12: The Good Ol' Days

Chapter 12:

Zayn POV:

The next morning, my back was stiff and my neck hurt when I tried to turn it. I winced and painfully turned on my right side and came face to face with Hazel's face. She was asleep, her pony tail messy. Louis, Harry, Liam and Niall were asleep next to her. Jesy had left because her parents had picked her up. I breathed out heavily and rolled on my other side and ended up falling on the floor with a loud 'thump'. I winced and rubbed my head. I sat up and noticed the five of them still asleep and an idea popped in my mind. Quietly I ran upstairs and grabbed a black Sharpie. I jogged back downstairs and tip toed first towards Louis. I bent down and drew a moustache on his upper lip, he didn't even flinch. I drew the same to Harry but added a few dots on his forehead. When I bent down on Liam his eyes flew open. My eyes widened and I smiled.

"Morning Liam," I said cheerfully. He narrowed his eyes at me and he sat up, backing away from me.

"Don't you even dare touching that on my precious face!" he said, his voice still scratchy since he just woke up. I frowned and drew the same onto Niall's face. I straightened up and looked over at Hazel. Her face wasn't facing upwards, nor facing sideways. She was curled into a ball and I sighed. I threw the Sharpie onto the floor and walked around, climbed on top of the bed and looked at Liam, a smirk plastered on my lips.

He smirked and rolled his eyes, then stood up and we both started jumping and screaming hysterics. Louis threw us a pillow and Niall groaned but Harry didn't even flinch at us. He just burrowed his head beneath his pillow and tried to sleep. Hazel threw us a pillow and covered her head beneath the blanket.

"What time is it?" Hazel asked her voice sleepy.

"4 in the afternoon," I said and yawned.

"Where's Jesy?" Niall asked sadly.

"She left yesterday," I responded and sat down on the bed. "You told her bye."

"I did?" he asked, confused. "Oh."

I chuckled and momentarily looked at Hazel. She was still beneath the blanket. I looked back at the guys and I noticed that Louis and Harry were staring at each other in shock. Harry poked Louis' upper lip and Louis did the same to Harry. Louis looked at Niall and childishly pointed at him. Niall looked at him confused but then noticed the moustache I had drawn on the both of them. His eyes widened and they all looked at me, accusingly. I smiled a big smile and they narrowed their eyes at me.

"How am I supposed to take this shit off my glorious face!?" Harry shrieked and Hazel took off the blanket and looked at Harry. She burst out laughing and Harry threw a pillow at her face. "This is not funny! Sharpie doesn't get off that easily, Zaynie!"

I shivered at that nickname and Harry smiled when he noticed that I disliked that nickname.

"Zaynie, Zaynie, Zaynie, Zaynie, Zaynie!" Harry screamed with a grin on his face.

"Zaynie?" Hazel asked sleepily, she smiled and chuckled. "Nice."

"You want one, too?" Harry asked her innocently. "Lezah?"

I arched an eyebrow at him and we all looked at him as though he was a freak, which he was. "It's Hazel but spelt backwards," he replied.

"Don't ever call me Lezah or whatever!" she said and Harry sighed, crossing his arms across his chest like a little kid.

Niall's stomach rumbled and he smiled. "Food time!"

'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance started playing and Hazel fished her phone out of her sweat pants pocket.

"Hello?" she asked. The other person on the other line started talking real quickly and her face expression turned to confusion. "Seth? What are you even talking about?"

She stood up and slipped into her high tops not bothering to tie the laces. Her hair was a bit messy since she just woke up.

"Hazel?" Harry said but she put a hand up to stop him from talking.

"Seth! Calm the fuck down!"

"Language young lady!" Harry scolded her sternly, she gave him a death glare and he looked back at her sternly. She rolled her eyes and focused on Seth, whoever he was, was telling her.

"Jesus Christ! Are you in your right mind!?" she asked him, her eyes wide. "Just ... just stay there! I'm coming for you."

With that she ended the call and pulled her hair out of the pony tail then pulled it back into a high pony tail.

"I have to go. See ya guys later," she said waving then gave each of us a short hug.

"Something up?" Niall asked her curiously.

"My idiotic cousin escaped from his mother," she replied and I raised both of my eyebrows. "I have to go get him from near the mall. Bye guys."

Before any of us could say something she disappeared upstairs. I furrowed my eyebrows together, I turned my head but was welcomed with a black streak across my face from Harry. He was holding the same Sharpie I used in his hands. My Sharpie. He was grinning, slightly hopping up and down making his messy curls slightly jump. He looked sort of excited to have done that. I rolled my bottom lip inside my mouth, closed my eyes momentarily before opening them again and looking at the hyped up kid with a black moustache drawn on his upper lip in front of me.

"Harry," I began slowly. Liam, Louis and Niall were watching the both of us with a smirk on their faces. "You're a dead man."

With that I tackled him to the floor, snatched the marker out of his hands and scribbled lines across his face, neck and arms.

Hazel POV:

When I arrived at the mall, I looked around for Seth. Since I was wearing a half sleeved top with only sweatpants, I was freezing. People around me where looking at my choice of dressing curiously, while they were all cosy inside their warm clothes topped off with a coat, scarf, beanie and gloves. I gritted my teeth together.

