have been shining a neon color since we were under black lights. Failing to find her, I looked over to see Liam with his arm wrapped around Dani. Well, I guess everything was fucking fine and dandy for them. Anger panged through me again and I was really quite sick at the sight of their happiness.

“Whoa man, rough night?” I didn’t respond, looking back towards the crowd. “Yeah, I’d assume so.” When I didn’t make conversation, he just kept talking, but I didn’t know what he thought that he was achieving. “Well, even though we fight, at least I know that I’m leaving with my bird.” My face full of question, I tilted my head to the side.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“She left lad.”

“When,” he kept his eyes on me, thinking of his answer.

“About an hour ago, with some tall guy.” Anger raged through my veins, showing no mercy on my face.

“And this guy has a name, yeah?”

“Don’t know his name, but I know that he was tall and had short, dark hair and his arm was wrapped around her pretty tight. He was pretty buff too Harry; you better clean up your mess.” My frame shifted as it stiffened uncomfortably. Getting up, I ignored everything that was happening around me. I ignored Liam who was yelling behind me and I pulled out of Louis’ grip as he tried to stop me from walking out of the club. A few cameras flashed, but I didn’t care; I knew exactly who she left with. She had left with fucking Marcus and hour ago, and he was walking her out with his arm around her waist, as if she didn’t have a boyfriend at all. Right now, I didn’t care what happened to me on my way home; my heart already felt like it had been run over by a truck.

Bursting through the front door, I went straight to the kitchen, not expecting her to have taken him here. The cold air on the way home had sobered me up a little; I didn’t like it. Busting out a bottle of vodka, I didn’t bother taking a shot glass out of the cabinet. Tipping the new bottle into my mouth, I almost gagged at the strength of it running down my throat. I leaned against the counter. No matter how much I drunk I got, I couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful girl that had crashed into my life.

An hour later, I looked at the empty vodka bottle sitting on the counter as I pressed the second bottle to my lips. After everything, she had found the will and common sense to leave. She had found it necessary to find comfort in the arms of another. My angel had flown away from me and straight into the arms of some douche bag. Hearing the door creak open, I heard multiple sets of voices, other than Louis’ and Eleanor’s. I picked up my bottle, another one from the liquor cabinet and began walking towards my bedroom.

“Whoa mate! How much can you put away?” I shoved past Niall, letting our shoulders knock together. I again ignored their pleading to stop and talk to them. Walking into my room, I slammed the door behind me, bellowing ‘fuck off.’

*Haley’s POV*

After Harry’s outburst, everyone was a little bit down and we were all ready to head home. I kept hoping that Zayn to ask me to stay, but he never did. He had drunk some water at Harry’s to help him sober up and then he drove me to my apartment. Our fingers interlocked and he pulled me in close as we rode up the elevator. My heels were in my hand and Zayn chuckled as I switched my weight from foot to foot, trying to get them to stop hurting. He crouched down in front of me and I absent mindedly jumped onto his back, still being fairly tipsy.

Once we were at my door, I hopped off of his back. “Shit,” I mumbled.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to take the mail down.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” he smiled sweetly and I held up a finger, motioning for him to stand where he was. I opened my door and shut it behind me. I felt bad for closing him out, but he couldn’t see this place; it was too awful for his lifestyle. I gathered all of my outgoing letters off of the table and made a small pile. Opening the door, I gave him a small smile. I handed him the letters and our hands both took half of the pile. He leaned down and pressed our noses together, smiling at me. How could he do that? I had just shut him out, but he was still perfectly content with taking what ever I was willing to give him when I got back.

Leaning in the rest of the way, I pecked his lips slightly, letting him be the one to deepen the kiss. He chuckled slightly probably thinking that I had shivered because he sent chills down my spine, when in reality, it was because I was standing closer to the door and there was a draft coming from the inside of my apartment.

