i'll show you

thirty six

zayn wakes up to a phone ringing. it's not his because he's never heard that ringtone before. there's shuffling in the bed, which zayn assumes is liam reaching for his phone. his back is faced towards liam so he can't really see for himself.

"hello?" liam answers groggily. zayn loves liam's morning voice. "you're here? right now?" there's a sharp movement in the bed. "okay. i'll be down there soon. bye." zayn can feel liam get closer, his heat radiating off his body. "zayn. wake up." liam whispers.

zayn doesn't feel like faking that he's asleep so he immediately says, "i'm up."

"good. harry's here and needs me to let him in." liam explains. "you need to come with me though because i rather not have him find you in my bedroom." he gets out of bed and that's when zayn realizes liam's lack of attire. liam had fallen asleep fully clothed but now he's just in his underwear.

"so harry's outside waiting for you to let him in?" zayn asks.

liam nods. zayn sighs and gets out of the bed. it's a little bit too early for him to be awake. liam looks down at his bare body. "did we... last night?"

zayn's surprised. for one, he'd thought that liam would trust himself not to sleep with zayn even when he's drunk. two, he's a little hurt that liam would think that he would take advantage of him while he's drunk.

zayn shakes his head. "nope."

"no?" liam sounds surprised. "oh." he looks down at his feet.

liam sounded a little disappointed and zayn goes to ask him about it but liam is already halfway out the door, beckoning for him to follow.

liam basically runs down the stairs while zayn takes his sweet ass time. he's not too keen on seeing harry.

liam pulls the door open, shrieking as harry comes to view. harry does the same and liam jumps into his arms. they're both outside on the porch, liam sighing contently as they kiss. liam must've forgotten that zayn was there because they kiss for a long time. it was like a mini makeout section.

zayn crosses him arms and clears his throat. he loves liam and he can tolerate harry, but he can't stand them together.

they pull away from the kiss and harry looks at zayn over liam's shoulder. "oh, hello zayn. i didn't know you were here." harry says and walks into the house with liam still clinging on to him. he kicks the door shut. "you slept over?" harry asks him.

"yep." 

harry hums. "we'll talk about that later." he says lowly into liam's ear, but zayn heard him. liam gets down from harry and glances at zayn before looking away.

"so," liam clasps his hands, "who wants breakfast? i can cook something up or we can go somewhere."

"we can just stay here." harry decides and looks at zayn for confirmation. zayn nods stupidly. he doesn't really want to stay there with them. he rather go home and deal with perrie.

"alright." liam says and grabs harry's hand. "zayn, you can come with or just chill in the living room."

"i'll wait in the living room." zayn decides. no way in hell is he going to be in the kitchen with them. zayn walks into the living room and sits on the couch. he turns on the tv, figuring this would take a while. zayn doesn't trust the two together.

it's been about thirty minutes and zayn doesn't smell any food nor hear anything cooking. niall does come in though.

"hey zayn." niall says as he enters the living room. "where's liam?"

"he's in the kitchen with harry."

"harry's here!?" niall says and runs off to the kitchen. as soon as he enters the kitchen, he screams. "really guys? in the fucking kitchen? dirty fuckers." niall yells.

zayn can already guess what he's yelling about. he doesn't want to hear anymore let alone see anything, so he walks up the stairs, grabs his keys that were in liam's room, and leaves the house without saying anything.

he doesn't want to go home. there's probably a mess waiting for him and he doesn't want to deal with it. at least not now.

when he walks into his house, he goes straight upstairs. it's way too early to be awake and he's tired. zayn walks into his bedroom and is surprised to see jesy laying on his bed.

"jess? what are you doing here?" zayn asks and sets his keys on his dresser.

"you know why i'm here." jesy says. "have a seat." she says and pats the spot next to her. zayn sighs and walks over to his bed.

if he's honest, he rather talk about all of this with jesy than with perrie. but perrie is jesy's best friend, even more of a sister, and zayn knows jesy will take her side in a heartbeat.

"so, you want to tell me why perrie came to our apartment last night in tears?"

"i'm sure she's already told you."

"she did." jesy confirms. "but i want to hear it from you."

zayn sighs again. "she went through my phone and we had a little... argument."

jesy hums. "i agree with you. she shouldn't have went through your phone. at least without asking you." jesy says. there's a slight pause before she speaks again. "where were you last night?"

"what?"

"you heard me the first time."

"i uh- i was at louis'." zayn says. this has been his lie for months now and zayn's surprised that it's worked so far.

"is that why i ran into him while he was leaving your house not too long ago?" jesy asks. busted. zayn's heart starts to pound. this is it. it happened. he's finally going to get caught, jesy is going to tell perrie, and she'll break up with him. "where were you last night?" she repeats.

zayn doesn't know why he's nervous. this is what he's always wanted. after this, he can be with liam without hiding from anyone.

so he doesn't know why he lies right now.

"i was at my parents." zayn says.

"so why'd you lie the first time?" jesy asks. he takes that back. he rather talk about this with perrie, not jesy. jesy won't stop until she gets what she wants.

"i didn't want you to think that i'd rather be there than here."

"do you? because i don't know if you've realized, but your relationship has been downhill since you guys moved in together."

"i've realized." zayn admits. it's not really the living situation that caused their relationship to fall apart. it's a certain person. the only reason their living situation plays a factor in this is because it's harder to hide from perrie than if they lived in separate houses.

"well," jesy sighs, "here's this: pez is going to stay with us for a few days. i think it's best for the two of you to spend some time away from each other."

zayn nods. he likes the sound of finally having the house to himself. last time that happened, he had liam over and they had a wonderful night together. too bad liam left him the next day.

"i'm gonna get going. thank you for talking with me. now hopefully, you can do that with your girlfriend." jesy eyes him intimidatingly.

"wait. where did you park? your car isn't in the driveway."

"i parked a few houses down so you wouldn't know that i was here." jesy shrugs and gets up from the bed. "worked didn't it?"

zayn chuckles. "it sure did."

"bye zayn." jesy rolls her eyes and walks out the room.

zayn sighs and falls back against his bed. he digs his phone out of his pockets and checks his notifications. he sees that louis had texted him, warning him that jesy was here. zayn wishes that he had seen the message earlier.

there's also a few messages from liam asking where he is. zayn goes to answer, but decides against it. he doesn't want to deal with that right now. he doesn't want to deal with anything. so he locks his phone, throws it on the bed, and rolls over and falls asleep.