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Last One Standing

Chapter Fifty Four

*Haley’s POV*

I nervously tapped on the arm rest of the plane seat with my fingers as my eyes attempted to focus on the homogenous setting rushing by.The only time that I had seen my mother after I moved out was on my birthday – she loved it when I told her that she was my best birthday present each year – but this year was different.She was my early present this year.I hadn’t seen my dad since he moved out, and I wasn’t looking forward to spending my birthday with him.I figured that I should see my mum first, on the day before my birthday.She would give me the strength to face the person I feared most.

“Haley, why are you so tense?Everything’s going to be fine,” he wrapped a protective arm around me and brought his mouth close to my ear, “we don’t even have to fly over seas.”I gave him a fake glare and tried push his arm off of me as he chuckled – he knew that I didn’t prefer flying in the first place.“No, no Babe, wait.I know that it’s not about that,” he grabbed onto my hand with both of his large ones, wrapping it in his warmth, “I was just trying to get you to relax about it, that’s all.”He gave me a smile and I could tell that it was genuine.I took his hands and encouraged his arms to envelope me into his body.I kept a hold of his hands and closed my eyes.We were just sitting there but I had to go and ruin the moment.

“Why did you insist on coming?” but leave it to Zayn to bring the moment right back.His face nuzzled into my neck and he let his lips brush the bare skin as he whispered,

“Well I wasn’t bloody going to let you go through it alone.”I couldn’t help but smile.He didn’t even let me think of a response before he began humming Little Things in my ear.It was one of the recognizable tunes that put me to sleep nearly every night.I was no longer in the dark and the cold, but in the warm stream of Zayn’s light.His voice had hummed the song in my ear three times before I felt him push something into my ear.It was You and Me by Parachute and I looked back to see him with his head resting against the head rest while the other ear bud rested in his ear.Squirming around to push the arm rest between us out of my way, I jostled him and he gave me a pouting face before I wrapped my arms around his waist – his hugging me tighter to him – as I snuggled into him embrace.I let my head rest on his chest and I felt him let out a deep sigh, letting me know that I had been forgiven for waking him.The ear that was pressed to his chest was bud free and the beating of his hard seemed to match the base of the music.This was also one of our favorite activities – mine because it was relaxing but his because he knew it put me in his arms.

~

I felt the plane shake slightly and I tucked my face further into Zayn’s chest – I really didn’t like flying very much.It shook a bit again and my arms tightened around him.The next shake was a bit more violent and I could swear that I jumped three feet in the air.I looked around frantically around and saw everyone else sitting around silently.How are you so calm?!The fucking plane’s falling out of the sky!When my face finally met Zayn’s, he wore an extremely pained expression.I felt his hand desperately grip at my wrist and realized that, in my efforts to push myself up, my hand had definitely pressed down a little too hard on his crotch.After about my billionth apology and once Zayn’s face had returned from its previous pale state we both finally settled back into our seats.I cautiously peered out my window and saw the ground getting closer and closer.“Zayn, why did you wake me up anyways?”

“I woke you up because we’re about to land Love.”I instantly wished that he had just let me sleep and turned to face him.The pale pallet was now mine and my eyes were opened wide as Zayn reached out for me.“Babe, it’s going to be okay.”

“I feel like I’m falling…” he hugged me into him and gently lifted the wait.

“Falling for me?” he whispered cheekily in my ear.I nudged him teasingly.

“Been there, done that,” I said nonchalantly.He pulled me out at arms length but quickly pulled me back in when he saw fear overcome my face.We stayed like this until the plane landed.

Any other time, I would’ve been much less nervous walking onto the plane as apposed to off of it, but that was not the case this time.This time was different because I knew that each step I took away from the flying metal death trap was one step closer towards a whole new form of torture on its own.I was still thinking this as Zayn put his money out to pay for the cab to our hotel.I carried all of the small bags into the large glass elevator and Zayn swiped the card for the pent house.A part of me must have felt special that we needed our own card to get where we were going, but that was all masked over by something that I liked to call pure terror.It was the same terror that I had felt through my childhood and it was the terror that had struck through me when I had told Zayn about my parents and my past.It was back again and I wasn’t fond of it.The elevator doors closed and I realized something.“Hey Babe,” he mumbled in response. “Shouldn’t there be a lot more people here to see you?You know the screaming girls, cameras flashing… the lot?”

