More Than This

For the next few weeks, Zayn and I had hung out and went shopping in the different cities we were in. It was actually a lot of fun! But Zayn seemed absolutely miserable.

“What’s the matter, dude?” I asked one day while we were out shopping in a Harrods.

“Nothing,” Zayn shrugged as he looked through the shirts. “Would this color look good on me?” Zayn held up a beige shirt.

“Yeah, go try it on!” I smiled and brushed off his ‘whatever’ attitude. As soon as Zayn stepped out of the dressing room, I decided to make him smile a little. “Oh. Em. Gee!” I swooned. “You look so hot! Oh my gawd! Can I have your autograph? A picture? Oh em gee!” I fanned myself jokingly.

“Okay, okay.” Zayn smiled and playfully shoved me. “I get it, I’m sexy.” Zayn shrugged and strutted off to the dressing rooms. I smiled at my accomplished mission and looked back over the skirts. “Should I get it?” Zayn asked as he exited the dressing room, pulling his own shirt over his head.

“Absolutely, it looks great on you.” I skimmed over the skirts one last time before deciding on one and moving on to the belts.

“So… I have some questions.” I looked up at him and leaned against the belt rack. “What if…” Zayn looked like he was searching for the words to say that wouldn’t offend me or annoy me. “Don’t get mad.” I nodded. “What if I hadn’t ignored you like an idiot after we had kissed?” Zayn looked me right in the eyes as he asked.

“I don’t know Zayn.” I answered honestly. “There’s no telling where we would be.” I shrugged. “Maybe we would still be together, maybe we would have been broken up. But, it’s all in the past, so there’s really no need to bring it up.” I walked to the check-out counter and tried to pay for my clothes.

“I’ll get those for you.” Zayn smiled and handed the lady the money for my clothes.

“Zayn, I can pay for my own stuff.” I rolled my eyes.

“I know, but I thought since hanging out all day was my idea, I might as well get you something.”

“You’ve already gotten my lunch, ice cream, and you’ve offered to pay for dinner.” I laughed. “I’m buying dinner if you’re paying for that.” I stated.

“Fine, you can pay for this.” Zayn shrugged as I handed over my debit card.

“Thank you.” I said as the lady rolled her eyes before swiping my card and packing my clothes.

The rest of the day, Zayn seemed a bit more down than he was before and nothing was cheering him up! “Zayn, what’s wrong? And don’t say ‘nothing’ again. I know something’s up.” I said and crossed my arms after Zayn ordered us desert.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Zayn lied. “I’m just worn out. Touring’s hard.” Lies. Everything he said was a lie.

“Zayn…”

“Seriously, Nora, nothing’s wrong. I’m just worn out.” I caught the lies coming out of his mouth, but I decided to ignore it. If he didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t want to talk about it. It’ll come out eventually.

“Here’s your chocolate cheesecake, sir.” The waiter smiled and sat the plate down. “Enjoy.” He smiled and left us alone.

“So, how’s Jake?” There was bitterness in Zayn’s voice when he said Jake’s name. I shrugged it off and took a bite of the cheesecake.

“He’s good. I think he’s coming to see me soon.” I smiled and took a drink of my water.

“Awesome.” Zayn said sarcastically.

“Okay, seriously? What’s wrong with Jake? I’m tired of your attitude towards him.”

“I told you what I thought the other day. It’s just hard to grasp the fact that you two are dating after hating each other for so long. I’m not trying to be bitter about him, it’s just habit. We used to make fun of him all the time.” The corner of Zayn’s mouth pulled up into a smile. “Remember when you came over to my house crying when you heard the rumors he had spread about you? We sat in front of the fire, drank hot chocolate, played Monopoly, and watched all your favorite Elvis movies.” I smiled at the memory.

“Yeah, we had a pretty good friendship going.”

“We stayed up for hours just talking about everything afterwards.” Zayn took a bite of the cheesecake and smiled. “Well, I’m ready to go when you are.” I took a few more bites and Zayn paid for the dinner before we walked out of the restaurant to find the bus.

~*~

“About time you two got back.” Louis said when Zayn and I walked on the bus.

“Zayn wanted cheesecake.” I shrugged and put my shopping bag on my bunk.

“Zayn likes cheesecake?” Louis asked. I nodded and sat down at the small table. “I see…”

“You’re reading too far into it, Lou.” Zayn warned and sat down next to me, resting his head on the table. “I’m so tired.” He yawned.

“Go to sleep, then.” I shrugged and nudged him.

“I don’t want to go to sleep, though.” He pouted and rested his chin on his right hand.

“You’re so stubborn, Malik.” I smirked and pulled my phone out of my pocket. Three missed calls from Jake.

“Is it my fault I want to spend some time with my best friend?” Zayn rolled his eyes and playfully shoved me. “What’s wrong?”