“I’ll just head out after I put out the mail.” I was sad that I wouldn’t get to spend the night with Zayn, but I was glad that he didn’t feel the need to go inside my apartment. It was embarrassing that I felt like I had to hide from him. He knew so much about me, yet he still knew so little. “Goodnight,” he smiled at me warmly.

“Goodnight Babe.” I kept Zayn’s eye contact until the door was completely closed. Leaning back against the door, I pried my heels from my feet, rubbing my aching arches. Someone knocked on the door rather urgently and I jumped a foot in the air, not expecting anyone so late.

When I opened the door, I didn’t meet eyes; I met the top of a head, but I still knew who it was. First, I was confused as why Zayn was looking down and shuffling through my mail, but then I became a little frantic.

“Haley,” I stayed silent, just watching the look of confusion on his face, “what are these?” He held up two letters in particular I glanced nervously between his face and the checks that I had enveloped. Right now, I was really feeling myself sobering up and I could tell that Zayn was too, taking this very seriously.

“What do you me…”

“Don’t play dumb. Why are you writing a mental institution and a prison?”

“Why do you care?” It came out a bit snippier than I would’ve liked, but what business was it of his? I looked to the floor, feeling a bit conflicted. I was mad that I had sent the letters with him and I was upset that I was going to have to explain to him and I was mad that I wouldn’t be able to hold off from the conversation for too much longer. I felt Zayn’s hand lift my chin and I realized that he had stepped much closer to me. His lips brushed mine, waiting for my response, but I didn’t give one.

“Because I thought that I knew you,” he pulled away slightly, looking straight through me, “and these make me feel like I don’t.” There was no fighting it. Opening my door a little wider, I stepped to the side, giving him room to step into my apartment. Zayn walked passed me and I quietly closed the door, acting like I didn’t see the goose bumps raise the hair on his arms. Leading him over to the kitchen table, I poured two glasses of water and took the sear next to his. “So this is your place?” He looked around. I could tell that it was supposed to be a statement, but it came out as more of a question.

“Yeah,” I avoided his eyes, but I could feel them studying me. I felt a hand cover mine on the table as his eyes drew me in.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” I could tell that he was uncomfortable. “It’s freezing in here.” He rubbed his hands gently up and down my arm.

“You can leave if you’d like.” My voice cracked at the end, and I felt tears slide down my face. Hearing the chair scoot back, I let a few more slide freely down my face, knowing that he was going. Jumping slightly, I felt my chair be pulled back as well. I was hopeless, helpless; I couldn’t look him in the face. Before I knew what was happening, Zayn had scooped me up bridal style. Slight relief washed over me and my arms fell loosely around his neck as he walked us over and we sunk into my old couch. My eyes cleared enough that I could stare down into Zayn’s. “I thought that you were going to leave me.” I knew that I sounded ridiculous, but it was an honest to God fear; I couldn’t help that.

“I don’t know what’s going on here Haley,” he kissed the top of my head and brought his lips close to my ear, “but I know that we can work it out.” He paused and I thought that he was finished talking. “I’ll never leave you.” I swallowed my tears as I let his words sink in. Looking up, I stared into dark, brown eyes. Though the sight may have been troubling to some, it was very comforting to me. Maybe I stared just a little too long, because Zayn seemed to think that I wasn’t going to speak at all. “Haley, you don’t have to tell me, but I just want you to know that…”

“It’s okay.” He looked down at me, a hint of surprise in his eyes. “I’ll tell you.” I couldn’t tell you why, but after everything, I felt safe. I didn’t know how, but I just did, and here, in the drafty apartment, is where I would spill my darkest secrets, my deepest fears to the only man that I had ever bought myself to trust. “Just, let me finish before you say anything.” He nodded in consent and I took a deep breath before I began:

“It had been going on for as long as I could remember. Not making a difference as to whether he was drunk or not, my dad would hit my mum. Not just hit her, but hit, kick, punch, knee and smack around too. Mum started getting so weak that she got a job that she could do from home. She would take me to school when I was really little, but she wouldn’t get out of the car. I remember her taking me on my first day of preschool, but she only drove. And as I walked up the sidewalk going into the school, I looked back in fear, searching for her, but I couldn’t see her. She was hidden behind tinted windows so that no one else could see her either.

