'You Are' - GOT7
Unedited
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Zayn slammed his book shut. Enough revision for this week. It was now the beginning of June, so his AS exams had begun. And he had only begun revising in April. He wasn't too concerned though - it was his A Level exams next year that would count. Only colleges made this mandatory. External candidates didn't do AS. Lucky bastards.
Syra seemed different. Her face was more round and glowy. He was glad she had gained a few kilos, she had seemed rather frail when he had met her. Her cheeks were rosy too. Shortly after their nikkah she had begun vomiting out certain foods, craving others at random times.
Now they weren't stupid. They had used no protection the first few times - now they did - and Syra had refused any hormonal contraceptives. He hated the feeling of the condom with all his heart, but theyv went at it like rabbits and he couldn't become a father just yet. And she already had heavy periods so an IUD wasn't ideal. So they resorted to condoms afterwards. But she could be pregnant from the first few times, so she took a pregnancy test shortly afterwards. It came negative but she still ate random stuff.
It wasn't until her period arrived that they could sit in peace. Her period came about a week delayed than usual, but that was probably just her cycle readjusting. They knew one day they would have kids, they wanted a big family and planned out their names, but they were both so young. And they weren't independent. Right now they focused on their education then support themselves financially.
But then her sickness came again in April. They were baffled - how could the pregnancy test be faulty? She had tried three different brands, and they had all been negative. And if she had been pregnant, she would be about six months right now, so she would definitely be showing. Syra refused to go for a scan because she was scared of them being found out. Zayn had disagreed - people over sixteen were permitted to engage in sexual activities. Anyone under that age would be in trouble even if it was consented by both. So she had taken another five more pregnancy tests. Still negative. So they had both decided to tell their mums once the exams were over.
Syra had only recently begun talking to Ilyas again. After that day she ignored him. He didn't even try to talk to her for a bit, he only begun pestering her recently so she gave in. Even then she reminded him to put him in his place. Zayn didn't talk about it to either of them; he didn't think it was his place.
His street fights had also been going smoothly. He had earned a great amount of money, he was sure he would reach his target very soon. But that was only for a house. He also needed money for a decent car and him and Syra's university fees. And still other shit too. He just wanted at least 500k before he quit this and only relied on a legal job.
The increasing money was getting hard to hide - he couldn't just submit large amounts of cash into his account like that. He didn't have no job, so he would just dredge up a story about how his dad spoiled him when handing over the likes at the front. He even wore more expensive clothes and ditched his usual roadman accent for a cockny one. He had accounts in different banks, so not all of it was in one.
Some men from his town had gotten arrested. For drugs and whatnot. His name was given too, but only as an 'acquaintance' of Rafaels. So they had done a urine drug test which he obviously came clean. But then they came back for a hair one, because of some claims the others had brought forward. Yet he still came clean. And he had long gotten rid of his vape pen. He didn't need it anymore as he was no longer feeling the effects of craving nic.
Zayn Latinos up and stretched his arms up, sighing at the feeling of bliss. Both of his hands were cramping from writing so much - he was ambidextrous. He dragged his feet across his room and flopped down on the bed, too lazy to go downstairs and grab some dinner. He grabbed his phone to go through his texts. Just a few from his friends, which he responded to. None from Syra. She had practically ignored him the whole week at college and ignored his messages. Well tomorrow was Friday so he would be bringing her to his house, so they could discuss why she was ignoring him. It irked him a lot- why couldn't she just say what she had a problem with? Not telling him what the matter was made him want to bang his head repeatedly into the wall.
Whatever, he thought.
He would sleep now and fret about it tomorrow when he saw her.
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College had ended for today. Zayn hurried out, trying to look for Syra. They had completely different subjects so they weren't together while in class, and they studied in different buildings. But they always were together for lunch at the same spot. Yet she had not been there.
Fuck my life, Zayn never felt so frustrated.
He headed out to the front grounds in hopes to find her there. He jogged outside, heading to the centre. He swivelled his head around until he spotted her and her friends huddled together in a group. Relief courses through him. He went in their direction but was stopped.
"Ay you man right dere!" called out a voice behind him.
Zayn stopped and turned to see if it was him who was being addressed. A guy with mussed up brown hair stood there, glaring at him.
Who the fuck is he? Zayn felt as if he had seen his face before, but he couldn't quite place where. Probably because he was irrelevant.
"Me?" Zayn replied, pointing to himself.
"Yeah, you." the fella responded, walking towards him.
"Tf you want?" Zayn demanded, pissed as fuck.
"Listen, you betta stop taking all the effing fights. There's nothing for anyone else-"
Zayn interrupted him,
"I don't. I'm given a few and leave the rest. I don't even come first, so people choose before me too. Not my fault you only go for certain people. I don't even see those imma be against before the actual day. So shut the fuck up and get over it. If you gotta problem, you can always replace them and we'll see how this ends,"
It was true. Zayn didn't give a flying fuck about his opponents. But brown hair over here didn't seem to understand that. He scoffed, his face twisting into a scowl.
