rough draft || z.m

02.

ZAYN.

“Lookin’ good, bub. Harry, you’re up—c’mon quick, idiot, we’re already runnin’ late!” Lou waved me away once she finished my hair and Harry squeezed my bum as he slid by, still half naked. 

“You alright, lad?” Louis came over and sat down next to me on the couch. I knew the boys all knew when I wasn’t in the mood, but Louis was the only one who ever confronted me about it. 

“M’fine.”

“Yeah, course you are.” He smirked. “What’s wrong, Malik?”

“S’gonna be the same old shit, y’know? All they care about is who Harry’s shagging and what happened between Perrie and I.”

“I still don’t understand why you won’t tell the truth, Zayn.”

“Cause m’not gonna do that to her. S’not fair for me to throw her to the wolves like that.”

“She cheated on you, mate! You don’t owe her anything.”

“M’not doin’ it, Lou. Love ya, mate, but m’endin’ this conversation.” I stood up after a pat to his back and just in time for Paul to usher us out and into the room we’d be interviewing in.

We all took our seats, Harry, Niall and I in the first three chairs and Louis and Liam behind us, and just as we did, the door opened and I couldn’t stop my eyes from bulging out of my sockets. The girl from the rooftop walked in, looking even more beautiful than she did last night. Black skinny jeans accented her long legs faultlessly, pointed heels making her a few inches taller and her blazer was, like, the perfect ratio of classy and sexy. She couldn’t have been older than twenty, but christ, she was so fit.

“Hello, y’alright?” Harry reached out to shake her hand and she smiled, then Liam, Lou and Niall offered their hands. When she came to me, I smiled and almost had a difficult time letting go of her slender fingers.

“I’m Rosie Janson, it’s nice to meet you boys, and Zayn, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Yeah, yeah. You too. You look, um, nice.”

“Thank you, all of you look great. Shall we get started?” I was grateful for the fact that we were completely alone besides her recorder. No cameras, no windows. Just the five of us and her. “So you boys are fifty-something shows into your fourth worldwide stadium tour, correct?”

“That is correct, yes.” Liam nodded.

“And how does it feel to know that tomorrow night will be the final concert? Do you look forward to going back home?” No. “Or is it sort of a bittersweet thing? Louis?”

“Yeah, I definitely thinks it’s more bittersweet, because we just have such a great time on the road…and it’s hard for us sometimes, like, we go from spending every waking minute together to like, nothing, do y’know what I mean?”

“I think so…now, do you see each other when you aren’t touring?”

“All the time, yeah, but just not as often as we get used to. Like I said, we go from sleeping in bunk beds to seeing each other a few times a month, so it’s a bit weird in that sense.”

“I feel like…we’re together…and then we’re not…” We all stifled our laughs at Harry’s way of putting it. 

“Right…” Rosie fought her smile, which happened to be very, very pretty. 

“No, no…what m’trying to say is, like, it’s hard, but at the same time, it’s always nice to just kind of relax and spend time with our family.” There we go, Styles. He always knew how to come around.