#ic7

Niall’s arm had been around Zayn’s waist. His eyes widened when suddenly his arm wasn’t around Zayn anymore, and he quickly looked around. After a second he looked down, seeing that Zayn had fallen. “Zayn!” He said quickly.

He was starting to panic as well. Zayn had obviously been extremely freaked out, and who knew if he was okay or not? But he couldn’t exactly get a good look at him if the media were swarming around them, like they were. “Move!” Niall finally shouted. “Go away, something’s wrong with him!”

The media finally seemed to sense that they needed to back off. The fans that were there as well also backed off. Niall was grateful that at least now he could breathe, but he was still worried that something was seriously wrong with Zayn. “Zayn? Zayn!” Niall said, kneeling down next to her and putting his hand on her back.

He didn’t respond. Niall was getting even more worried. “Call an ambulance!” He finally said, fumbling for his own phone in his pocket. After a second he realized that he had accidentally left it at Zayn’s house. “Somebody call an ambulance!” He said again, this time more forcefully.

Niall looked around, finding that one of the media was on the phone, and he silently prayed that they had phoned an ambulance. He continued trying to wake Zayn up. “Hey, Zayn, come on, wake up. Please, wake up.”

It was ten minutes later before an ambulance finally showed up. They lifted Zayn onto a stretcher, and put him in the back of the ambulance. One of the paramedics turned to Niall. “You’re going to have to meet us at the hospital, son.” He said in a deep, low voice.

Niall swallowed thickly and nodded. He wanted to be in the ambulance with Zayn, but he more just wanted the paramedics to make sure he was okay. Also, he knew that it wouldn’t work to just leave his car there, especially not with all of the fans and media. “Alright, thank you.”

He headed quickly to his car, then started following the ambulance. The entire time, the only thing he was thinking was that he hoped they were doing everything they could to make sure he was okay. After all of his blood loss, Niall was afraid that it might be something more serious than just her fainting.

When Zayn woke up again, he was out of it. Totally and completely out of it. He saw Niall there and smiled softly. For a minute, he thought that it was the morning, and that he had just woken up. “What’s that beeping noise?” He asked drowsily.

Niall gave him a small smile, smoothing his hair back from his forehead gently. “Hey...” He really wasn’t sure on what to say. Soon enough he would remember what had happened, and realize where he was.

Zayn gave him a small smile in return, then looked around. It took him a minute to figure out where he was, and when he did, his eyes widened. “Am I in the hospital?” After a second he realized that was a stupid question. “Wait, why am I in the hospital? What happened? Am I okay?”

Niall noticed how the beeping of his heart rate machine started to get louder and faster. He was panicking again. Niall shook his head, perching himself on the edge of the bed and taking Zayn’s face in his hands. “Hey. Look at me.” Niall said firmly, but gently. He waited until Zayn looked at him. “You’re okay. It’s okay. Do you remember us going out to the movies?”

Zayn bit her lip and looked down, trying to remember. After a second it all flooded back to him and he nodded. “Oh, yeah... the media were swarming us and everything.” He said quietly. “I’m guessing I fainted?”

Niall nodded. “Yes, you did.” He said softly. He waited for a minute to see if he would ask the question that he knew he would ask, but he didn’t, so finally Niall just said, “The doctor said that you’re fine. You just fainted because you were panicking, and because of how much blood you’ve lost within the past couple days.” Niall shrugged. “They gave you some blood transfusions.

Zayn bit his lip. They must have asked how he’d lost so much blood. What had Niall told them? Then after a second he realized with a little jolt of horror that he was in a hospital gown. They had more than likely seen his arms. Had Niall seen her arms? He wasn’t saying anything, so he hoped he hadn’t, but it was more than likely that he had. “Did they ask how I had lost so much blood?” Zayn finally asked quietly.

Niall nodded. He had seen her arms, but he figured that it was from awhile ago. Niall hadn’t expected that it was from the day before, so he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “I just told them that you had fallen and had somehow managed to cut yourself pretty deeply, and you lost a lot of blood before we got it bandaged up.” His hand subconsciously went to Zayn’s wrist, and he pressed down lightly.

Zayn nodded. “Alright. Thanks for not telling them what actually happened.” He was extremely grateful that Niall hadn’t told them, because then he probably would have had to have a psych evaluation or something. That was definitely not something he wanted to do.

After a second, he pulled his arm away from Niall. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the comforting touch, but with the cuts on his arm, he was extremely self conscious. They had been on the bottom side of his arm, and Niall had flipped his arm over, so the cuts were out there for all to see.

Niall just gave him a small, understanding smile. He didn’t want to embarrass him more by talking about the cuts. Zayn gave him a small smile in return. There was silence over the two of them, but it really wasn’t awkward. They were just both in their own thoughts.

So when Zayn’s phone started ringing, they both were jolted by it. He looked around, finding the phone was on the little table that was next to his hospital bed. When he looked at the caller ID, he found it was Liam.

Zayn looked to Niall. Had Niall told Liam what had happened? After a second, he finally answered the call. But before he could say anything, Liam spoke up. “Zayn, let me talk to Niall. He’s ignoring my calls.”

