A Fateful Encounter (Zayn Malik fanfic)

Chapter 4

The café was unusually crowded today. Lucy and I sat huddled at our typical spot by the window. A slinky waitress came by asking what we wanted to order.

‘I’ll have an iced tea’ Lucy stated in her usual, confident no nonsense voice.

‘What about you?’ the waitress turned her piercing gaze to me and I hesitated, pondering on whether or not to get something. She impatiently tapped her false nails against her notepad waiting for my answer.

‘Um, I’ll have a hot chocolate, thanks’ I smiled. She glared. Turning and stalking off in the opposite direction, I noticed she had stopped to flirt with a group of boys at the back table. Their faces were obscured from the haul of people rushing around frantically. Strange, I thought.

‘So spill about this whole Drew thing’, Lucy asked, leaning back in her chair.

Wondering where to start, I decided she deserved to know the full truth. She was my best friend after all.

‘Well, I was dropping something off to Alec at school.’ I began. She nodded her head for me to continue. I couldn’t help noticing how her dangly earrings twinkled.

Lucy was gorgeous, and she knew it. Not saying she was cocky or arrogant, definitely not. She carried herself with an air of self-confidence and assurance. She had short white blond hair in a pixie cut which suited her to perfection. I often joked that she was like Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. Her large brown doe eyes and face flushed with health and vitality only emphasised her beauty. Unlike me, she had a petite but curvy figure at a complete contrast to my tall, beanpole frame. 

Clicking her fingers and waving them in the air she called out ‘Hello, earth to El!’

‘Oh sorry, where was I?’

‘Uggh, have you been getting enough sleep recently? You were talking about dropping something off.’ She smiled encouraging me.

‘Yes actually, I had a good sleep last night considering seeing him again.’

‘I’m sorry. Have you told anyone else about this yet?’

‘No and I’m not planning to.’

‘You’re just as stubborn as Alec. I swear, I think it’s in your blood’ she joked.

Now she was getting distracted.

‘Okay, I was walking down past the school and I noticed a shadow from the corner of my eye. I didn’t think much of it until I heard a rustling. Then my instincts were telling me something was wrong. I began walking faster and the noise behind me. It turned into wailing’ I shuddered, ‘It was getting closer and so the only logical thing to do was run away. I knew it was, you-know-who when I saw his eyes. I kept running until I stumbled into a music room’

‘Hold on. A music room? Where were you?’

‘I found out later that I was at the Empire Studio.’

‘Oh right, right. I gotcha’ a wave of understanding came over her.

‘I was looking for a way out and bumped into this guy. It turned out to be Zayn from One Direction. I knew his name was familiar’ I explained.

‘What?!’ Lucy practically screamed.

Just as she was having a fit of excited nervous bubbly laughter our waitress came along with a tray bearing our drinks.

‘Thanks’ I said to her but she had already placed them in front of us and was walking to the table at the back.

‘You met One Direction?’ she asked her voice dropping when she noticed several odd glances coming her way. Ignoring them, she started sipping her tea, attempting to appear calm.

I could only laugh. ‘No. I met Zayn.’

‘Tell.Me.Everything.’ she asked careful annunciating each word.

‘I don’t know. We didn’t really speak, he just showed me the exit and asked for my number.’

Lucy stopped sipping and nearly choked.

‘He asked for your number! You have Zayn Malik’s number?’ her voice was raised again. I blushed as more people turned to look at us.

‘Shh! You’re attracting attention’ I whispered.

‘So’ she shrugged.

‘I wasn’t going to give it to him anyway’ I muttered.

‘Why not?’ she sounded offended as if it was a sin.

‘Because’ I trailed off, ‘I don’t know’, I began ‘You called about the Gala though, so I had to leave pronto’.

‘Excuse, excuses’ she said. The rest of the conversation she dedicated towards the band. I had to applaud her devotion.

I stirred my hot chocolate and sipped it from time to time, until all that was left were the cocoa granules at the bottom. Involved in my own daydream, I zoned out from time to time. Letting Lucy have a rant about etiquette towards celebrities made me smile. Staring off into the distance, I spotted the group of boys that seemed to be the centre of attention at the café today.

They were all quite tall and were getting up to leave. All of them had their backs to us, apart from one boy who was in mid turn. I blinked. My heart beat sped up and my cheeks heated. My mouth went dry as I stared up into the familiar warm eyes of Zayn Malik. I could get lost in his eyes, I thought. They really were beautiful. Like liquid chocolate with flecks of molten gold. I sighed. I saw the look of comprehension dawn in his face and I looked down. One thought dominated my mind: I had to get out of here.

                                                                           *

The boys had just finished their meals, and the plates were stacked high enough to topple over. Zayn felt incredibly full from the sheer amount of pancakes he had consumed. They were delicious here though. Just as they were standing to leave and Louis left the bill on the table, Zayn had turned in order to escape the crowded area. Not once or twice but three times the overly kind waitress had stopped to see to their needs.

Zayn’s eyes scanned the café as he thought to himself to make a mental note of the area. He looked out of the wide window and stared out at the busy roads. Rows of shops lined the streets and shoppers weaved in an out of them.

As he was about to turn away and thank the waitress for her generosity, his eyes caught a pair of cool blue ones framed with thick black lashes. Almost violet. He stared at her for a moment, mesmerised by the familiar beauty of her face. Her lips were a pink rosebud shape.  Speechless and stunned he noticed a pretty rosy blush swept her face and she began to frown. An odd urge filled him and he wanted to march up to her and kiss her frown away.

The protective urge was strong and he found himself greedily wanting more when she averted her gaze from them. No, he corrected himself. It wasn’t..? Ariella. His heart skipped uncomfortably. Was he feverish? Putting this thought aside, he planned to overcome any obstacle just to talk to her. She was with a friend who had short choppy hair. She was pretty, but next to Ariella she looked quite plain actually. Maybe they could be friends. Maybe even more. He smiled to himself. The smile immediately vanished as she got up to leave. What? Where was she going? She did see me, he thought. He tried to push past some people to talk to her, but the waitress stood in front of him now.

‘Here’ she said and pressed down a card in his hand. Flipping it over he saw number printed with a kiss at the end.

‘Thanks’ he muttered. Looking around he tried to spot Ariella. Fury burst into him and suddenly he wanted to hit something. She had gone, he realised, as he retreated into his mind, his mood unusually foul that day.