“Love, we all stayed home for the holidays… no one was expecting us to leave.”I blushed as his logic made complete sense once I heard it said aloud.I was trying hard not to let my jaw drop as Zayn began unpacking our suitcases and I saw just how much he had packed for himself and then an extra suitcase that he had filled with my things as well.

“Babe… we’re only staying for the week… not forever.”I smiled as he pretended to glare at me before his turned into a smile as well.He walked up to me like he always did when he was trying to be smooth.I wasn’t to sure about it – the last time he had done it, he let me into the bathroom with my eyes closed and turned a cold shower on me.

“Close your eyes.”My expression was skeptical as I slowly backed away.“No Babe I’m really trying to be sweet this time, I promise.”I let out an exaggerated sigh and closed my eyes, putting my hands on my hips.I could feel Zayn’s breath on my lips and I willingly let him touch our lips in a sweet peck before he gripped my waist and began pulling me forwards.I stumbled a little and suddenly I was hit with a chilly breeze.I could feel Zayn’s arms snake around my waist from behind me and the sight when I opened my eyes took my breath away.I turned to see Zayn’s face was lit up with the lights of the downtown area we were staying in.I was surprised that they gave someone a balcony this high off of the ground.I tilted my head to the side, encouraging Zayn to rest his chin there.He also took a deep breath and kissed my neck gently.“You still don’t want to live here?”I shrugged my shoulders and we stood there, the sounds of the city our only interruption.

“When do you have to leave?”It came out as a whisper and I made a note that I had a knack for ruining moments.

“We’ve already been home for quite a while Hay.”I knew that it killed him to say that and I’m pretty sure that we both hated hearing it.It was almost half way through February and the boys had been off since the middle of December… If they stayed off much longer it wouldn’t be good news.“Pretty soon… but that’s not important, because we have now.”Zayn closed the sliding door and sat against it, looking out at the city.I followed suit and sat in between his legs, letting his body warm my shivering one.Everything could be seen from up here.The apartments that I had always lived in were alright, but there was nothing like the downtown city.It was made for me and me for it.After a while Zayn began shivering as well, I stood up and he let me pretend to help pull him up as well.

Zayn and I showered and brushed our teeth before cuddling up together in the pitch black pent house.The room smelled like cleaning products and air fresheners, but there, in Zayn’s arms, it smelled like his cologne brushed skin and his hair product.I wore one of his t shirts and his hands gently traced the scar on my side – the scar that he had now become well used to him seeing – on the underside of the shirt.Instead of singing to me, he again put the ear bud in my ear.Almost instantly, I pulled it out and handed it back to him.I looked up at him and saw him giving me a funny look.“What?I like it better when you sing to me.”With that, I snuggled back into his chest and listened as he hummed what had become my favorite tune into my ear as I drifted into unconsciousness.

~

I sat on the couch, watching for what the whether would be like in Berrywood that day (I had already seen exactly what it would be like three different times, but Zayn was taking forever getting ready).“Babe!Are you ready yet?”

“Almost, the black shirt didn’t look as good as I thought it was going to!” he yelled back to me.I rolled my eyes.I had been ready for half an hour and he couldn’t find a shirt that looked right.Without any more hesitation, I walked into the bedroom of our pent house and saw Zayn looking through his clothes for a shirt to match his blue jeans.

“Okay, step back and let me do this.”I started flinging through his clothes, knowing what he brought since he basically packed his closet.“The reason that you can’t find a good shirt to go with those jeans is because those jeans only look good with printed t shirts.”It’s not like I had learned nothing from Emma, I mean come on now.It took me three minutes to pull out Zayn’s light grey skinny jeans and dark grey t shirt.I handed it to him and he looked at it, rather amazed actually.

