The first time Zayn ever moved out, it was to go away to college. So when he was preparing to live on his own, there were some things he didn't need to worry about buying. For example, a lawnmower. When he was staying at his tiny one bedroom apartment, the landlord hired landscapers to cut the grass on the regular. So he never had to worry about that. Now that he was on his own, his grass was his responsibility.
In order to take care of that responsibility and get his grass cut before it grew into a jungle and swallowed his home, Zayn had to borrow his father's lawn mower. On the bright side, Yaser's mower was a riding mower. So he didn't need to push by hand the way that Liam did when he cut Harry's yard last week. So he just happened to be riding that mower, when a small navy blue car pulled up in his driveway. He recognized the visitor right away and turned off the motor. Out stepped a man in glasses.
"Hey, Louis!"
"Hey!" He said excitedly and he made his way across the grass. "I see you have a trailer in the driveway."
"It's my dad's trailer." He said. "I borrowed his lawn mower so I can cut, ya know."
Louis finally walked up to him. "Yeah. I see. The yard looks good."
"Thanks but I'm only three quarters of the way finished. The front door is unlocked. So if you wanna go inside and chill, go ahead."
He put his hands in his pockets. "Sure. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Also, if you're thirsty, help yourself to whatever you find in the refrigerator."
He nodded. "Okay."
Louis walked off across the grass to get to the pathway and Zayn started the lawn mower again. As he cut, he was trying his best to register this. Louis was at his house. The last time Louis came to his house was at least four years ago. It felt kind of weird actually having him here after so long.
He finished mowing the yard as fast as he could, then parked the lawn mower on the side of the house. He had a ramp that he was supposed to use when he was ready to put it back up on the trailer, but he opted to wait and just do that tomorrow when he woke up.
When he came in the house, he found Louis sitting up on his living room couch.
"What's up Louis?"
"I just noticed these are the pillows you bought at the home decor store next to my job."
"Yeah. How did you know that?"
"I saw them in your bag when I hugged you that day."
"Oh. Good eye, Lou."
"So anyway, I know you weren't expecting me to show up here today."
He chuckled and held his hands out. "Of course not. But I'm excited to have you here. Feels like old times. What did you want?"
"Do you work in your dad's shop on Saturdays?"
He shrugged. "It depends. Although definitely not every Saturday."
"Well do you have to work tomorrow?"
"Nope."
"Let's hang out tonight, then."
Zayn frowned. "Hang out? Why?"
"So we can meet people. Sitting here by myself for twenty minutes only tells me how lonely it must be to live here. I mean I knew you didn't have your game systems and stuff anymore but I still didn't expect this level of boring. You should find you a girl to take up an evening of your time."
"I'm not lonely here. I'm just fine by myself. Plus I have a TV I can watch. Once I save up enough money, then I'll buy all the stuff I had before. But right now, I'm busy."
"Busy being boring? And you make fun of me having no friends?"
"Why do you care though? You don't even like girls."
He gasped. "I do too like girls! Just because I'm socially inept when it comes to them, it doesn't mean I don't like them. It just means I don't care to have a date right now."
"And neither do I."
"Who said anything about dating though? I said find you a girl to take up an evening of your time. One evening doesn't automatically imply dating."
Zayn let silence take over for a moment. "Well, yeah. That's true."
"So we should do that. I can get my nighttime loner on. And you can get your game on."
"Nighttime loner?"
"Yeah. Obviously I'm not going there to talk to any girls."
"No, I think you meant full time loner. Loner is not only applicable at nighttime when it comes to you."
Louis stood up from the couch. "Says the one who lives in this house. Let's go, man. But first, you need a quick shower and clothes with less grass stains. You're trying to attract a girl. Not repel all of them."
Zayn smiled and got up from the couch. "Alright, alright. Give me thirty minutes."
"Starting now."
He scrambled out of the living room and quickly went to the bathroom for a shower. As he let the water run over him, he tried planning the night. Get there. Find someone to talk to. Go home. His only plans. That will be his evening.
