Him [Zarry]

Broken

Zayn was curled up in his window seat Saturday evening when he saw Eric's car pull into the driveway.

"Want me to tell him to leave?" Louis asked, hearing him pull up.

"No, it's alright." Zayn said quietly, putting his book aside.

He sighed, getting up and going to the front door, opening it.

"Hey." Eric said, coming up on the porch.

"Hello." Zayn said, not sure if he wanted to let him in yet.

"I brought you some chicken nuggets and some of those chocolates you say you shouldn't eat but you love." Eric said, handing both items to him.

Zayn wanted to roll his eyes, but the smell of those nuggets drifted up his nose.

"I want to apologize properly, but you can eat first if that's what you want." Eric said.

"Well I don't need to speak for you to apologize. So I'm going to eat these and you can go ahead and apologize." Zayn said, putting the box of chocolates aside and opening the chicken nuggets.

"Right-Right here? In the front doorway?" Eric frowned.

"Mhmm." Zayn hummed, eating and staring at him.

Eric wanted to comment more, but chose to just get on with his apology.

"It was wrong of me to not listen to you, or to act the way I did when you were sharing something you love with me. It was a very asshole thing to do, and I promise from now on I will listen to you and be happy to have conversations about what you're writing." Eric said.

"Also, I'm sorry about how I acted with the whole Harry thing. I trust you, and that's...all that matters."

"I'm sorry for saying the things I said, I was just frustrated." He added.

"Not with me." Zayn said, still staring.

"No I was just- I was frustrated in general. We were arguing." Eric said.

There was a pause.

"Fine, whatever." Zayn mumbled, handing him the box with the rest of the nuggets in it before he turned and walked away.

Eric came inside, frowning. "Zayn wait, are we okay?"

"I just- I don't know. You said you would be happy from now on to talk about my writing. That doesn't mean shit because I know how you really feel." Zayn said, stopping near the stairs and looking back at him.

"Well I didn't mean it like that. I meant that even though I might not like it as much as you, I'll at least have enough respect to support you and be there to listen." Eric explained.

"Good. That's how it should be." Zayn said.

"I just....I feel like sometimes you get so carried away in the writing you kind of...forget everything and everyone else." Eric said.

"Including me."

"Are you saying I've done something wrong?" Zayn asked skeptically.

"No, no I'm saying that....I don't know I just felt like a few times in the past....you put your books before us." Eric said.

"Whenever you start something new you pay so much less attention to me."

Zayn licked his lips, trying to think of how to respond maturely.

"Okay, well I'm sorry if I've ever hurt your feelings, yeah? I never meant to hurt you or anyone." Zayn said, wanting that to be clear.

"But, even if I have put my books before us a few times, in the end you and me is what I really care about. You know that."