“I can’t wear this…”I gave him my best come-on-now look and dared him to question my authority.“I don’t want… It’s just that…” he groaned in frustration and sat down on the end of the bed.I walked over so that I was standing between his legs.I took his face in my hands and lifted his eyes to meet mine.

“What’s going on?”I pushed a hair back that had bounced out of place.“I’ve never seen you this nervous in my life.”I gave him a sweet smile before he hugged my waist, resting his head on my stomach.“It’s just my mum Babe.She’s going to love you.”He mumbled something unintelligible so I took him out at arms length, telling him to repeat himself.He avoided my eyes and found the ground more and more interesting.

“I don’t want your mum to see all my tattoos.”I smiled and rolled my eyes at his small fry worries and dragged him off of the bed before I dug through his stuff again, pulling out his leather jacket.I threw it at him and started walking towards the door in my orange heels.

“There.Five minutes and I’m leaving without you!”I shut the door behind me and started transferring everything into my turquoise tote bag and finally grabbed my sunglasses and the elevator key off of the counter as Zayn came out of the bedroom.

“Ready to go?” he asked cheekily.I just rolled my eyes as I pressed the button for the elevator and Zayn handed me a pair of wire rimmed sunglasses to match his own.

~

By the time that Zayn had pulled the rental car into the Berrywood Psychiatric Center I was just about bursting from the car.Some people call artists starving?Well it was kind of the same thing for me, since a great portion of my check came here and another great portion to my father.It wasn’t very often that I got the chance to come and see my mum, so I was really excited to be here.Zayn on the other hand, seemed extremely nervous still about meeting my mother, fidgeting with his hands in the pockets of his jacket.To get him to relax a little, I wrapped my arm around his waist and his around my shoulder.I wore a jean jacket and a floral dress and was obviously a bit chilly.

At the entrance, we were greeted by one of my favorite nurses in the institution.“Oh Holly!” I called.She looked back and a smile of recognition washed over her face.

“Haley!It’s so great to see you!”She walked closer and pulled me in for a hug.Holly had been my best friend since we were first years before I moved to London to follow my career.We only stood there for a second before she noticed Zayn and had to cover her mouth she was smiling so big she had to cover her mouth.“So I guess its true then!” she finally managed to spit out.She looked back and forth between the two of us.“Oh I’d heard but I guess I just couldn’t believe that…”

“Just stop Holly,” I laughed.Zayn laughed a bit uncomfortably beside us.

“So Haley and… Holly?Is there a joke I don’t know about?”He looked down at me, a smile creeping at the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, Holly and I have been friends forever.”

“We used to get put in the same classes as a joke because our names sounded so much alike.”Holly and I laughed and started catching up as she began to lead Zayn and me to Mum’s room.

*Zayn’s POV*

I walked slightly behind the gabbing girls as we were lead down what seemed to be a million halls.We started to slow down outside of a room and I heard Hay asking about how she was doing, but God knows that I was only half listening.Since when had I ever wanted to meet the parents?I guess that was just how important Haley was to me.I raised my eyebrows and noticed that a sheen layer of sweat had formed over my forehead.I wiped it away and acted like I was fixing my hair and then straightened my jacket.Haley already knew that I was nervous, but Holly decided to take notice too.“Zayn,” she pulled me out of my trance, “there’s no need to be nervous.Olivia is one of the nicest people that I know and I know that if you care about Haley the way that she obviously cares about, Olivia will love you just as much Hay does.”I found some comfort in Holly’s words and found confirmation in Haley’s eyes, looking up at me with a love that I don’t think I had seen from any other girl.