“Once I started to get a little older, I got a little more acquainted with what was going on, knowing that Dad was beating Mum. When I got into grade school, I tried to stop it, not wanting her to hurt anymore. But look at me; I’ve always been small, meek. Dad threw me around like a rag doll and told me stay out of his way. It didn’t matter whether he was drunk or not, he would come home raging either way. He told his friends at work that he was boxing to stay in shape; that’s how he explained his bruised and or bloody knuckles; that’s how hard he hit Mum and me. I would skip school and not go to friends’ houses because I didn’t want them to see.” I shifted so that I was sitting next to Zayn on the couch, with my knees pulled to my chest and my face in my hands. I mumbled with my continuation.

“When I got into higher grades of school, I caught on to a little bit more of what was happening. I had always suffered the beatings, but I never quite got used to them. I was stricken with fear every time I heard the front door open and I knew that it wasn’t my mum. He was always finished with me before he was with my mum. He would drag her around the house and would eventually end up in their bedroom. It’s hard to say that you recognize the sounds of your mother’s screaming, but I did. She made painful winces when he would hit her in front of me, and I knew the sound of her cowering, but the night that I realized what he was doing to her behind that door, I was purely in shock. When I snapped out of it, I found that all I could do was sit there in fear. I sat huddled in a ball under the covers of my bed. As I lied there awake, night after night, I knew when things were getting worse. After they got worse, the screams of sheer pain would stop, and I could hear my dad coming out of his room loudly, putting his belt back on. He’d be breathing heavy and then I could hear my mum sobbing.

“One night, I decided to get brave. He was dragging her by her hair and they were headed towards their room. Coming out of no where, I stepped in front of them. My dad tried to push me out of the way, but I held my ground. He smacked me, but I didn’t budge, I just looked at him with hatred filling my senses. ‘Let go of her.’ Those few words had caused me so much trouble. He had had a bottle in his hands and he smashed it against the wall. He dropped my mum and began walking towards me. My mum begged him for it to be her and not me. He followed me down the hallway and pinned me against a wall. He lifted my arms above my head and it brought my shirt up to my bellybutton. He took the jagged part of the bottle and he…” I couldn’t finish. Sobs overtook my voice and I winced as I felt a hand touch my back. I relaxed a little bit as I felt Zayn’s hand rub soothing circles on it.

“Haley,” he barely whispered, “you don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to.” I shook my head and tried to calm down.

“He cut a huge gash in my side and my mum screamed in reciprocation, but I only winced. For once, it was me and I didn’t have to watch it be my mother. No matter how much she disagreed, she deserved a break. He dragged me to my room and threw me on my bed…” Suddenly, two large, protective arms were around me. I gasped and then melted into his touch. I hugged him back tightly, never wanting to let go. Beginning to sob, I let Zayn’s arms be the first shelter that I had ever really had.

“Haley, what did he do to you?” Zayn’s voice was full of hatred towards my father. I was glad. He deserved for everyone to hate him. No one was dumb enough to show him love.

“He locked me in my room,” I choked. “I was trapped for three days before my mum woke up from being unconscious and came and got me.” I cried harder.

“At least she found you; at least she woke up.” I had tried to look at any bright side so many times, but what I was about to say forever put those attempts to an untimely death.

“There was blood everywhere Zayn. It was streaming between her legs.” I heard him intake a sharp breath as I sobbed harder. “She’d been pregnant.” He held me tighter as I cried onto his shirt, but he didn’t seem to care as he rocked me back and forth.