He was done and dressed very quickly and they were ready to go. They decided to go in separate cars so that they could each leave for home from there. And it was much easier to make that decision because neither of them had plans to get drunk. Zayn had his fill of that when he was in college and Louis... Well Louis never ever got drunk. So that was never a worry of his.
Besides not getting drunk, Louis didn't know much about night clubs other than the fact that going once made him really uncomfortable. So Zayn, although not opposed to it, agreed that going to a bar would be much better. At least if he ended up not finding a girl to spend his evening with, he'd still get a good meal out if it.
Much to his surprise, though it shouldn't have been at all, they ended up going to a bar they went to a few years back. Only then when they went, they weren't old enough to drink and they were accompanied by a couple older friends. It was still the same. The same shabby place with a strong onion smell that smacked the customers right in the face the second they opened the door. Even now, Zayn still wasn't sure if that was the onion from the kitchen or musk from the bodies that were packed into the small area like sardines.
With Louis following closely behind, they made their way to the bar and took a seat. The bartender came over and immediately asked Louis for an ID. Zayn thought he might need to show an ID as well, but as opposed to Louis and his clean-shaven face, his beard was a giveaway. And it was a good thing because he certainly didn't feel like retrieving his wallet from his pocket right now. For once, his beard worked in his favor.
As for their choice of alcohol, they went with beers. Zayn felt much like a child too, when he ordered chicken fingers with cheese fries. But his taste buds and stomach deemed him mature for his choice. It was just what his palate needed.
"It's so weird how nothing about this place has changed since the last time we came." Louis said. "They're due for a remodel."
"Yeah. And you know what's worse?"
"What?"
"I can't smell the onions anymore."
He turned his nose up but laughed. "That's awful."
"Yeah. Very." Zayn used a fork to pick up a cheese fry and popped it in his mouth. "But cheese fries make it better."
Just as he said that, there was a young girl that stood next to him at the bar. And her. She can make it better too.
"One Pineapple Cosmopolitan, please."
"You're with Tasha's group, right?" The bartender asked.
"Yes."
When she turned to face Zayn, he could see it in her face that something was wrong. She just didn't look that engaged. "That's a nice fruity drink you ordered."
She smiled and his conversation starter lit her brown eyes right up. She ran her fingers through her thick, dark, long and curly hair. "Yeah. Something different."
Her accent immediately struck him as different and it was then, that he realized she was a Latina. And a beautiful one at that. "I'd say it was a good choice but I don't really know. I've never had a Pineapple Cosmopolitan before."
She chuckled. "It is. I got drunk on my birthday last year and it was the worst feeling I've ever felt. I didn't intend to but my friends all said I'd enjoy myself. But all I did was spend the entire night puking and then woke up with a terrible hangover that caused me to miss work. I've learned my lesson and I'm not getting drunk this go round. So a sweet cocktail with just enough alcohol is enough for me."
He smiled sweetly. "It's your birthday?"
"Yep."
How old did you turn... If you don't mind me asking."
"I'm twenty two now."
"Ah cool. I'm only twenty four but the beard, you know."
"Yeah."
When the conversation went silent, Zayn felt Louis elbow him in the rib cage. "Ow! Uh um... So... what are you doing after this? After you celebrate here, I mean."
"I wanted to go to the Ice Cream Parlor. I just hope they're not too drunk or else, we'll be going home. And that's what it looks like is happening anyway. They keep ordering shots."
Zayn frowned. "But it's your birthday."
"I know."
"So you should get to do what you want to do. They shouldn't get to have more fun than you."
"Well..." She said guiltily. "I kind of told them that this was what I wanted to do. So they're just doing what I said. I didn't come up with the ice cream thing till just now."
"So if you didn't drive and they're all getting drunk, who's driving them home?"
"Tasha isn't getting drunk. Just the other three."
"And Tasha's driving?"
"No. Senona is. But Tasha will just snatch the keys, take everybody home and then make Senona stay with her for the night."
He chuckled. "Good. But it sounds like it's a hassle. Seems like spending time with your friends is complicated and only keeps you as busy as anything else."
"It does."
"Well, do you really want that ice cream?"
"Yeah."
