Usually when Zayn gets his thirty minute break, he goes outside to smoke and then get a burger from Burger King from across the street. However, this time, he goes to the same cafè he went to yesterday to get a bitter, black coffee and another crossaint...or a sandwich because he did see that they have those. They just aren't a dollar and a bit more expensive than he'd like.

The man walks into the cold area, having a bit more of a professional outfit on this afternoon. His tattered, white dress shirt from the back of the closet, black slacks and black, polished shoes just for work. He walks up to the counter, seeing a different worker. Instead of a teenage girl it's an older man. Zayn orders his coffee and a cold sandwich, getting the two items quickly before going to the back to sit.

Zayn stares out the window and nibbles at the cold bread and taking occasional sips of his hot beverage. The man doesn't like being on his phone much and observing the world is a little more interesting...except when there is nothing really to look at except the same old scene everyday. Busy traffic, people walking around aimlessly to get to work or to have a bite to eat like Zayn. However, it seems this particular cafè doesn't get entirely busy at all. One other person comes in after Zayn about fifteen minutes later, but that's it really.

"You're back." a voice says, making Zayn turn his head away from the window to flicker his gaze up towards the same guy who had fallen yesterday with the fragile cup. He smiles slightly at Zayn with his work uniform on which consists of a white polo shirt and khaki slacks, a burgundy apron around his waist. The guy sticks out his hand.

"My name is Harry, what's yours?" he says quietly, voice deep but soft and chillingly gentle. Zayn smiles back at him, taking his hand lightly to shake.

"Zayn, nice to meet you Harry." He says. Zayn notices this man acts a bit child like, movements apprehensive and has a look in his eyes that is very catious. Zayn watches him as carefully as he watches Zayn.

"You like coffee?" Harry asks, pointing at the cup before he puts his hands behind his back, staring at the cup with steam floating out of it before looking back into Zayn's eyes, shoulders tense.

"Yeah, do you?"

Harry opens his mouth, about to say something, but he closes it just as quickly. "N-no." He mutters instead, looking sad all of a sudden. "Not really." He says softly.

Zayn nods, confused by the sudden change.

Suddenly the worker from the counter walks up behind Harry and grabs his shoulder, turning him around forcefully and the forest eyed man jumps, breath hitching when he looks at the older man. The old man smiles at Zayn who frowns back at him, not liking the way he is so rough with the innocent looking, younger man.

"I'm sorry if he's bothering you, sir." the man says, and Zayn shakes his head, looking back at Harry who has his head down, looking almost ashamed.

"He's not at all, actually." Zayn smiles and Harry looks up, still frowning. He tilts his head to the side, seeming confused.

"Really?" the man says, looking surprised as well as Zayn looks back at him. Zayn smiles again and nods silently.

"Yeah, I'm enjoying his company, but thank you sir." Zayn shrugs, picking up his coffee to take a few more sips. The older man nods, taking his grip off the younger man's shoulder and turning to walk away.

"W-well goodbye, Zayn." Harry says quickly and Zayn frowns, watching him rush away to walk into the restrooms. Zayn furrows his brows. Strange guy for sure.

He stands up to simply take his lunch to go, wanting to go back to work. The quietness can get old. He's alone quite often so he's in a lot of silence once he gets back home...but even if anyone doesn't know it Zayn does prefer a lot of company around him. Friends or family, doesn't matter who unless they're nice.

When he makes it back to work Zayn sits at his desk, putting his food and coffee down a distance away from his computer from the fear of the coffee spilling. Phones ringing off the hook and people chatting fill his ears. Women and men hustle and bustle by, papers shuffling through their hands and their hands tugging at their hair. This is why Zayn simply does graphics. He's not running on a tight schedule and no editing needs to be done unless said by the editor...but usually that never happens because he makes a plan before hand and shows his collgues.

"Oi, you went out to get food and didn't get me any?" Louis pouts as he looks across to Zayn, leaning to the side slightly since his computer blocks his view from him. Their desks are parallel to each other and that's precisely how they became so close because Zayn isn't talkative but Louis definitely is.

Zayn shrugs. "Here, the sandwich is shit" he says, smiling lightly as he pushes the bag made with recycled bottles with the sandwich in it towards Louis.

Louis smirks, picking up the bag with a happy sigh. He furrows his brows when looking at it for a few more seconds and Zayn gives him a questioning look. "Are you, Zayn Javaad or Jawaad, you know I can never get it right-" Zayn snorts in amusement. "Malik, going to boujee cafès and getting five dollar sandwiches?" Louis gasps, eyes widening dramatically. "The most simple guy I know." He shakes his head in disbelief before putting a hand on his chest and looking disgusted, mockingly. "You've changed." He jokingly sneers and Zayn simply chuckles, rolling his eyes before he looks at his computer screen to see a few emails popping up.

