Last One Standing
Chapter Forty
*Zayn’s POV*
It had been three weeks since I had gone to get Hannah’s key, having purposely failed. I went over to her apartment every day at first, and each time, she talked to me a little bit more, told me a little more of what happened, became a little more comfortable with me. A few days after it happened, I brought her a small portion of Haley’s cookie collection. She told me why it took so long for her to open the door. I blamed myself though. I was standing too close with full intentions of intimidating her for what she did to Harry, and all that she saw was my eyes; the same color of the ones as her assailant. She told me that she didn’t like hearing his name, so I stopped using it too.
We grew closer to each other while still staying far enough apart. When she got a little more comfortable in her own home, she would call me in the morning and tell me that it would be cool if I hung out with the guys or Haley. I think that she didn’t want to hold me back from the rest of them; she was just trying to be brave, because there were some nights where I would be sleeping, naked with Haley in my arms, and I would get a phone call and hear ragged breaths on the other end. The nightmares weren’t going away. She was restless most nights and I felt terrible because there was nothing that I could do about it. There was a day that I knew I wasn’t spending with my bird, so I spent the night at Hannah’s. She had been shaken awake after being shaken on the ground in her dreams. Hannah let out a horrid scream and I tried my best to comfort her… but I wasn’t Harry. I knew for a fact that he was the only one who could accomplish and meet all of the standards that Hannah needed someone to live up to.
Hannah and I did different things when I was at her apartment. Sometimes we would play cards and others we would watch movies. Sometimes we talked all day, and other times we sat in complete silence. I’m pretty sure that she hadn’t left the house since it happened, but we were getting closer and closer to getting her out of that terrible place everyday.
Harry hadn’t stopped talking about her since she left the club that night, but it was different now. At first, he bashed her and called her names: a dumbass for choosing Marcus over him and a skank for leading him on for so long. I knew for a fact that, one day a few weeks ago, Harry was sitting at home, sober because Louis cut him off and pissed because I had hit him square in the jaw. I promise I had a good reason, okay? We had been sitting around all morning and all the other lads had gone out for the day. We were sitting around and he was still bashing her a full week after everything went to hell. I was letting him vent until I caught a key phrase that he thought would be appropriate to blurt out.
“You know what, I don’t even wish for her to be happy, because I can’t be if I don’t have her. I hope that Marcus beats her so that she can know how I feel.” I’m pretty sure that I launched myself across the room, picking up Harry by the front of his shirt collar and making contact with his face… hard.
“No matter what happened between the two of you, what girl deserves that?” I looked him dead in the eyes with the angriest look I could muster up. I still held him by the collar of his shirt. Harry’s eyes filled with anger, then fear, then sorrow, then tears. He yanked away from my grip and went to his room. Normally he slammed the door, but not that time. He closed it slowly as if something bad might have happened if he was too loud. I didn’t see him for the next three days, and once he came out, he didn’t bad mouth Hannah anymore. He still talked about her, but how much hurt Harry was in was really starting to show. He talked more about how he missed her and how he hoped for the future more than how he remembered the recent past. He stayed sober, but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t see tears in his eyes, and the same went for the days that I saw Hannah. They wanted each other so badly, but I had to get this situation under control before I could throw them together.
~
*Hannah’s POV*
It was three weeks ago today that he had held me down and done terrible things to me. I had lost contact with almost all of them, and while I was healing from my injuries day by day, the pain of being away from them was eating me away a little bit slower than I was healing. The only people that I had heard anything from were Zayn, of course, and Niall. I had received one text from Niall about a week after it happened:
From: Niall
Hannah, I’m so sorry.
~ Nialler ~
I quickly ignored it. I didn’t care if he was sorry or not. He ruined things for Harry and me. Every hope and dream that I had had of Harry and I being together was nearly crushed to dust. The only thing that was keeping the dream alive was the fact that Zayn came with stories about Harry being a mess and talking about me all the time. He kept encouraging me to leave the apartment and I knew exactly why. Zayn wanted me out of this house; I didn’t think he cared where I went, so long as it wasn’t here. I also kind of sensed that he wanted me to go to Harry and Lou’s if I ever decided to leave, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave and, if I did, I certainly couldn’t go there.
