Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

81; The Birds Pt. 1

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BTW- The italicized parts are flashbacks. Try to keep up.

Goal: 150 votes, 1.5k comments

Chapter 81

"I've been doing this too long.
Baby girl, I've felt it all."

(Zayn's POV)

The white in my tennis shoes turns to a dark umber as my feet carry me through the puddles on the street, trying to make my way through the New Orleans rain without getting drenched. I hold my hoodie over my head, stepping over every crack and dent on the pavement because I have the road memorized. At this rate, I'll catch hypothermia if I don't find a roof to sustain me.

The sign of the local cafe flickers as the gray sky around me only becomes darker. Even though I only have a dollar in my pocket, I have no choice but to run inside the sheltered building. As soon as I swing the door open, the bells chime to announce my entry. There are only about five people inside the restaurant, half of whom seem to be employees, so I quickly grab a booth after wiping my shoes, sitting down with my drenched clothes.

A waitress, short and shrill, walks over to me with a coffee pot on her hip. She sets a mug down in front of me and fills it up with the hot coffee, glancing between me and the cup. I want to tell her that I don't have enough on me to even pay her for the coffee, but when my hands start to shake, they find their way around the mug in ownership.

"Can I get you anything to eat?" She asks with a deep southern drawl.

My stomach growls with hunger when I realize the last time I ate was a banana this morning before I left for school. Usually, every day after class gets out, Kai and I meet up to go to his place where we spend the day shooting hoops and playing video games. Today, he was out sick with the flu, so I had to find my own way back home in the rain.

"French toast," I tell her, already constructing a plan to dine and dash. "And a scrambled egg, if you have it."

"You got it."

Once she walks away, I search the pockets of my hoodie and jeans but only manage to find a dollar and a library card. With a sigh, I debate just leaving all together but when the card slips from my hand and falls under the booth, I take it as a sign to dine and dash, something I have become quite a professional at over the years.

I duck under the booth and search for my card, finding it between a ketchup wrapper and another dollar. I scoop up the card and dollar before sitting back up on the booth. Only after I've put both items in my pocket do I realize that I'm not alone at the table anymore.

Across from me sits a smiling man who I have never seen before. He can't be older than twenty-one, given the piercings in his ears and tattoos up his neck. He even went as far as to get a small tattoo of some sort of bird on his face, right beside his pierced eyebrow. His build and height threaten me slightly, but I have lived in this town long enough to know I'm in trouble. When I furrow my eyebrows and sit tall, he only tilts his head to the side with a menacing glint, tapping his fingers with an eerie patience against the table between us.

"Uh," I clear my throat. "You need something, man?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." He relaxes in his seat, crossing both of his arms over his chest which displays the additional ink he has trailing up his skin. "Your name is Zayn, right?"