We sat there for a while as Zayn tried to calm me down. I was amazed when it started working. Slowly but surely, my breathing began to even out as he rubbed calming circles on my lower back. I was in much fewer hysterics in explaining the rest of… well… my life.

“Once I was out of school, I moved out. I had an agent that was looking at me and she let me live with her while I got on my feet. She got me a few steady jobs in modeling and I had no idea how.”

“It’s because you’re beautiful.”

“But I’m broken and healed and broken again.” Most of my pictures were of me smiling, but I wasn’t sure why. I must’ve been a damn good actress as well. I felt Zayn’s mouth come close to my ear again. He had brought me back into his lap because we were both shivering from the cold.

“If you’re broken, I will mend you, and I’ll never let anyone break you ever again.” This time, I shivered from the closeness and he responded by pulling me deeper into his warmth.

“I reported my father for rape and battery. I had to give a statement, and be a witness in the trial, but he went away for twenty five years to life, and that’s what matters. My mum had no idea what to do with herself. Once he was gone, she told me that it wasn’t her first, nor was it her last miscarriage. When she told me that, I checked her into a psychiatric clinic and I send her money every month to let her know what I’m working on and that I’m gonna be alright.” Zayn sighed heavily and, for a moment, his muscles relaxed.

“Then why the hell are you sending money to the prison,” he said as they tensed again.

“To show him what he’s missing out on. He saw me grow, but he missed out on paying attention. He’s missing my success whether he tried to ruin me or not. I’m basically giving him the biggest middle finger in the world. He hated taking money from people, and he especially hated when people were better off than he was. So, by sending him money, I’m pissing him off enough to keep him right where he’s at.” I felt a low rumble in Zayn’s chest as he kissed the top of my head.

“But the down side is…”

“The down side is that I live in a shitty apartment with no heat just so that I can support my mum and spite my dad. I don’t bring anyone over here because it looks like a prison cell. The only heat is in my closet because I put a space heater in there for when I’m getting ready in the morning. Having modeling jobs is cool, until you have to eat, drive, pay rent alone and drop two hundred dollars on your parents every month.”

I wasn’t sure how long we had been sitting there. “Is that why you won’t let me touch your side?” I tensed a little bit, knowing what he meant.

“What?”

“Your dad and that bottle that he cut you with, is the scar why you tense up when I touch your side?” I stayed silent for a moment, gathering up all of the courage that I had built up for a long time. I began to stand up, much to Zayn’s protest. When I wiggled free from his loose grip, I stood between his legs and the coffee table. Facing so that my side was towards him, I slowly lifted my shirt so that it settled just above my belly button, revealing the ugly massacred skin that lie beneath the material. I gasped a little as Zayn pulled me towards him. My scar sat inches from his face as his hand came to rest on my lower back. I felt the fingers of his other hand trace over the sensitive spot and I inhaled deeply. His hand rested on the front of my hip bone as it finished inspecting my side. He leaned forwards and traced soft, plump kisses along the length of the long, horizontal blemish. I shivered between his touch and the room’s cold air hitting my bare skin.

He sighed again, before standing up. Zayn grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door. “Where are we going?”

“Well, first, we’re going to drop off the mail, and then we’re going to my house.”

“Zayn, really, I can just st…”

“There’s no way in hell that I’m letting you catch ammonia in this damn place.” I smirked and followed him happily that he was being so cool about all of this. He stopped just short of the door and I almost ran into him, even though I’m pretty sure that we were both completely sober by now. He turned around and engulfed both of my hands in his large ones. He pressed our foreheads together so that I could feel his warm breath wash over my face. “Thanks for opening up to me, for letting me know you, all of you.” I gave him a meek smile as he kissed my nose before turning to head out the door.

Notes

Second update of the day everyone! I have to start writing ahead more lol!
What does everyone think of Haley's POV? Things are getting a little more serious; learning a little bit more about her. But how sweet are she and Zayn?
comment, rate, subscribe. LET ME KNOW!!!
xoxo Hannah <3