zesty grapefruit [zarry] ✔️

9

Zain startles, pulling his headphones off when Gemma stomps into his room, the door banging against the wall with the force of her entry.

"You talk to him!" Gemma huffs, throwing her phone in Zain's direction and thankfully not hitting him in the head. It bounces off the mattress and Zain grabs it just before it would have fallen to the floor.

"Who?" Zain asks, confused, the bad mood Gemma's been carrying around with her all day seeming even worse now.

"Harry!" she says loudly, banging Zain's door shut behind her. Zain rolls his eyes at her back.

"Hey, it's Zain," he says, putting the phone to his ear, because he might be a bit of an arse but he's not just gonna hang up on people.

"I told her I can't make my own schedule!" Harry says right away, not even hesitating, sounding at least as worked up as Gemma.

Zain lets himself fall back into his pillow, giving up on the hope of exchanging quick pleasantries and going back to a relaxing evening. He stares at the ceiling, wondering why he got stuck in the middle of a sibling fight that doesn't even involve his sisters.

"And she won't listen! It's not like I don't want to come to mum's birthday but I literally cannot because I'm on the other fucking end of the world and even if I took one of the jets, which I wouldn't be able to anyways, I'd not be there for more than a few hours," Harry continues hotly.

"Ok?" Zain says, a bit lost.

"And she's guilt tripping me when she lives like two hours away and can't even make it down once a month cause she's 'too busy with school' which I know is code for 'too busy fucking her girlfriend'," Harry says hotly. "My job might look like I'm just doing what I want but I'm not actually just taking the piss all day long and if anyone knows that it should be her."

Zain raises an eyebrow, kinda amused and also wishing he could somehow stop Gemma from entering his room just now.

"And I want to come for mum's birthday but I can't! Why doesn't she get that!" he finishes, falling quiet for a moment. "I want to," he says, sounding chocked up abruptly. I swear."

"She knows," Zain soothes him, hoping Harry won't start crying now. "She's just been in a mood for some reason and you know how she is."

"She shouldn't be taking it out on me," Harry answers, still sounding a bit chocked up.

"No," Zain says disloyally, because Gemma did tend to propagate her bad moods liberally. "But you shouldn't take them to heart either."

"I know," Harry says, sounding slightly less like he's about to cry now. "She's just annoying."

"Yep," Zain agrees, listening to Gemma be unnecessarily loud in the kitchen, banging doors and pots. "Sometimes."

"I gotta go," Harry says after a short silence, his voice mostly back to normal. "Thank you for listening."

"Didn't ready have a choice, did I?" Zain teases gently.

Harry huffs a breath. "Steal my number of Gemma's phone before you give it back, alright? And then text me."

"We'll see," Zain answers. "Have a good day, yea?" He hangs up before Harry can respond. It's probably the big brother in him, but he takes a kind of pleasure from being a bit mean to people he likes. It's probably not helped by all the time he spends with Gemma who is very much like him.

He does copy Harry's number to his phone, though, but decides against texting right now, just leave Harry wondering for a bit. If nothing else, he could use it to tease Waliyah.

💟

this came to me in a dream (i have no clue)
plus i am now owning the short chapters