Little Things

CHAPTER 2

“What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Zayn asked.

Before answering, Autumn was done with the arranging. She made her way to the hall from where Scarlett had already gone.

She sat down on the sofa and Zayn plopped down beside her waiting for an answer.

Autumn answered “What the hell were you thinking?”

“You need to be a little more specific.”

“You mentioned me in one of your interviews?” she asked calmly. Autumn almost never lost her cool. “I thought I was clear about the fact that I don’t want to deal with the hassles that come with your fame.”

Zayn knew he would have to clarify this sometime. It might as well be now. “I know. But, I really didn’t have a choice. They showed a picture from that time I dragged you to that party. If I didn’t say the truth, they’d have been sure that you were my girlfriend.”

 He very well knew she didn’t yell at anyone often. She was the kind of person to bottle up her anger and let it out in the form of tears later. He admired the way she stayed calm and collected when she was upset or angry. But he wanted her to yell at him, now.

But, what she did, even he didn’t see coming.

She laughed.

She said “Girlfriend? Me?”

He nodded, unsure about why she was laughing. “Have you finally lost it completely? Why are you laughing?” he questioned.

“I’m sorry!” she said, after her laughter subsided. “It’s such a ridiculous thing to assume. I mean in which way do I even look like I can be your girlfriend? Have people even seen how girls all over the world are crazy about how you look and how you behave?”

Zayn opened his mouth to answer and closed it again at a loss of words. He knew how Autumn was always under estimating herself. Even though she hadn’t said it outright that she hated the way she looked, he knew that she did.

He wanted to tell her that  she shouldn’t do that to herself. But he didn’t. He knew it would be an awkward conversation. He knew it wasn’t the right time to make her feel better.

Thankfully for him Scarlett came back and sat down between them and crossed her legs.

No one said anything for a while when Scarlett said “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

“No” Zayn said. After a while he added “What plans do you both have for tonight?”

“Nothing.” Autumn said.

Scarlett added “My  plans or lack thereof depend on what you’re inviting us to.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, but answered “I was just thinking we could hang out at my place. We were going to watch a movie.”

“Which one?” Scarlett enquired.

“It’s an unreleased one. We know the actor and the director, so they gave it to us to see.”

“Who’s the actor?”

“Zac Efron”

Zayn could swear he saw Scarlett’s eyes light up at the name.

“Who all are going to be there?”

Zayn became impatient. “How does it matter? Just tell me of you both are going to come or not?!”

Autumn interrupted before Scarlett could retort. “Yes!” she almost screamed. “We’ll be there. How about we come there at 8?”

“Cool. I’ll see you then.” He walked out the door closing it lightly behind him.