"How about now?" he spat and with that he shoved Zayn's shoulders back.
Hard. But luckily Zayn didn't stumble. What was this little pipsqueak going to do to him? He was like half his size. So Zayn shoved him back, not that hard, but with enough force to send him stumbling a few steps back.
This angered Pipsqueak greatly. His face twisted and he came forward, throwing fists at Zayn. He dodged them easily - man was just swinging blindly. Zayn didn't hit him just pushed his arms whenever he came at him.
But he caught Zayn in his jaw. Pipsqueak stopped his assault for a moment, grinning in satisfaction. Now Zayn was pissed. With all the frustrations from Syra and his exams building up, he flipped.
He shoved the guy into the ground and kicked and him then pummelled into his face repeatedly, taking out his anger. Another blow. Again. Again. Again.
His was roughly yanked back by some people.
"...Zayn, oh my god, Zayn," he finally registered her calling him.
She knelt by his side and looked at him. He wanted to laugh and push her away - he wasn't even scratched. Instead he stood up quickly and marched out the gates with a firm grip on her arm. He turned into the side street and pushed her against the wall and caged her. Now he could interrogate her without her running.
"What the hell, Zayn! You can't just go beating random people to a pulp-" she started.
"He hit me first. I dunno who he is. But if he hit me first he asked for it." he said monotonously.
"Look, I know that. I'm saying this because they aren't gonna care if he instigated it - all they gonna see are his injuries which you caused. And you came out scratch free. You see how that puts you?" she reasoned calmly.
She was still panting for some reason. He noticed that happened a lot nowadays. She was short of breath quickly, and she got tired quickly. This illness of hers was really worrying him.
Zayn didn't say anything but just leaned into her, pulling her to him and resting his chin on her head. His mind was a mess and he needed to sort out his thoughts before he spoke. After a few minutes he moved her back against the wall so he could speak to her.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked.
"Why do you think?" she replied curtly.
I don't know.
"You tell me," he responded coolly.
"No because I'm gonna tell you, you gon realise and just apologise and carry on. Realise your mistake on your own,"
"Syra, I really don't know! I haven't done anything wrong to you, or said anything. In fact I've been too caught up with my fights to have time for tha..." he trailed off, realising.
He had been too caught up in his fights. They didn't speak much, and if it was he would just be telling her how much her earned. Then college and exam stuff. And then he would nag her about telling her mum soon about the illness or he would.
"It's like you're just obsessed with saving money. You don't need to worry about that right now, that's for when you get a proper job," Syra complained.
Zayn didn't respond. Yeah, he was getting a little over the top with the fights, but he just wanted to move out as soon as possible. But he knew he would have to stop this sooner as to later and get an actual job. Even if the income was less.
"Okay, I can't stop it just right now, but I promise I will stop by the time I'm done with college. During the gap year, Imma focus on getting an actual job. I'm sorry I've been too caught up with my stuff,"
"It's like we've not had a good conversation since Eid,"
Ramadan had come at the start of April, so both of them focused on fasting and studying. But they did it together, and they just enjoyed each others company even if they weren't talking. They had a nice Eid in the beginning of May before they got caught up with their stuff. Well it was mostly him. Syra knew the right balance. He needed to work on that.
"Let's go back to see if they gon suspend you or not," Syra spoke after a bit.
Man. He'd forgotten about that.
"I hope they don't. Ammi's gon kill me."
Syra just laughed, shaking her head
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"This is so unfair. Wtf bruvvvv. He legit started it and I'm the one who gets more suspension!" Zayn raged in his room.
He was with Shahzad. Turns out it was him who was one of the guys who pulled him back. Zayn grabbed the tennis ball again and threw it against the wall, catching it as it bounced back.
"He called me a p@ki as well. Right in front of them. And they didn't do jack. They all racists. The bloody lot of them," he continued.
Zayn hated being called a p@ki. It wasn't just a shortened version of Pakistani, it was a derogatory racial slur used by white British. It came about after the colonisation of the British India (nowadays Pakistan, India & Bangladesh combined) ended in 1947, so a lot of people from these countries were brought to help build Britain back after the war, and after migration begun. South Asians, regardless of whether they were Pakistani or not, were subjected to racist attacks, in which they were beaten, they're property destroyed even killed while being called p@kis, which brought about p@ki-bashing. So it always angered him when people just disregarded the whole history behind a slur. If anyone who wasn't Pakistani called him a p@ki, he'd answer with a swing to the jaw.
"There's nothing you can do about it now," Shahzad said resignedly.
Zayn just knew this wouldn't be the last time he would see the little pipsqueak.
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I've gained four kilos because of these Lockdown restrictions in London. Like in quarantine I was busy losing weight but now I gained it back. It's even harder to get rid of now that I can't go out. And I can't let my fam knw im losing weight cuz imma get mocked for it. So I lock my door and exercise and say I'm avoiding junk foods for my menstrual health. Which is true because my period don't come for months. Idek anymore.
2240 words.