A typical day revolves around impulsive actions around the usual agenda. Zayn's schedule consists of school, lunch with a partner or alone sometimes, his job at the pet store, and going home for dinner.
Today is a bit off than the usual since he's promised Harry to attend his organization. Harry's single status club. A club in which single people join together to contribute stories and tips to benefit their individuality.
Even the idea makes Zayn groan, it seems pathetic. But hey, he's trying to grow a connection with Harry so if this leads him somewhere, he'll do it.
Zayn isn't sure if he's trying to date Harry or just be a friend again, but either way for the meantime, he'll do anything to have Harry around. He won't deny the uprising feeling around him. It's not like a complete romance attachment, he's just in general, always feeling ecstatic with Harry.
"Hope you remember we're baking cookies today. Meet me at the address I texted you alright? I'm buying some ingredients." Zayn listens to Harry's rants as he listens with his voice echoing on the speaker. Zayn hums as Harry talks about buying his own ingredients because he doesn't want to raid the community center's items in the kitchen.
The thought process in Zayn's mind is mainly revolving around how Harry is too sweet for his own good. The pure generosity, completely different than the way Zayn is. Zayn has hopes that Harry rub off on him. You know, the congenital hospitality.
Considering Zayn resides in the downtown district of California's San Obispo, a ton of recreational buildings surround him. Meaning that the community center is a few blocks away from his home, in the same street as their city college.
Zayn texts a brief message addressing his location, "Literally sitting in my car @ the front parking waiting for ur ass."
With his eyes peering over the dashboard, he sees a lanky boy carrying two paper bags, struggling to retrieve the pull door knob. "Oh klutzy Hazzy." Zayn beams to himself before getting out his car and doing a silly little chase to the singles club leader.
"Oh my god!" Harry gasps in fear when Zayn snatches the bag at him, Zayn takes off his sunglasses and flashes a smile to him, "It's only me! Here to save the day... Again!" Zayn chuckles at the constant memories of helping Harry in his numerous odd situations.
"Hey Zayn! Thank you, but you did startle me there. Come, were on floor two, Room B." Zayn opens the door for the two of them and allows Harry to lead the way as the two hold the grocery bags on opposing hands, letting their inner hands brush against one another from time to time. Nope, no electricity in my veins whatsoever─ at least that's what Zayn wants to convince himself.
When the two get there, Harry peeps in the large windows, "So here's my meeting room. Now we're going to have to go back downstairs into the kitchen. Totally forgot, there's something I need to do!"
These are the things that ensue Zayn to call Harry a klutz. The way he forgets little things in his plans like this, the way Harry's knees buck as is he's a little deer whilst trying to get too much done at once.
In this case, Harry was midway to opening the door until he remember that he had to make cookies. This made Harry's knees go all boneless. Zayn will always catch him before he falls, never a hesitation, more of a reaction without a thought. "Yeah, cookies."
"Right! To the kitchen." Harry strikes a finger into the air, skipping to the stairs as he points with a prance, "Come, follow!"
While Zayn follows the childish life of the party, he admires the white walls with abstract paintings that give the setting some color. Despite there being miscellaneous plants and statues, it works just as much as it doesn't belong.
It feels comfortable in this community center and truthfully, Zayn doesn't mind if he has to attend one of these organizations again.
There are so many vacant rooms. Some as if it's a dance studio, and tons with tables and chairs. Then there's pool table rooms, ping pong, computer labs.
It's understandable why Harry would love this. Harry is social, outgoing, the brightest star out there. Zayn still doesn't understand why he let Harry slip out of his hands back when they were young. He knows why, but doesn't understand it.
"Zayn?" Harry whispers, "Kitchen is this way." Zayn observes the way Harry giggles, his nose scrunch to the squints his eyes turn into as if the sun is shining too bright for his sight, and how could he forget the dimples that Zayn constantly craved to poke a pinky at.
