Longing for you

“So, we´re alone boo”, I told Rosy who sat chuckling on the couch. Connor and Taylor had their day off and they went out to have dinner and since Clary joined Zayn in this promotional thing it was only Rosy and I.

“And what are we gonna do now little princess?”, I asked her, but of course she did not answered.

After we watched some really ridiculous episodes of a really disturbing series for children I decided to dress her and go and visit my Mum.

So I put on some shoes on Rosy and towed her to my car. She was like the cutest little thing as we drove to my home since she clapped her little hands and made really funny and gorgeous dance moves. So little, but already really much rhythm in her body, I thought and had to chuckle.

Even though I still had a key I decided to ring the bell to avoid any embarrassing situation like my mother having fun with my stepdad. As Mum opened the door, she laughed happily.

“Harry, honey”, she said and hugged me tight.

“Hi Mum”, I replied and had to smile.

God, I had missed home. Somehow I was someone who liked coming home to my Mum and my old life. I just connected so many memories with this place.

Birthdays, Christmas days, barbecues in summer, play dates with Connor and other old friends, my first sex, study lessons, nights cuddled in my bed with Clary and so much more.

“Welcome home honey”, Mum said and I sighed deeply. I was.

“Oh and hey baby girl”, she continued and took Rosy´s little hand who reached out for her.

“I play her babysitter tonight”, I let her know and she stepped beside to let us both come in.

“As long as you are not here to tell me I am actually getting a grandmother I am good”, she said and I laughed. “No Mum unless Gemma´s pregnant you won´t.”

First of all Clary and I had to take care of our wedding and the last time we talked about our family plans we had been both 100 percent sure that we were good together, only the two of us.

Just because our best friends became teenage parents we felt no urge to do the same. Even though Rosy was like the cutest and best thing that had ever happened to them.

My Mum was alone at home since my stepdad had to work and we sat down in the kitchen, while my Mum made some hot chocolate and grabbed some chocolate chip cookies. Just like the old days, I thought and had to smile again.

“So, how are you doing, honey?”, she asked between bites.

“We´re doing great. Clary´s visiting her writing workshop and she seems to be really into it and I think that´s what is the most important. And for my part I decided to still go with my plan.” My Mum rose her eyebrows.

“Still the bakery thing?”, she asked and I nodded yes.

“I found someone who´ll do it with me. That way we can get the credit we need and two creative heads are better than just one.”

I could tell that she was not completely happy with my plan, but after my disaster with my law college she had decided to let me do whatever I thought would make me happy. Marrying Clary?

Probably she did not wanted us to, but at least she did not said anything against it. I knew that she loved Clary and she always said how adorable and lovely she was, but I had the feeling she had wanted my life to be different.

“You think you manage all of that work? I don´t know Harry, if that´s not to much pressure on your shoulders”, she said doubting.

Pressure was always on my shoulders since I wanted to make sure that Clary got everything she deserved and we had a roof over our heads and food on our table.

But I did not told this fact to my mother instead I only said: “I really believe I can do it.” She gave me a warm look.

“I just want the best for you Harry and I´ll try everything I can do to support you”, she said and I thanked her a lot. She just was my biggest supporter ever and I really appreciated it.

“Just take a look at the little girl”, my Mum suddenly said and I looked over to the floor where Rosy had been fallen asleep since it was already after her regular bedtime.

“I figured we would stay until Clary returns from her promotional thing with her friend”, I told Mum.

“She´s out with a friend?”, my Mum asked and kind of really hit my weak spot.

Jealousy was such a hard thing to take and even though Clary promised me that she did no other feelings for Zayn than friendship I still found it hard to think of them together.

“She is and it seemed to be really important for him, so she wanted to go.”

“Is he a nice guy?”, my Mum asked and again I could tell she really worried about her.

“He is”, and I knew this was nothing but the truth.

Zayn is a really good guy. At least I knew she was safe with him and that was normally my biggest worry whenever she went out.

Suddenly my phone blew up and I thought it would be Clary, telling me to go to bed and do not wait for her because it will get late, but for my surprise it was an unknown number.

“Am I speaking to Mister Styles?”, a voice at the other end of the line asked me.

“Yeah, that´s me”, I confirmed with a strange feeling in my stomach.

“You are the second number we got from Misses Meyer to call whenever she would be unable to speak and this is the case now since she is not picking up her phone.” What the hell was going on?

