Zayn's birthday update :)

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I feel my nose getting itchy, having the urge to sneeze, I quickly turn my head hideways, being careful not to sneeze on my artwork. Picking up my brush again, I give one last stroke on the canvas in front of me, stepping back from the painting to have a final look over it. I push back some loose strand of my hair behind my ear, feeling something wet on my cheek. I look down on my hands and find them covered with different colours paints. I hope it's worth it. Lifting up my gaze I land it on my art work. A proud grin slowly finds it's way on my lips when I stare at the picture of my mother laughing, I have been painting for the past two days. It has always been one of my favourite pictures of her, it was her dream for me to be an artist just like her, she was the one who encouraged me to persue my dreams; so it was all for her. I made this for her. I feel a stray tear of joy roll down my cheek as I smile looking at her beauty I portrayed in the picture. Her head turned sideways and slightly tilted up, her shoulder length wavy brown hair resting on her shoulders, a tear in her eye, I remember due to her laughing because of something my father told her. I am proud of myself for making this.

"It's for you, Mum. I wish you were here to see this." I speak, blowing a kiss above. 

I hear my phone make a notification sound, causing me to put my painting brushes to the side and walk over to the bed as I unlock my phone to receive a text from Zayn.

Zayn: Is it done yet?

Although my hands are pretty much dirty because of paints, I don't care about it since the paint has dried so I quickly type back a reply to Zayn.

Me: Yeah :) Do you want to see it now or tomorrow?

Not even a minute passes after sending the text that I get a reply from him, making me smile.

Zayn: Now!!

I walk over to the painting which is attached to the stand, and I open the camera of my phone, clicking a full picture of it as I quickly send it to Zayn. He is the first person to see this. I'm not sure if he will like it or not. I anxiously bite my lips, waiting for his reply for two minutes, with the phone in my hand but get none from him which starts making me more anxious.

What if it's not as pretty as I thought it was?

Five minutes pass but I still get no reply from him, and I continue pacing around my room, anxiously. I walk over to the window of my room and open it, letting the cool London breeze hit me all over my body. I place both of my hands which are now cleaned up, on the railing of the window as I stare up at the sun slowly setting. Leaving it's orange and slight pink shades in the sky, making it look breathtaking.

My attention quickly draws towards my bedroom door opening as I turn around to come in face to face with Tyler, holding a cup of coffee in his hand as he steps inside my room. His eyes land on the painting resting on the stand, in the middle of my room, with my paint brushes and paints still scattered all over the place. His eyebrows knitt together as he closely stares at the painting.

"So you drew aunt Lorna?" He asks me and I slowly nod my head, watching his expressions as he walks extremely close to my painting.

"Is it..um..good?" I ask for his opinion. I don't even know why I'm asking him but I'm just nervous since Zayn completely disappeared when I sent him the picture. I needed somebody's honest opinion before I submit it for the contest tomorrow. I know Tyler won't obviously sugar coat, but I'm not sure if he'll even be honest or not.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." He admits, making me nod sadly, but then my head jerks up in a milisecond to look over at him with my eyes wide. Did he just compliment my work?

I watch him with wide eyes as he continues to sip on his coffee and stare at my painting. His eyes drawn all over it. Suddenly I notice his lips twiching into a crooked smile as he looks over at me before his hand moves in a fast speed, not even letting me process what happened in few seconds.

A gasp escapes from my mouth as I stare at Tyler in pure shock. My hands reach my mouth to cover it as I quietly blink, staring at him.

"But it's not as good as it was before, cousin dearest." Tyler remorselessly states, cooing shortly after at me. He steps forward to me, patting my cheek in a teasing manner before he gives out a cold chuckle at my face and turns around to leave my room, and I stand there in shock, not even being able to move a bit.

"Good luck, Maire!" He shouts sarcastically, before exiting my room and slamming the door shut behind him. I slowly walk over to my painting and feel tears finally escaping my eyes when my eyes land on the stains of coffee he spilled all over my painting. I watch as the droplets of coffee cascade down the painting, smudging the paints and making my artwork look a pure disaster.

I'm still too shocked to function, but the tears somehow stream down my face making my face all wet. But all I can do now is stare ahead at my dreams shattering into pieces.

I hear a knock on my door but I pay no attention to it as I continue to stare at the painting ahead of me. I hear the door open as someone enters my room.

"I wanted to meet you and tell you in person how much of wonderful job you've done, Maire. It's fucking beautiful and I know you're going to win this contes-" I hear a familiar deep voice speak from behind and I close my eyes, letting my head fall down. But he stops speaking in the middle of his sentence when he notices no response from me. "Maire?" His voice is soft as he calls out for me.

I have no words to say to him so I simply step aside, giving him the access to look over at my destroyed painting. I hear a gasp from his mouth but I still manage to not look over at him as I stand with my back facing him.

