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“Um , Liam. Liam can you come here now?” Liam stood up from where he was sitting with Harry. They would spend a whole day with people from Office Depot to help them set up the new campaign against bullying. 1D+OD they named it. Together against bullying.
Simply put, the fame the boys had would be used to stand strong against the bullying problem. Nothing big, they would just produce school equipment with their faces on it. But it was all about what he and the other boys would bring in for their fans. They all chose one word to describe their live style, this becoming a helpful guideline for the young school goers to hold onto. Liam himself had gone with “Live True”. And being brave enough to do so. He hadn’t forgotten about his own school experience not even after all the craziness he had been through the past two (almost three) years. Those years were definitely not his best and he wished he could just forget but, his brain never really seemed to agree to that. If there was one thing Liam had learned when he finished his GCSE’s it was that the only way to got through school properly is to stick to who you are. If you try to change yourself just to be liked by your classmates who won’t even matter in six years, you will end up unhappy. Liam learned it the hard way, that he could never stick to what the other boys in his class pressed him to be. It began to break him inside when he kept trying and trying to please them, too terrified the bullying would start again if he would drop his mask. But in the end it hadn’t even mattered because they had seen through it all along. And everything went soon enough back to horribleness. As soon as Liam had left school he focused fully on singing again. It made him feel like he could actually do something good, something others could appreciate about him. Something that others liked seeing him do. And the most wonderful thing is that that something, singing, was him. He wouldn’t have to change his attitude or pull on his old mask again he didn’t have to be someone else to be liked. Singing always brought Liam back to who he really was as a reminder during school. It helped him not to give up. And now, as Liam walked towards the camera that was aimed on a white background, he was goddamn glad he never gave up on who he truly was and still is.
“Ok Liam, so all we really need you to do is sit over there on the stool and talk about what makes you think this collaboration between us and you is important.” The director instructed. “Try to give your opinion on bullying, whether cyber- or in real life, mentally or physically. And remember: this is what you want to give your fans as something to remember through their school time. We will then cut it down to what’s useful and something the fans can take as something that really comes ‘from you for them’. We will make sure we will get all five of you to give them a different part of advice and a different opinion on the aspects. And the final work will be put in the promotion video. Got it?” Liam nodded and went to sit on said stool. He nervously cleared his throat. Ok, he thought. Just remember how you felt and get talking.
Too late, Liam realized this was not exactly a /good/ plan.
“I think it’s just, you know. Being kids you know what it’s like to be at school.” He remembered, could hear, the laughter from all those years back. The laughter when he’d said something wrong when he was only trying to defend himself. “You know.” Something inside of him suddenly started stinging. A light stabbing in his chest. “There’s, sometime’s there’s mean kids at school and what not.” Liam remembered the things he would get tricked in doing during breaks just in order to be liked. Then ending up with all the blame to take. He shifted nervously where he sat as he kept talking. Trying not to get lost in the hurting feeling in his chest that brought those memories back. What even was that feeling anyway. Why would something as stupid as bullying still hurt after such a long time. This was ridiculous. No one deserved to be bullied and he would prevent it where he could, that was for sure. But Liam had had bigger fights to fight in his life, talking about bullying had never made him feel like this. Not that he’d ever actually talked about being bullied himself quite like this.
