Rooftop Conversation [ZM]

[ejell]

Oké, dit is vrij random. Ik wist eigenlijk niet goed waar ik deze one shot moest plaatsen, aangezien het niet echt romantisch is en meer een beetje comedy (denk ik? hoop ik?) dan drama enzo... Dus nou ja, ik doe hem wel hier. Het gaat over Zayn Malik (van One Direction) en het is volledig in het Engels geschreven omdat ik dat gewoon gewend ben nu. (Ja, ik schrijf tegenwoordig in het Engels.) In ieder geval... Enjoy! Tips en alles zijn helemaal welkom!

Clasping my hand around my phone I hurried towards the elevator. Impatiently pressing the button to the highest floor I checked my phone again. Niall hadn’t texted me back, yet. And neither had Zayn. I was seriously starting to get worried. He normally never took this long to reply to my texts. Maybe the boys were right. Maybe something was up. But I didn’t want to freak out... yet.
“Gosh, why is this thing so slow!” I mumbled, right before the doors closed. Sighing in relief I leaned back against the wall, tapping my nails against my phone. I really needed to repaint them. The nail polish was scaling off already, and I’d had them like this for only like two days or something. Stupid nail polish. I had to remind myself not to buy this kind again.
About a minute later the doors opened again, and I practically stumbled outside. I liked this gallery. It felt like a second home to me. I remember the first time I came here. My grandparents used to live in this building, and I met two boys who lived there too. They were best friends, or so they told me. I didn’t believe them until one of them mentioned they had a girlfriend. They just acted so... gay around each other. It was hard to believe they were just friends if you didn’t know them. No, it’s actually also hard to believe that if you do know them.
But that’s beside the point. After my grandmother died, my granddad decided to move to some nursing home because he didn’t like to cook. Which is the most ridiculous reason if you ask me, but whatever. And now I just come here for Zayn and Niall. They’re my best friends now too. But we don’t act gay. I mean, we can’t. I’m a girl. It would just be... straight.
Patience was never really my strong point. I was already getting tired of waiting for the door to open, even though it had only been seconds after I knocked on the front door of the apartment. Eventually the door opened, and Niall’s blonde head peeked around it. “Scarlett. Hi. Good. You’re here. I was just about to answer your text. Come in.”
I stepped inside, shaking my head at him. “Don’t lie, Horan. You weren’t. You’re not holding your phone. How are you supposed to text without a phone?” I winked, sticking out my tongue. “But... Why am I here? You said it was kind of urgent.”
Niall nodded. “It is. I think he and Perrie might have broken up. He came home like an hour ago and then he totally ignored me. And now he’s on the roof and he’s not coming down. I even tried offering him my food. Nothing’s working, and he’s refusing to talk to me. So I figured maybe you could try to talk to him.”
“I guess I could always give it a shot... But if they really broke up he might just want to be alone,” I said, shrugging. “He’s on the roof, you said?” I walked past Niall. Their loft had direct access to the roof for some reason. It was the perfect place to hide – and think. I’d been there a few times before. The place was massive and totally safe. The landlord probably figured people would go up there, and he had put up a fence. Maybe it was just to prevent people from committing suicide, or maybe he just really cared for us. I doubted the second option was true, though. That guy didn’t even know us. He probably could care less who committed suicide here. He probably got a fine or something if people killed themselves by jumping off his building. Then I’d go for a fence too, to be honest. Much cheaper.
Climbing up the ladder to the rooftop I fell the strong wind trying to blow me off of it. Too bad I was stronger. Just seconds later I reached the top. From where I was standing I could oversee the whole city. Okay, maybe not the whole city. Just a great part of it. I loved London. I always had, and I probably always would. I totally understood all those tourists with their cameras and I Love London T-shirts. Hell, I felt bad for them because they had to leave after a week or two. I could stay here forever. It was great knowing that.
