January. // z.m. au

Chapter 9

Ride | Lana Del Rey

"That boy, he's here to see you again." David huffed, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.

I hated how he referred to him as "that boy" because Zayn was a lot more that just a boy. He was actually someone I liked, other than my two best friends. We got on really well.

"Thanks," I told Dave, making sure there was a hint of annoyance in my voice. He hadn't made eye contact with me in about three days, which was a new record for him. I honestly couldn't care less. I felt bad, but I still didn't care much if I was being completely honest.

"Mhm," he muttered, stalking away to finish his shift.

I made my way towards the front of the bookstore, fixing my ponytail on the way up. Luckily for me, Tina wasn't near to see the stupid smile spread across my face right now. I knew that she'd only tease me about it later on.

I saw his black hair first, which was tousled up into this messy quiff, then the lips tattoo peaking from underneath his scoop neck t-shirt. He wore faded black jeans and combat boots that made me fall for him a little harder with each second that passed.

His cute lips turned into this half smirk, half smile when his caramel eyes met mine. I couldn't control the blush that crept it's way up my neck, heating my cheeks.

"Hey, Jan," he smiled, tongue and all; it was adorable.

"Hey," I said. "I'm not off for another ten minutes, do you mind waiting?"

"No problem," he shrugged.

I told him he could stay here if he wanted, but instead he followed me towards the back so I could finish my days worth of work.

It was a bit hard to focus on stocking up a new novel that came in today with Zayn right behind me. He kept flipping through different books and magazines asking if I'd read them or not or if they were any good. How could he look like this bad boy who wore leather jackets almost everyday with an arm full of tattoos on the outside, yet be this goofy, carefree, cute being on the inside? It didn't make any sense to me.

I was placing the last hard cover on the shelf when I noticed Dave appear out of nowhere. Every time I was around Zayn he always seemed to be right there looking (or spying, I should say) from the sidelines.

I chose to ignore him today. I turned towards Zayn, who wore a nice smile on his face, seeming not to care as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder nonchalantly. Dave looked up at the two of us with pure shock, jealousy, and maybe a hint of annoyance in his eyes. Deep down I still felt a little bad about turning him down, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much it probably wouldn't have worked out between us anyways.

"Has it been ten minutes yet?" Zayn asked. I glanced at a clock which was hung on the wall above the 'Young Adult' section to see that it had in fact been ten minutes and I could finally clock out to spend time with Zayn. That was all I'd been wanting to do since I woke up this morning.

I excused myself and skipped to the back room to gather my things and end my shift. I said bye to Tina and she yelled, "Have fun!" with a wink. I shook my head, but couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face. I slipped my arms into the holes of my blue jean jacket and skipped twice as fast back to Zayn as I did before.

***

"I can't believe you're in my house right now," I laughed, shaking my head as I imagined Zayn snooping through my room trying to find dirt on me.

"I can't believe you let me into your house." he snorted, falling dramatically onto my bed.

"Don't count on this happening again." I warned him, pulling out a new shirt to put on instead of this hideous Brook's uniform. It felt so good to finally be able to change into my own clothes.

I almost started to pull off my shirt but then I remembered that Zayn was still behind me probably watching my every move. I started blushing just picturing how awkward it'd be for him to see me in only a bra. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing him shirtless at all. What a sight that'd be.

"I'll be right back," I announced, hopping towards the bathroom with my shirt and a pair of skinny jeans in my hand.

I changed quicker than I normally would, running my fingers through my hair a couple times to ensure that it was decent. I touched up my makeup here and there just in case before I left the bathroom only to find Zayn holding a few Polaroids I had laying on top of my dresser in between his hands. They were just random pictures of me with my friends Grace and Alexa that were taken a while ago. It made me remember that I hadn't seen my two best friends in a while so I made a mental note to to that soon.

I cleared my throat to let Zayn know that I was finished and ready to go. When he turned a around to face me, I could've sworn his eyes doubled in size. "Wow," he muttered, so low that I wasn't even sure that he actually said it. Maybe I was hallucinating or something, I don't know, but I definitely saw his lips move.

I was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt so what was the big deal? I couldn't lie and say that I wasn't flipping my fucking shit on the inside because―wow―I really was. I chose to ignore the comment, but I did blush. I blushed hard. Getting that kind of reaction from someone like Zayn was pretty fucking fantastic if you ask me. It was the kind of moment you kept on record or something.

"We should, um, we should go. Yeah." he stuttered and I nodded, leading the way to the front door.

We were only in my flat for a good ten minutes, but it felt like hours. That alone was proof that time seemed to slow down whenever I was with Zayn. And that was a good thing, that was a really good thing.

We walked outside into the crisp winds to his car, which was already starting to become familiar to me. Once we were inside and buckled into our seat belts, we just sat there waiting.

"So," Zayn started. "Where to?"

Anywhere, of course, would be wonderful. As long as I was with him I didn't care where we'd go.

"Let's just ride," I said and he smiled, my new favorite smile, sticking the key into the ignition and just driving.

"Alright. Just ride."

***

wow that was kinda sorta short? idek but here's a new chapter (-: sorry if it ended in like a weird place but yeah, enjoy!