Chapter Eight - The Worst Hangover

                                    

                                          
September 6
                          
Zac’s POV
                          
Once a bond is made, it can never be disconnected. No matter for how long, even if we tend to forget, it will always come back to us in the future. Our lives always have tests but it shouldn’t make us bitter – it should make us better. There are varying degrees of suffering and all of them not only test our worthiness but increase it as well. Trials. Troubles. Tribulations. Life is a series of interruptions that are interrupted by interruptions and it makes us realize that we are not the ones in control…
                          
My thoughts roamed and stretched afar as I stared at the ocean of white and blue, slowly darkening with each passing minute, through the airplane window. A few days ago, I was sitting in the classroom with all the other students in my arts class when Ms. Lillian picked my rolled up paper, read it out loud with such shock in her voice, and now I’m sitting beside the window of a plane en route to London. I didn’t know that Ms. Lillian came from Wolverhampton – nobody in the class did. But it was unusual that I was the only one who didn’t know what her last name was. I never bothered to ask her nor my classmates. When I pass a work sheet to her, I always put her first name but she never bothered to correct it either. I wanted to ask her if she knew a certain Liam Payne but something in my mind told me this wasn’t the right time and that I should just let the chips fall where they may.
                          
I return my attention to the yellowing sketch pad paper with the drawing of a spaceman and a cowboy. It felt different when you hear a description of it and when you see it with your own eyes. My fingers trailed across the paper until it reached the other object on my lap. A photograph with three males took my attention away from the drawing. In the middle was a man older than the other two. His hair had grey streaks emerging from it and a wide smile was etched onto his face. His right arm hung on the shoulder of a certain bleached blond haired boy I quickly identified as Niall. Brown steaks poked from the yellowish dominant color of his hair which looked good at him. His ears and face was a bit pink matching the smile he had on his face.
                          
Before we left, Niall gave me these two things. I asked him why he was giving it to me, jokingly adding that he might cry if he didn’t have it anymore. But he smiled and told me that he didn’t need those things too much anymore to remember all of them by. I needed it, he said. I needed it so I would know what Liam looked like, if I was really going to pursue in looking for him.
                          
“I wonder if he still looks like that…” murmured Niall, looking endearingly at the face of the dirty blond boy who had his hands shoved into his pockets, biting his lower lip, eyes glancing at Niall, and face deep scarlet as Niall’s dad’s arm hung over his shoulder.
                          
The look on his face told me that he missed him. Of all those denials that he told himself that Liam wasn’t gonna be part of his life anymore, there was still the tiny part of him with a small speck of hope praying that he would see that dirty blond boy smile at him again.
                          
The body beside me shifted again. Erika… I don’t know what’s her role in all of this mess I’ve got myself plunged into but she’s been a lot of help – especially to me. I don’t know why either. I feel all tingly when I’m beside her and there’s that smirk on Niall’s face when she’s close to me. “Weird man…” I muttered. I felt her hand brush over mine and I quickly withdrew it. The sky was darkening already. More than seventeen hours of flying and then I heard a voice from the speaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our descent on London. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.”
                          
This was it. Britain here I come.
                          
……..
                          
It felt different now that I’m here. I was so close but the problem was I didn’t know where to start.