Liam twisted his upper body slightly to hopefully narrow down the stabbing a bit. “Like when you play sport, there’s often like a certain level of, of like banter where..” -“Ok Courtney, your turn to pick.” Their gym teacher looked over at the two remaining pupils on the benches. Ted Limner and Liam Payne. “I’ll take” Courtney sighed dramatically “I’ll take Ted.” “Alright then, Liam you can join Marius’ team. Courtney take the left side of the field and split your group in two. Marius you do the same on the right side.” Liam stoop up from the benches walking quickly over to Marius. This was ok, Marius knew him they had talked a few times. This could go good. He smiled at Marius who rolled his eyes at him. Ok, maybe he should just…- “Where, you know, you can have fun with each other but you can’t have it let go to far sort of thing.” “Cause” why was his heart beating so painfully “sometimes it’s upsetting.” He let out a nervous laugh. Remembering the gym classes all to well. -Marius had split the group in two, leaving Liam with his friend Andy and three other’s to play five to five football. Andy was a friend, they had been together during lunch lately. This was going to be alright. “Liam you’re keeper.” “What?” “You’re keeper, ‘s something wrong with your ears podge?” “No n-n-no. It’s ok I’ll keep.”- “I mean, I wasn’t actually a very good goal keep when I was at school.” -The game had started after Andy and Marius had decide on some new rules made for only their ears to hear. Marius laughed as he walked back to his own team “Ok let’s start this game.” He placed the ball where the center spot would have been if this was an actual field and stepped back to start off with a powerful kick. Liam stood ready to stop the ball. Andy would be pissed if he let it go through. Marius kicked the bal, aiming right for Liam’s chest, Liam shocked by the ball not flying to the other side of the goal but right to where he was already standing, dove to the side on instinct to avoid the coming ball. “Yes! one point for us you losers!!” Marius cheered. “What are you for shit keeper?” Andy snarled at Liam as he grabbed the ball out of the goal and went on to play. It didn’t take long before the ball was in between Marius’ feet again. He drifted the ball towards the goal and towards Liam. This time more than obvious aiming for Liam instead of an empty part of the net. And he did so with success. The ball hit Liam right in his stomach making him double over. The sound of everyone laughing at him loud in his ears. He stopped the ball. He stopped the ball, not that he had a choice. There was no way he could’ve ducked away in time. But it didn’t matter anyway. His team mates found Hit-Liam-With-The-Ball way more entertaining than football and the ball was soon enough passed over to Sam. Who took his chance to try and hit Liam as he stood in the goal.-
Liam looked away from the camera as he felt the tears prick in his eyes.
“I can’t.. I-I’m sorry. Can you like, give me a minute?”
“Li? You alright.”
Liam looked up to big brown eyes giving him a concerned look. “C’mon, let’s talk.” Zayn reached out looking down at Liam with a sad smile. Liam took his hand gladly as he stood up. His other hand wiping at his eyes for the few tears that managed to escape his eyes.
“Tell me what’s upsetting you babe.” Zayn said as he hold tight onto both of Liam’s shoulders once they got to the other side of the room, a safe distance from prying ears. “It’s, it’s really nothing Zayn.” Liam sighed. “It’s just, like. Like, I got bullied when I was younger you know. And it just…”
“Did it hurt you to talk about it?”
“Yeah” Liam looked up to Zayn. Zayn held him so close that he could feel the other’s heat radiating from his body. “I know babe, I know.” Zayn pulled him in a hug that Liam needed more than he thought. He held on Zayn as tight as he could, focusing on his own breathing to make the returning stabbing pain lessen. “It’s good to talk about it you know. I used to talk about it with my mom all the time.”
“I, I guess. I just never really realized it had made so much impact on me.”
“I understand. “ Zayn said lowely, Pulling out of the hug but leaving even less distance between the two of them, just enough to look back into Liam’s big, slightly red circled, dark brown eyes. “But you became such a great person Liam. You do so much for our fans, and I know that there’s nothing but good in your heart.” “You were brave enough to hold onto who you are. And you were brave enough to give it a try. You were brave enough to audition for the x factor while you were still in school. You were god damn brave enough to go in again after you were rejected. You show so many people what life’s worth if you don’t give up, Liam. The way that you held on and how you now use your position to help others. You are incredibly brave.” And, Liam, it’s good that at least we get the chance to help our girls in those situations, isn’t it?” Liam’s eyes traveled down Zayn’s eyes, then his nose and his cheeks, the little slot between his nose and upper lip. His lips. “Yeah, it really is.”