“The local police department think they probably found one of the men who assaulted her at the 6th of June. She is asked to come in for an identification”, the police officer told me.

My hands turned into fists and I knew my face went pale. They found the asshole who had laid a hand on her. He should better pray for him.

Clary´s POV:

“That are a hell lot of people”, I said a little bit panicky as I spotted the crowd.

All of the people here looked like they had been falling out of a high fashion magazine and I felt completely underdressed in my skirt and top which had not cost more than 100 pounds together.

Zayn on the other hand looked like he belonged here and I was really thinking about running back to the car, turning up the radio and just waiting until the event was over.

“I didn´t thought they´ll be that much either”, Zayn said and looked just as nervous as I was.

However he was not nervous because of his look, but because he hated huge crowds and he hated tribute and appreciation.

He seemed to consider the same thing I just had thought about, but I would not let him run away from this. Even though running away from something was my specialty.

“We can do this”, I tried to convince both of us and I underhooked me at his arm.

“Whatever you say”, Zayn answered and we slowly made our way to the action. As we got sooner I saw the big posters which praised the new fragrance from a perfume market I did not knew because it was a British one.

The perfume was called Young missis and Zayn had told me that it was all about youth and the feelings you had when you were young.

Never growing up. Being a lady but with a youthfully touch at the same time. But as I saw the artwork on the posters I had to catch my breath. It was beautiful.

It was like a timeline, starting with a young kid who wore glasses and had a cute little bun on the top of her head.

She was followed by two teenage girls, looking like they were about 16 and 18. Next was a young woman who probably could have been like 25 and the last one was a lady, looking gracious and around 40.

Their faces were flawless and they seemed to be so real that I really had to make sure the huge faces on the posters will not start moving every second.

“Zayn...”, I did not even knew what to say to describe how amazing his work was.

“It´s stunningly beautiful. They look so freakin´ real”, I tried.

“Thank you”, was all he replied.

“No, really. Zayn, they look so gorgeous and it´s just like you can taste the life of all this pretty women while you´re looking at it”, I said and happily squeezed his shoulder.

“It was a hell of a work, but I once I had started it I just couldn´t stop”, he confessed and I heard out of his voice that he had enjoyed every second of it. I shook my head in disbelief. He was amazing, a real artist.

“It´s your name”, I screamed excited as I saw the signature in the corner of a poster. Zayn laughed like this was the most natural thing in the world, but I could tell he liked seeing his work everywhere.

“You´re the draftsman?”, an older man next to us suddenly asked Zayn and he nodded yes.

“Zayn Malik that´s him”, I said still so aroused that I wanted to jump around.

“And you are his girlfriend?”, he asked further and we both opened our mouths to answer, but then he saw my ring and took our breaths for protest completely wrong.

“Oh, pardon me. You are is fiance”, he tried to correct himself and just got wrong and wrong by the second.

“No, she´s just my best friend”, Zayn explained and the man looked kind of confused and a little bit embarrassed.

“I am his biggest fan as well”, I tried to save the situation.

“I am too. This looks really great”, he said and pointed to a poster.

“Thank you very much”, Zayn said.

“Hopefully we all get to see more of you. This business needs definitely more artists with work like yours”, he said and Zayn thanked him again.

“Enjoy the evening”, he said and with that he excused himself to see someone else who seemed to be really famous.

“He totally liked your work”, I cheered after he had disappeared and Zayn grinned.

“I think he did”, he admitted and I gave him a warm smile.

Before we were able to grab some drinks from the huge bar a business lady kind of got access to the microphone and a shrill sound stopped all the chatting around us.

“Well thank you all for coming to our prevue of our newest perfume, we wanna thank every single one who had worked on it, but of course we cannot name everyone tonight, but we just wanted to know without any of you people this perfume would not be on the sale tomorrow so thank you. However we decided to bring up our beautiful ladies who had given their faces to our campaign”, she said and I suggested she talked in the name of the whole company.

The girls and the women from the poster entered the podium and they all got a flower bouquet and looked pride like hell.

“They´re all really pretty, juts like you drew them”, I whispered to Zayn.

“And we also want to thank our amazing artist we discovered through a contest he won. Please give a big applause to Zayn Malik everyone”, she continued and I cheered happily, jumping up and down next to him. But Zayn seemed to be frozen since he moved not a centimeter.

