Terrible Things

Zayn's P.O.V.

“Daddy, can you please tell me another story about you and mommy?”

A chuckle slipped from Zayn’s lips and shook his head at the three year old. “I’m afraid not, Eric,” he tucked him under the sheets again; “It’s too far past your bed time.”

Zayn saw his son start to pout, and let’s face it – he’s too cute to resist. Giving in, he sighed and knelt down next to Eric’s plain bed. “Same story as always, bud?”

He quickly nodded and squirmed around in his bed to get comfortable for the story that was coming.

“Well, your mother and I went to school together, you know that right?” I looked at my son as he nodded, making me smile. “At this time, your uncle Harry and I were going to school together. So, we always hung out in the hallways, watching the ladies walk by. Millions of girls strolled by, but your mother especially caught my eye. God, she was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

Zayn lightly laughed to himself, remembering the times where she’d walk past him and Harry in the hallways.

“Dude, who’s that? She’s beautiful,” Zayn asked, whispering the last part to his friend of two years, Harry.

The curly-haired boy, shrugged. “I don’t know, why don’t you go find out?”

Zayn quickly shook his head, biting his bottom lip. “Come on, you know that I have zero game when it comes to girls. Can you do it for me?”

Harry deeply sighed, and nodded, walking towards the girl that was straight across from where they were. From where Zayn was standing, he could understand and hear everything perfectly.

“Hi, I’m Harry. What’s your name?” He said in his slow, sloth-like voice.

“Um, T-Taylor,” she stuttered in a thick British accent, arching an eyebrow towards Harry.

“Sorry if this is quite awkward for ya, but my friend over there,” Harry pointed a finger towards Zayn, making his eyes widen slightly. “Wanted me to figure out your name because he thinks that you’re beautiful. I’ll leave now, see ya!”

A deep shade of red spread across her cheeks as he spoke, glancing over at the boy that was listening on their conversation.

“What the hell,” Zayn whispered-yelled as Harry slowly approached. “Why did you do that?”

Harry slightly smiled, and shrugged. “Don’t quite know, but it seems that you have her attention now.”

“Daddy?” The three year old quietly asked. “What happened after that?”

“Well Son, a few days after that, I sort-of admired mommy from a-far so that she wouldn’t be able to see me…well, staring at her. The school days went on and on – then she came up to me in the hallways as I was on the way to class,” Zayn smiled, remembering the moment precisely.

Zayn felt a tap on his back and quickly looked back, finding Taylor in front of him. “U-Um, hi.” He said nervously, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, and holding his school books in the other hand.

Taylor slightly smiled, “Hey, sorry if this is some-what weird, but I couldn’t help but notice that you were staring at me.”

At this point, Zayn felt beyond awkward, not knowing what to say next. All he did was laugh a bit at himself, and nodded. “S-Sorry if that’s a bit weird…” Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You just admitted to staring at her! You’re so stupid!

“Oh, no, no! It’s –uh- fine. My friends were just wondering if…oh dear lord this is going to be awkward…they want to know if you like me.” She rushed, blushing madly.

He was taken back a-bit at her comment. “I..uh…kind-of?” Zayn didn’t even know what he was saying anymore, he was at lost for words.

Taylor's eyes widened, ”O-Oh, well, I um…”

Zayn felt a pure sudden rush of confidence run through his veins. “Would you like to go out to dinner sometime?”

She glanced up at the lanky boy and bit her lip, still nervous. “A-Are you asking me out?”

He just simply nodded, feeling nervous again. Thoughts of rejection ran through his mind and he waited for an answer from the beautiful woman that was in-front of his eyes.

“I…yeah. I will. What time?” She asked, smiling widely.

Zayn mentally cheered as she agreed to the date, and smiled as well. “Six-ish?”

“Six it is, here-“

The bell for class to start yelled through-out the halls, interrupting her.

She gasped, and glanced up at Zayn. “Okay, never mind then. I’ll see you around, and then give you my address and stuff, okay? See ya!” She rushed as she sprinted off to her class.

“Will you tell me more?” The anxious three-year-old boy asked.

Zayn glanced over at the clock, shaking his head. The alarm clock told him that it was already ten at night. “No, you need to sleep. It’s really past you’re bed-time now.”

“But daddy, I’ll be fine! Just please, tell me more about you and mommy!”

“Fine, fine. Me and your mother, we were young, stupid, and reckless,” Eric got a laugh out of this, making Zayn smile. “Sometimes we’d have too much to drink, and we’d laugh at the stars and share everything underneath the moon-light. I’d have to admit; those memories are the third best thing that has ever happened to me.”

“What’s the first and second thing?”

“The first one is being there for mommy when she was having you, bud.” Zayn replied, ruffling little Eric’s hair slightly. “Second one is when your mommy said ‘yes’ when I asked her to marry me.”

The son’s face instantly glowed at the second reason. “Oh, oh! Can you tell me the story about you proposing to mom?”

He knew that this part of the story was going to be the hardest part to him. Zayn bit his lip, remembering the time when he proposed to Taylor.

“Eric, do you know when mommy birthday was?”

“July 13,” he quickly responded.

Zayn nodded, impressed. “It was July 13, 2009. We were home alone, celebrating your mom, Taylor’s, birthday. She was turning 21, finally. I had told mommy that she had to wait until after dinner so that she could open her present. I had it wrapped in a paper box, tied with strings.”

