After Midnight

chapter four.

4 - ZAYN

I woke up late today, scrambling to find and put on my only clean suit so I can feed myself and get my ass to court in time for my trial.

It's not technically my trial, but I've put in a lot of damn work for this, and I will impress Mrs. Adelaide if it kills me. Studying under her for a couple of cases will build my experience and hopefully lead me to more cases in the future.

Either way, I cannot be fucking late.

I slept maybe two hours, one of which was plagued with nightmares, waking me up for an hour before I could fall back asleep.

I'm not doing well.

Not to mention all the time I couldn't sleep was consumed by the beauty with brown irises and matching chestnut hair.

I called her beautiful.

I didn't plan on it. It just happened. It's true, anyway, so who cares? She's beautiful.

I hop into my car and drive to court, my briefcase and random notes lingering on the seat and dashboard. I thought cleanliness was supposed to come with age, but I guess not.

A call rings through my speakers, nearly making me deaf as the loud shrill grabs my attention. "What?" I answer, ignoring the caller ID.

"Not very sunshiney of you, Mate," Rocky says through the line, chuckling in mock hurt.

I cheer slightly at the sound of my older brother's voice. "Mate? You go to Australia without inviting me?"

"Not yet, unfortunately. Calling to see how your trail went." He gets to the point as he always does, never having much time to talk.

"Starts today," I say, pressing the gas to pass the yellow light before it shines red. "On my way now."

"Good luck, man. Let me know how it goes," he answers. I hear a loud female voice in the background, shouting to me now. "Good luck, Z!"

"Thank you, Talia." I thank my brother's fiance and smile. I miss them. I miss Rocky every day. We used to be inseparable. Now I'm lucky if I see him once a year. We're busy now. Adult life and all.

"All right, Z, I gotta head to work. I'm proud of you, man."

"Thanks, Rock. Love you guys."

"Love you, too." He mutters shortly, always getting embarrassed by words of affection. "Love you!" Talia screams again. I chuckle lightly and end the call.

On the bright side, their wedding is coming in the next couple of months, if Talia can decide on a date.

I don't have time to appreciate the clear skies and beaming sun before I run into the courtroom, making it just on time.

"Good morning, Mrs. Adelaide." I greet my mentor, trying to give off the best morning energy I can.

"Morning," she grumbles, shuffling through the many papers sprawled on the counsel table. She is not a morning person, something I've learned over the past year of working with her.

Assisting Adelaide is easy. She's a kind woman and knows exactly what she wants, and isn't afraid to tell me when I am not completing her "vision" properly.

We consult our client together once he comes in. Adelaide gravitates towards cases where the client is clearly innocent or wrongly charged. She claims her intuition always leads her to the right cases, whatever that means.

I can hardly focus as Adelaide gives the opening statement. I am too busy thinking of the amateur skateboard lessons I gave a certain pale-skinned girl.