Holly used a nurses’ key to open the door to our right and in we walked.There was a large window overlooking… well… everything.An easel sat in front of it with an arrangement of paints.All over the walls were paintings of flowers and skies and sceneries and any other thing that could just as easily be taken with a camera as a nature shot.On the easel was a half done painting of and overview of a little white gazebo with vines flowering purple buds weaving in and out of it.Taking in what was right in front of me, I saw Haley rest her hand on her mother’s shoulder before her mother embraced her and I could instantly see the resemblance between them.They both had gorgeous brown eyes and the same flowing brown hair, but Hay’s seemed to look a little bit healthier than Ms. Nixon’s.Then again, how often is she actually allowed outside?Holly and I were still watching Haley and her mum when I started noticing subtle flaws in the arrangement.Holley noticed my confusion and gave me a look of question herself.

“Shouldn’t there be a few more bars… a few less sharp things.”Holley nodded and a small smile came over her face.

“That’s where Olivia started,” she leaned in, as if to not interrupt the mother daughter reunion happening before us, “but the doctors quickly noticed that she was neither suicidal nor self harming, and figured that she really was just here to get some help.With that, they gave her one of the live-in nurses’ rooms.You still have to have a key to open it, but you can open it from the inside too.”She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but blush a little, forgetting that Hay’s mum wasn’t actually insane.

“Mum,” Haley said a little bit louder, “there’s someone I want you to meet.”Hay stepped back from her mother to walk towards me and wrap her arm around my waist, leading me to Ms. Nixon.“Mum, this is Zayn.Zayn, this is my mother,” she said in a calm tone.I put on my best smile but I guess my nervousness was still apparent because everyone could tell.

“Come on Haley; don’t make me sound all scary now.”She held out a fragile looking hand that had a surprisingly sturdy grip.

“I-I’m… uh… I’m Zayn,” I stuttered.“It’s uh… it’s very nice to meet you Ms. Nixon.”

“Oh my goodness,” I jumped a little at her sudden words, “you make me sound so old!”She gave me a warm smile and wrapped her tiny hands around my large one.“Please, call me Olivia.”I let a genuine smile pull at the corners of my mouth and she let go of my hand to rest one of hers on my shoulder.“Wow Haley, you’ve got him so nervous.How’d you even get him to come?”

“Actually,” she hugged me around my waist, “he wouldn’t let me leave without him.”She smiled into my skin and I enveloped her in my arms, kissing the top of her head that was snuggled into my chest.When I caught Olivia’s expression again, I couldn’t help but feel the warmth that was in her eyes; the admiration for the love that her daughter had found.When Haley and I finally released each other, feeling a bit uncomfortable under her mother’s gaze, Olivia cleared her throat before going over to sit at a small table in one corner of the room.Hay followed her over and I went to stand a ways behind Haley’s chair.

“No, no Zayn.Don’t be a stranger.Sit down, please.”There wasn’t really a way for me to say ‘no’, so I went over to sit between Haley and Ms… Olivia as they again began blabbering about this and that and everything else.Eventually, Holly came back and interrupted.

“Would anybody like something to drink, or maybe a snack?”I was about to say ‘no thank you’ when Olivia answered for us.

“Actually, it would be alright if we went down to the cafeteria and got something ourselves, right?”Holly returned with a sweet smile.

“Of course Olivia, I’ll let them know you’re coming down.”With that, Holly walked away from the door and Olivia and Hay began standing to walk towards the doorway.

I stayed fairly quiet as Olivia easily led us back through the never ending maze and then to the cafeteria.It didn’t seem like a cafeteria though; it was more like a restaurant.Really – except for the blue scrubs dress code – everyone looked fairly normal.I guess that I was still looking this way when I sat down between Hay and Olivia because pretty soon Olivia’s hand was on top of mine.“Zayn, only the real crazies have to stay in their room to eat.”I gave her a strange, how-did-you-just-read-my-mind look and she just shot back a soft smile, eventually proving contagious because it spread to me as well.

“So mum, how’s Doctor Jordan?”Hay took a sip of her drink.

“Still as patient as ever… but hey, am I going to get to hear the story about you two or what?”Haley and I gave each other a look before she started to speak up, but Olivia stopped her.“Honey, is it okay if Zayn tells me about it?”I could feel my eyes get big and I looked over to Hay for reassurance and, sure enough, it was right there in her eyes; all that I needed to know was right there in her eyes.I looked back to Olivia and found her staring into my eyes with admiration.