"HAZEL!" someone yelled from behind me and when I turned around, I was picked up and squeezed by strong arms.

"Seth! I can't breath!" I protested and he placed me steadily back on my feet. I looked up and down the boy in front of me. He had dyed his hair brown and he was apparently working out. My mouth gaped open at him. "Did-did you grow!?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "I've been hitting the gym."

I arched an eyebrow at him, curiously. Since when does Seth go to the gym? He usually just goes for a half hour or hour run. We used to do it together.

"Why did you escape?" I asked him.

He scrunched his face. "I wouldn't call it exactly escaping," he said slowly. I arched an eyebrow at him, curiously.

"Can we go get a hot chocolate? I'm freezing," I said and he nodded. "Then tell me why you decided to escape."

"It's not escaping!" he protested while we walked the three minute walk to Starbucks.

"It is!"

*

Tears threatened to fall but I refused to let them trail down my cheeks. Seth was looking at me sadly, he was sitting opposite me while my back was facing the entrance to the door, holding the warm cup between his hands. I wasn't even in the mood to drink my hot chocolate right now. I couldn't even believe my ears. I didn't even believe that my Aunt had let him do this! He could die for Heaven's sake. He reached out for my hand but I pulled it away from him.

"Haze, please don't be mad at me," he said sadly.

I looked up at him angrily. "You're joining the damn army and you expect me to not be angry!? I know it's a good thing to help our country and all but you could die! I won't see you for a damn year and your leave is only for two damn weeks then you go flying back to your death bed!"

"I've been practising with the new ones and they need more men on the field fighting! They chose me and ten other guys from two hundred men practising to become a soldier and help their country! Hazel, I know that it's really hard, it is for me too to just leave like that. But I kept reminding myself that I'm helping changing the world into a sort of better place bit by bit!"

"By killing!? Seth, you never even held a gun in your hand! Whenever we watched a horror movie you always covered your head when someone dies by a bullet like a little girl and you want to go and join the army!?"I cried out shutting him up for a while. "I just don't understand you!"

He chuckled and breathed out heavily. "That's why I left home for a week, I wanted to spend it with you since I barely see you anymore," he replied biting his lip.

At that statement I suddenly felt happy and it was an 'Awh' moment for me. Seth had a lot of girls running around for him and they once thought I dating him ... that would be gross. He wasn't one to cry in front of people or to act kind towards them but when he was with me, he let his guard down and just acted like himself. Now all I could think about was the fact that he was leaving for a year and a half and then just visit for two weeks. Who would even want that job!? Oh, that's right. My idiotic cousin.

"When do you leave?" I asked him.

"Today week," he replied guiltily and I bit my tongue to stop myself from replying back to him. "I only found out a few days ago that I was leaving."

"But you knew that one day or another you were leaving," I shot back coldly. He sighed out noisily and stretched his arms over his head. "How am I supposed to spend the week with you with all that's going on in my life, Seth? I was going to visit Leeds this weekend and I already promised Nan that I would!"

"We go together!" he cried out, leaning on the table. He ran a hand through his hair and messed it up a bit. "I know this is hard for you but it's even harder for me!"

I groaned in frustration and lifted my legs on the chair and hugged my knees. "Why do you even want to go!?"

"Because I suck at school and the only talent I have is Art and I don't want to have a life-long job as a damn artist! I want to do something that'll help me in my knowledge and that will help develop the country!"

"So you join the army."

"Yes. Now can we go? I'm tired."

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "You're sleeping on the couch."

He smiled and I shook my head and we both walked towards the doorway. When I reached towards the handle, the open burst open and in came Chase with two other guys. He looked down at me and his face showed surprise but then his face expression softened. He smiled down at me and then looked at Seth which had his eyebrows raised. He looked sort of jealous? Ha!

"Hey," he said flatly, eyeing Seth curiously. "You are?"

"Seth," Seth replied. I could practically see his mischevious smirk on his lips and I wasn't even facing him.

"My cousin," I added and Chase's eyes widened a bit, then returned to normal.

"Oh." Was all he said.

Seth chuckled and I hit him in his ribs with my elbow. He winced and he slightly hit me back.

"We have to go, little Hazel here has to be in bed by 8pm," Seth replied and patted my head. I swatted his hand away and shot him an annoyed look and he looked back with an innocent smile.

I heard Chase chuckle and I turned my head to look at him. "I'll text you later, yeah?" he asked and I nodded with a smile. "See you tomorrow."

He smiled, then nodded at Seth then walked towards the counter next to his friends. When we left the shop and were out of sight from the shop, I hit Seth in the head.

"Hey!" he said and rubbed his head. "What the fuck!?"

"What is wrong with you!?"

"I'm absolutely normal!"

"Sure you are," I replied and rolled my eyes. "You could have told him you were my cousin, you dork!"

He shrugged and I hit him. We walked back towards my house and when we entered my house my father hugged him and gave him a manly tap on the shoulder. My mother had prepared some dinner and we took some snacks into the sitting room and decided to watch a bunch of horror movies.

Just like old times.