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

82; Love Song

"Look," Moon captures my attention again once she realizes I'm drifting. "We're making an alliance now, so I think I can say this now- stop caring."

The way she brings her drinks to her lips so casually, you would think she was getting off to the obvious pain that Zayn has put on me.

"It's easier to have no attachments," she tells me, just like Ramone did just hours ago. "Actually, it's the only way to live."

"It doesn't work that way," I huff out, trying but failing to maintain this tactic. "I have too much on the line."

"What? That boy?" She scoffs, setting her drink back down on the table. "You remember the time I fucking beat the shit out of you? When I was pumping you full of morphine and all you were worried about was him? When you were bleeding from everywhere and the only thing on your drugged up mind was that fucking boy?"

My heart hurts at the memory, but I nod.

"Now look how he repays you," she concludes, knitting her eyebrows together with frustration as she tries to guide me away from my undoing. "He's out here risking your life for some backstabbing bitch who doesn't give a shit about him."

My shoulders fall. "You don't get it. She's... she's manipulative, you know? He doesn't know what's good for him."

She laughs, shaking her head once she realizes I'm a bit of a lost cause. She stands up from her chair to leave but before she does, she leans into me. "Ask yourself this, Raine; if you had done to him everything that he has done to you, would he be making excuses for you?"

I come up empty-handed in giving her a response, but I'm sure both of us know the answer to that very question.

When she leaves me alone to ponder in my own dwindling thoughts, I find that is exactly what I don't want to do. I've been hurt by Zayn far too many times for me to count, and while I can't pretend like it gets easier with time, it certainly becomes easier when I am distracted. So just as I turn my attention back to the stealthy bartender, she sets a drink on the counter in front of me- a neat bourbon, just what I like to drink when I'm missing home.

"I didn't order this," I inform her.

"It's from the gentleman right over there." She points to the other side of the bar where I see the answer to all my questions, the sedative to all of my paranoias, the wind beneath my clipped wings and I exhale a breath of relief that I didn't even realize I was holding.

Apollo nods once at me, leaning against the bar as his lips turn up just slightly. He's still in the gray suit he had on for his meeting with Ramone and I wonder why he's here if he knows it could get him into trouble. If he were any other person, I would be worried, but I can't seem to muster up any doubt because the mere weight of his presence reassures every inkling of doubt in my body. All of the pain that lingered in my bones just seconds before has been suppressed in his wake, and now all I feel is a cool relief that the night hasn't gone in vain after all.

He pushes himself off the counter as he gets lost in the crowd to make his way towards me. I pick up the glass and bring it to my lips, hiding my smile behind it as I down the metallic cider in one take. I feel a hand on my back, and when I turn around I expect to see Apollo, but my shoulders fall when I'm met with the exact opposite.

"You can't just say that shit and storm off like that," Zayn says to me, standing close to me as he takes both of my hands in his. I try to rip them free but his grip is firm, it always is. He is not ready to let go of me just yet.

"I can't do this right now," I stop fighting him off to not make a scene.

"You don't fucking love me, huh?" He lets go of my hands only to grip the counter behind me, trapping me between the bar and his persistent body. His eyes are hooded, his voice slurring as I smell the alcohol in his breath. "Am I supposed to believe that?"