“Well… I guess that it started at work.”

“You’re a model?”

“No, I’m a musician.”Olivia’s eyes became a little skeptical.Shit.No mother wants to hear that her daughter’s run off with some musician.The little voice in my head was taunting me.“Well, I’m in a band.”That’s not any better.“Did you watch the Olympics this past year?”Her eyes narrowed in a bit, as if she was deep in thought, and then they got big in surprise.

“You’re one of those boys!From… oh what is it…”

“One Direction,” I softly interrupted.

“Oh yes!Of course!”The smile returned to her face and all my worries naturally melted away.

“Well we were doing a photo shoot and Haley,” I gestured towards her; she was sitting there waiting to see what I was going to say, “was there with four other models.All of them beautiful and we were all ‘assigned’ one if you will.”I took a deep breath before continuing.“Hay wasn’t supposed to be my model, but she was too short for Harry and mine was taller.I remember when we were standing in two lines and the director of the shoot was pairing us off and all that I could think was that she was the one I wanted to be paired up with, but just my luck, she went to my best mate.After the director decided that Harry needed someone taller, my girl volunteered for it and I was just standing there with no one and then Haley walked over.I think it was the way that she walked…Most models ‘strut’ – I guess you would say – wherever they go, but not Haley.She walked with some sort of a purpose, but it was like she didn’t care, or that she was saving her energy.

“When we looked at the photos after the shoot, you could just tell that ours stood out.Everyone’s were amazing – he was a great director – but Haley and I were just the perfect height and her skin was tanned just enough to look almost like mine.How it got that way I have no idea, but I loved it.Her arms were soft from the sun.I think what really got me is that we had the best pictures, but Haley was the one that refused to pose as anything that was unladylike.Even if she wasn’t posing as anything questionable or risqué, we still easily worked together with the fun and flirty side of the shoot.Anyone could tell that she had like keen intellect as well.You can see that just talking to her.She knew how to work the camera and make the light hit her face at the right angle.Then, once we started getting a little closer, there started to be a little more of an attachment than I thought I could ever have to someone.I’m not normally the guy that would let me be manipulated and morphed into something else, but Hay knew how to do that.Now, I wouldn’t let her go in a million years.”I realized that I wasn’t even looking at either of them anymore.I was off in the distance – in my own little world talking about how Haley and I met.“Sorry, I’m rambling.”I came back into focus and started playing with my hands in my lap.I don’t think I’d ever talked that much about a girl, and especially not straight to her mother’s face.I saw Haley’s hand snake through my elbow and I looked over to see her head resting on my shoulder.Smiling slightly, I looked over to her mother who was looking down at her lap.

Good going man.First you tell her you’re in a band, and then you bore her to death.This is why you don’t meet the parents.This is why…

“I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” Olivia interrupted the menacing voice inside of my head.She looked up from her lap and there was a meek smile on her face, but her eyes looked like they were coated over with a layer of tears just threatening to spill over.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, no worries,” she smiled genuinely.“Really, I’m just happy that... well that my baby’s found something that I never got the chance to have.”

Notes

Here's the second update! Remember, 55 comes out at 100 votes! Okay, how cute is Zayn in this chapter. He was soooo nervous about meeting Olivia. Honestly, I'm so emotionally attached to this story that sometimes I have to walk away from writing it because I'm like, "honey, come on now - these are fictional characters, not real people... You made up their lives. Why are you freaking out when you knew what was going to happen?!" anyways... I love you all! Comment, rate, subscribe!
xoxo Hannah <3

Comments

so in love with this one !!! update soon!!!

@HannahBanana16
nope, sorry I'm terrible at that hahahahahah! I like the title already, do you know when you're going to update?

@abear44

any ideas on what my new title should be?

I'M SO OBSESSED PLEASE UPDATE SOON!!!! <3333

Updateeeeee