stars and terrain (zayn malik)

Chapter 30

Zayn

Charlie spends the next half hour consoling me when I should be consoling her, which makes me feel like an even bigger fuck up.

I heard what that guy's friend said. He became obsessed with Charlotte, and obsessed with the fact that she was dating me. If I hadn't have been in the picture, he probably just would have flirted with her. He wouldn't have tried to plow her with alcohol and carry her out of the club.

Nothing Charlie says changes that in my mind, but it physically hurts me to see her cry so when she gives up on trying to convince me and tears start to fall I pretend she won and scoop her up in my arms.

"I love you so much," I bury my lips in her hair and breathe her in. "I wish I wasn't fucking up your life so much. I wish I was just making it better, like you're making mine."

"Malik!" she sounds exhausted despite sleeping for the last nine hours. Exhausted from trying and failing to convince me I'm not ruining her life. "You saved me from a bad guy and you're moving me into a castle today. It's basically a fucked up modern day fairy tale."

I grin at her weird description and kiss her hard before letting her pull out of my arms.

"I really need a toothbrush," she winces after the kiss. "And I'm starving."

"I had French toast delivered last night, but you fell asleep before it got here. But it's definitely cold and probably awful by now," I gesture to a plate on the table which she crosses to inspect. I should have had another ordered as soon as she woke up. "And I'll go get you a toothbrush and toothpaste."

I'm up out of the bed in the next second, pulling on last night's clothes and watching her carefully.

She takes a huge bite out of the wilted, fried bread and looks pleased.

"My knight in shining armor."

~*~

It scares me. Actually it terrifies me how sure I am of her.

We've spent the last two days running around town getting all the things we figured out we were missing in this new house that I never want to leave.

Not house. Home. It's the first time I've wanted to use the word. My childhood wasn't a dream, and my mum did her best but I left as soon as I was able to make my own money. I've been okay living like a nomad because I've never had anywhere I wanted to stay.

But the most beautiful girl with long dark hair tied back in a ponytail is sitting on this dark granite countertop with a pale pink sunset and dark blue water background painted out the window behind her and it looks like the definition of the word. She's taking inventory of our dishes and arranging them in OCD order while I watch her from a bar stool and it's the dream I never knew I had.

"We're going to need wine glasses."