Buses & Bunk Beds (Zarry)

Chapter 27

Getting interviewed had been really stressful for me when we'd first started out, since I was intent on trying to sound cool and doing anything to avoid embarrassing myself. But after doing them in almost every city we performed in, they'd just become a hassle. The interviewers all seemed to ask the same boring questions, and I'm sure that most of our fans already knew what our answers would be anyway. Sometimes I thought the fans knew more about me than I did myself.

But since things had started up with Harry I'd noticed that some of my answers were surprising even to me. When I was asked for approximately the 1,248,551st time what my favorite color was, I answered green without thinking, though I had always said blue before. I knew what had prompted the change since an image of Harry's eyes had popped into my head as soon as the question was asked, and I could honestly say that because of them green was now my favorite color. I saw that Harry noted my new answer as well, and I surely didn't miss it when he stated that his favorite color was now caramel.

My answer to what my perfect date would be had changed as well. Staying at home, playing video games and cuddling in the snow had replaced my standard dinner and a movie response, which never failed to make Harry smile. He'd started mentioning how much he would love to take his special someone to a carnival, and he'd stare right at me each time he said it, not caring who was watching.

Harry found other ways to make interviews more interesting as well. He must have liked receiving texts from me as much as I liked getting them from him, because he'd decided that we should have a contest to see who could send the best messages to elicit a laugh during interviews. I wasn't sure how we were supposed to determine who the winner was, but every time my phone vibrated with a message from him a smile spread across my face and my heart did a little jump, so I wasn't complaining.

Whenever the camera cut away from me I would peek at my phone, hidden in my lap, and I would often have to bite my lip to hold back a laugh. Sometimes they were just too good though, and I'd laugh out loud, causing everyone to look at me. I didn't even care if they thought I was crazy, my competitive nature driving me to try to make him laugh just as hard.

HARRY: Can I borrow your dick tonight? I need to club some baby seals with it

HARRY: You know, cause it's so BIG :-D

ZAYN: It's so big that it graduated sixth form a year ahead of me

HARRY: It's so big that cinemas now serve popcorn in small, medium, large, and Zayn's Dick

ZAYN: Bradford was going to build a statue of it, but they ran out of cement

Sometimes his messages weren't funny but sweet instead, telling me how much he loved me or making future plans for us, though he rarely stayed serious for long.

HARRY: Next time we're in England, I want to take you to Holmes Chapel. I can show you all around town so that you'll become a part of all the memories I have of home. Then I'll teach you how to drive on the back country roads.

ZAYN: I'll only let you teach me if you'll call me Captain whenever I'm in the driver's seat, and I'll call you my First Mate

HARRY: Will there be costumes involved? Cause if so, I'm in Captain ;-)

And just like that, I was interrupting another interview with laughter, and loving that cheeky bastard even more than I had before.

***

The staged photos of me and Perrie had been leaking every day, and they actually did a pretty good job of making it look like they were taken at different times and places. I'd avoided looking at them for the most part, and I tried to get Harry to do the same, though I'd caught him perusing gossip sites for them more than once. At those times it became my mission to distract him, and I'd enlist the other boys to help. Of course they, with the exception of Liam, had no idea why he needed cheering up, but they were happy for any activity that made the long hours on the bus go by more quickly.

So we'd take turns hiding his phone from him before making him join us for truly terrible dance offs and slightly less terrible beat boxing contests. Or we'd all play video games or cards, anything to make the time pass really. I often started play fighting with Harry, just so I'd have an excuse to tackle him and hold him close. He'd give it to me just as good as I gave it to him, and I relished the feeling of him holding me down, feeling the full weight of his body press against me and his breath against the back of my neck. In fact I loved it, far more than I ever thought I would, and it would inevitably send my mind racing off on dangerous tangents, with Liam's disapproving stare the only thing keeping my imagination from totally running wild.

It seemed that he had kept his promise to not tell the other boys, and Harry and I hadn't discussed whether or not to tell them again. I was still prepared to do it if Harry wanted to, but he hadn't brought it up so I thought it was best to avoid the subject for now. I'd assumed that he hadn't insisted upon it yet because maybe, like me, he found that keeping our secret was a bit exciting. I could have done without the nerves that accompanied every stolen kiss, but our sneaky shags and frantic fucks whenever we had some time alone were undeniably hot.

But eventually I began to suspect that maybe Harry hadn't mentioned telling them again because he already had. Niall still seemed oblivious, but I noticed that Louis was sending me more and more dirty looks, along with dropping little snide remarks that seemed to hint at mine and Harry's relationship. I swear he made a fucking Zarry comment every day, but I wasn't sure how much he knew until one day shortly before Harry's 20th birthday.

Louis, Harry and I were all working out, me doing my best not to stare too obviously at Harry's frame, though the fact that he was shirtless and I could see little love bites I'd left on his back was making it damn near impossible to look away. That is until Louis turned off the hip hop we had been listening to and started playing Let's Get It On.

"Ummm, this isn't really a good song to workout to Lou..." Harry said as he quickly walked over to the iPod deck.

"Yeah, but I heard it's Zayn's new favorite. Isn't that right Zayn?"

I just stared at him, frozen in place and unsure of what to say, while Harry put his head in his hands. "Louis, just because I tell you things doesn't mean you're allowed to know them," he groaned.

"I just can't do it anymore Haz. I can't just stand here and watch you fall for him when he doesn't give a fuck about you."

His words made me see red, and before I knew it I was standing right in front of him. "Don't you dare fucking talk like you know what's going on between Harry and me. You know nothing," I spit, clenching my fists to keep from slamming him against the wall.

"Fuck you Zayn, I know more than you think. Harry told me what he thinks has been going on, but I know the real you. You cheated on Perrie and now you're using her to improve your image, no matter how badly it hurts Harry. I know you don't really love him; it's all a big fucking game to you. Let's see how many people I can can make fall in love with the great and powerful Zayn Malik," he said in a shitty imitation of my accent. "You're going to dump him as soon as it suits you cause you don't really love him at all. You don't love anyone but yourself."

I was on top of him before he even finished speaking, pinning him to the ground and connecting my fist to his face. My hand stung with the impact, but too much adrenaline was coursing through me for it to really register. I grabbed his collar and slammed his back onto the ground and punched him again before I felt security pulling me off of him. I tried to struggle away from them but they held onto me, dragging me from the room. The last thing I saw before they pushed me through the door was Harry's face, bright red and covered in tears.