Infinite

Chapter 2

I picked up my empty cup of hot chocolate and the little bag my buttered croissant came in to throw out. As I walked over to the trash cans, I heard a voice with a thick British accent. My head immediately snapped up and turned around to the counter. I was surprised I didn't get whiplash. I couldn't see who it was due to the mass of people who stood behind him in line. I turned back around to go throw away my trash when I accidentally bumped in to an old, grandma-type lady.

She let out a, "oh dear!" as her bag full of knitting essentials dropped to the ground. "I'm so sorry!" I said gasping and rushing to pick up her things. I stuffed everything back in to her bag and handed it back to her. "Be careful, Missy," the old lady said and made her way out the door.

I nodded seriously and picked up my own fallen trash from the ground. After finally depositing my trash, I made my way back to the booth I was sitting in when I noticed someone flipping through the book I was reading for class. I cleared my throat, hoping that the stranger would notice, leave my book alone, apologize, and walk away so I wouldn't have to stand there awkwardly and make small talk. 

The 'stranger' looked up and I did a double take. I could not believe I was standing in front of Zayn Malik as he flipped through my incredibly boring novel.

"This yours?" he asked waving the book in front of me. I nodded slowly, unsure of whether to stand there like a scarecrow or start talking. He then proceeded to pick up my notebook which was filled with the notes I had taken earlier. He examined my small, neat handwriting.

"Interesting?" I asked. He looked up, smiling. "So what are you studying at university? Literature?" I nodded again. "That's cool," he said putting my book down. "Sorry about that," he commented when he noticed me eyeing my novel in his hand. "Don't worry about it," I said quickly packing my things before he decided to rummage through my bag or something. 

"Here's your order," a waitress said as she placed his coffee on the table. She turned to me. "Would you like to order anything?" she asked. "Actually I was just le--"  "She'll have a hot chocolate," Zayn said cutting me off. The waitress nodded and hurried off.

My eyes widened as I looked back at Zayn. "How did...?" He pointed to the receipt placed beside my phone. "For a second there I thought you were a major creep." I said breathing a sigh of relief. I immediately face-palmed myself mentally. I did not just say that, did I? He laughed, "I'm not that creepy, I swear," he said taking a seat and motioning for me to sit down as well. 

As I was about to sit, my phone went off. I excused myself to answer it. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" Melissa screamed from the other line. "I'm still at the coffee shop," I answered. "WHO CARES WHERE YOU ARE. I NEED TO FIND ONE DIRECTION. I'M BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS THEM," she continued shouting. I was positive Zayn could hear her judging by the smirk he wore on his face as he watched me. "Uh, I have to go bye." I said quickly and hung up.

"Sorry about that," I said sheepishly. "No worries, so are you a fan?" He asked. "I guess you could say that," I replied smiling. I took a minute out of this magical moment to realize that I wasn't fangirling. I wasn't sweating buckets or having a stroke on the ground like I imagined I would. I was simply sitting here and having a normal conversation with THE Zayn Malik, no pressure or anything.

"Sorry, did you say something?" I asked snapping back to reality. "Yeah, I asked how you found out about us," he repeated. So I sat there and told him. Our conversation escalated and we ended up talking about the randomest of things.

"Why are you here by yourself?" I finally asked. The curiousty was killing me. "Our hotel isn't too far from here, so the lads and I decided to wander around for a bit. I was originally supposed to order my coffee and leave, but I noticed you-- er, your book and the rest is history," he finished with a flourish. I smiled, "won't everyone be looking for you?" I asked. "I'll probably get told off by management once I get back to the hotel, but that's nothing new," he said smirking.

I looked around the coffee shop, it was clearing up and aside from us, there were only about three other people left. "I should get going," I commented as I glanced out the glass walls to see the darkening skies. "I should too," he said getting up.  "It was nice talking to you, Zayn," I said as I hoisted my bag on to my shoulder. "Wait, what? You're ending this all here?" he said exaggerating a fake sad face. I laughed, and shot him a confused look. "I was hoping that we could text at least," he said taking his phone out of his pocket and handing it to me. "Only if you want to, though," he added quickly.

I punched my number in and returned his phone to him. He smiled and slipped it back in to his pocket. "Let me walk you out," he said leading the way out of the shop. I grinned at him as he held open the door for me. 

"See you later," he called out waving to me. I waved back and made my way back to my dorm. I turned around to give him one last wave before I crossed the road. As I waited for the signal to change, I noticed a black van pull up and a man jumped out. It looked like Paul. Zayn made a slicing motion towards his neck and jumped in to the car. I laughed to myself as I thought back to the events that took place in my little town.