There was a knock on the door at about six that night and I knew from the pattern that it was Zayn. He had told me that I should always check through the peep hole, but he would always use that knock to put my mind at ease. I still jumped slightly whenever he came, but it was getting easier day by day. Fresh out of the shower, I went over to open the door. I gave him a warm smile when I met the eyes that I was trying to memorize as kind.
“Hey Hannah!” Zayn carried multiple paper bags in his hands. I felt a little bit bad because he had been doing my shopping once he noticed that I wasn’t leaving the house. I had tried to pay him with some of the money that I was still getting from my mum, but he refused to take it. He said that I needed him here and that he had money burning a hole in his pocket, so I let him. Taking a few of the bags, I set them on the counter, motioning for him to follow me. After we were done putting things away, we both sat down on the couch and talked a little bit before he brought up the topic that he had been itching at for the past week.
“I think that you should go talk to him Hannah.” My face went serious and I rolled my eyes slightly, thinking that he just couldn’t get off of this idea.
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants; it’s what he needs that counts.” He spoke quietly, and I’m not sure what it was about his words, but something just clicked. I did want to see Harry, and my heart yearned for him every time that Zayn said something about him being upset. Was I afraid to leave the house? Hell yes, but was Harry worth it? Of course he was. I loved Harry, whether he knew it or not, and I had to take my chances at getting him back at any cost. Thinking back, I remembered what Harry had said, ‘I’m in this 100%, all the way, for the long haul. You can come to me with anything.’ This was my birthday, the night that Harry asked me to be his girlfriend after such a long wait. I didn’t spend all of that time wishing that he would ask me to just let him go now.
“Okay.” My voice was so quiet that I wasn’t sure as to whether Zayn had heard me or not, but when I looked up at his face, there was such delight strewn across it that there was no mistaking my words. “But wait,” I looked at the clock hanging on the wall, “it’s already like nine o’ clock.
“Hannah, trust me. If Harry sees you, he’s not going to care what time it is.” We sat there in silence as I thought about my reunion with Harry. Looking at Zayn, I could tell that he was thinking about it too. Before long, I stood up, wanting to be dressed in something a little nicer than sweatpants.
“I’m gonna go change.”
“I’ll wait here, but then I have to run. Haley and I are running a little low on supplies as well.” I chuckled at the fact that he had gone shopping for me before he had gone for him and his bird. “Dress warm. It’s cold outside, and you should probably wear a beanie, there have been paps outside all week.” My heart skipped a little bit. Zayn was risking his reputation for me.
Walking into my closet, I already had an idea of what I wanted to wear. I pulled out me beige, short sleeved sweater and some skinny jeans. I put on a grey scarf and some black button up boots. I grabbed my beige tote bag and put in my navy feather earrings. I slid on my navy bracelet and put a navy jacket over my sweater. Before I walked out of my room, I grabbed my beige beanie and slipped it over my fishtailed hair. Snagging my phone, I walked back out to Zayn who also had put his coat on. I was ready. I could do this… I hope.
*Haley’s POV*
I hadn’t seen Zayn last night and I hadn’t heard from him practically all day. We’d been dating for about a month now and I had already lost count of how many times we’d slept together. I enjoyed the sex, don’t get me wrong. I would get all caught up in the emotion and we would climax like no one could believe. But during, he would always use the same roughness to reach his high, he would always give me the same hungry look before and afterwards, and he would always tell me that he loved me, but for some reason, it always left me with the same uneasy feeling inside of me.
Since we apparently didn’t have plans today, I decided at about four in the afternoon that I would do a little independent shopping, having run out of lingerie to show off to Zayn. He liked them a lot more now that he was allowed to take them off of me. It wasn’t so much that he took them off of me as much as he ripped them to shreds and I still found bits and pieces on the floor. He wasn’t kind to them, but in the moment we didn’t care.
