"What is this place?" I asked curiously.
"You'll see" Zayn simply replied turning his gaze towards me.
I turned to look out of the window. All of the buildings were a dull, white color. The white paint was cracked and peeling, revealing red bricks underneath. On the sidewalk and parking lot there were weeds growing our of the split concrete.
The door on my side of his car opened, snapping me out of my daze. I quickly hopped out, grabbing my bag and phone on the way.
Zayn looked at me with a strange sparkle in his eye.
I was confused. What was he looking at? Puzzled, I did a quick check over of myself as if to figure out what was wrong and why he might be looking at me like that.
Zayn's P.O.V.
Ellie was squirming around under my gaze. Honestly, it was rather cute.
I chuckled.
"What are you looking at?!" she snapped at me.
Surprised by her tone of voice, I immediately stopped.
"I- uh I was-" I was speechless. "Ithinkyou'recute" I blurted out so fast my head spun.
I could tell that she caught every word. Streaks of red spread across her face. I'm assuming that not many people have told her this before by the way she reacted.
She looked like a deer in the headlights. I grabbed her wrist and dragged her behind me up to the door of the familiar building. I pulled out the key from my pocket and slid it into the key hole. I pushed the rickety door open and pulled Ellie inside.
I turned to look at her. she had a glimmer of hatred in her eyes. I guiltily walked into the other room not being able to bear seeing her hateful eyes.
I got myself together and returned to the room where I had left her. Only, She had left that room. I swiveled on my feet, scanning the room for her small frame. Her light, shoulder length hair caught my eye. I silently padded over to her. I snaked my arms around her waist and picked her up.
She screamed, surprised by my touch. She wiggled and squirmed in my arms, clearly not liking the closeness.
I felt a pang of hurt run through me. I know that I hadn't known her for a long time but I felt that I have. It felt right being with her. I just needed to somehow get her to feel the same way back.
I carried her and myself into the sun room of my art studio. I set her down in the middle of the room and backed away from her, giving her the space that I assumed she wanted.
Ellie's P.O.V.
I wasn't pleased with the actions of the dark haired boy that seemed to be everywhere I was. He was always so close to me. I am not a touchy feely kind of person, unless, I know you trememdously well.
When we got into this unfamiliar building I noticed that Zayn had disappeared. It was a nice break having him off my back for a change.
I decided to take a look around this contemporary styled building. It was pretty much white everywhere except for all of the colorful paintings covering the blank walls. Curious, I stepped over to one of the paintings. It was beautiful. The water colors spread palely across the canvas creating a beautiful rose. On the bottom right corner of the canvas was a signature. I studied the signature for a moment, It was Zayn's.
I moved on to the painting hanging to the right of the previous one. Not really caring about the painting it's self, I only checked the signature. Again, it was Zayn's bold signature. I continued to check the paintings for the signature. As I assumed, they were all Zayn's paintings.
A pair of large, muscled arms wrapped themselves around my waist. Frightened, I screamed and wiggled around in the accusers arms. The strong arms picked me up effortlessly and carried me to a sun light room. The arms set me down in the middle of the bright room and backed away.
I glanced around the room. There were live plants in the corners of the some what large room. Again, there were painting covering every inch of wall space, which wasn't much from the large windows on all sides of the room. Newspapers smudged with various colors of paint were scattered around the floor, though some spots of the light colored wood flooring peeked out between them. Other than the plants, there was nothing else in the room except an eisel with yet another painting.
Curoius, I padded over to the canvas that rested on the wood from of the eisel. I stared at the painting for a long time before it set in. The girl standing in front of a lake in the summer had short, tousled blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was also, petite yet strong looking. That girl was me.
Shocked, I turned on my heel to face the lingering figure in the doorway. I stared him down while trying to think of something to say. I was going to say thank you and just leave it at that. But, for what ever reason, the words wouldn't spill out of my mouth.
I guess Zayn sensed my struggle because he silently walked up to me and enveloped me in his body. He smelled like the green apples, crisp and fresh. It was intoxicating.
"Why did you paint that?" I whispered into his chest, unable to move under his strong grip.
He took a few moments to respond. "Because" he paused, " I really like you, Ellie."
I didn't know what to say. How do you respond to that?
Unable to find the proper words, I pulled away from his embrace.
"I'm hungry" I said laughing awkwardly changing the subject. I could see a fleck of hurt go through his eyes before they glazed over in attempt to hide the disappointment.
Again, Zayn grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the studio. I didn't particularly like being forced to do everything but I can deal with a two second walk out to the car.
When we go to the car, I opened the passenger door and climbed in. Shortly there after, Zayn stepped inside the vehicle, igniting the car.
"What would you like?" Zayn asked breaking the awkward silence that fell upon us.
"Mmmm..." I thought for a second, "Anything really" I said happily, trying to get Zayn in a better mood.
"Is Olive Garden okay?" he asked turning his gaze towards me for only a few seconds.
"Yep!" I laughed.
I looked over at the dark haired boy that was driving. I could see the fainted glimmer of happiness in his eyes as a shy smile spread across his face.
***
"You can have what ever you want" Zayn said cheerfully.
"You sure?" I asked smugly.
"Of course!" He looked up from the menu at me. "Why? What do you want to have?" He smiled.
I laughed. A puzzled look unfolded on his face.
"Mac and Cheese" I said giggling.
A wild grin immediately replaced the puzzled look. He even laughed a little bit.
"But why?" His eyes glittered with humor. "You could so many other things"
" I don't like anything else on the menu" I laughed "I like the bread sticks though. I smiled holding up a bread stick as if I was in a commercial.
This caused Zayn to start uncontrollably laughing, drawing attention to us.
I noticed people pulling out their phones and cameras to take pictures of us but, I didn't care. The paparazzi would eventually get bored of the story.
The rest of our meal went smoothly. Occasionally a fan or two would come up and ask for pictures or signatures.
I think I'm starting to like him, I thought to myself in the car on the way home.
