Daisies • Zarry

15. It's hard being around you

NOTE: TW// This chapter has a suggestive sexual abuse scene in it, so please proceed with caution.

"So...tell me all about Elias," Doniya said as they sat together on the couch later that night.

"He's really nice," Zayn replied. "He's smart, caring. Really good looking."

"Do you have a picture of him?"

"Yeah," he said and took out his phone, scrolling through his camera roll to find a selfie that they took, and he showed it to Doniya who broke out into a grin and snatched the phone from Zayn, zooming in on the picture.

"Wow he's so hot," she said. "Damn."

"Stop it," whined Zayn, trying to grab the phone back from her, but she kept clutching it in her hand, laughing.

"And he likes you?" she teased.

"Shut up," he retaliated and watched as she scrolled over to the next photo in his camera roll, which happened to be a silly picture of Harry posing against the wall at Daisies that Zayn had taken awhile ago.

"Who's this?" Doniya asked and Zayn finally was able to grab his phone from her.

"Someone who works at the coffee shop I go to," Zayn said casually.

"Wait, let me see it again," she urged and Zayn rolled his eyes, showing her the picture of Harry in his Rolling Stones t-shirt, messy curls, making a thumbs up with his mouth open, holding a cup of coffee.

"Is he a friend of yours? He's hot too, in like this rockstar kind of way. Why are all the guys in your life so hot? Maybe I should move to New York..."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Zayn quipped back.

"I'm just joking," she said, settling back into the couch.

"And yeah, he's a friend of mine. His name is Harry," he said, his cheeks turning red as he gazed upon the picture of him and Zayn smiled to himself without even realizing it.

"You're blushing! And why are you smiling like that!?" Doniya asked, nudging him.

"You like him."

"What? No I don't," Zayn fired back, shutting off his phone and tucking it back into his pocket. "I have a boyfriend."

"Yeah but you like him," she teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

"How do you know?"

"Because nobody looks at a picture of someone like that unless they like what they're looking at," she said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Is he gay too?"

"I..." Zayn said, feeling called out by his own sister who was not only refreshingly supportive of his sexuality, but also now way too observant for her own good. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Interesting," she said with a smirk, twirling her hair.

"So how did you know I was gay?" Zayn then asked, trying to veer the subject somewhere else, and still feeling surprised that she had said she always knew.

"Because I could tell you had a crush on Seb," she replied, and Zayn felt himself growing cold when she said his name out loud.

* * * * *

Other than his harmless, school boy crush on that football player named Ben, Sebastian was the first boy that Zayn ever really liked in a real way. He was Zayn's neighbor and his family was good friends with his mom. They spent a lot of time over at Zayn's house, and Sebastian's mom, Marilyn, would watch him and his sisters and help out around the house while Zayn's mom worked, and she'd always bring Sebastian with her.