Colorful || Zayn Malik

3

“Woops,” Zayn said, bumping into me accidentally on purpose with a smirk on his face as he passed by. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

“You’re so annoying,” I told him as he walked away.

“Thanks,” he replied, already halfway down the hall. I turned back around to see Tessa, Devon, and Maddie Taylor staring at me.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“Zayn Malik? I didn’t think you two were…friends,” Tessa said judgmentally.

“Oh, we’re not,” I assured her, trying to think up an excuse. “He’s just, um, in one of my classes. He likes to piss me off because he thinks it’s funny. Don’t worry. I would never talk to him.”

They all seemed to relax. I was off the hook. For now. God, I don’t even want to think about what would happen if Tessa ever found out about that stupid party. They continued to gossip about Lily James’ new shoes, debating whether they were authentic or not. I pretended to care as usual. Eventually, the bell rang. Thank God.

When I sat down in homeroom everyone else was already there. Well, almost everyone. One kid was missing, and of course he walked in right after the bell rang.

“Louis, you’re late,” Miss Wolffe scolded as he took his seat behind me.

“Sorry,” he said in the least sincere way possible.

I was never one to actually converse with my homeroom. Most of the people annoyed me for various reasons. I kept to myself, and they let me be. At least most of them did. Louis on the other hand had been trying to get me to crack for the past three years.

Louis Tomlinson was the golden boy of the school. Everyone worshipped him. It’s completely ridiculous. He’s the star of the football team, and he didn’t pay attention in class at all. He always managed to find some way to draw attention to himself. On top of that, he was constantly flirting with me in the most obnoxious ways. I would easily say he irritated me the most out of everyone in the entire school. Even more than Zayn.

I actually thought Zayn and I could be friends if it wasn’t for Tessa and her stupid social standards. Ugh. Plus, the awkward reminder of that party. That would never be forgotten.

Anyways, back to Louis. Tessa had been crushing on him for the longest time. Her and just about every other girl in the school. I felt bad for Tessa in a way, only because it was very clear Louis would never like her the way she liked him. Sure, she’d had boyfriends in the past, but I was fairly certain she was only using them as distractions to divert herself from the fact that the guy she loved actually liked her best friend.

It was no secret. I was pretty sure most of the school knew that Louis had been chasing me since high school started. A high percentage of those people knew that I’d never agree. That didn’t actually matter though. All that mattered was that Louis Tomlinson liked me, and that’s enough reason for every single girl in the school to secretly despise me. Sure, they acted all nice and friendly, but on the inside the majority of them were plotting my death.

All of this being said, having a low profile wasn’t really an option for me. As much as I would’ve loved to be the girl nobody paid attention to, that would never be the case as long as Louis was still stuck on me and I was still friends with Tessa. At that point I was just praying I could survive senior year so I could start caring about things that actually mattered.

“Are you going to Niall’s party on Friday?” Louis asked me from behind. I rolled my eyes, although he couldn’t see my face.

“I don’t party,” I reminded him for the millionth time.

“You’ve never told me why. Afraid to have fun or something?”

“That’s actually none of your business.”

“Feisty,” he commented. “I like it.” I turned around to tell him off only to find that he was smirking.

“Don’t you have better things to do?” I asked.

“Not really.”

Thankfully, the bell rang signaling that homeroom had ended. I picked up my bag and practically ran for the door. Great. Now I had art where I would get to deal with yet another annoying soul.

I said good morning to Miss Polly and took my seat in the corner of the room. Zayn was sitting next to me again. I guess he still wanted to play this game.

“Good morning Paige,” he said in a much too cheery voice.

“Good morning Zayn,” I replied dryly.

“You seem to be in a much better mood today.”

“Don’t be fooled. I’m just being nice.”

“Well that’s a start.”

“I don’t understand why you insist on talking to me,” I said, rolling my eyes again.

“I don’t understand why you hate me.”

“I don’t.”

“Well you act like it.”

“Don’t act clueless. You know exactly why I avoid you. I thought this was settled a year ago. Don’t bring it back up.”

That silenced him. For now. After Miss Polly gave out instructions for the day, we both gathered supplies for our work. Then he was back to talking.

“I never brought it up. I just said you shouldn’t hate me,” he said. Thankfully, everyone else was holding their own conversations. Nobody was paying attention to ours.

“And I already told you. I don’t hate you. We haven’t talked in almost a year, so why are you suddenly trying to be my friend? Just stop, Zayn.” I sounded bitterer than I had meant to.

“Fine. I’ll avoid you if you avoid me. Run from your problems. What a great way to resolve things.”

I didn’t say anything after that, and neither did he. I just continued working on my bird drawing. I noticed him glancing over at my paper several times as I tried my best to conceal it. When class ended everyone rose from their seats. On the way out I dropped my paper in the recycling bin. I’ve never been good at animals.

AUTHORS NOTE

i know it sucks okay just please bear with me im working on it XD let know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome. thanks for reading! love you xx