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The silence woke him up. No traffic noises, no voices of the other hotel guests, not even the birds outside of the slightly opened window were making a sound. But the most glaringly obvious was the absence of Zayn's soft breathing and his warmth on the other side of the bed.
Liam did not even need to open his eyes or roll over to know that he was gone. Zayn,his bandmate, his best friend, his boyfriend ,had really left and there was nothing that Liam could do to change it.
Zayn had told him about being unhappy in the band a few times over the years but Liam had thought they had gotten past it, that everything was okay again. Until he had found Zayn in their shared hotel room last night, packing his things. "I need to leave,Liam." He had said and Liam didn't fight him. Hadn't had the strength to argue and also hadn't wanted to believe what he had heard.
Liam rolls out of bed and drags himself to the bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror, inspecting the bruises Zayn had left on his neck and wondered how soon after he had fallen asleep Zayn had left. Was he back home already?
"Is Zayn still sleeping?" Louis asks, grinning, as Liam sits down for breakfast. "He left." Liam said flatly. "What do you mean?" Louis asks, smile faltering. "He left and he's not coming back." Liam replies, his voice sounding brittle.
He left because I couldn't help him enough.