I was off to the mall and then to the drug store. I had run out of pregnancy pills and thought that it would be great if I didn’t surprise him with a bun in the oven. Pulling into the car park of the mall, flashes were already going off. Being pretty popular before I met Zayn helped me ease myself into all of this fame stuff, but I didn’t realize how much it would change my public appearance to be dating someone so famous. I had been offered to do more photo shoots in the past week than I had been offered to do in the past year. Fame wasn’t the reason that I was with Zayn, but it wasn’t a terrible perk. My only issue with paps taking pictures of me was that they never seemed to get Zayn and I together. There were a lot of individual shots of us without the other, but there were none of just us two. Hell, I would send them in myself if we were ever together long enough for it to be worth taking a picture. I understood that he was busy, but so was I, and I still tried to make time for him.
Being followed by the paparazzi all day had me pretty worn out. Not only were there about two thousand new pictures of me for the media to play with, but I also had to limit what I purchased because the last thing that I needed was for them to think that I was a fame hungry skank or something. It was really peaceful in the car. I turned up the radio and sang along with notes that I knew were wrong, just like I always did. My car was officially the most peaceful place in the world to me.
Getting out again, I exhaled deeply and went into the drugstore and got what I needed. Waiting in line, I got a few curious glances from people that looked like they knew me from somewhere and there were others that had large smiles on their faces because they did. Finally getting to the checkout, I saw the magazine on the side of register that had my face on the cover. I sat it on the counter and the cashier did a double take from me to the magazine. It wasn’t that I wanted him to notice me; I was actually making a scrapbook so that when I was older I could look back and remember the accomplishments that I had made. The cashier was giving me the eyes as he rung up my receipt. I had to admit that he was pretty cute; probably a little bit younger than me. He had short, dark hair and it was styled into spikes. I had Zayn and he was all that I needed. I paid for my things and left the store, not looking back.
Walking out of the drug store, I noticed that it was really dark outside and when I checked my phone, I was slightly shocked to see that it was already about eight thirty. Putting my bags in the back seat, I grabbed my magazine out of the bag and plopped down in the front seat, turning on the light in the car. I saw a head line that sparked my interest. “Zayn’s New Bird” Thinking that I might be able to have something else for my scrapbook, I turned to the indicated page and the magazine almost fell out of my hands. On the page was a picture of Zayn with brown paper bags in his hands. Behind him was the sign of an apartment complex and there was no mistaking that it was Hannah’s. I felt tears sting my eyes as I read the first paragraph on the page:
One Direction’s Zayn Malik has been continuously spotted going in and out of a mystery apartment. Sources say that this is also the apartment of Hannah Glowik, who was last seen with One Direction’s Harry Styles. Interestingly enough, Hannah hasn’t been seen with Harry since right around New Year’s and that was about the time that Zayn began showing up here. Could Zayn be having his way with Harry’s leftovers?
I knew better than to listen to the press, but how could I not. It made so much sense, the way that I didn’t see him every day and didn’t hear from him on half of those. Tears ran down my cheeks and I knew that my makeup was smearing, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to believe it, but everything seemed to fall into place with this explanation.
Then my heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. How many times had Zayn and I slept together? I gave him everything, and everything still didn’t seem to be enough. How could he do this to me? It then hit me. I put an emotion to the look in his eyes. It was lust. Zayn didn’t love me. Everything that he felt was lust, and it egged him on. Sex was the only thing that he wanted from me and that was that entirety of what he had been getting.
I drove. I didn’t know exactly where I was going until I pulled into the car park of the boys’ flats. There were a few flashes outside of the car, so I tried to fix my running makeup as much as I was able to. Giving up and putting on some sunglasses, I wiped my red nose and puffy eyes one more time before I got out of the car and avoided as many paps as possible. The employees let me pass, knowing that I was a friend of the boys. Taking the elevator, I pressed the button that had a number higher than Zayn’s floor. I didn’t realize until after it was already done, but as soon as I did, I knew exactly where I was going. Walking out of the elevator, I located the door that I was looking for and wrapped on it, still holding the magazine in my other hand. I crossed my arms across my chest and hung my head low until he opened the door.
