Chapter 11 ― Zayn

I was going to take the first bite of my masterpiece, AKA the best sandwich ever, when a wild Harry appeared in the kitchen and ran towards me. First off, how the fuck did he enter my flat? Since when did he have a key? I didn’t remember me giving him one.

“Zayn, I have good news for you, lovely little boy!” He literally shouted that at my face and then he took my sandwich and bit it. The bastard bit it. My masterpiece, eaten by that curly little piece of shit!

“Harry! That’s my sandwich! Give it back,” I yelled taking the sandwich from his hands and the curly-haired boy pouted, but I wasn’t going to give in, it was my food and I felt worse than Niall that day: I didn’t share food. Not that day, at least. “And what are your good news?” I asked, finally, giving the first bite.

“Oh, right.” Silly boy, he had forgotten about his incredible news when he saw my masterpiece. I didn’t blame him, it was an incredible sandwich with almost everything I found in my fridge. And I just did the groceries the day before. “Guess who is going to say goodbye to us at the airport?” He asked and I cocked my head to my right, thinking for a moment. “No, I’ll tell you!” Harry cut off my train of thoughts. “Mila! You will see her again. You’re welcome.”

I just froze there, looking at him in disbelief. He didn’t miss the chance to steal my sandwich again, but this time I didn’t fight for it, I just could only think of what he said. I hadn’t seen Mila since that day in Alex’s house, though we all invited her to hang out with us many times, but she never could make it and I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Plus, Harry didn’t stop talking to her, all the time. There wasn’t a day where he didn’t say something like ‘Oh, I have to send this to Mila’, or ‘Mila will love this!’. It was annoying and it always put me in a bad mood.

For some reason, knowing that she was going to be at the airport to say goodbye got me really excited. I felt like I was looking forward that moment now. I didn’t even care that she was going because Harry probably asked her to, I was just glad that I was going to see her. Why? I didn’t know.

Probably it was because when she was around or when someone mentioned her, I didn’t feel hurt for Alex and Niall. When she was around I didn’t care so much for Alex, and I liked that feeling. Her presence helped me to forget about how hard it was to see my best mate with the girl I wanted for me.

“Come again?” I asked whilst Harry was almost finishing with my sandwich.

“What I said. Are you deaf? When did this happen?” I just rolled my eyes at his silly comments and waited not so patiently. “Mila, well Mila and Moni to be precise, are coming to the airport with Alex, Phebs and Belle to say goodbye. I thought you might wanna see her before going to America. Now a thank you will be highly appreciated.” And the sandwich was totally gone. But again, I didn’t care about my masterpiece, I only cared about what Harry said.

“Why would you do that for me? I thought Mila was your friend, nor mine.”

“Pff, Zayn, please. You don’t fool me, mate. I see your face every time I tell all of you that she can’t make it and after that you’re all moody. More than usual. I just assumed that seeing her before leaving would put you in a better mood,” he explained and my mouth flew open. I didn’t think it was noticeable what I felt every time he told me Mila couldn’t make it, I thought that no one noticed it all, but I was wrong. Did the other lads know about this, too? “When are you going to admit that you fancy her? You practically jump every time you hear her name.”

“I don’t fancy her,” I replied for like the millionth time that week. Well, since we met her in fact. Harry was just obsessed with the idea that I fancied Mila when it wasn’t the case. It obviously was because I was still —even if this shouldn’t be like this— crazy about Alex. How could I fancy Mila when I couldn’t stop wishing to be Niall?

However, Harry wasn’t the only one kind of obsessed with me accepting my ‘feeling’ for Mila; Alex was worse. Every time I saw her, she would go on saying that Mila and I should date, that we were perfect for each other and that we were their favourite OTP. At the end we all learnt that OTP meant One True Pairing and Mila and I were above Peeta and Katniss, and Tobias and Tris. Who were those? I couldn’t remember, I just knew they belonged to some books and that Alex loved those couples, so it was a ‘humungous honour’, as she stated, to be her OTP.

Every time Alex talked about this I couldn’t stop wondering if Mila knew that her friend practically dreamt with us being together. Once I asked Alex why she wanted us to be together when we hardly knew each other and it was clear that Mila didn’t like me at all, in fact, she found me quite annoying.

“‘Cos I see something that you don’t. Stop asking now! Believe me when I say you two belong together!” Was her answer. What did she see? I would never know.

“Keep telling that to yourself, but we all know it’s not true. Someday you’ll accept it, though,” Harry carried on rolling his eyes and waving dismissingly.

“And what are you gonna get from that, Styles? Mila can’t see my face without wanting to throw something at me,” I reminded him. Yes, I was exaggerating, Mila didn’t hate me but I knew she kind of despised my existence.

“That’s another thing you say to yourself to sleep at night, but we know better, Malik,” he looked at me raising both eyebrows and a cocky smirk when he said my last name. “She doesn’t hate you and most certainly she won’t throw something at your face. She knows that fans will kill her if something happen to you and she’s clever.”

