EMERALD

10 ♛

EMERALD GONZALES.

heist.

"so i'm gonna start," niall says out loud, food still in his mouth. he swallows the pasta first before reaching out to his own wine glass, eventually drinking the full glass of wine in one swift motion. 

open takeout boxes littered the living room floor as everyone finished the food on their own plates. minutes ago, everyone decided to cut the conversation to where i decided a gemstone codename for zayn, and dive into eating all the food they have brought in my house. the air in the room is a comforting one, just like the old times where we would hang out and feast on food all day and talk about the most random things in our lives. 

i fucking missed this. 

"well i went back to new york after we split in dunkirk three years ago," niall starts. 

i perked up and interrupted him. "new york? why would you choose to go back there?"

"well i was hoping you'd go there as well to where we met," niall shrugs. 

"anyways, i went there. i did nothing for the next months, which is completely odd because we were always on the run or we're always planning a heist after heist and then after that shitshow with perry, i found myself re-evaluating my life," niall further explains. 

several murmurs of agreement ring in the room. i found myself nodding along with what niall just said because that is exactly what happened to me in the first months of me being here in corsica. 

"extremely weird not seeing your stupid faces," zemira comments, earning a slap from davina. 

"so i lived normally for a year. being a completely normal person, i wake up early, do my routine exercise, then prepare food for myself, then watch telly, then sleep,then do it all over again the next day. sometimes i'd go out to play golf, a new hobby of mine. a whole new routine which i've never had before, given our completely different kind of job. i even got a part time job at the convenience store, you know that specific store i'm talking about, emerald. then i just did that for a whole year because that was our plan, to disconnect from everyone for a year to erase the traces of being linked with one another in case one of us got caught."

niall pours a drink on his glass before continuing his story. "then i got bored and craved the thrill and action. new year's eve, i went out and discovered this underground street drag racing, and there's where i met zayn," he smiles towards the end of his sentence and motions at zayn. 

"did you at least join?" i ask in amusement. 

"i beat him," zayn proudly answers from my side. 

"oi, as if i was driving my best that night," niall protests making me snort a laugh at him. "from then on, we became friends. i learnt that zayn travels all over america to compete and he is the best, the king of drag racing in america actually."

i turn to my side and look at zayn who has his head facing his lap, shying away from niall's compliment. 

"that's interesting for sure," i say in awe.  

"one night we all tried to race with one another and god everyone was only halfway in the race track and zayn's already at the finish line," atticus commends. 

"because you guys can't drive properly. how come you're all surprised zayn's gonna win and that you have a chance to beat him," dav rolls her eyes, making the rest except me and zayn whine while we laugh together. 

"moving on," niall emphasises with an eye roll and fake annoyed expression, making our attention be on him again. "i offer to travel with zayn while he's on his american tour for racing. each race in each location in each state in america, he wins without a doubt."