My Beautiful King

Chapter Two

Zayn Malik.

Wow.

He was beautiful. There was no way anyone could deny it; olive skin, chiselled jaw, thick dark hair, average height and the most gorgeous green-hazel eyes. But you could just tell he was trouble by the shortness of his tie, his open top button and the extremely blasé way that he stood. It was probably best for me to keep out of his way. Yes. Keeping out of his way was what I'd do. I may not be in the "in-crowd" but I had a pretty damn good life.

"Zayn," Miss Allen continued. "Would you go sit in the spare seat next to Ashley please? In fact, Ashley would you mind showing Zayn around the school this week?"

Or not. Surprise, surprise.

Oh, it wouldn't hurt to talk to him once or twice. Besides, you can't judge a book by its cover. Zayn was probably just as nice as he looked on the outside. And boy did he look good on the outside...

"Um, yeah, yes Miss. I'll show him around." I spoke, my voice distinctly loud and clear.

I heard Becca Thomas make a guttural sound and then mimic my voice at least seven octaves higher than my voice actually is. As usual, Becca's actions were followed up by her posse's high pitched tittering. And as usual, I ignored it.

Zayn sat next to me and I instantly turned to beam at him bravely. "I really hope you like William Morrison High School! I really do."

"That's really interesting." Zayn muttered sarcastically in a thick Northern accent. He kept his eyes firmly focused on his lap. It took a while for me to notice that he was on his phone, and judging by his attitude I could guess that he was no doubt "BBM-ing" his old friends about how "crap the school is".

This was going to be a long week.

-x-x-x-x-

Zayn had really nice arms. I couldn't help but notice as I attempted to show him around the school. Even though we were approaching winter, he insisted on removing his blazer and wearing his jumper sleeves rolled up. The boy's apathy was so strong that it was really making it difficult to help him. Yet still I couldn't ignore the fact that I was ever so slightly falling for him.

"This here is what we call the piazza," I continued, my voice faltering ever so slightly when I noticed that he was still on his phone. "This um, is where we kind of just sit outside... and we eat or talk or um, chill. And when it's sunny we sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. But obviously it's not sunny today so um-"

"Listen, Amy." Zayn interrupted, brusquely. "Whatever, thanks for showing me around, I guess. But to be honest, I'd rather go around with... well, other people, more interesting people. You get what I mean, yeah?"

"Um," I mumbled my mouth dry. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Whatever. But my name is Ashley-"

"Cool," he said, not even listening to what I said and oblivious to my hurt feelings. And off he walked straight over to where Becca Thomas was standing, over with Tyler, Jay and all the other "cool kids".

"Ashley!" I heard someone call. Once again, it was Bridget but this time she was joined with my only other friend Maria. "How was it showing around the troublemaker?"

"He's not a troublemaker," I snapped, involuntarily defending him. "He's just... oh I don't know! Could we talk about something different for a change? Please?"

"Wow Ashley, calm down, it was only a question. Did he upset you?" Maria persisted. "Tell us Ash, if he did something we could always help-"

"It would help if you all just... just... shut up! Honestly guys, sometimes you can be so annoying!" I stormed off from them and made my way to the toilets where I planned to cry until I had the hiccups. Just before I left I looked to Zayn to see if he was watching me but he wasn't. Zayn was over by the water fountain getting way too close to Becca Thomas.