"Zayn? " Liam mumbled, utterly confused as to why he was here when he should be on the field, practicing.
Zayn looked at him with such adoration in his eyes. He thinks to himself, 'Is it weird that I just love the way he says my name? ' He shook his head, mentally cursing himself for having such a weird thought.
"Hey, Li. I came here to pick you up, coz Louis is busy with Harry, they're going to the mall . So I'll be your driver for the day. So tell me your highness, shall we go? " He says cheekily, loving the way Liam's cheeks tint red.
Liam tried to hide his blush because never has Zayn used his nickname and did he just try to flirt with him, he was not sure, as that will be impossible because he is STRAIGHT!!
"Umm I-I'm done with today's practice, s-so yeah we can go" He said stuttering a bit.
Zayn came towards him and held his hand out. To say Liam was shocked would be an understatement. He couldn't believe what was happening.
Zayn was offering him to hold his hand. A privilege that only Perrie had. How many nights had he dreamt about this moment and when it was really happening, he couldn't move a muscle, he was in a shocked state.
"Hey, Liam! What happened? Come on we need to go" Zayn chuckled on seeing his reaction.
Liam hesitantly put his hand on Zayn's. The touch made shivers run down his spine as Zayn gave a gentle squeeze to their intertwined hands and with not much force helped him get up from his seat.
One person was witnessing this whole scene who was completely ignored by the other two lads. He didn't know why Zayn had to come and ruin their good time.
Jack cleared his throat when Liam got up and was packing his books back into his bag, Zayn finally let go of his hands.
"Liam, do you mind if we can go out and have some coffee? Louis won't be home till later, so you'll be bored. I can give you company and we can spend some time together also" Jack asked, hoping he would agree and won't go with Zayn.
Liam was about to reply when Zayn cut him off.
"You don't need to worry about him, whether he's alone or not. In fact I can give him company if you feel he's lonely, since I'm taking him home. " Zayn retorted, glaring daggers at Jack.
Jack huffed in annoyance, not liking a bit the way they both held their hands a minute ago.
"Do you want to go with him,or go home with me, Li? " Zayn asked with innocence in his voice.
Liam would surely turn into a puddle if Zayn keeps on saying his nickname with such fond in his voice. But he can't get his hopes up. 'Zayn is just being friendly, that's all' He reminds himself.
He looked back and forth from Zayn to Jack.
"I just wanna go home. It was a really tiring day and I want to rest a bit. Sorry Jack, we can meet later" Liam finally replied.
"Oh ok, no worries. We could go tomorrow if you like" Jack asked again with so much hope in his voice that Liam had to agree.
"Yeah tomorrow after practice, we could go" He said lifting his bag to his shoulder.
Zayn clenched his fists tight in anger, but kept a neutral face so he doesn't show Liam how he's actually feeling right now. How dare Jack ask him out, even if Liam rejected his offer and how can he agree when he doesn't even know him well. He wouldn't even spend more than a minute with Zayn when they are alone and would run off to his room, and now he agreed to meet that stupid Jack over coffee? Will they not spend enough time together while practicing, then why do they want more time?
All these questions were running in his mind and he didn't notice that Jack had left and they both were alone. Liam was looking at him with a confused look on his face.
"A-Are you o-okay? " Liam asked nervously, holding his bag strap tightly.
'Wow, now he stutters! What happened when stupid Jack was here? He didn't stutter then. Don't he even trust me? ' Zayn thought to himself.
"Zayn? " Liam called again.
Zayn snapped into the real world. "Yeah sorry, was just thinking about something" He replied.
He was hesitant that if he should offer to hold Liam's hand, the first time Liam was all shy. And maybe won't like it if he suddenly becomes so affectionate towards him, since they were not like buddies. Just normal friends.
"Thinking about what? " He asked curiously.
'You' Zayn thought but didn't dare say it.
"Just some things, you don't need to worry Li" He replied.
Liam blushed again at the nickname. Maybe he should get used to this so that he won't be a blushing mess everytime Zayn calls him 'Li'.
"Ok" He replied meekly.
"We should get going. I don't want your brother to yell at me for taking you home late" Zayn chuckled and went towards the door of the library, making sure the other lad follows him.
They reach the parking lot and he opened the passenger door for Liam to get in with a small smile on his face.
Liam mumbled a thank you, hoping Zayn doesn't see his red cheeks. He was not sure what happened to him today. Zayn has never been this way with him, or a matter of fact to anybody. Even Perrie who is his girlfriend.
Liam remembers, every time they go to watch a movie or to the mall with all their friends and if Perrie is also with them, he doesn't give any special treatment to her, just holding hands and maybe a kiss on the cheek. But no opening the door, or helping her to get up from her seat.
He was really confused and his mind was running like crazy trying to find the reason behind his behaviour, but he couldn't reach to a conclusion.
Zayn got into the driver's seat and started the car.
He puts on some music, he knows Liam likes because, of course he knows every little thing about him. But Liam doesn't need to know that.
He knows that Liam is a sucker for slow, rythemic music, he does listen to pop sometimes, but he'd rather go for romantic slow songs while reading his novels.
He knows Liam loves coffee with little bit of sugar and lots of cream. He knows he likes pizzas, burger, lasagna, noodles but isn't a fan of pasta, continental, Indian dishes, he doesn't like spicy food. He loves donuts, muffins, cupcakes ,his favourite is ice cream, that too vanilla, he could never say no to it.
He's a light sleeper, could easily wake up from Louis' yelling from the next room. He sleeps on time, but if he's reading a novel, he'll try to read as much as he can before falling asleep.
