My Beautiful King

Chapter Six

Two more minutes... Just two more minutes till school ended and I could get ready to stroll through a street of shops with Zayn. I still hadn't decided what to wear; I doubted I even had anything in my wardrobe that was decent. It wasn't that my parents were poor... They just preferred me to dress the way they thought of me; as a young child, despite the fact that I'm fifteen.

"Honestly Ashley, why do you bother show up for class these days?" Mr Withers exclaimed exasperatedly.

"E-excuse me?" I stammered.

"All you do is daydream while you're in class! I've had other teachers complain of your slack in behaviour as well. I'm not impressed at all, Ashley."

"That's a bit harsh." Zayn cut in, lifting his head up from the table he was resting on.

"I don't need your opinion, Mr Malik." Mr Withers sighed.

"Zayn's right!" Hayley said, looking over at Zayn and then to me. "That was really mean of you to pick on Ash like that. Ash doesn't deserve that."

The maths class erupted into shouts of agreement and laughter, people loving the opportunity to pick on Mr Withers. I couldn't help but laugh along. The end of school buzzer decided to elevate the noise level and thirty teenagers all ran out of the room, eager to get out of school grounds. With the exception of Bridget of course, who chose to walk out of the room solemnly. I almost felt sorry for her...

"Meet you outside the train station, okay?" Zayn whispered, even though we were the only ones still leaving the room. "The one by the boutiques."

"Yeah, sure. See ya later, Zayn."

"Laters."

-x-x-x-x-

Zayn arrived at the train station fifteen minutes late. I felt sick with nerves with every second he had me waiting. There was nothing that scared me more than having Zayn ditch me. My heart seemed to soar from the pit of my stomach when I saw him strolling through the sea of pedestrians. Wiping my clammy hands on my white skinny jeans and adjusting the strings on my green hoodie, I waved at him frantically.

Damn, he looked good. Zayn was clad in a red checked shirt with a white t-shirt underneath and dark baggy jeans. Instead of walking all the way towards me, he gestured for me to follow him back to a certain department store he wanted us to go in. Typical.

-x-x-x-x-

The department store was massive but for some reason I couldn't find anything I liked. Half an hour was spent pacing the shop floors but the only thing bought was a pair of brightly coloured trainers for Zayn. We weren't even meant to be shopping for him. Somehow, we'd ended up taking a detour through the men's section before we reached woman's wear.

We hadn't talked much throughout the shopping trip. In fact most of the shopping trip had been spent with me watching Zayn doe-eyed while he trailed in front. I had to say something...

"Um, so Zayn," I began. He looked up from the garment he was examining and gazed into my eyes.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Um, so... Is singing a passion of yours?"

His eyes scrutinised me as if I was a lunatic. "What?"

My face turned a light shade of pink. "The other day, when you walked me home... You were singing. You were really good. Do you like have a singing teacher or something?"

Zayn snorted. "Who do you think I am Justin Bieber? No, I don't sing. Well I do but..."

"But what?" I questioned.