Linked - Zayn Malik Fan Fiction

Zayn P.O.V.


I sat at my computer, too tired to get up and go to bed. My water bottle was nearly empty and my plate had been food-less for hours.

Who cares? I thought. I’ll sleep at my laptop.

Just as my eyes were about to give up on me, the kitchen light snapped on, jolting me out of my seat. Liam walked over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder and looking at my screen. I sat down in my seat again. No murderers tonight.

My Skype was open, seeing as it was the least suspicious of all my tabs. He studied it hard, squinting his eyes. There were almost no secrets in the One Direction household, even if this was a temporary living arrangement, so that meant there was no way of me getting out of this over-the-shoulder-surveillance scenario. I was just glad it was Liam, and not one of the others. They’d be sure to make fun of me for something on there.

I’m not saying living with them was annoying and irritating, but sometimes I needed my space, and they were not fans of giving me that. I loved the boys, I really did, but everything takes adjusting to.

"Who’s Annabella?" Liam asked, intensely staring at the screen. My heart dropped.

Annabella was one secret I had managed to keep. The boys could never know about her. She was too close to me.

You see, back when my dad had finally let me go to school, there was a girl in there, just like me, starting a year late. She was shy and quiet, but when it came to her work, she did it beautifully and creatively and never seemed to miss a single detail. On the first day, we all sat down, and I knew no one. Everyone sat next to their life-long friends (keep in mind, we were only five or six), but I sat at the back, by myself.

That’s when Annabella arrived.

She walked through the door, terrified at all the eyes examining her every move. Her bottom lip was tucked between her teeth and her expression was one of pure fear. I instantly sympathised for her, knowing her pain. I never liked standing at the front of the class either, and from then, I knew we’d bond over something.

She clutched to her mother’s arm and held her teddy bear close to her chest. When the teacher saw them, she acted a little too excited. No one can harbour that much happiness on the first day of school. Annabella nearly screamed. There she was, at the front of the class, with an over-ecstatic stranger just a ruler’s length away from her face. However, she did nothing of the sort. Instead, she gave her a half-hearted smile and ran to a free seat at the back.

Fortunately for me, the only one left was right next to the desk I was sat in.

From then on we’d always been partner’s for everything. People would stare at us during lunchtimes because we never played games or anything like that. We drew pictures and read books, shared secrets and told stories. We became best friends.

I shut the lid of the computer quickly. “That’s none of your business,” I mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Zayn, you know you can tell me a secret," he assured me, then let out a low chuckle. "I’m not as immature as the others."

"She’s just a friend, nothing more." That was a big, fat lie.

I had fancied Annabella since I was eight years old, but she’d never known. I wrote poems for her, drew her pictures, but none of them ever got delivered. I was going to tell her one day, I’d planned it all out, but when we were twelve she had to move back to New Zealand for an unknown reason. It was truly heartbreaking to see her go like that, but we tried our hardest to keep in touch. We emailed constantly, chatted on Facebook, Skyped all the time, but it nowhere near compared to being able to see in person, hug her tight, kiss her cheek, wipe away tears. It tore me up.

"I know you’re lying," Liam laughed, pulling up a chair. "So go on. What is she to you?"

"Like I said, she’s just a friend," I insisted. "She’s my best friend."

His eyebrows knitted together, but he soon realised what I was getting at. “You fancy her, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “I might do.”

"Come on, then. Hand me the computer."

I looked at him for a while, considering my options. I could give it to him and get this over and done with - whatever he was going to do was a mystery to me, though - or I could resist and never hear the end of it. I decided the first option would let my suffering be shortened by at least a few months, so I reluctantly slid the machine over. In just two minutes, I could hear someone talking on the other end.

"Hello?" Annabella asked. I stood up and frantically signalled for him to stop. He, of course, ignored me.

"Hi!" Liam greeted. "Are you Annabella?"

"How did you find me?" I gritted my teeth and pulled at my hair. She was going to kill me.