He sometimes sleep with his glasses on because he forgets to remove them after his reading. (He knows this because when they were younger, he used to sleepover at the Tomlinson's so the three boys used to sleep together. Louis and Zayn would play video games and Liam would fall asleep while reading a book. Louis has too many photos of him while sleeping with his glasses on and maybe Zayn also has a few, but nobody needs to know that).
Liam hummed the tune of the song currently playing, closing his eyes and resting his head on the window, for a moment forgetting that Zayn was there as well.
Zayn smiled at his boy, yes his boy. Coz he won't let stupid Jack take Liam away from him. Though he knew Jack wasn't a bad person, but he didn't get a good feeling around him. He was hesitant if Liam should continue in this competition with him.
Call it jealousy or anything, he didn't care because he was sure he couldn't trust Jack. He just couldn't.
They reached Liam's home in about 15 minutes and when he turned his head towards him, he couldn't help but coo at the sight.
Liam was sound asleep with little snores escaping his parted lips. Zayn's eyes were stuck at his plump, full lips that he licked his own lips watching them. He wanted to kiss those luscious lips so much that they'd be swollen from all the kissing they did. His curly hair fell over his forehead, making him even more cuter than possible.
He didn't want to wake him up and he wished time could just stop at this moment.
But he didn't have a choice, he could feel how tired Liam is, and should probably sleep on his bed more comfortably.
He poked his shoulder to wake him and Liam stirred in his sleep, blinking his eyes a few times before opening them fully, revealing those chocolate brown eyes that Zayn has fallen for.
Even through his glasses, his eyes are mesmerizing, no one can argue on that.
"Hey, we reached your home" He said gently.
Liam looked at his house and nodded. He got out of the car, Zayn doing the same. He walked Liam to the front door. He could literally feel his heartbeat racing with every second as they reached the door.
He could imagine this is how it would feel when they would come back from their first date. He hoped that he could get a chance to take Liam on a perfect date and treat him the way he deserves to be treated.
Liam opened the door noticing it was already unlocked, figuring his mum was home. He turned around to look at Zayn, who was again lost in his thoughts.
'What is wrong with him today? ' He thought to himself.
He cleared his throat to get Zayn's attention.
Zayn looked up at him and smiled.
"So Lou messaged me to take the car home. Tomorrow I'll pick you both up. I'll get going then".He said.
"So you're not coming to 'keep me company' " Liam asked, air quoting his words.
"Nah, I just said that to take him off your back. I knew you were exhausted from one look at you" He answered sincerely.
"Well thank you for that, and goodbye, and thank you for the ride" Liam smiled genuinely. He could feel the awkwardness that used to be between them slowly disappear.
At that Zayn had a huge grin plastered on his face.
"Bye Leeeyum" He said, laughing at the way Liam scrunched his nose at the way he pronounced his name.
"That's not how you say my name" He huffed.
"Well get used to it coz from now on I'll call you Leeeyum only" Zayn chuckled.
"Ok call me whatever you want to" Liam replied smiling a bit.
"Ok bye again" Zayn waved a little, getting a wave in return.
With that Zayn turned around back to the car and started driving off the porch.
Liam smiled to himself. And got inside the house. His mum was in the living room watching TV.
"Hey honey, how was school? Where is your big brother? You were supposed to come together, right?" She asked, looking up from the TV.
"School was fine but I'm tired, just wanna take a nap. And Lou went to the mall with Harry. I don't know when he'll come back" He answered already wanting to get to his bed for his beauty sleep.
"Oh ok you go and rest. I'll bring some snacks for you later" She said getting up from the couch, making her way to the kitchen.
Liam went straight to his room, quickly changed his clothes into a pajama and a t-shirt, and got into his bed.
He then tried to make sense of today's events. How Zayn was acting so nice with him, not that he was usually rude or anything, they just didn't talk much, that's all, but the attention he gave Liam today, made butterflies flutter in his stomach.
He was at least happy that if they couldn't be together as a couple, they could become good friends. If friendship is the only relation they could have, he would cherish that friendship.
With these thoughts he drifted into his sleep, trying not to think about his crush and his heart warming smile.
...........
When Zayn reached home, his mood was pretty good. He talked to Liam today, both weren't awkward like they are, during all the other times they've talked before. Liam opened up a little to him and right now that's all he could ask for.
He entered his home and found none of his family there. His parents must be at work and his sisters must be at their friends, he thought.
He reached his room and threw himself on his bed, quickly realising how exhausted he was because half of the time he spent in school, he was practicing.
His phone dinged and he got it out of the back pocket of his jeans. It was a message notification from an unknown number.
He opened the message and sweat beads started forming on his forehead.
"Hey Malik, you know Liam might be an oblivious person to not understand what you just did today. But I'm not. How you held his hand, how you didn't want us to spend time together. I'm not blind you know.
But you know what,you can't come between him and me, no matter what you try. I will make Liam mine, one way or another.
And nobody can stop me from doing that. Not you, not his brother, not any of his friends. I will make sure of that.
I'm warning you the first and last time, don't come between us, or your little secret will be out in no time.
What will your girlfriend think, huh, when she'll know that her boyfriend is actually after a guy and forgot about her?
Or what the whole school will think that their star kid is actually gay and pretended to love a girl?
Will you be able to survive that, Zayn?
I'm telling you again, forget about Liam and all will go well. Otherwise... "
It was from Jack. Zayn's hands trembled as he registered the message in his brain.
Not knowing what to do, he called the one person, he knew would definitely help him.
The line rung about four times, when the person answered the phone.
"Perrie... "
............................................................................
Let the drama begin...