It had been three weeks since I had gone to get Hannah’s key, having purposely failed. I went over to her apartment every day at first, and each time, she talked to me a little bit more, told me a little more of what happened, became a little more comfortable with me. A few days after it happened, I brought her a small portion of Haley’s cookie collection. She told me why it took so long for her to open the door. I blamed myself though. I was standing too close with full intentions of intimidating her for what she did to Harry, and all that she saw was my eyes; the same color of the ones as her assailant. She told me that she didn’t like hearing his name, so I stopped using it too.
We grew closer to each other while still staying far enough apart. When she got a little more comfortable in her own home, she would call me in the morning and tell me that it would be cool if I hung out with the guys or Haley. I think that she didn’t want to hold me back from the rest of them; she was just trying to be brave, because there were some nights where I would be sleeping, naked with Haley in my arms, and I would get a phone call and hear ragged breaths on the other end. The nightmares weren’t going away. She was restless most nights and I felt terrible because there was nothing that I could do about it. There was a day that I knew I wasn’t spending with my bird, so I spent the night at Hannah’s. She had been shaken awake after being shaken on the ground in her dreams. Hannah let out a horrid scream and I tried my best to comfort her… but I wasn’t Harry. I knew for a fact that he was the only one who could accomplish and meet all of the standards that Hannah needed someone to live up to.
Hannah and I did different things when I was at her apartment. Sometimes we would play cards and others we would watch movies. Sometimes we talked all day, and other times we sat in complete silence. I’m pretty sure that she hadn’t left the house since it happened, but we were getting closer and closer to getting her out of that terrible place everyday.
Harry hadn’t stopped talking about her since she left the club that night, but it was different now. At first, he bashed her and called her names: a dumbass for choosing Marcus over him and a skank for leading him on for so long. I knew for a fact that, one day a few weeks ago, Harry was sitting at home, sober because Louis cut him off and pissed because I had hit him square in the jaw. I promise I had a good reason, okay? We had been sitting around all morning and all the other lads had gone out for the day. We were sitting around and he was still bashing her a full week after everything went to hell. I was letting him vent until I caught a key phrase that he thought would be appropriate to blurt out.
“You know what, I don’t even wish for her to be happy, because I can’t be if I don’t have her. I hope that Marcus beats her so that she can know how I feel.” I’m pretty sure that I launched myself across the room, picking up Harry by the front of his shirt collar and making contact with his face… hard.
“No matter what happened between the two of you, what girl deserves that?” I looked him dead in the eyes with the angriest look I could muster up. I still held him by the collar of his shirt. Harry’s eyes filled with anger, then fear, then sorrow, then tears. He yanked away from my grip and went to his room. Normally he slammed the door, but not that time. He closed it slowly as if something bad might have happened if he was too loud. I didn’t see him for the next three days, and once he came out, he didn’t bad mouth Hannah anymore. He still talked about her, but how much hurt Harry was in was really starting to show. He talked more about how he missed her and how he hoped for the future more than how he remembered the recent past. He stayed sober, but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t see tears in his eyes, and the same went for the days that I saw Hannah. They wanted each other so badly, but I had to get this situation under control before I could throw them together.
~
*Hannah’s POV*
It was three weeks ago today that he had held me down and done terrible things to me. I had lost contact with almost all of them, and while I was healing from my injuries day by day, the pain of being away from them was eating me away a little bit slower than I was healing. The only people that I had heard anything from were Zayn, of course, and Niall. I had received one text from Niall about a week after it happened:
From: Niall
Hannah, I’m so sorry.
~ Nialler ~
I quickly ignored it. I didn’t care if he was sorry or not. He ruined things for Harry and me. Every hope and dream that I had had of Harry and I being together was nearly crushed to dust. The only thing that was keeping the dream alive was the fact that Zayn came with stories about Harry being a mess and talking about me all the time. He kept encouraging me to leave the apartment and I knew exactly why. Zayn wanted me out of this house; I didn’t think he cared where I went, so long as it wasn’t here. I also kind of sensed that he wanted me to go to Harry and Lou’s if I ever decided to leave, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave and, if I did, I certainly couldn’t go there.
There was a knock on the door at about six that night and I knew from the pattern that it was Zayn. He had told me that I should always check through the peep hole, but he would always use that knock to put my mind at ease. I still jumped slightly whenever he came, but it was getting easier day by day. Fresh out of the shower, I went over to open the door. I gave him a warm smile when I met the eyes that I was trying to memorize as kind.