"Yeah! Kitchen. Floor one, hmm, Room C?" Zayn points to a random door that's closed causing Harry to shake his head, "No, it's actually just Kitchen. Just like the room with books is a Library." Harry puts a thumb on Zayn's wrist, wrapping his slim fingers completely.
"Getting sassy on me, Styles? Yeah?" Zayn ends up confidently striding toward the kitchen. It's not like he knows how to navigate his way around this foreign in place but the signs above them with arrows does help.
"Zayn! How do you─" Before Harry can question, Zayn points at the directory sign and gives Harry a grin before piloting their steps.
When they stand in front of broad two glass doors, Harry opens it first this time and the two set their bags onto the counters. "Okay, brief tour. Fridge, oven, sink." Harry points around and Zayn isn't sure if he's being sarcastic or if this introduction is pure knowledge from Harry to Zayn.
"Right and let me guess, dishwasher?" Zayn announces as he tugs on the handle near the oven. "No silly, that's a microwave." Out of dismay and embarrassment, Zayn scratches the back of his neck nervously, releasing a tiny, "Oh. Yeah, I knew that."
Harry takes charge, almost like the last time when they made vegetable patties. All these multiple orders and statements Harry tosses at Zayn has him perplexed. Zayn briefly mumbles to himself, "Eight table spoons of butter? Four cups of brown sugar? What the hell."
"Look, here just look at the ingredients. All I'm asking if for you to lay all the items out into the measuring cups. Teamwork!" Harry chants, categorizing the items to make it easier to find. From dry ingredients, to wet, Harry makes columns in the order he wants them so Zayn can measure for Harry's use later.
"Well what are you doing?" Zayn scoffs, teasingly of course because he could never actually be upset or irritated with Harry, that's only if it's a serious case. In which, their previous relationship hardly ever had fights or dramatic disputes.
"I just organized it to make it easier for you to find. I'll help you in a second!" Harry answers, retrieving a cute apron with cherries and bananas on it. "Okay, now I'm ready!"
Throughout the process, Zayn listens to every word coming out of Harry's lips, occasionally getting distracted by the way it moves though, both his lips and Harry's biceps as he stirs the dough in the large mixing bowl.
Zayn doesn't mind this, if they were still together, he's love for himself and Harry to make more meals together. Cooking like a proper, domestic couple. In the past, they've only done what Zayn likes. That including artistic stuff like Zayn needing Harry to pose for one of his paintings or photos he had planned. Sometimes they use to make music together as Zayn had one of those loop track pads and Harry attempted piano or guitar. But now it's cooking, and Zayn finds himself so fond of it, fond of Harry's happiness as he cooks.
"Alright! And now we wait." Harry directs Zayn to the oven where they put the trays of forty eight cookies into the oven that was previously preheated at three hundred fifty degrees. "I'm surprised we didn't have one of those cheesy, cliche powder fights like the movies or books."
To Harry's surprise, Zayn launches a handful of the baking flour right at Harry causing him to gasp. The boy starts to whimper, wiping his eyes and sniffle. Zayn isn't sure what to do, considering he's not the type of person to comfort people. "Harry, I'm so sorry!"
Before Zayn could bring his hand to Harry's eyes to wipe away the powdery mess that remain on his lashes, Harry releases a dark chuckle, "Ha!" Harry shouts, not really laughs, as he gains access to the whole powder bag and throws it on top of Zayn's head.
Zayn's eyes flicker above him to notice only little sprinkles of flour falling toward him, like a light dash of sprinkle on a spring day. "Yeah, ha, to you because I took majority of it."
The bag falls to the ground as Harry stomps on it. Zayn retrieves it from the ground and throws it into the garbage. "Sorry bout that. We have to clean the mess don't we?"
"Oh, it's fine. It was fun, even though I'm the messier looking one here. But uh, yeah I rented this kitchen for two hours so this is all on my watch. It's my duty to take care of this. My name is on papers so, you have to help." Harry rambles, already putting garbage into the disposal and the measuring cups into the sink.
