"Hi, Zayn? I'm Julia, um Harry's friend? He told me you could maybe help me with my art project. If you're not too busy," Julia rambles all of it out in one breath, but doesn't stop there. "I don't want to bother you and I know Harry's too nice to tell me if I would so I just want to put it out there that you can say no."
Zayn interrupts her kindly, "Hey, no it's okay. I'm not busy, was just playing a game on my phone."
"Oh," she says and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. "Well if you want to relax I don't want to interrupt. Sorry," she starts to turn around but then Zayn laughs.
"You're a nervous one aren't you?" He teases with a perfect smile.
She blows out a laugh, maybe taking the first deep breath since she approached him. "What gave me away?"
"Just a hunch," he shrugs and starts packing up his things from the table in the common room. "I have a studio downstairs if you'd like I can help you there.
"If you don't mind," she says, picking up some of his garbage and throwing it away for him.
"Thank you and trust me I don't mind at all," he says kindly.
They engage in some small talk as they make their way to his studio. It doesn't take them long and Zayn is a perfect gentleman, holding doors open and gently guiding her in the right direction.
He opens the door, "It's really messy, if I'm honest, but it works for me."
"No worries," she smiles at him. "Do you know Harry's roommate, Louis?" Zayn nods so she continues, "He is messy. This is just a creative space, it wouldn't spark inspiration if everything was in a certain place."
"That's very kind and a good point too," he says, clearing up some space for the two of them to sit. "So, what's your project about?"
"It's about capturing light and it seems so simple, but I'm just not sure how to do that. Sorry I probably should have figured that out before I came here," she says.
"Love, you don't have to keep apologizing," he says, carefully reaching his hand out to put on her arm. "I'm more than happy to help you figure out what to do. What medium are you supposed to use? Can it be phonography or paint or?" He trails off.
"Yeah it can be anything really as long as we make it or take it ourselves," she explains.
"Okay and what do you prefer?" He asks.
"I think photography would be easiest, but if we take a photo and then paint from the reference picture we can get extra credit," she fiddles with the hem of her cardigan, "And I could use it."
He smiles at her kindly, "Sounds good, now light is pretty easy, comes from lots of places. If you have anything specific in mind let me know, but there's the sun or the moon even, flash lights, tail lights, light bulbs," he says, rattling off as many things as he can think of.
"Fairy lights?" She suggests.
"Yeah, we can definitely work with those. Do you have any?" He asks.
"No, but Louis does. I'm sure he'd let me borrow them for a bit," she shrugs.
"Yeah, I'll go with you if that's alright. He borrowed my phone charger the other day and forgot to give it back," he explains.
Julia smiles, "Oh, so you're friends then?"
"Yeah, bout a year now. He's actually how I met Harry," Zayn explains.
She nods and they make their way upstairs again and down the hall to Harry and Louis'. She's been there countless times. The boys are very kind to her, treat her like she's their sister. Harry makes her meals and Louis bothers her like no one else can, but she loves them both dearly.
They let her cuddle with them after a bad date or stay over when her roommates away so she doesn't have to sleep in her room alone. Louis has quite the sweet tooth so they always have a freezer stocked with ice cream which she really appreciates.
Her train of thought is interrupted when they reach the boys room, decorated with a sparkly blue L and a matching green H courtesy of Harry.
"Lou? You home?" She asks, knocking on the door.
Louis swings the door open with a wide smile, "Jules, hey." He pulls her into his arms for a quick hug and then ushers her into the dorm room with an arm around her shoulder. "Hey Zaynie," he calls over his shoulder. "What brings you two here?"
"Give me back my charger Loulou and why don't I get such a kind greeting?" Zayn pouts.
"Oh come here mate, don't worry I love you too," he says dramatically, kissing Zayn's cheek.
"Ew!" Zayn yells.
Julia giggles and lays on Louis' bed watching the pair as Louis begrudgingly finds the charger and gives it back to Zayn.
When he's done he hops up on the bed and cuddles into her, resting his head on her stomach as she rakes a rand through his hair.
"Can I borrow your fairy lights for an art project?" She asks him.
He leans his head up to look at her. "Course you can. That why you're hanging out with him then?"
"Yeah and because I'm cool," Zayn says, sitting down on the bed by Louis' feet, who in turn digs his toes into Zayn's thigh just to annoy him.
"Sure mate," Louis says with a roll of his eyes. "Alright, Zayn wanna help me get them down? Jules you just relax," he says with a kiss to her forehead, already getting to work on the lights.
"What is she a princess?" Zayn laughs, he's not rude, more just teasing.
Louis looks back at him with a serious face and a shrug, "Yes."
They stay only for a few more minutes, Julia doesn't want to take up too much of Zayn's time, he's already being so generous.
When they get back to the studio her eyes are immediately drawn to a mason jar, a bit of a literal translation but how better to capture light than to literally capture it.
"Okay so this might sound corny," she starts out, quite a bit more relaxed than when she first met Zayn.
"No idea is a bad idea," he says kindly.
"Well, that surely isn't true," she scoffs.
"Yeah? What do you mean by that?" He asks with a chuckle.
"Just that a friend of mine once thought I'd be a good idea to eat mentos and drink a 2 liter of coca cola so I've seen bad ideas," she explains.
"Oh my gosh what happened?" Zayn asks.
"Zayn you do not want to know," she says with a grimace and shiver.
"Alright fine, there are bad ideas. What's your idea then?" He smiles at her.
She returns it and picks up the jar, "If I could borrow this, maybe we can capture the light."
"That's actually a really good idea. Nice play on words," he says, taking the jar and turning it around in his hands.
Zayn helps her arrange the lights inside the jar so it spreads around evenly and then turns the lights off in the studio so it shines better.
He holds it up as he tries to figure out where the best place to put it is, but she stops him. "Can you hold it just like that?"
"Here by my face?" He asks, his brows furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, if you don't mind," she shrugs. She moves around a bit until she gets the perfect picture, the shadows cast on his face and make him look like he's glowing too. "Here," she hands him the camera so he can see it for himself.
"This looks great Julia! You really have an eye for this stuff," he tells her excitedly.
"Maybe it's just the model," she shrugs and he smiles at her. "Thank you so much for your help today Zayn, I really appreciate it."
"Of course! Come back any time, I enjoyed spending time with you," he says earnestly.
"Yeah," she blushes and looks down to hide it, "I did too. Enjoy spending time with you, not myself."
"You're alright love. I knew what you meant," He says warmly.
Julia gathers up her things and turns to Zayn again before leaving because honestly she doesn't want to go, but she can't think of an excuse to stay.
"Maybe I could give you my number, in case you need more art help," he looks a bit awkward as he scratches the back of his neck, "Or just in general if you ever want to hang out or something."
She pulls her phone out of her pocket and hands it to him, "Yeah, I'd like that."
"Okay, cool. I texted myself so I'd have your number. Hope that's alright," he says, handing the phone back to her.
"Course. See you soon," she says, waving goodbye to him.
She's about 30 seconds out the door when her phone beeps. The text reads: Is now too soon to ask you to lunch?
She's really happy she had to do this art project.