"Then Louis and I could take you." He said as he pointed back and forth between Louis and himself.
She gave him a look that meant she was both amused and apprehensive. "You would do that?"
"Of course. That way you can do something you really want to do on your birthday. Lou and I haven't had dessert yet, so we'd love to take you there and drop you off at home. If you don't mind, that is."
"Actually, I have somewhere to be." Louis said.
"What?"
"Yeah. I can't stay. But you two could go. Have fun."
Zayn narrowed his eyes and leaned toward Louis so he could whisper to him without the girl hearing him. "You're seriously going to leave me alone with a girl that I don't really know to go to an ice cream parlor at night?"
"Yeah, you're the one who offered to take her. Not me."
"Because I thought we were going to do this together. I didn't think you were going to ditch me."
"Wait... You really think that I'm going to follow you on a date with a girl?"
"This is not a date. This is just me finding a girl to spend the evening with just like you said to. I told you I'm not interested in dating yet."
"Okay fine. But that aside, it's still too late. If you back out now, it'll look suspicious. Not to mention, even if I did go, being alone with two guys would probably make her more uncomfortable, and that's not what we're trying to do here. So just go with it and shut up."
"Your Pineapple Cosmopolitan, ma'am."
Zayn quickly faced the girl before she had a chance to walk away. "Alright, so Louis isn't coming with us so it'll just be me and you. Do you mind that?"
"Well, not really. You seem like a nice guy but I don't know your name and you don't know mine so I don't think it's appropriate to go anywhere with you until we at least do that."
Zayn face palmed. "Oh, right. I'm so sorry. My name is Zayn Malik. Yours?"
"Maitea Juarez."
"Oh. That's pretty."
"Thanks." She sipped from the cocktail glass.
"You're welcome. I'm not going to rush you to finish drinking that because obviously I have to finish eating, myself. But you should enjoy that with your friends. I just think that before we leave, it would be best to tell Tasha what you're doing so she knows someone else is taking you home. Point me out if it makes you both more comfortable."
That made her smile. Of course it made her more comfortable. Because even though she could already tell he was genuine, with him willing to be seen, she didn't feel threatened to leave with him even if his friend wasn't coming with them. "Okay." She said. "And by the way, thanks, Zayn."
"You're welcome."
When she walked away, Zayn smiled at Louis. "I'm going to kill you the next time I see you alone."
"No you won't. Do you know how many times you said that in high school?"
"Too many."
"Exactly."
Zayn laughed with him before eating more of his cheese fries.
It wasn't long before they finished eating and paid for their meals. They had to wait for Maitea to finish her drink but she soon came to join them and after saying their goodbyes, they left the bar and headed in different directions.
At the ice cream parlor, Zayn learned a little bit about Maitea and what school she went to. She grew up here just like Zayn did but she went to a different high school. He learned that she lived with her mother but also had a ten year old brother and nineteen year old sister who lived with her father. She also told him about how she was going to the same community college as his sister and that she even knew Safaa. He had always said it was a small world but that just made him even more sure now.
Maitea was a sweet girl and Zayn enjoyed her company. But when they were finished eating their ice cream, it was time to take her home. So as much as he wanted to sit there and learn more about her, he couldn't. As it turned out, Maitea didn't live far from the ice cream parlor at all. So he didn't have that long of a drive. He was thankful for that since he was getting sleepy after a full day of work, yard upkeeping and entertaining friends. But it surprised him when she offered to exchange numbers.
At first, he was taken back by that. Because the conversation they had when they were at the restaurant was all friendly. He never got the vibe that there was something more. He wanted to say no. But Maitea was so kind and there was the high possibility that she only wanted to be friends. So he gave it to her and then wished her a good night.
When he got home that night, he texted Louis and let him know he made it home, then changed into his pajamas. When he climbed into bed and got underneath the covers, he felt a satisfying warmth travel through his body. Sure, he did end up having a great time tonight. But he would have loved to enjoy this sooner.
Tomorrow's duties came across his mind and he exhaled. He had a full day ahead. He'd better get some sleep. He was going to need it if he expected to give Harry a good lesson on two more colors.