“Jake called, I’ll be right back.” I smiled and walked into the other room to call my boyfriend back. “Hey, babe. Sorry, I was hanging out with Zayn.”

“It’s okay.” I could hear him smiling. “What all did you do?”

“We went shopping and ate.” I laughed and leaned against a wall. “What have you done today?”

“I just finished packing to come and see you. I’ll be there in a week!”

“I can’t wait!”

“Nora! Zayn’s being all sad again!” Louis said in a tattle tale voice. I sighed and Jake chuckled.

“Go tend to the boys. I’ll see you in a week. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I smiled and hung up. “What’s he sad about this time?” I looked over at Zayn who had his headphones in and his face buried in the crook of his elbow. Awesome. He was really depressed. “Zayn.” I poked his cheek. He lifted his head up to look at me, and then hid his face again. “Nothing I can do, boys. When he’s like this,” I motioned at Zayn. “Good luck.” I shrugged and sat down next to Harry.

“Do you need to see someone, Zayn?” Harry asked and Zayn looked up at him, shook his head, turned his music up, and buried his face again.

“Good luck, lads.” I shrugged. “It’s hard to get him out of this state.”

“What did you used to do when he was like this?” Niall asked and sat across from Zayn, trying to get his attention.

“Leave him alone. He gets over it in about a day.” I shrugged and turned my attention to the television.

“There’s no getting over it this time.” Zayn said and took his ear buds out before getting off the bus when the door opened. I watched as Zayn stepped off the bus and looked at the other guys.

“What did you do to the poor guy?” Liam joked.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him, guys.” I sighed and walked after him. “Give me a minute.” I followed him into the service station and cut in front of him before he could walk into the men’s bathroom. “Zayn, what’s wrong? You’ve been sad since we’ve been friends again.” Zayn looked at his feet as if to avoid my eyes. “Zayn, talk to me.” I demanded. Zayn opened his mouth to speak, but we were interrupted by a barely audible:

“Zayn…?” I looked up and saw a girl about my age decked out in a One Direction t-shirt and bracelets slowly approach us. I didn’t realize how close Zayn and I’s faces were until the girl gave me the worst ‘go to Hell’ look I’ve ever received in my life. “C-can I get a picture?” She asked nervously and held up her phone, snapping a picture of Zayn and I. Great, more rumors.

“Absolutely, babe.” Zayn smiled and turned to me. “We can talk about it later.” He walked over to the girl and she got her picture and talked with Zayn for a few minutes before I gave up and went back out to the bus.

“Right when he was about to crack, some girl walked up and wanted a picture.” I complained when I got on the bus.

“I’ve never seen him like this, babe.” Louis shook his head. “Maybe it’s girl problems.”

“Who with though? We’re with him all the time, Lou. We’d know.” Liam pointed out. Suddenly, four pairs of eyes were all on me.

“What? You think I’m the girl he’s having problems with?” I rolled my eyes. “That’s ridiculous. There’s no way it could be me.”

“Well, he was in love with you at one point.” Harry shrugged.

“Yeah, ‘was’ being the key word. Come on, guys. There’s no way I’m the cause of this downward spiral.”

“Nora, let’s just say for argument’s sake that you are the cause of his downward spiral…”

“Louis, let’s not annoy the woman who handles our clothes.” Niall warned. Zayn walked on the bus just then and went straight back to his bunk without saying a word to anyone. “Jesus Christ, I’m getting to the bottom of this.” Niall followed Zayn back and the rest of us sat in silence to try and hear what was going on.

“Nothing, I just miss my sisters.”

“That’s not something you would ‘never get over’, Zayn. What’s really going on?”

“Nothing, man. I’m just beat.” There was a beat of silence. “Seriously, mate.”

“Whatever.” Niall sighed and walked back out to us. “He ‘misses his sisters’.” Niall rolled his eyes and sat back down.

“Nora, can I talk to you?” I heard Zayn ask. I nodded and got up to follow him to his bunk.

“What’s up?” I sat down across from his bunk and let my legs hang over the edge just enough so they could swing over the side.

“I wanted to ask you…” I looked up at him and his face went pale. “If you wanted to go to a movie tomorrow? We could go see the new Spiderman movie.” Zayn smiled.

“I’d love to.” I smiled back, and that seemed to lift his spirits a bit.

“Awesome.”

“Is that all you wanted to talk about?” I asked and leaned forward a bit.

“Yeah.” Zayn smiled and I jumped off the bunk.

“You’re sure?” Zayn nodded and rolled onto his bunk to lie down to take a nap. “Alright. See you when you’re awake.” I walked out with the rest of the guys.

“So?” They all said at once.

“He asked me if I wanted to see a movie with him tomorrow.” I shrugged. “No big deal.” The boys exchanged a few looks before turning to the television to search for a movie.

Notes

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Xx