Three months later
Zayn trained harder than he ever had before, to get into the best shape he had ever been in and it certainly was not going unnoticed.
"Zee?" Niall jogged up to Zayn after a particularly rough practice. He panted and took a deep breath as soon as he had caught up to Zayn, but he wasn't in the mood so Niall had to, again, jog up to him. "Hey, really good game. You're kicking our arses out there."
"Thanks." Zayn kept his eyes forward and took a long gulp of water from his bottle.
"Hey, I -"
"I told you not to worry about or speak about it ever again. Drop it."
"Zayn, I am sorry. I just want you to know that I still care and hope that we're still friends."
"We're still friends." Zayn said, but said it as if for the sake of shutting Niall up. "See you tomorrow."
"I -" Niall was about to apologise yet again but Zayn stopped him.
"Stop! Listen, we.are.fine." Zayn said gripping onto his duffel bag strap for dear life.
Niall's nervous eye darted everywhere but Zayn's face and landed on his clenched hand that was close to his chest. "You're getting married? Holy shit, congratulations. When?"
Zayn's nostrils flared in anger and confusion until he realised that Niall had spotted his gold band.
"In a couple of weeks."
"To uhm..to -"
"To GiGi, yes." Zayn tried not to snap at him. "So there's your official invite, wouldn't invite you just for the sake of it. Right?"
"...Right, yea. Right. Alright, uhm, congrats again." He said awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "I'll see you around, then."
This entire situation concerning the 'love triangle' was a complete mess and mostly everyone close to Zayn and Harry could see that but couldn't say anything about it, so instead they trudged around them on eggshells letting whatever was going to happen, happen.
"Malik!" Zayn rolled his eyes when he heard someone call his name from behind him.
Dammit I just want to go home.
"Yea coach?" He turned around.
"Scouts have been watching you lately,"
Fuck.
"Specifically from Manchester United."
Zayn almost dropped his bag.
"Now, you almost blew your shot with that little stunt you pulled, but for some odd reason they persisted and kept eyes on you.. And you've done well, improved on your attitude as well as your skills. Now, you know it's not easy to get a spot on their academy, but they want to offer you a trial run and see how it goes."
This time, Zayn did drop his bag. His hands went to rest on his head in disbelief. "Are you having a laugh?"
"Does it look like it, lad?" Coach Anderson laughed and gave him a rather firm pat on the back. "Do not mess this up for yourself, Zayn. You're brilliant. It's what you've wanted now go and prove your worth to them, okay?"
"I promise I will - I mean," Zayn pinched the bridge of his nose. "Show them my worth, not blow the shot -" Zayn rambled and picked up his bag. "Thank you. Thanks coach." He must have said 'thanks' about a millions times before coach Anderson practically had to walk him to his car and shove him in it.
This is it. What he longed for since he was young and it was suddenly right in arms reach.
***
"I think I'm going to move out."
Louis was busy sitting on the lounge floor scribbling down some points for his thesis when Harry spoke. His pen jerked awkwardly making him mess up the last word in the sentence once Harry spoke. "Why?" He asked and looked up to Harry who was on the couch.
"Think I should just start fresh with everything." Plus there were a lot of memories here. He swears that he could still smell Zayn on his sheets no matter how many times he had washed them, could still see him gazing out of his window at the cars passing by below them. There was just too much Zayn and not enough of himself. "Look at it this way, Gemma could either move in, you go move in with her? Whatever you guys want." Harry shrugged.
"I don't want that yet. I'm happy with the way things are you know? ... Don't wanna rush it or anything." Louis said and pulled a displeased face.
"Well don't go making your face like that." Harry laughed at him. "Think you don't like her anymore."
"No, no. It's not that. I do." He clicked his pen. "...I'll probably just get a smaller place."
"Lou, I'm sorry -"
"It's alright, Haz. There's nothing to be sorry about. It's not like we would've been roommates for life anyway." He said with a crooked smile. "Besides I understand it must be hard with...you know who and stuff..so yea."
"Yea. You can say his name you know, it's alright." Harry pouted slightly and smiled showing that he was okay with it.
Neither of them had said that this was a breakup, but just like they knew they had entered a relationship with each other without declaring it one, both Zayn and Harry knew that whatever they had had come to its untimely end.
"You know," Louis pulled his knees up to his chest. "I should have hit him harder."
That made Harry smile and then mock glare at Louis. "No Lou. You know how I feel about violence."
"Have you looked around for a new place yet?" Louis asked.
"Kind off.. Uhm, remember I told you about that prep school that said they'd get back to me on the position? Well, they called and looks like I'm going to be their new school counsellor."
"Aw, mate. That's great! Congrats, man."
"Thanks." Harry chuckled. "So yea, I'll look for a place closer to the school and see how everything goes."
"Well, I hope. When do you start?"
"In two months."
"Well, you know that you can stay here for as long as you need."
"Thanks, Lou. I know."
But he wouldn't. Harry searched high and low for a one bedroom apartment that he could afford and when he finally found one, he jumped at the opportunity to take it and had moved out of his shared apartment with Louis in under a month.
This is good. More time to focus on you. Just you. Be selfish for once, Harry, because sometimes that's what you need to do just for a short while.