“Hey Hannah!” Zayn carried multiple paper bags in his hands. I felt a little bit bad because he had been doing my shopping once he noticed that I wasn’t leaving the house. I had tried to pay him with some of the money that I was still getting from my mum, but he refused to take it. He said that I needed him here and that he had money burning a hole in his pocket, so I let him. Taking a few of the bags, I set them on the counter, motioning for him to follow me. After we were done putting things away, we both sat down on the couch and talked a little bit before he brought up the topic that he had been itching at for the past week.
“I think that you should go talk to him Hannah.” My face went serious and I rolled my eyes slightly, thinking that he just couldn’t get off of this idea.
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants; it’s what he needs that counts.” He spoke quietly, and I’m not sure what it was about his words, but something just clicked. I did want to see Harry, and my heart yearned for him every time that Zayn said something about him being upset. Was I afraid to leave the house? Hell yes, but was Harry worth it? Of course he was. I loved Harry, whether he knew it or not, and I had to take my chances at getting him back at any cost. Thinking back, I remembered what Harry had said, ‘I’m in this 100%, all the way, for the long haul. You can come to me with anything.’ This was my birthday, the night that Harry asked me to be his girlfriend after such a long wait. I didn’t spend all of that time wishing that he would ask me to just let him go now.
“Okay.” My voice was so quiet that I wasn’t sure as to whether Zayn had heard me or not, but when I looked up at his face, there was such delight strewn across it that there was no mistaking my words. “But wait,” I looked at the clock hanging on the wall, “it’s already like nine o’ clock.
“Hannah, trust me. If Harry sees you, he’s not going to care what time it is.” We sat there in silence as I thought about my reunion with Harry. Looking at Zayn, I could tell that he was thinking about it too. Before long, I stood up, wanting to be dressed in something a little nicer than sweatpants.
“I’m gonna go change.”
“I’ll wait here, but then I have to run. Haley and I are running a little low on supplies as well.” I chuckled at the fact that he had gone shopping for me before he had gone for him and his bird. “Dress warm. It’s cold outside, and you should probably wear a beanie, there have been paps outside all week.” My heart skipped a little bit. Zayn was risking his reputation for me.
Walking into my closet, I already had an idea of what I wanted to wear. I pulled out me beige, short sleeved sweater and some skinny jeans. I put on a grey scarf and some black button up boots. I grabbed my beige tote bag and put in my navy feather earrings. I slid on my navy bracelet and put a navy jacket over my sweater. Before I walked out of my room, I grabbed my beige beanie and slipped it over my fishtailed hair. Snagging my phone, I walked back out to Zayn who also had put his coat on. I was ready. I could do this… I hope.
*Haley’s POV*
I hadn’t seen Zayn last night and I hadn’t heard from him practically all day. We’d been dating for about a month now and I had already lost count of how many times we’d slept together. I enjoyed the sex, don’t get me wrong. I would get all caught up in the emotion and we would climax like no one could believe. But during, he would always use the same roughness to reach his high, he would always give me the same hungry look before and afterwards, and he would always tell me that he loved me, but for some reason, it always left me with the same uneasy feeling inside of me.
Since we apparently didn’t have plans today, I decided at about four in the afternoon that I would do a little independent shopping, having run out of lingerie to show off to Zayn. He liked them a lot more now that he was allowed to take them off of me. It wasn’t so much that he took them off of me as much as he ripped them to shreds and I still found bits and pieces on the floor. He wasn’t kind to them, but in the moment we didn’t care.
I was off to the mall and then to the drug store. I had run out of pregnancy pills and thought that it would be great if I didn’t surprise him with a bun in the oven. Pulling into the car park of the mall, flashes were already going off. Being pretty popular before I met Zayn helped me ease myself into all of this fame stuff, but I didn’t realize how much it would change my public appearance to be dating someone so famous. I had been offered to do more photo shoots in the past week than I had been offered to do in the past year. Fame wasn’t the reason that I was with Zayn, but it wasn’t a terrible perk. My only issue with paps taking pictures of me was that they never seemed to get Zayn and I together. There were a lot of individual shots of us without the other, but there were none of just us two. Hell, I would send them in myself if we were ever together long enough for it to be worth taking a picture. I understood that he was busy, but so was I, and I still tried to make time for him.
