ZIAM - I FIGURED IT OUT

Chapter 5

As they reached home, both were soaked. Trinity pulled out a towel and dried both their heads and Zayn ran to change his clothes. Even without asking anything she straightaway knew they had a good time.

'He enjoyed' Malik said with a warm smile.

'I thought he'd come back crying' Trinity said as she extended a cup of tea to Malik, who was changing his clothes.

'I thought the same, he was almost about to' ...

'And?'

 'I told him it's up till 11'

'That was enough, wasn't it?'

'Yeah that was enough' - they continued the conversation by sitting in their living room. Zayn changed his clothes and poured himself a cup of tea from the teapot which was sitting patiently upon the table near the window.  The hot tea was being served to the cup or better say giant cup with Z imprinted on it. He gently pushed the door lock open and leaned closer to the door holding the cup in his right hand with the left safely placed under it, hiding it from the chilling coldness. Zayn took a sip, still looking out, the aroma of the tea brought back the nostalgia of standing there. He tore a paper from the newsletter, made a rocket out of it, and flew it as if he owned it.

'Something never changes' - Zayn turned around on feeling someone's palm on his shoulders and the voice. He looked up to see his dad, Malik gazing at the path of the paper rocket. It was cutting through the raindrops, still floating, they both witnessed it landing safely afar. 'Will you go alone?' 'Yeah dad, I'll' Zayn said. 'take the umbrella, and don't be late okay?' 'Okay dad' Zayn replied. The rain was now in a certain pattern, in a rhythm, he tried to pick the tune with his fingers tapping against the thighs.

Once the tea was finished, he decided to put on his best clothes, along with his best hairstyle. He ran back to his room, Donis and Wafa were already home. 'How was it?' Doni asked in the low-key-tune 'I had fun' he picked the lines and roared in the loudest voice possible, giggling. 'That's odd' she teased. 'Everything will be odd from now' he said doing his buttons. White shirt, dark blue jeans, black stripped watch, shirt folded till his elbow, a little backpack to place his umbrella - he looked neat, good looking, and moreover, confident. That was going to be his first time visiting Mcdonald's, and he was more than ready for that. He put his book onto the bag thinking about how he'd spend time alone. Anyway, he wanted to explore that restaurant, that place, the river running on the right side of it. The rain ended, it came to a halt, for now, the wind took some of the rainy clouds with it and the sky was back into the somehow white mixed with light azure color. He put on his shoes and came all the way to the living room, the clock ticked 4:50, nearly five. Another rain around the corner was guaranteed, but that didn't stop Zayn, none tried to stop him too.

'I'm leaving Mom' he said as he opened the door.

'You sure you will go alone?' Trinity asked in a concerning voice.

'Yeah, it's only a couple of minutes, I'll manage' - he said.

'Don't wander around for too long okay?' 

He nodded and stepped out of his house, as if this was a new beginning, a journey, a destiny, maybe he was overthinking, maybe he wanted to make that story up so as to make himself feel comfortable, or to act like someone is waiting for him. He was smiling along, looking both ways to safely cross the road. He saw his reflection in the water-filled pits, he smiled again cheekily. McDonald was on the opposite side of the town, he needed to head towards the 7 Valley road. As he got paced up, he took out the page that he tore from the magazine to not get lost searching for the restaurant. In that advertisement, the location was included along with suitable landmarks. There he had to pass through Central Park. On the way, there were random people, mere counts walking in and out, and some taxis too. He was walking carefully, it was already 5:40 - the watch in his hand pointed.