"Okay, drama queen, for your information the sandwich was seven dollars-" Gasp from Louis. "And I'm actually never buying it again." Zayn says, replying to the emails.

"That's expensive as hell, I better eat it now before it perishes." He says, opening the bag quickly, the crinkling of the paper muted in such a loud, hectic building. "I mean you could've gone to Subway and gotten a five dollar footlong." Louis snorts.

"Well Louis, are there any Subways around? No." Zayn says. "And whatever, it's just a sandwich." He shrugs.

"Where the hell is Zayn?" Louis exclaims dramatically, causing a few coworkers heads to turn to the two of them. Zayn just laughs as Louis looks around for him in the office as he gets up from the chair, eyes wide.

"You're honestly so embarrassing sometimes." Zayn laughs as Louis sits back down.

LATER

"I'm going to a friend's wedding next week, I was actually wondering if you could be my plus one." Louis says as the two walk out of work. Zayn looks at Louis, furrowing his brows.

"Why me?" he questions. Louis shrugs, licking the ice cream cone he got from the ice cream truck that arrived earlier. He got chocolate swirl , and of course Zayn isn't a huge fan of ice cream.

"You're the most chill person I know," he responds.

"Should I feel good about that?" Zayn asks.

Louis looks at him, smirking. "Depends, how do you feel?" he asks.

"Fine." Zayn shrugs.

"Then yes, you should and you're the perfect plus one!" Louis exclaims, throwing his hand not holding the ice cream into the air. "Anyway, it's actually my sister's friend and I just know this damn wedding is going to be long, boring torture. So I need my own friend." Louis says. Zayn simply nods along. "And you know, Liam is helping AJ with the pregnancy and all-" Louis sighs dramatically, doing hand gestures with one hand and he waves the ice cream around, Zayn just waiting for it to drop. "And you're a single man working with me, so, what do you say?" Louis questions, quirking up an eyebrow as he takes another lick.

"Sure, but I'd have to get a tux...I don't exactly own one."

"You can't pull out the high school prom tux?" Louis asks teasingly.

"Never went to it." Zayn says.

"Really? I did." Louis grins. "And it was the best night of my life." He sighs happily. Zayn snorts.

"And why is that?"

"Its when I found out I was bisexual." He says.

"Ah, right." Zayn nods, remembering the story from a while back. Louis spiked the punch, every one got drunk and he ended up having sex with one of the most popular jocks in the high school's lacrosse team. What a wild life.

"I can help you go tuxedo shopping." Louis suggests.

"When is the wedding?" Zayn asks.

"Next week Saturday." he answers.

"So this weekend good for you?" Zayn questions, looking at him now when they reach the parking lot, parting ways to stand by their cars.

"Perfect." Louis shrugs.

Zayn makes it to his apartment in record timing after leaving work. Walking into the dingy lobby that is long overdue to be cleaned always unsettles Zayn.

He's always been a neat freak, most likely apart of the structure of his brain. Everything needs to be in order, clear, and make sense...and if he doesn't understand something he needs to fix it...or at least try to understand it.

He does a lot of thinking in his free time so, it's fairly easy to eventually understand concepts, ideas or problems. Only sometimes.

Making it up the steps Zayn notices an older woman struggling to carry a box in the apartment next to his, which it must be new neighbors because he doesn't recall anyone living there before. On the other side of his apartment lives an elderly man who hardly comes out at all, only occasionally to take out the trash or get his mail.

"Need help, m'am?" Zayn says, swiftly walking over to hold up the box for her.

"Oh, thank you!" she exclaims, sighing in relief when she lets go. Zayn walks over towards her apartment, noticing it's pretty heavy.

"You're uh, new here?" he asks, glancing back to see her walking inside of the apartment, following Zayn. She smiles.

"Yes, I actually moved here to be closer to my son." she says. Zayn nods his head, knowing his mother would never do that. She knows Zayn likes the distance...he wonders who this guy is.

Zayn sets the box on the floor and turns back to see her bringing a flower pot inside. "Are we neighbors?" she smiles. She's older but despite that, doesn't seem judgmental despite Zayn's risky appearance. She really just let him walk into the apartment like he's a good looking, neat man.

"Um, yeah, we are." he nods. "You're unpacking by yourself?" he asks, furrowing his brows.

"No, my son is actually on his-"

"Mummy?" a questioning voice comes from the door, causing both of their gazes to meet bright emerald ones. Zayn smiles, a bit shocked to see the man from the cafè. Harry he recalls his name being. He looks at Zayn with a confused expression, but he doesn't seem upset. "What is this man doing here?" he frowns, furrowing his brows, seeming apprehensive to walk in as he stands directly in front of the door.