His eyebrows furrowed. Zayn hadn’t heard Niall’s phone going off at all. But he didn’t say anything, just handed the phone to Niall. “It’s for you.” He was actually a little nervous for Niall. Liam sounded... mad. Zayn had no idea what had happened, but when Liam got mad, it was never good.

Niall bit his lip at the tone of voice Zayn had. He slowly raised the phone to his ear, after looking at the caller ID. “Hey, babe.” He said softly. “Sorry I didn’t call you again, things have been... busy.”

He wasn’t sure if he should talk to Liam in front of Zayn. Niall didn’t know if she wanted Liam to know what had happened or not, so he was afraid to update him again. But Niall also knew that Zayn didn’t trust that if he left, he would come back. He’d just have to speak carefully.

“Yeah, I’ve heard.” Liam said, his voice low and flat. “I’ve heard that you’ve been pretty busy. You know, from the media and everything. Pretty busy with Zayn, if I’ve been hearing correctly.”

Niall sighed inwardly. Liam knew that the media always swarmed him and made up lies about him. He really chose this time to believe one of the lies? “Liam. They’re the media. They make stuff up, they spread rumors. Zayn and I were just going to the movies today, I wanted to get him out of the house. I love you, not him.”

Zayn couldn’t help it when his breath hitched in his throat. He saw Niall look at him with his eyebrows furrowed, and he quickly turned away. Zayn was just going to act like nothing had happened. Niall didn’t need to know that he now had feelings for him. He wasn’t going to put that on him, or on Liam.

Liam sighed on the other end of the phone. He didn’t know what to think. Niall was right, the media did like to spread rumors about him. But the way that he was holding Zayn... it really made Liam think that something had been going on there. Something probably was still going on. But how would he deal with it if it turned out Niall was cheating on him with their best friend? “I don’t know what to think here, Niall.” Liam finally admitted quietly.

Niall sighed. “Liam. Listen to me. Harry just broke up with Zayn. He’s not even ready for another relationship right now, he’s still emotionally involved with Harry. You know what I mean? You can’t just get over someone you’ve been dating for a year in a day. Like I said, I’m in love with you. I wouldn’t do that to harm Zayn, or you. There’s nothing going on between me and Zayn.”

Zayn curled up on his side, his back facing towards Niall. He knew that everything that Niall was saying was true. But it was like Niall was talking about him like he wasn’t even there, and the words that he was saying hurt. Niall wouldn’t hurt him like that? Then why had Niall kissed him? That was Zayn’s main question. Maybe he would’ve been okay, maybe he wouldn’t have been quite so hurt if Niall hadn’t kissed him. But now he’d felt love being ripped away from him twice all within a very short amount of time, and Zayn didn’t know what to do anymore.

Zayn bit his lip to keep from making a sound. He tried to block out the rest of that conversation. They were both his best friends, but he was the third wheel of the two. He was the one that was miserable because he wanted to allow his best friends to have their happy ending. Of course, there was also the fact that Niall had just stated he didn’t love Zayn. But that wasn’t the point.

The worst part was when Niall perched himself on the bed again, after he was done with the phone call. His hand found Zayn’s back, and he started rubbing his back lightly. Liam had forgiven him, and they’d agreed that if the media started anymore rumors about Niall and Zayn that they would just ignore them, so Niall wasn’t worried if the media saw what he was doing.

Somehow Niall had found just the right spot to rub. It was like he knew right where it felt the most comforting. That was definitely something else that was extremely bad. This was just making Zayn have more feelings for him.

Niall could feel that Zayn was tense, tenser than usual. He was afraid - had they just somehow taken a step back? He already knew it was going to take a while just to take a step forward, and if they had just taken a step back, then that was even worse. “Are you okay?” Niall finally asked quietly.

Zayn stayed silent for a minute. What was he supposed to say? It wasn’t like he could tell Niall that he wasn’t, because then he would ask why he wasn’t. Zayn had always been a horrible liar to people that he even opened up in the slightest bit to. Now that Niall had found out he was depressed, it would be extremely easy to tell that he was lying.

He just took the silence for the answer of no. Honestly, he couldn’t blame Zayn if he wasn’t okay. With trying to commit suicide and then fainting, he would be more surprised if he had said yes. “It’s alright.” Niall said softly, continuing to rub her back.

Zayn tensed more as he felt Niall starting to lay down in the bed with him. His back was still to him, but he was starting to lay down, and he didn’t like that. Actually, Zayn liked it more than he would care to admit. But, like everything else Niall was doing, it was just making his feelings more prominent. “Don’t...” Zayn finally whimpered out.

Niall’s eyebrows furrowed and he quickly pushed himself up to a sitting position. Don’t? Niall had been right, they had just taken a step back. But if Niall was right again, he was guessing that they’d taken way more than just one step back. “Zayn... what?”

On Saturday 20th August, IC7 will be playing The Ramblers football club in Burnham-on-crouch.  

We are supporting the fantastic Abbey Rogues.

Time: 19:00 to 23:30

Tickets: £5

Tickets available, please email:  [email protected]  or talk to us on Facebook.

IC7 performed at London's The Borderline on Saturday 23rd April 2011. The song 'Given' is from the debut album Do Something!