“Zayn get your but up there”, I said and tried to push him into the right direction.

“Oh God”, he mumbled before he finally started to move.

His face was all serious, but I knew him too well to be able to say he was pretty nervous on his way up there. But to be honest he looked amazing and as he reached the lady and stood right next to the pretty advertise girls he looked like he just fitted in there perfectly.

People clapped and I joined them happily, he really deserved it. As he took the flowers he moaned a thanks and stood awkwardly next to the girls.

His eyes searched for mine and I gave him two thumbs up and finally I saw a faint smile on his face. Seeing someone other´s dreams kind of getting true was even better than your one one´s.

…

“It was sick”, I said as Zayn pulled over to the pavement to stop in front of our flat.

“You used that word way too much on the ride home”, Zayn said smilingly and I knew I did.

“But you were asked to go to the stage and a lot of people said you should contact them for work together and you got flowers and I got the perfume which isn´t even on regular sale until tomorrow...”, I could not even stop talking because I was so excited.

“I know”, was all Zayn said and I finally started to calm down.

“Thanks for being with me tonight. I think I wouldn´t have gone up that stage without you being there”, he said and I gave him a warm smile.

“Thanks for letting me be with you”, I replied and reached out to hug him.

“It´s finally going uphill with our dreams, don´t you think?”, I asked him with a thin voice and he nodded yes.

It still felt like yesterday when I had first seen him in the time out and we became friends so fast while I still felt so miserable about the whole Harry situation.

“I think you should go upstairs, Harry will wait for you to come back already”, Zayn suggested and I nodded quickly in agreement.

He was probably right since I still saw light in our bedroom. I managed somehow to handle the flowers back to him while balancing my high heels I had gotten out of soon after we had left the party and the perfume fragrance under my other arm.

“I see you around then?”, he asked and I nodded yes.

“Harry said the workers for your bakery will come tomorrow, so I figure I just show up after my classes”, I let him know and he hugged me goodbye.

“It was such a good night”, I said one more time before he got back into his car and drove off.

For some minutes I stood out there in the dark, enjoying the last bit of warmth for this summer before it would be autumn again.

I realized how much I had been trough the last two years and I had to laugh about it. Leaving my home and my old friends behind, getting to know Taylor and Simon who had moved to Manchester with Felix to study in college.

Tripping over Harry, getting drunk for the first time, kissing Harry and falling in love with him, his car crash which still made my heart stop whenever I thought about how close I had been to lose him.

Gemma´s wedding and the whole Stella drama which cause a break of our relationship for nearly six days. Then there had been Taylor´s and Connor´s not exclusively relationship which ended thankfully with Taylor´s pregnancy.

Prom and a show down between Stella and I before I got to know I had to move back to Germany. Half a year of living back in my hometown and trying to get over Harry and mine huge break up in his bedroom.

Rosy being born and being the most adorable and cutest thing on the earth. Holidays for two weeks and getting to know Zayn before I actually fell back for Harry.

The incident on my way back from the pharmacy happened and I had sex with Harry. Being with him behind Aimee´s back before he finally broke up with her and followed me to my roots back in Germany where I graduated.

The day he also asked me to become his wife because he loved me endlessly.

Zayn kissing me on the day before all of that happened and facing my feelings for him before we decided that being friends was better than nothing.

And finally we were all trying to live our lives. I knew it had been such a long way, but I was kind of proud of us.

Every single one of us, whether it were old friends like Taylor, Simon or Connor or new ones like Zayn.

At least we were all trying our best and was not that actually was living was about? Giving his or her best while enjoying it with people who you cared about?

With a happy smile on my lips I got upstairs to our flat before I opened the front door and walked in. I wanted to tell everyone how much I loved them, but the words did not left my lips as I saw that everyone looked like they had been waiting for me all night.

“What´s wrong?”, I asked immediately and I earned three sorry full looks.

“Clary the police department called”, Taylor said and I still did not knew what she was talking about.

“It´s about the pharmacy night”, Connor added and I winced as I heard that word.

My eyes searched for Harry´s, but he refused to look at me. Instead I saw his hands turning into fists while I glanced at his angry facial expression.

“They think they found one of the guys who had done the assault to you”, Taylor said and that was the moment I dropped the perfume. This could just not happen.

Notes