chapter 04: Time heals

Parker's POV

I wake up when I hear some voices. The morning sun is piercing through the open curtains and blocking my vision. I slowly sit up and open my eyes after taking a minute to adjust around my surroundings. My eyes feel heavy and my throat feels rough and scratchy, like I've been either crying alot or screaming. Ofcourse, that's what I've been doing from the past few days, there's no denying that. After the incident, I don't see any purpose for my life. After everything I went through in life, I thought he was the reason for my life and the light that brings happiness to me.

But that's not how things are now. Loosing him is effecting me more than the effects I encountered because of the hardships I went through life. I just can't imagine my life without him in it. The only thing that is still keeping me together is mother and father. They already lost Zayn, if anything happens to me, they would be devastated and there wouldn't be anything to save them. And I don't want to bring that pain to them when all they did was showering me with all the love that I never got from my parents.

I sigh as I shake my head to get rid of these thoughts and slowly get down the bed to see who's here as I heard voices before. Taking slothful and sluggish steps, I walk out of the room and head to the living room. There, I find mother and father along with Kaino's parents. They all sat on the couch with thoughtful expression on their faces. When they hear the soft sounds of my footsteps, they turn to me and mother walks to me as she helps me towards the couch and makes me sit beside Kaino.

"Parker, how are you feeling now?" Mother asks me worridly.

"I'm fine, mother." I reply with raspy voice and cough as I feel burning sensation in my throat.

"I'll get some water." Kaino says and leaves to the kitchen.

He walks back a minute later with a tray containing two glasses, one with water and the other is filled with milk. He sets the tray on the table and hands me water glass. I take it from him and hiss out after taking a sip as the water is warm.

"Warm water helps you to clear your throat, drink it slowly." He states when I go to put the glass back on the table.

I glance at him before taking another mouthful of water and gulping it down. This time it doesn't hurt, instead makes me feel better. So, I drink some more water before finally placing the glass down.

"Are you all here to see me?" I query while grabbing the milk glass that Kaino's giving it to me.

He might not leave me until I drink the milk, so I just take it and have a sip before giving it back. That would atleast satisfy him.

"Yes, Parker. We're here to see you." Father answers to my question as I gulp down the milk, "but there's something we also want to ask you."

I place the half drank milk glass on the table and turn to face father and others.

"What's that you want to ask?" I question and they look at me confused as they exchange gazes among themselves.

"Parker, we're leaving tomorrow. When I said the same thing to your father, he said we should take you with us. Would you like to go with us to states?" Kaino's father says and I watch father to find him nodding at his words.

They want me to leave this place? But why? This is the only thing I have in remembrance of Zayn and the time we spent together. How can I leave all this and go somewhere?

"Parker," I hear my name being called and look at Kaino, "no one is forcing you to go. It's just a suggestion. Seeing how you're, our parents feel change of place may help you. That's all. The decision is yours, if you want to go we'll go, if not only my parents will go back. Don't get panicked." Kaino assures as I stay silent after his father's words.

"I-I want to stay here, I don't want to go anywhere." I tell him, hoping he would make our parents understand my decision.

"That's fine, we'll stay here." He says and turns to the others, "mom, dad, you guys head back. Parker don't want to go, I believe you all understand him."

"Yes, Kaino, we understand. Take care of him, we'll leave tomorrow." Kaino's father agrees to him.

"Parker, think again. It's really a great chance for you to leave everything behind and start a new beginning. You don't have to dwell on anything, just live your life. Kaino and his parents will be with you in every step you take. I really wish you go with them." Father says and I stare at him in shock.

"N-no. I'm not going anywhere." I shutter as I get up and leave the place hurriedly.

I go to my room and shut the door as I climb on the bed. Pulling my legs upto my chest, I place my head on my knees and round my hands around them. Tears cascade my eyes at the thought of leaving from here, from this house. Are they going to forcefully send me away? Kaino said it's my wish but why is father insisting me to go?

While I stay in my thoughts, the door gets open but I don't look up to see who. I feel the bed dip and a hand on my head, softly caressing my hair.

