Wednesday, March 25, 2015. A day that will live in infamy. Zayn Malik, one of the 5 members of One Direction, announced that he was leaving the band. The star stated that he was leaving because he wanted to be a normal 22-year-old and live a more private and relaxing life. I highly doubt this will be possible due to the amount of fame he has reached and with this announcement, it will only be harder.

Within a week, heartbreak has swept the nation. Heartbreak hit pretty hard at Ames High too. “I was completely shocked and I wasn’t sure if it could possibly be true. I broke down when I saw a statement from Zayn confirming that the wonderful fivesome would now become a foursome,” said senior Katie Culhane.

“I binged on thin mints, listened to Zayn’s solo in ‘You and I’ on repeat, and posted an Instagram to commemorate our time together,” said Senior Izzy Manahl.
“I experienced the five stages of grief in approximately 3.5 seconds; Denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance, but not acceptance,” said senior Catherine Quant.
Some of the uncultured savages that attend AHS couldn’t even care less about Zayn’s absence. “I honestly didn’t even know that he was part of the band,” said sophomore Ethan Hahn. It is truly a tragedy that more people were not aware of Zayn Malik’s beauty.

No one knows for sure what is coming next for Zayn. Some say he might start a solo career after releasing a song with Naughty Boy called “I wont mind”. “Naughty Boy is the leading cause of my chronic stress,” says Quant. It is hard to gain a good opinion about the song because I am still numb from the pain of him leaving. The song was put on Soundcloud 5 days after he left. Some rumors also state that he left due to breaking off his engagement with Perrie Edwards. Some have even gone as far to say that he left to join ISIS and is currently in Iraq.

The announcement sparked some disturbing reactions. There have been at least 6 reported suicides specifically over this situation. Above those, there are up to 1,000 rumored suicides over this matter. The hashtag “#cut4zayn” started trending on Twitter. Hundreds of teenage girls posted pictures or tweets of them cutting their arms and legs. Zayn has still not tweeted about any of this matter, but he has lost over 50,000 followers in less than a week.

Anxiety will overcome many more teenage girls as they wait to find out what is ahead for him. “I would be thrilled if he ever chose to make a return to One Direction, I’m not sure if I would be able to support his solo career. He let me down and I’m not quite ready to forgive him yet. However, he will always be my second favorite member of One Direction,” said Culhane.
“Whatever makes Zayn happy makes me happy, as long as it isn’t a collab with Iggy Azalea,” says Manahl.