There was one other person on the roof. His black hair wasn’t gelled and it moved in the wind. His shirt waved in the air. He was facing away from me, but somehow he knew I was standing behind him, because when I reached out to touch his shoulder he turned around. His eyes were watery and his cheeks were a bit puffed – probably from crying. He was breathing heavily, sucking his lower lip. “Did Niall send you to talk some sense into me?”
“He’s just worried, Zayn. You know him. He cares about you. I care about you. Besides, do you really think Niall could make me go up here if I didn’t want to?” I tried to make him laugh, but it didn’t work. Only then I realized he was really down.
I sat down, just there on the floor. Patting on the concrete next to me I looked up at him. “Come sit down.”
“Why? What’s the use?” Zayn mumbled, but eventually he kneeled next to me. Our eyes locked and I shook my head slowly. “Zayn... I gotta be honest. You look like crap. What happened?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea? One second it all seemed perfect... And then suddenly it wasn’t. I don’t know what happened, or why it happened, but it just all came crumbling down.” He sighed, breaking eye-contact.
I bit my lip, reaching out to him. The moment my fingertips touched his hand jolts of electricity shot up my arm, spread around my body. I had to suppress a sigh. This wasn’t the right moment to act all in love. He was hurt. Legitimately hurt. It was just wrong for me to feel kind of happy about it. Don’t get me wrong. I loved Perrie. She was a great girl and her voice was amazing. But ever since I knew Zayn I’ve had this annoying crush on him, and I couldn’t help it. I’d tried everything. I even dated some other guy for a while. It just didn’t feel right, so I broke things off before it got all serious and stuff. I never really understood why Zayn. It wasn’t because he was super hot – which he was. He wasn’t even really my type, if I even had a type. Something about him attracted me, though. Maybe it was the way he acted all mysterious sometimes. It was extremely sexy.
“That sucks,” I said. “Did she give, like, any reason at all?”
He shook his head, before swallowing. “No. I think she may have just fallen out of love. I always thought we were meant to be... I guess I was wrong.”
“Come on. You’re only twenty years old,” I said. “There’s probably another girl out there for you, who’ll never fall out of love with you.” And I didn’t mean myself. I loved him as a friend, and I didn’t want to ruin that friendship. Not yet, anyway. I’d never really had a problem suppressing my feeling for him, but what if that was because I knew I didn’t have a chance? I heard people talking about that before. If there was zero chance of him liking you back, eventually you would just fall out of love.
“I know. It just feels that way, you know? Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems to be gone. And right now, that one person is Perrie.”
I pursed my lips. “Wow, Zayn. You’re kind of freaking me out right now. Did you really love her that much?”
“I do... I mean I did... I don’t know.” He shot up, kicking the concrete. “Fuck! Why does it have to be so fucking painful? Isn’t there any way I can just turn this shit off? Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
He kept yelling swear words, and I just sat there. I didn’t want to become the topic of his anger, so I decided it would be best just to wait for him to calm down.
Eventually he did. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it was more than just a few minutes. The sun lowered visibly every minute, and it wouldn’t be long until sundown. And then it’d be completely dark out here. Well, not really. There would always be the light of the city, but this high up it was dimmed out quite a bit already.
I was laying on my back, staring at the sky, when a warm body lay down next to me. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get this angry. It just isn’t fair.”
“I know,” I mumbled. “But that’s life, I guess. Sometimes it’s just not fair. We’ll have to learn to live with that.”
“I guess so.” His hand touched mine, and he absentmindedly started playing with my fingers. I swallowed, trying to ignore the head that was spreading through my body. Then, he looked over at me, and I looked at him. All the anger had faded out of his eyes, and now he just seemed tired. A little smile tugged the corners of his mouth, and he blinked a few times. “I’m glad I’m up here with you, though. I mean... Imagine if it had been Niall. That would have been quite awkward.” He lifted our conjoint hands, and I looked at them. It was quiet for a few seconds. Just a few. Because then we started laughing, and we didn’t stop until our stomachs were hurting.