Daisies • Zarry

16. Questioning

"Maybe you should think about why it's so hard for you to be around me then."

Zayn knew exactly why it was so hard for him, but he just wanted to know what Harry expected him to do about it. Cave in and keep having this illicit affair behind Elias' back? Hang out with him and flirt with him the whole time while holding back the urge to rip his clothes off every second he was in Harry's captivating energy? Break up with Elias for someone who couldn't even open up about how he was actually feeling? None of these solutions were ones that Zayn was willing to choose because each one held the very heavy possibility that Harry could end up hurting him in the end, and Zayn was not about to take that chance.

The following weekend Zayn found himself on a double date with Elias, Griffin and his boyfriend Julian. They all went out to Dave and Busters in Times Square, which was a sports bar with bowling, billiards and an arcade and Elias had sold Zayn on the idea when he mentioned the word arcade, because Zayn was such a kid at heart and loved games. Zayn had been sitting at the Ghost Busters two person shooter game next to Elias, shooting every ghost he saw on screen and trying not to laugh at how horribly Elias was losing against him.

"You're cheating!" Elias exclaimed, missing the next ghost.

"No I'm not," Zayn responded, giggling. "How can I even cheat? You're just bad at this game."

"No kidding. I can't even get one," he said, shaking his head.

"That's okay. Maybe you should go find something easier, like Candy Crush," Zayn teased as the allotted time ran out and an impressive WINNER: 107 ghosts flashed on the screen.

They emerged from the shooting booth and Zayn's eyes scanned the arcade, searching for his next game as Elias came up behind him, squeezing his hips and giving him a small kiss on the cheek.

"I'm going to go get another drink," he said. "Be back in a bit."

Zayn nodded as Elias walked away to the bar where Julian and Griff were sitting. He couldn't have gone with him because Zayn wasn't able to drink out in public yet, since he wasn't 21, but Elias and his friends were, so he decided to go walk around aimlessly while he waited. A few kids ran by him laughing, holding a tremendous amount of tickets and Zayn smiled at them and how joyful they seemed. He wished that he had been able to go somewhere like that as a child, but nobody ever took him anywhere, and he vowed that if he ever had kids one day, he'd take them places and let them have fun.

He stumbled upon a long line of Mario Kart games and decided to race solo in the mean time. He took a seat on the mock go-kart seat and inserted his card, waiting for it to start up, when he noticed someone sit down beside him, someone with long, curly, light brown hair and one of those side profiles he'd recognize anywhere.

"Wanna race?" Harry asked, smirking as he inserted his card into the game.

New York City was literally the biggest city in the United States and yet somehow he just so happened to be at the same place as Harry, on the same night, and he could hear the universe snickering in his face at the odds.

"Sure, but be prepared to lose," Zayn quipped back as he chose his go-to character, which was Toad, and he looked over to see that Harry had chosen Princess Peach.

"Really?" Zayn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, really. What do you have against Princess Peach? What did she ever do to you?"

"Alright then," Zayn responded, laughing to himself.

Once the race started Zayn slammed his foot on the gas, whizzing by Harry as he intently, and very seriously, planned on beating him. This was Zayn's game. He was the master of Mario Kart and never lost, but he kept glancing over at Harry every few seconds, who was also staring at the screen, biting down on his bottom lip and squinting, maneuvering by the banana that Zayn had planted in an attempt to mess him up.