“Can I open it yet?” Taylor groaned, crossing her arms.

“Nope! Close your eyes,” Zayn smiled, holding the box behind his back.

She did what he wanted and slowly got down on one knee, biting his lip. “Okay, now open your eyes.”

Taylor quickly opened her eyes and gasped as Zayn opened the paper box.

“Taylor, I love you so much. You’re beautiful, and I can never take my eyes off of you. You’ve been there for me through thick and thin, and I can’t ever express how much that means to me. So, Taylor, will you marry me?”

She had tears in her eyes as she weakly nodded, saying agreeing to marriage.

"It sounded like you and mommy were the best couple ever, daddy," the three-year-old mumbled.

"It's because we were, buddy," Zayn blinked back tears that were prickling in his eyes and sighed. “We’re almost done, alright?” He whispered to his son that was drooping his eyes every now-and-then.

“July 2010, your Uncle Harry, Louis, Liam, Niall, and I were on tour. It was sometime after our concert in Orlando, Florida, when I got a phone call from your mom, she sounded worried and scared.” Zayn bit his bottom lip again, raw from chewing on it continually. “Thank god I had my phone on when she called.”

“I might cry during this too, Eric. Just a head’s up,” Zayn added, shaking his head.

Eric suddenly sat up from his bed and embraced his father in a tight hug. “It’s okay daddy.”

Memories from that phone call came back, as he let a tear fall from his eyes.

“B-Baby?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong babe?” Zayn replied, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m having really bad cramps, and it really, really hurts. W-What should I do?”

He laughed a bit to himself, “Are you sure that it’s not just from your period, babe?”

Taylor groaned into the phone, “Zayn, I’m not on my period!” She shrieked into the phone.

“B-Baby? Y-You’re scaring me. Just go lay down with a heating pad, y-you’ll be fine. Where’s Eric?”

“I-I’ll try that, and he’s with my grandmother, he’s f-fine.”

“I’ll be there in the morning, alright?”

“B-But you’re in Florida, Zayn. You have a show tomorrow…” She groaned once again.

“I know, I know. But from what I’m hearing, I need to be home. I promise, it will be okay, alright?”

“I should have known better than that.” Zayn glanced down at the ground and let another tear slip.

“Should have known what better?”

He simply shook his head and continued on with the story. “It was August 2011, when all of her family, friends, and I noticed that something was terribly wrong with mommy.”

“Why on Earth did you not tell me!” Zayn yelled, clenching his jaw.

“Because I didn’t want it to burden you, Zayn!” Taylor cried out.

“How would knowing that your wife has fucking cancer burden me in any way?!”

“It would burden you, because you would want to stay home with me, and then let all your fans down!”

“I think that the fans would understand why I would want to be home with my dying wife!”

Taylor flinched as Zayn yelled at her, telling her that she should have told him.

“How much more time.” Zayn said sternly.

“Until what?”

“Surgery, or something to take the cancer out of you.”

“Zayn, baby. T-There’s no surgery that they can do right now. N-No doctor is willing.”

“W-What? No, that can’t-“

“Either way, Zayn, chemotherapy isn’t working for me, and I just-“

He choked back a sob, “What about radiation?”

“…It’s too late for that,” She mumbled, biting her lip.

By this time, Zayn had tears streaming down his cheeks. “What do you mean by ‘too late’?”

“It’s too late to do anything, Zayn.”

“T-Then how long?”

“U-Until what?” She sniffled, rubbing a few tears away.

“You know what.”

“Three weeks, Zayn.”

Zayn let a sob out, “three weeks,” he repeated through tears.

“Please don’t be sad now, baby. If it makes anything better, I truly believe that you were the greatest thing that ever happened to me. You and Eric will go on without me, without any problems. I promise, when I'm gone, I'll watch over you two and make sure you guys will be away from any harm. I love you so much, alright? Don't ever forget that," Taylor said through tears, hugging Zayn tightly as he cried into her shoulder.

“Those were the last words that I heard from your mother,” Zayn said through tears.

Looking down at his son, he had tears in his eyes as well, and half-asleep.

“She died in her sleep, bud. She made it past three weeks, though.” He told his three-year-old as he nodded sadly, indicating for him to go on. “She fought for her life as hard as she could. But her illness took over, and she was too weak. It really hurt daddy knowing that your mommy was hurting so much, yet I couldn’t do one single thing to help. It hurt even more when she died, because I never got to tell her the reasons why I loved her.”

“Why did you love her daddy?” Eric said groggily, sniffling.

Zayn smiled a bit, glancing down. “Well, she was gorgeous, smart, brilliant, creative, and more words to describe her. That woman was always by my side, no matter what happened. She’s been through thick and thin with me. Even though she put me through hell by not telling me that she had the illness, I still loved her with all my heart and I don’t think that will ever change. There are so many reasons why I love your mommy, Eric, the list could go on and on,” he gazed down at the three-year-old and sighed, noticing that he was asleep by the time that he was done.

"So, don't fall in love, because there's just too much to lose. If given the choice then, I'm begging you, choose to walk away, and don’t let her get you. I can't bear to see the same happen to you," he whispered, tears now running down his cheeks. "Now son, I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things."