Bitter ⇒ zayn malik [au]

iii.

•three•

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She really didn't know what to say. Trying to buy herself a bit more time, she took a bite of her eggs and sipped her hot chocolate.

"I like this little café, it's like my second home. Uh... I'm taking a gap year to, as they say to, 'find myself'. My birthday's November third and I'm twenty years of age. Your turn, pretty boy," Ellie said, with a smirk on her face. As she awaited his answer she took a bite of her toast and another sip of her hot chocolate filled with tiny marshmallows.

"C'mon, there has to be much more to you then just those vague points!" Zayn ended with a deep chuckle.

"You're practically a complete stranger who I don't know at all! You could be a serial killer," Ellie suggested nonchalantly, she tried her hardest to contain her laughter but failed. 

"Hey, I'm not a serial killer, I assure you on that. I'm doing the same thing as you, actually, taking a gap year. I don't exactly know what I want to do, yet. I want to be an artist but, that kind of stuff doesn't pay bills. I don't want to be wealthy after I die! It's either that or singing, and right now I'm trying to save money to buy a house or a flat, for now." Ellie could easily notice that Zayn was an open book, well at least she thought so. 

"So where are you living now?" the girl stopped eating to ask. But finished the last bit of her food shortly after she asked the question.

"With one of my mates, Louis. You?"

"Well, I have a tiny flat two blocks from here," she said grinning. Ellie quickly realized what she had just said but, she allowed it to slide and gulped her hot chocolate down. 

"Cool I -- I got to get back to work," Zayn sighed as he looked at the time and noticed how the café was beginning to become packed,"it was lovely talking to you, though. Maybe we can talk some other time?" he asked Ellie nervously and twiddled his thumbs on his completed mug of coffee.

"Uh... sure that'd be great. I come here practically everyday of my life," she laughed dryly. 

"Great, I'm looking forward to it," he said, smiling crookedly. 

"Oh, let me get that for you," Zayn said picking up her finished plate of food and what was once hot chocolate. He couldn't help but to graze her hands, he felt a sudden urge to. And believe it or not, Zayn wanted to kiss the auburn-haired girl right there and then.

"Before I go, want to hear a knock-knock joke?"

"Uh... okay?" Ellie replied, answering more with a question rather than statement. 

"Okay, knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Barbie."

"Barbie who?"

"Barbecue!" he bursted into a fit of laughter, it made Ellie chuckle, his laughter that is. 

"Okay, that wasn't funny, at all," she stated bluntly. 

"Yeah, you laughed," Zayn said, feeling a bit saddened by the girls' reply. 

"I don't find you in the slightest way possible, amusing," she said glancing up at the waiter, who tried to tell a horrid knock-knock joke.

"C'mon, I can't be that bad..." he stated taking a fleeting look outside the window where the rain was whimsically falling.

"You're so oblivious to the fact that you can't tell a joke if your life depended on it!" she scolded the boy with jet black hair, chuckling a bit.

He looked at her with his bronzed-colored eyes. His gaze was so penetrating, she couldn't help but look away. As she did so, Ellie sited a tuft of hair that fell llimply in front of her face, behind her ear.

"Are those . . . What does it mean?" he pointed to her wrist, with his pen that he most likely took orders with.

"I have to go," Ellie became vertiginous and fatigue. She knew uneeringly what he was gesturing to and thought for once, today would be the day she could forget. 

"Today's not that day."

The voices inside her head were never ending, but if it was for even a slim likelihood she could escape into reality; Ellie would jump at the opportunity. The problem was -- in her case -- what if this wasn't truly reality? 

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Aw, Ellie and she was getting happier :(

sotc: Cold Coffee // Ed Sheeran

It will get longer and better next chapter, promise :) Tell me what you think so far.

Dedicated to guerins, her writing does things to me ok? ;) x