"Oh, I’m just on Zayn’s account and he wants to talk to you. Don’t you, Zayn?"

"I am going to murder you," I mouthed. He only laughed.

"Sorry, love. He’s being stubborn and shy."

"Look, I understand if he doesn’t want to speak to me," she quietly scolded.

I couldn’t stand to hear her so sad. I stepped into the frame and smiled. “Hey, sweetheart!” I chirped, sounding a teensy bit too happy, seeing as just ten minutes ago I was falling asleep. I guess she had that effect on me.

Her slightly square-shaped face with it's soft pointed chin lit up when she saw me, big, brown eyes like a warm hug, sparkling in the sunlight that streamed through her window, hitting her cheeks, creating shadows in her dimples. Her furrowed eyebrows soften, revealing their true arches. Her cute, turned-up nose scrunched as she laughed at my presence.The smile that played on her full, bow-shaped lips was enough to make my heart melt. I had to hold a chair so I wouldn't fall.

A cloud passed over the sun and brought the light back brighter, shining over her thick, wavy and what looked like blue hair. It seemed darker than the last time I saw it. I guessed she got black low-lights.

"Hey, Zayn!" She chimed. "Who’s you’re friend?"

Liam looked rather offended.

"That’s just Liam. I’m really sorry if he bothered you."

"No, no, it’s fine." Even when she’s just talking to me, she’s still so shut off, so shy. I blamed Liam. I couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked, with her hair in a high ponytail, plus she was wearing the 1D shirt I gave her for Christmas last year. She uses it as a pyjama top.

"How are you? I miss you like crazy," I admitted. She blushed a little and looked down.

"I miss you, too," she giggled out. "I’m good though. I actually wanted to talk to you about something, I’ve wanted to for a while." Liam nudged me and gave me a knowing look. I, understandably, shoved him off his seat.

"You were saying?" She was giggling into her hand.

"Anyway, I’ve kind of... moved out from living with my Mum, and am a bit homeless. With money, of course, but not enough to rent out a place. Mum said she’d buy me one more thing before I left, like a plane ticket to somewhere other than New Zealand. The thing is… you’re kind of the only person out of this place that I know. I was just wondering if you could maybe put up with me for a few months?" My eyes widened, a huge smile crawling it’s way across my face. This would be the first time I’d meet up with her, face to face, in six years.

"Yes! Of course! I’d love to!" She was tearing up at my answer.

"Thank you so much, Zayn! You’re the bestest best friend ever!"

"Annie, you know I’d do anything for you. When are you flying out?"

She gave me weak smile, accompanied by an unsure laugh. “My plane leaves in about eight hours.”

"You already have the ticket, don’t you?"

"Yeah. I was counting on you to say yes."

"And if I didn’t?"

"Begging was the next option. Followed by bribery, then blackmail."

"Well, I am most looking forward to seeing you again. I’ll pick you up from the airport around eight?"

"Perfect! Thanks so much, Zayn!"

"Like I said, anything for you."

"Okay, bye!"

"Love you, bye!" The video disappeared from my screen, and only then did I realise what I just said. "I just told her I loved her."

"Well done," Liam muttered, his voice muffled by the carpet. He still hadn’t quite…moved yet.

"No no no, Liam! It was a mistake! What if she finds out, huh? Then what?"

He shrugged. “You two go out? Happy days.”

"No! Unhappy days! She would get attacked! She’ll never like me, anyway. This is going to crash and burn before she even gets on the plane."

"Look, Zayn. If she saw a problem with it, she wouldn’t have ended the call. She would have stayed and questioned it, right?"

"Yeah…Yeah, I guess you’re right."

"When aren’t I? Now go to sleep. We’re cleaning in the morning."

I nodded, but I knew there would be trouble when she got here. I just knew it.

Notes

Original story is on Wattpad (but it's yuck and gross and ew). It's called 'Best Friends Forever' by TooAwkward (that's meeee). You can read it if you like.

This is kind of an annoying introductory chapter so bear with me.

-JDM