Tattoo Heart (Zarry)

Seven

***

Zayn sighs in frustration as he kneels down for what seems like the hundredth time in front of a theater seat to check if a gum had been stuck underneath. Zayn clicks the roof of his mouth when for the fifteenth time he didn't find any gum. He grumbles about how stupid this is as he moves to another chair to check. This goes on for another several minutes, only using the scraper twice to scrape off the only two gums he found under the seats.

He groans in annoyance, because he should be at home by now. It doesn't help as well, knowing that he's the only person left at the theater to finish this spiteful repercussion of being tardy.

He curses Louis under his breath. It was his fault that Zayn's scraping gums off the chairs so late at night when he should've been at home sleeping by now or at the pub making out with the bartender with the lip ring. He didn't mean to be late again. If it weren't for Louis' accidentally locking themselves in their flat, Zayn could've been here earlier. It was unbelievable how Louis had the ability to jam their door. They have to knock it down for the both of them to get out of their flat. Zayn doesn't even know how they got locked in, but he was certain it was Louis' fault, because he was the last one who got home last night. He was just surprised that when he tried to open their door this morning, it wouldn't even budge no matter the amount of force he exerted on it.

It was over an hour when he finally finished his gum-scraping penalty for being late. And he was in haste to grab his things and just go home already. Zayn almost dropped his phone when he entered the employee's room and found Harry ruffling through his own stuff.

"Harry?"

"Oh, hey!" Harry exclaims, looking apprehensive.

"What are you still doing here?" Zayn asks as he walks over to his locker to get his things, needing to distract himself before he ogles on Harry again. He has been seeing and talking to Harry for a week now, and he's still not used to his presence. Something about him still jostled and overwhelm Zayn which leaves him breathless and confused yet so, so, so soft and happy.

"I was waiting for you." He answers, rubbing the back of his neck. Zayn almost dropped his phone again for the second time in the span of five seconds. "Since you were late this morning and Paul made you scrape gums off after your shift again, he asked me to make sure that you won't leave till you've finished."

Zayn scowls "Are you serious? Does Paul think I'm some half-witted twat who constantly rebels against his wishes? Does he think I need babysitting?"

"Which one do you want me to answer first?" Harry asks "Doesn't matter." He waves off with a chuckle "The answer to all of your questions are the same anyway. Though I'm not going to tell you if it's a yes or a no. I'm going to let you ponder on that one."

"Don't bother, I can guess." Zayn rolls his eyes as he continues to gather his things.

There was another full minute of silence and awkward shuffling, and now there's a feeling in the air like one of them should say something.

"I'm sorry that Paul asked you to stay behind." He mumbles.

"It's all right. Don't have anything to do anyway." Harry shrugs "You good?"

"Yeah." He nods "You?"

Zayn almost wince at the tension between them.

His nerves seems like it's fucking everywhere. It's like it's jumping from one place to another. No matter how many times they've talked in the past couple days, they still can't shake the energy in the air like one of them should do or say something.