"Who?" It's the only word which comes out of his mouth and I can feel the anger rising in his tone. I shake my head tiredly. I'm fed up of getting in problems and him fighting with people because of it.

"Me," I hear an annoying voice speak and I don't even have to look over at the face to know who it is. The only thing I hear next is something hitting something hard. I quickly open my eyes and turn around to see where that voice came from.

The loud thud again echoes my room when I look over at Zayn smashing Tyler's head on the door. Two more hits were enough for me to stumble forward and pull Zayn back from almost murdering Tyler.

He surely needs some anger management classes.

I watch as Tyler clutches his head in pain, spinning around, with his eyes closing and opening slowly before he collides with the wooden floor of my room with another one of a loud thud, making me flinch.

My hands drop from around Zayn's arm as I rush over to Tyler and check his pulse if he's still alive.

"That piece of shit is still alive. He's just knocked out." Zayn breathes out, panting and I lift up my head to look at him with an unpleased look all over my face.

Of course I didn't want world war going on in my room.

"What's all the noises-Holy shit!" Amber walks into my room to find her twin knocked out on the floor with blood oozing out of a huge scratch on his forehead.

"Ty!" Amber yells, kneeling down to face Tyler. She slightly smacks his face to wake him up but get none response from Tyler.

"What the fuck is you both's problem?!" Amber suddenly outbursts, her burning gaze flicking between Zayn and I.

"You should ask that from yourself and your stupid brother!" Zayn exclaims.

"My brother did nothing wrong, I'm calling the cops you can't just come around and try to kill him!" Amber warns him. Anger is evident on her face as she is turning red. Her emerald green eyes show so much hatred towards Zayn and I.

"Call the cops and you and I both know that I'm not the only one who would be punished, but you two as well for treating your own cousin like shit." Zayn speaks through gritted teeth.

Amber glares at him quietly before blowing out a breath and cursing at him. She gets up from floor, trying to lift Tyler's probably heavy body with her as she miserably fails and I put Tyler's one arm around my shoulder, helping Amber carry his heavy body to his room.

Amber tucks him in the bed, bringing over first aid kit and some ice packs to put on his head. I awkwardly stand in his room but slowly step forward to help Amber but she jerks away my hand from the first aid kit, mumbling a "get out," to me through gritted teeth.

Without saying anything I exit his room and head back to mine to find Zayn standing in front of my painting, staring at it.

I shut the door close as I walk up to him and take my place next to him. "What you did was wrong," I softly say. I don't want to yell at him or push him out of the house. I have no energy to fight with him.

"What he did was wrong as well," he replies in the same tone. His eyes still fixed on the painting.

"Two wrongs never make anything right." I say as I walk over to my bed and sit on it soon followed by Zayn as he sits next to me.

"What are you going to do about it now?" He asks me. I can hear the concern in his voice. I look over at him and find him genuinely worried.

"I can do nothing about it. I'm done." I say, gesturing towards my artwork as I shrugg my shoulders sadly. His eyebrows knitt together, a frown finding it's way on his face as he looks unpleased with my answer.

"So you mean you are going to give up?" He exclaims and I quietly stare at him.

"I can't submit that, Zayn." I say, pointing at the destroyed painting in front of me as I gulp the heavy lump in my throat. "Tomorrow is the day of submission, and the sun has set. I don't have much time to start again." I explain him, letting my head fall and play with my fingers.

I feel him getting up from the bed but I don't pay attention to whatever he is doing as I continue to battle with the depressing thoughts in my head. I feel a hand grabbing mine, as I look up at Zayn who pulls me up, making me stand in front of him.

"You are not going to give up. You're going to do it. We are going to do it. And you will fucking win that thing tomorrow." He confidently speaks, cupping my face with both of his hands as he stares in my eyes.

"But Zayn-"

"Maire, you can do this. Don't give up, not yet. Please?" His gaze holds so much power, influencing me not to give up yet. I can see it with that look in his eyes that he believes in me. If he believes in me why can't I believe in myself?

I have to do this. If not for myself, then for him, his believe in me and my mother's dreams.

I nod my head at him and watch as a smile grows on his lips and he steps forward, placing a kiss on my forehead, making the hair on the back of my neck rise up with the simple gesture.

I walk over to the stand, finding a new canvas already placed on it as Zayn had already cleaned up the mess and replaced new things with it when I was busy overthinking stuff.

"I can't make this painting again, it took me two days to complete it. It will be hard to make it in just few hours." I tell him, spinning the paint brush in my fingers as I stare at the blank white new canvas in front of me.

"Then make something else," he suggests. "Something, anything, which has inpired you lately."

My head turns sideways to look over at him as our gazes meet and I smile, which causes him to look at me with an unsure look.

Something, anything which has inspired you lately.

~*~

QUESTION:
What do you think she's going to make?

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Love y'all and that birthday boy a lot. Xx