Zayn finds a broom and tries to sweep whatever flour he can into it but he hears Harry chuckling in the background, more of teasing and mocking than an admirable tone. "Look, use a disinfectant wipe, not a broom."
"Oh, not only cooking but you want to tell me how to clean too?" Zayn huffs dramatically as he snatches the wipes from Harry to clear the floor and counter.
A buzzing sound goes off a few minutes later initiating the cookies being complete. "Gotta love these ovens. They bake so fast!" Harry chimes while he grabs mittens to take out one of the two trays. "Get the other one, will you?"
Zayn inches his arms out for the metal tray but Harry shouts, causing Zayn to flinch and stop his process, "What, Harry!" Zayn says worrisomely. "It's hot! Use mittens or an oven matt, Zayn."
"Right you are... again." Zayn chuckles just before Harry hands him his mittens. Zayn puts them off, laughing at how they look like sharks on his hands, but nonetheless he takes the tray out and places adjacent to Harry's tray.
Instead of waiting for the cookies to cool down, Harry pries them off the flat surface with a spatula and puts it in his cute container. Zayn insists he'll hold that instead of the milk because the handles are cold, and he may or may not get a head start at critiquing Harry's homemade cookies─ not actually Harry's homemade cookies though, since they made it together and at their recreation center's kitchen.
"Look, some members are already waiting outside!" Harry goes over to the door and unlocks it, allowing his fellow single men and woman to enter. Zayn stands and waves hello to the few who are passing by and entering.
With a little adjustments and preparation, Harry's alarm rings, signaling it's just the right time to start his organization. "Hi guys! I made cookies today to show you my appreciation and we have a new member today. The sweetest person I've ever met, aside from you guys of course! It's Zayn!"
Zayn gets a welcoming applause and he feels his heart caving in with a pure warmth, he likes the attention and their acknowledgement. For now, he appreciates this team but we'll see how it goes for him to determine if he'll come back.
"So, as you all know," Harry stands in the center of their little meeting circle as he walks around with such poise and confidence, "Camp is in exactly two weeks guys! Thank you for fundraising with me and I assure you that you'll have the best time. The purpose of this meeting today is to acknowledge some serious reminders."
Zayn sits patiently, listening to Harry, finding some interest in this club, if it's not too late, "Now I'm reminding you its best to pack now so by the time it comes, you'll be prepared and maybe have some extra things to pack that you forgot about. Also, I hope all your schedules are cleared as that should of been taken care of months ago."
Now for twenty minutes, as Zayn intently gazes follows Harry, eyes within every inch of him, every step he takes, all the hand gestures he presents, Zayn takes note of how determine and dedicated, how devoted Harry is into this club. He's so young, and already one hundred percent organized, he knows what he's doing, being so informative, yet silly, making everything so excited and makes the best leader out there.
It only allures Zayn in even more, as he already knows, he's coming back again. Maybe for Harry, maybe to test the waters if he can be single and not need anything else besides the friendship of others. It's probably just to hear Harry talk endlessly about his passion.
"So, how'd you like my club?" Harry questions while waving to the members leaving, around fifteen people took part in attendance so Zayn is quite surprised, impressed yeah, this is something that Harry's got to be proud of.
"At first, you made this club seem like a group for people to get off with each other, but I do like it. You seem really happy here." Zayn mentions with a hand on Harry's shoulder, patting it comfortably.
Harry only cringes dramatically with a scrunched nose which makes Zayn beam and bop Harry's nose with his pointing finger. "So you want to go to get frozen yogurt. Saw it across the street from here."
"Yeah! Totally. Are you any good at photography or something? For my final, I need to know each and everyone one of the itty bitty parts of a camera and their purposes. We learned that so early in the year and just stopped talking about it! I need to refresh my memory." Harry rambles, murmuring different components of a camera and sighing because he doesn't know what it does for the camera.
"If you can help with literature, I can help with photography." And like that, Zayn doesn't know what he's doing in this relationship with Harry, but he's still sure that Harry is all good, all around, in perfect honors as his friend.
012217 written
012817 published