Thinking Out Loud ➵zauren

Chapter 4

When Monday came around Lauren was going to meet up with Zayn in the morning and walk to homeroom together. She was a little nervous that it wouldn't be the same or as easy talking to Zayn in person as it was when they were texting, Lauren seemed to have that problem sometimes. When she saw him leaning against a wall in the parking lot she took a moment before approaching him to really take in every feature of his while he was distracted with his phone. She noted his tousled hair had gotten a little longer over the weekend, as well as the stubble on his perfectly chiseled face. For the first time, she noticed he had his ears pierced. She felt like she could stare at him for hours and if he wouldn't have finally looked up she probably would've. Lauren kept walking towards him and he smiled that breathtaking smile at her. "Good morning Laur" he added while going in for a hug.

"Morning Z, thanks for waiting for me." Lauren replied while hugging him back.

"No problem love, did you sleep well?" questioned Zayn.

"Yeah I did, thanks for asking" Lauren answered with a warm smile.

"Well let's get to homeroom, the bells going to wring any minute" stated Zayn.

"Oh shit!!" Lauren exclaimed.

"What?!" Zayn jumped in shock. "You nearly scared me into a heart attack."

"Camila! She waits for me outside homeroom everyday. Oh my god, I feel so bad. How could I forget." Lauren said while practically sprinting though the halls and crowds of students trying to get to class, leaving Zayn trailing behind her. Finally approaching the class, Lauren saw Camila still standing outside waiting for her.

"Jeez Lauren, what took you so long? You're never late." Camila said annoyed.

"Mila, I'm so sorry. I left my house a little late and I was um...I w-"

"You were what, spit it out so we can go inside and sit down" interrupted Camila.

"Gosh you're fast. I'm sure you put that to good use on the softball diamond, maybe you can teach me a thing or two I want to get faster before I start at UM." Lauren heard Zayn say from behind her.

Lauren felt herself go red as Camila looked at her questioningly.

"Yeah haha.." Lauren said nervously. "Um Zayn this is Camila, one of my four bestfriends. Camila this is Zayn, you remember from Friday right, he's new."

"Sure, sure. Nice to meet you." Camila smiled at Zayn.

"You too" he reciprocated

"I'm gonna go inside and sit with the girls" Camila said to Lauren with a look she wasn't able to fully read as she turned into the classroom quickly.

"Oh god" sighed Lauren.

"What's the matter, did I say something wrong or does she not like me?" asked Zayn

"No, no! I just....I haven't really told them we became friends. I didn't talk to them all weekend and I didn't tell them on Friday after class cause I knew they'd start asking a million questions and I wasn't in the mood for it" responded Lauren.

"Oh" Zayn said with a hint of, could it be, hurt in his eyes? "Well I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick before the bell rings."

Lauren nodded but she didn't want him to feel like she was embarrassed by him or anything so she added, "feel free to come sit with us, we'll save you a spot."

Zayn smiled and walked towards the bathroom but it wasn't that usual stunning smile of his, this smile was sad, it didn't light up the room or give Lauren that feeling of a couple thousand butterflies having a party in her stomach. She felt bad so she went into class to talk to the girls.