One Night (Book 1) - Zayn Malik

Chapter 3

"Have a conversation with me." His voice surprises me. I pause and stare at the door, maybe I imagined it. "Stay here and have a conversation with me." He repeats. I turn to him with a confused look. "I'm a stranger, you don't know my name, I doubt you'll ever come to a frat party again, you seem smart so I'll never be in a class with you, we've never met before so... the chances of meeting again are highly unlikely."

"You want to have a 'deep conversation' with a girl you just met?" I question, looking him over.

"Why is that such a shock?" He asks, knitting his eyebrows together.

"Well you just seem... you seem like the kind of guy that would be hooking up with some random girl in the bathroom." I explain.

"Not tonight." He shakes his head. "Please stay." His voice is quiet and there's a sense of vulnerability to it. For some reason I can't say no, this boy... something about him is pulling me to him, something in my head tells me to stay.

I nod and release the door handle as I walk towards him, I glance out the window at the lights and subtle noises from the party you can hear.

"Okay well if we're going to have this deep and honest conversation then we agree that if we ever do see each other again, we act like we don't know each other." I explain. "Promise to forget one another." He nods in agreement.

"Understood." It's quiet now as we stand in the room.

"So..."

"So?" He asks. Surprisingly everything wasn't awkward or uncomfortable until now. Until he asked me to stay and talk to him. "What's your favorite color?" He offers for a start.

"A light blue. You?"

"Black."

"That's not exactly a color." I laugh at him. He smirks,

"Who's your favorite band?"

"I like The Script." I shrug. "I don't have one favorite, you?"

"Ed Sheeran." I raise an eyebrow in shock, "What?" He asks.

"I just expected I don't know... a rock band?" I examine him, his tight jeans and tattoos.

"I expected a classical composer." He returns, glancing at me. It's quiet as we stare at our feet now.

"So why don't you want to go hook up with some random girl?" I ask, I take a seat in his desk chair as he sits down on his bed across from me.

"I do that every party." He shrugs. "I've never come back to my bedroom to find a girl in here. One that isn't drunk and full clothed that is." He explains. "Thought it might be a sign."

"A sign?" I laugh at his assumption.

"You seem like a good person, maybe it's a sign for me not to do something stupid tonight." He shrugs.

"You watch too many movies." I smile at him, he flashes a smile back that causes my heart to race.

"So why did you come here if you don't like parties or drunk people?" I glance at him and lick my lips.

I'm not very open about myself to others but this was a deep conversation with a stranger that I would never have to see again.

"My best friend..." I shrug, relaxing into the chair. "Well more like my obligated best friend." I say lightly.

"Obligated?" I stare at the ground as he asks. I begin to fixate on my jeans and play with the stitching on the side.

"Yeah I mean... we've always been friends but... She doesn't really have much in her life, or anything constant except me. I mean I love her, she's a great person but I kind of feel obligated to stay with her and be her friend. I would feel bad if I were to stop being her friend, is what I mean. She doesn't have much else." Saying these words feel like a relief to me.