"I told you no one will force you to leave, Parker. Father is just concerned about your health and he thinks change of place would make you feel better. He's not forcing you. At the end it's truly your decision to make." Kaino assures and that's when I look up to see him.

"This is the only thing I have left of Zayn's. I can't leave this house. I know I'm not in a good state as of now but in time I'll get better. Being here atleast makes me feel he's always with me. But if I leave, I would loose him completely and I don't want that. I understand father's concern but I can't go anywhere from here. Please, help me Kaino. Help me to make them understand. Also, if anyone of you feel that I'm stopping you from going with your parents, just know that you can go. You don't have to stick with me. I know that you have more important things to attend and your work comes before me. I'm not stopping you Kaino, I'll never hold you back." I explain to him.

"I'll make them understand, Parker, don't worry. But none of us think you're stopping me. I promised Zayn that I would take care of you. You're my responsibility, I can't leave you in any situation. Nothing is more important than you and you come first before anything. I'm not sticking with you because I have to but because I want to. Don't ever think otherwise. Now, take some rest. I'll go and talk to them." He says and leaves the room.

I lay down on the bed as I feel tired and dizzy. In no time, I drift off of to sleep.

***

It's been two days since our parents visited us. Kaino's parents already left to states, he went to the airport on the day they left while I was here with mother. They were not ready to leave me alone, so mother stayed back while others went with them to bid them goodbye. I don't know what Kaino spoke to them but after that day, no one ever brought up the topic of me leaving. I'm happy that they are no longer insisting me on leaving.

I just got out of the bathroom after taking a long and much needed shower. Dressing up in shorts and t-shirt, I go to the living room where Kaino is sitting. He's busy with his laptop, typing away steadily. I take a seat on the opposite side and watch him.

"You want anything?" He asks, suddenly looking up at me and I tear my eyes off him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to spend time out as I'm always staying in the room." I reply and he nods, "um.. what are you doing?"

"I'm applying for the job." He says and continues to work.

"You won't take over Zayn's businesses and work as the CEO?" I ask curiously, I thought that's how it was going to be.

"Ofcourse, not. I'm a doctor, Parker. How can I take over his businesses? Father is still thinking on what to do regarding the businesses." He responds and just then we hear the doorbell ring.

We exchange a look before Kaino places the laptop on the table and goes to see who it is. I follow him. When he opens the door, the police who was taking up Zayn's case stands there.

"Hello, sir. Please come in." Kaino greets him and he smiles before getting into the house.

My heart beats rapidly as I think of the reason why he could be here? Anything relating to Zayn makes me anxious.

We walk inside and take our seats on the couch.

"Kaino, this case is closed. As it was an accident, we don't have much to do. So, we followed all the necessary steps and the procedure ends here." He states and hands us a bag.

"What is it, sir?" Kaino asks while taking the bag and looking at it wearily.

"This is the only thing we found in Zayn's car. It's fully packed, we checked if it's of any danger but it wasn't. So we didn't open it further and came here to hand over to you. Maybe it's something he wanted to give to you people." The police says.

I know it was that surprise gift that Zayn was going to give me and because of that he met with an accident. Whatever it is, I never ever want to see that. It's the reason why I lost my loved one.

"Oh, okay, sir. Thank you for bringing this here." Kaino thanks the police and he leaves as his work is done here.

While Kaino goes to send the police off, I stay back and stare at the bag that's lying on the table. Unknown to me, tears starts filling in my eyes as I look at it for long.

"Parker, is something wrong?" Kaino queries worridly when he comes back.

"No, nothing." I reply and snap my head to him.

"Do you have any idea of what is that? Should we open and see?" He questions.

"I don't want to see it. It was the present which Zayn wanted to give to me. That night, he went out in the rain against my words only to get this." I utter remembering how I was pleading him not to leave but he didn't listen to me.

"I'm going to place it in the store room. Maybe not now but in the future when you want to know what it is, you'll know where to find it." He says and goes to the store room with the bag.

As much as I would love to see what's in it, I'm not ready yet. My wounds are still fresh, I don't want to bring more pain by finding about it. As he said, maybe in future, when I'm ready I'll see what it is. But for now, it has to wait. Like the saying goes, in time we'll know everything.