Being followed by the paparazzi all day had me pretty worn out. Not only were there about two thousand new pictures of me for the media to play with, but I also had to limit what I purchased because the last thing that I needed was for them to think that I was a fame hungry skank or something. It was really peaceful in the car. I turned up the radio and sang along with notes that I knew were wrong, just like I always did. My car was officially the most peaceful place in the world to me.
Getting out again, I exhaled deeply and went into the drugstore and got what I needed. Waiting in line, I got a few curious glances from people that looked like they knew me from somewhere and there were others that had large smiles on their faces because they did. Finally getting to the checkout, I saw the magazine on the side of register that had my face on the cover. I sat it on the counter and the cashier did a double take from me to the magazine. It wasn’t that I wanted him to notice me; I was actually making a scrapbook so that when I was older I could look back and remember the accomplishments that I had made. The cashier was giving me the eyes as he rung up my receipt. I had to admit that he was pretty cute; probably a little bit younger than me. He had short, dark hair and it was styled into spikes. I had Zayn and he was all that I needed. I paid for my things and left the store, not looking back.
Walking out of the drug store, I noticed that it was really dark outside and when I checked my phone, I was slightly shocked to see that it was already about eight thirty. Putting my bags in the back seat, I grabbed my magazine out of the bag and plopped down in the front seat, turning on the light in the car. I saw a head line that sparked my interest. “Zayn’s New Bird” Thinking that I might be able to have something else for my scrapbook, I turned to the indicated page and the magazine almost fell out of my hands. On the page was a picture of Zayn with brown paper bags in his hands. Behind him was the sign of an apartment complex and there was no mistaking that it was Hannah’s. I felt tears sting my eyes as I read the first paragraph on the page:
One Direction’s Zayn Malik has been continuously spotted going in and out of a mystery apartment. Sources say that this is also the apartment of Hannah Glowik, who was last seen with One Direction’s Harry Styles. Interestingly enough, Hannah hasn’t been seen with Harry since right around New Year’s and that was about the time that Zayn began showing up here. Could Zayn be having his way with Harry’s leftovers?
I knew better than to listen to the press, but how could I not. It made so much sense, the way that I didn’t see him every day and didn’t hear from him on half of those. Tears ran down my cheeks and I knew that my makeup was smearing, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to believe it, but everything seemed to fall into place with this explanation.
Then my heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. How many times had Zayn and I slept together? I gave him everything, and everything still didn’t seem to be enough. How could he do this to me? It then hit me. I put an emotion to the look in his eyes. It was lust. Zayn didn’t love me. Everything that he felt was lust, and it egged him on. Sex was the only thing that he wanted from me and that was that entirety of what he had been getting.
I drove. I didn’t know exactly where I was going until I pulled into the car park of the boys’ flats. There were a few flashes outside of the car, so I tried to fix my running makeup as much as I was able to. Giving up and putting on some sunglasses, I wiped my red nose and puffy eyes one more time before I got out of the car and avoided as many paps as possible. The employees let me pass, knowing that I was a friend of the boys. Taking the elevator, I pressed the button that had a number higher than Zayn’s floor. I didn’t realize until after it was already done, but as soon as I did, I knew exactly where I was going. Walking out of the elevator, I located the door that I was looking for and wrapped on it, still holding the magazine in my other hand. I crossed my arms across my chest and hung my head low until he opened the door.
Notes
If she's not at Zayn's... well then where the actual fuck is she?Okay guys, I know that this is still Zayn and Haley, but I promise that it's vital. Things get pretty bad in the next chapter, but then... GUESSS WHAT! They get to start getting better after that! Yayyyy! Let me know what you think, I'm off school today but have to go back tomorrow so I'm gonna try and write some more today.
You know what to do :)
xoxo Hannah <3
so in love with this one !!! update soon!!!
10/20/16