One which is named loyalty and pride was lost. Zayn explains to Framton about his reasoning with the behavior he exhibited. To abuse a girl for information and forcing her to tell the truth?
“Where did I go wrong…?” Framton says, his fingers intertwined as his foreheads rests heavily on his hands. Zayn inhales sharply before sitting beside his grandpa. He apologizes for his wrong doings. He even gives his verdict to apologise to the girl next time he sees her.
“I… I promise I’ll apologise to her, papa. Please don’t blame yourself for my bad qualities.” Because you weren’t the one who raised me.
The words he wanted to say never left his mouth. Instead, he looks at his own biological father sat across the couch, adjusting his spectacles as he turns towards them at the instance. Nick raises his eyebrows, a gesture to ask what was Zayn thinking. Zayn simply shakes his head, smiling softly.
“Papa. I… uh…”
“Say it.” How does he say that he even skipped school, yelled at the school security and acted totally out of his character? Zayn of 2022 would never have behaved like that- that was his take from today’s incident.
“It’s fine. Check up on your sister.” Framton says at last, slipping out of his phase of thoughts.
“She’s studying for the time being. I don’t really want her to take the exams and stress herself out more.” Zayn emphasizes with his lover, trying to figure out a better position for her mental health.
“Why do you need yourself to bother about her, Zayn? It’s her choice. Let her distract herself with studies.” Says Framton as Zayn’s eyebrows come to a relaxed position.
“You’re right, papa. I’m thinking too much. I’ll… go sleep as well.” Saying, Zayn leaves the living room to go into his own room.
However, as he was preparing himself for the bed, he hears a knock on the door.
“Yeah- oh.” He answers the door with his upper body on display. In front of him was Nick, adjusting his spectacles again.
“Do you mind a drink with me?” Says Nick. Zayn raises his eyebrow at the stark difference in his father’s personality and the person standing in front of him.
“Sure… lemme wear this.” The tee was shown as Nick nods and walks away. “Dad and Louis are there too.” Adds Nick.
“Okay.”
Coming out of his room, he sees the adults gathered around which included Alex, Louis, Nick, Framton and himself. Zayn pours himself a glass of wine aside the whiskey- which he felt too strong against his perforated heart- and sits beside Louis.
No wonder Louis from his generation was so cocky, he thought. As he glanced up and down the male, he looked no less than a Gucci model. His manspread legs were occupying half of the long side of the couch.
Nick sat beside Framton as Alex laid his head on Framton’s lap, getting pampered by the older male. Zayn sighs as he rolls his wine glass between his fingers, taking a nice calming sniff out of the glass. He places it down, tucks his legs in as he sits there with a bored expression.
“Dad-”
“Papa…” Alex and Zayn’s call for Framton clash.
“You go ahead.” Zayn says with a heavy sigh as he rotates his neck. Alex takes the opportunity to tell them about his relationship with Ravine and what has she been doing to their baby sister all this while. Darla was one too, Zayn argues his anger towards her went to the right direction.
“Oh.” Framton simply utters after listening to Alex explain about the situation.
“She’s a bad omen to us, father. Shall I break up-”
“I never asked you to date her, nor did I object anything. If she doesn’t please you with your character, Alex, it’s your choice to stay with her or not.” Framton says wisely. Alex, at once shuts himself off. He gets up and awkwardly walks into his room, locking himself up there for the night.
Framton sighs, a smile taking over anyway.
“Why are you smiling… papa?” Curiously, the question comes from Zayn.
“I am a thousand percent sure. No one knows more about my sons than me, darling.” He takes a sip out of his undiluted whiskey.
“When Alex started dating this… girl, he looked so unsure with himself. Did you notice too?”
“I did.”
“Me too.” Louis adds into the conversation.
“He looked as if he couldn’t draw the line between love and lust.” Zayn widens his eyes at how openly he talks about his son’s interests. Well, it wasn’t like he was keeping up a discussion with random strangers. They ought to know what’s going on in the life of the only brother who was into a mid-relationship.
“Well, Ravine is a beautiful girl. I admit. She is brave too.”
“Brave?”
Framton smiles.
“That’s a tale for us old people, now. People with children.” He says and cuts the topic there. Silence was reintroduced in the room. At last, Zayn takes a deep breath in and goes back into his room to sleep the night away.
He could hear the tremors in his heart.
Something bad was about to happen real soon, and he was feeling it in his veins.
Shall he consider discussing it with his grandpa while he was here?
And, he goes.
Knocking on the door with a delicate touch, he makes sure the light in Sr. Johnson’s room was not out of him falling asleep in the middle of reading his books.
“Yes? It’s open, sweetie.” His voice is heard muffled and sweet, like a mother’s call for her baby except Framton was a father.
“Papa…” Zayn enters.
“What is it?” Zayn enters the little blanket cave Framton does to lift the covers up, telling Zayn to join him on the bed.
“I feel a heartache papa. But I don’t know why I feel it.”
“Hmm… that is a feeling of a kind, right?”
“And I hate it.” Zayn says with a pout.
“But do you know where it comes from?” Framton asks a sulking and gloomy Zayn.
“It comes from an emotion called love.”
Love…
Love…
Of course. He loves Cassandra. And that’s the reason he feels so uneasy… for her.