"Well don't be unpleasant, baby. This is our neighbor." she says. "Introduce yourself."

"We've met." Zayn says, smiling again. "Harry, right?" he says, quirking up an eyebrow. Harry nods, a blank expression on his face. He puts his head down, his eyes face the ground and his hands behind his back, seeming nervous all of a sudden. The woman sighs, turning back to Zayn.

"He sometimes gets this way, I'm sorry." she says with an apologetic smile and Zayn dismissively waves his hand, wondering why she is excusing her son like he is a child.

"Its okay, um, but it was nice meeting you..." Zayn trails off.

"My name is Anne." she winks and Zayn smiles.

"Anne." he repeats. "My name is Zayn," he says, sticking out his hand for her to shake it and she does. He turns to walk to the door and notices Harry looking at him now. "I'll see you around, right Harry?"

"Well I do live here." he mumbles.

"Hopefully you two will be friends." Anne interjects after the man's comment, and Zayn hears it but doesn't feel offended and disregards it. It's hard to offend him.

"Yeah, hopefully." Zayn nods and then he walks out quickly, turning back to see Harry shut the door in his face.

He doesn't seem to like him anymore, Zayn wondered what he did. When they spoke at the cafè this morning he approached him...yet Zayn must've said something because it hardly seems he wants to be around him anymore. However, it does seem Harry has some type of mental challenge, Zayn is just unaware of what it is and it doesn't seem like his mother is going to introduce her son with the title.

Of course, the forest eyed man is able and not dumb...he just doesn't act his age and acts like a grumpy child just before their first year in high school.

Zayn closes his apartment door, heading to the kitchen to put on some music and get something to eat, also hoping to get to know his new neighbors more.

THE NEXT DAY

Zayn jumps awake to his doorbell ringing, eyes snapping open to make eye contact with the cieling. He sits up, rubbing his eyes to hear silence, and he wonders if he just dreamt of the doorbell ringing.

The man gets out of bed, shivering from being exposed to the cold, conditioned air. This is why he doesn't get bad electric bills, Zayn always gets cold easily. He walks through the hallway which leads to the living room, stopping to turn the air down to at least seventy eight. Seventy four is way too chilly, goosebumps are popping onto his skin.

The doorbell then rings again. Zayn turns and walks toward it, stopping he looks down, making him notice he doesn't have a shirt on and simply some sweats. He questions if he should put one on or not. But that would result in the person ringing the bell to walk away because he's taking too long...what to do.

Zayn just walks to the door, figuring they'll just have to deal with his shirt being off. He opens the door, setting eyes on to Doniya who leans against the door frame, a large smile gracing her lips when making eye contact with the man. "Hey bro, busy today?" she asks, inviting herself in as she walks past him to get to the couch.

Zayn stretches, closing the door to look at her with a quiet shrug. "Work is all." he mumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes again. He walks over to join her on the couch, plopping down and accidentily turning on the television when his bottom makes contact with the remote. Zayn furrows his brows, frowning at the discomfort before reaching under him and changing the station. "But they don't really need me till noon." He continues. "What about you?" he asks.

"Class is at ten." she says, putting her phone down on the coffee table in front of them. She leans back and kicks her feet up on the table with a sigh. "Just wanted to chill but I was tired of my roommate being...well.
..her." Doniya says and Zayn chuckles.

"What happened to the nice Don?"

"She experienced college life."

"See I'm telli-"

"That doesn't mean I hate school...just the fact I have to share an apartment with someone I can't stand." she rolls her eyes with a shake of her head and Zayn grins, patting her knee.

"And it'll all be done in a year, just think."

"Hope fully I can move out in a year." she mumbles. "Actually," she suddenly chirps, becoming excited, causing Zayn to look at her with interest. "I got an internship interview on Monday." she smiles, eyes bright.

"That's great, Don!" Zayn exclaims, sincerely happy because she has worked very hard to get to where she is today. She deserves breakthroughs. "Paid or unpaid?"

"Paid." she smirks. "Twenty bucks an hour but it's something!" she exclaims. "Better than minimum wage." she says, shrugging. "By the way, I want you to come to an event with me next Friday."

"Why the hell am I so popular?" Zayn jokes, smirking.

"Oh please," Doniya scoffs.

"No really, Louis wants me to be his plus one at some wedding."

"Hot head Louis?"

"Its the only one I know." Zayn shrugs."What's on Friday?"

"Oh wait, it's actually next, next Friday." Doniya says after looking at her phone for a while.

"Okay, what's next, next Friday?" Zayn asks, quirking up a brow.

"You'll see." she smiles. "But I've got to go, bro, see you tomorrow." she says quickly, standing up and Zayn's mouth drops open dramatically.

"What the hell, Don!" he exclaims as she rushes out the door with a laugh.