I couldn’t help chuckle at his comment. “So if I weren’t famous, she would absolutely throw something at my face?” I asked still smiling.

“Probably a table,” he mused and I just burst into a fit of laughter. Lucky me I was famous, then. “Okay, I gotta go, need to pack for tomorrow. You better be all smiley when you see my friend Mila, got it?” Harry waited for me to nod, stood up and walked away, but before he disappeared completely, I called him.

“Hey, Harry. How did you get in?” I asked him and I heard his laughter from the living room.

“We all have a key,” and then I heard the door closing.

+ + + + +

“Wify!” Louis screamed as he started running towards the group of girls who were led by Paul.

“Get away from her! She’s my girlfriend and I’m not okay with polygamy!” Niall shouted running after Louis as fast as he could to get first to Alex. I saw the girl laughing and opening her arms for the first boy, tough probably she was going to avoid Louis in the last minute and go directly to Niall. It had happened before.

They played a whole scene, Niall and Louis fighting over Alex whilst all the other girls looked at them amused, but my whole attention was on the shortest of the group. She looked just as I remembered: same lovely smile, same long black curly hair, same brown eyes, and same pale skin. Just the same and I felt like I’d never seen her before. I also felt the ends of my mouth curling up in a smile and I just wanted to walk towards her and say hello.

“Mila!” Harry called the short girl from behind me and soon he walked past me and went to her to give her a huge hug. “I’m glad you could make it!” He said lifting her. Mila was laughing and hugged him back and I felt this bitterness in the pit of my stomach spreading to the rest of my body.

Soon all the other lads walked towards the girls and greeted them, but I stayed behind, my eyes glued on Mila and Harry who seemed so happy to see each other. I didn’t want to think this, but I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t help notice that it seemed like they always preferred the other boys over me. Always. Why no one of that group seemed truly happy to se me?  Even Phebs seemed totally happy next to Liam.

Till a few weeks ago, I felt like she was the only one who could understand how I felt, because she loved Liam but he didn’t feel the same way towards her, as it happened with Alex and I. But the blonde met a bloke in the university more than a month ago and now they were dating after he begged her many times. We still didn’t know him, we only knew Phebs really liked him and that she was finally moving on from Liam. She had promised that she was going to introduce him to us soon, by the time we would get back from America.

“Zayn,” Belle called me and just then I could take my eyes off of Harry and Mila. I shook my head and focused on the girl calling my name. “What are you doing there? Come here!” And I obeyed, but whilst I was walking, I took another glance at Mila and Harry and my eyes met hers for a couple of seconds.

She smiled at me.

With that simple thing, just with her smile, I forgot that she was in Harry’s arms, I forgot that I was walking towards Belle. I could only notice that she smiled at me without any anger or hate, just a simple, warm and friendly smile. And that smile brushed away all that bitterness it was growing on me.

“You okay, sweetie?” Belle asked when I finally got to her and I had to make an effort to look at her and break the eye contact with Mila.

“Yes, absolutely fine. Thanks for coming,” I told her with a smile. It was close to two am but they were all there just to say goodbye. Eleanor and Danielle couldn’t make it because they had work to do the next day.

“Of course, we wanted to wish you good luck before leaving.”

“And I’m waiting for you to go to Mila and hug her so I can play the music I prepared for this moment. Please, if you can go in slow motion, it would be terrific,” Moni commented and I just could look at her without understanding a thing. “What are you waiting for? Go, steal her from that curly boy! Fight for her!”

I was astonished. What was wrong with her? She kept staring at me, waiting for me to do something but I didn’t understand. What was she talking about?

Belle burst out laughing and I grew more confused. “Moni, please, don’t confuse these boys,” the black-haired girl asked and the brunette just shrugged wearing an angelic expression, like a kid who pretended that he didn’t break the vase with flowers.

“Okay, but seriously, go! Don’t let Harry monopolise her,” the brunette told me. I wondered why would she like me to go to Mila. Was she also like Alex who believed Mila and I should get together? Or did she know something else? I felt a knot in my stomach tensing at that thought. Moni was Mila’s best friend, if there was someone who knew the short girl, it was the crazy brunette.

I stayed there for a couple of seconds more before walking towards Harry and Mila who were talking again, oblivious to the rest. “Hi, Mila,” I said interrupting in their conversation.

She turned around and her eyes immediately met mine and she gave me another smile, but this one had a tint of shyness, what only made her look adorable. “Hi there, Zayn,” she replied without breaking the eye contact.

I didn’t know when Harry left us alone nor when Moni started playing the cheesy music.

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Dedication and shout out for my dear Misha @xxscarlett, because she's like my little sister here and she's very observant when she's reading, here comments are so special. I love her <3

Bel, xx!