Rebuilding Zerrie

A Bouquet Away

ZAYN'S P.O.V.

The first thing we did once settling down in my hotel room was to online to look for Perrie's hotel room. The girl was on the computer, typing aggressively on several websites and fan pages, even liking and reblogging a few of the new photos she encounters.

Niall appeared to be very intrigued by her process of stalking. With his head resting on his palms and his ankle of his knee, Harry seemed like he didn't give a damn. I, for one, was sort of freaked out by how fans knew so much about us.After a brief fifteen minutes, she looks up from the computer to me.

"She staying at the Gold Crest hotel with Jesy," she informed us, "Room 210." We all rushed to gather around the computer to look at the screen and there it was. Her hotel room number. She google maps-ed its location and we found out that it was about an hour drive from here.

I sighed and weighed down the perspectives. If I were Perrie, would I want Zayn to give me space or would I want him to go over there and beg for forgiveness? If I were to go to her hotel room, would I be a burden or would she be happy to see me at her doorstep? I counted on the girl to help. "What should I do?" I asked her.

"Send her some flowers?" She suggested but sounded unsure. I wasn't sure about the idea as well but I didn't hear any other plans, so I went for it.

Niall and Harry chose to stay behind and watch a movie while waiting for me and the girl to get back. We used my car to head off to A Bouquet Away, a flower shop which was just ten minutes away from my hotel but it was towards the other direction of Perrie's hotel which meant longer travel time.

"It's my favorite flower shop ever," she told me while we were on our way there. I didn't ask why but she told me anyway. I was glad she did because I wasn't one to keep a conversation going even if I wanted it to last forever. "I have so many memories of it like buying flowers for Mother's Day and ordering tons and tons of bouquets for my brother's wedding."

I wasn't saying a word as I kept my eyes on the road but I was waiting for her to say something else. Even though I barely knew her, I was interested in her life and what she had to say. I guess she sensed that because she added, "I'm not expecting you to remember this but I sent you flowers while you were still on The X Factor."

She was sort of right. I remembered receiving parcels and parcels of flowers from fans around the world but I never got to remember any specific names. "It was when your grandfather died," she told me, looking down at her hands. She exhaled a laugh and shook her head.

Without knowing what to say, I took my eyes away from the road for just a split second to look at her. I didn't know whether to apologize for not remembering or to thank her for sending flowers. I chose neither. We pulled over in front of the flower shop and I shut the engine of the car.

We got out of the car and into the flower shop. As we entered, a burst of fragrance tickled my nose and I sneezed. The girl, though, loved the aroma given out by the different flowers. She was running through rows and rows of several kinds of blossoms. The sales lady even recognized her.

I walked up to the lady behind the cashier and saw that her name was Lilac, according to her name tag. "Excuse me, Lilac," I requested, "A dozen red roses please. And can you throw in a card too?"

Before Lilac was able to charge me, the girl interrupted. "You're offering her red roses?" She questioned as if I'd made a terrible mistake.

"Is there something wrong with roses?" I asked, slightly curious for what she thought was the problem.

She shook her head with furrowed eyebrows. "There's nothing wrong with roses," she told me from the other side of the store, "But don't you think they're a little...cliché?"

"Cliché?"

"You know," she went on, trying to get me to grasp the picture, "Mainstream? Popular? Expected? Predictable?"

I stopped her there before she could go on. "Okay, I get it," I told her holding up a hand for her to stop talking. "What do you think I should get her?" I gestured to her since she sounded like she knew what the heck she was talking about.

"You're the one who was in a relationship with her for over a year!" She walked closer to me, stopping just a few feet away. "What do you think you should get her?" It took me a moment to think, but after a bit, it all clicked.

Turning around to look at Lilac, I knew exactly what to get her. I remembered seeing Perrie's first audition on The X Factor. She had a flower headband circled around her hairline. I remembered how devastated I was when I heard a single no from the judges and how psyched I was when I heard she got in.

I knew she would be big from the moment I first heard her sing.

***

I held the daisies and baby's breath close to my chest as we waited in the lobby. The girl, who was shaking right next to me, seemed more nervous than I did. To calm her down, I reached for her quivering hand. She looked up to me with only her eyes which looked full of fear, worry, concern, even sadness. "It's going to be okay," I whispered to her.

With a smile that was so warm and bright it looked like it could cure cancer, she blinked a few tears away. A familiar big voice was heard coming from the hall on the left jolted us, causing me to swipe my hand away from hers.

It was Jesy.

"We better get this over with quick," she said nonchalantly as she walked towards us, "We've got rehearsals in a few." The girl beside me froze up. Her eyes were wide, her lips were pursed and it seemed as if she wasn't breathing.

Jesy didn't seem to notice. She did, though, notice the daisies. "Oh, you brought flowers." She looked at the bouquet I was cradling in my arm. Not in disgust but not in contentment either. More like impressed, as if she wasn't really counting on me doing it.

Standing up, I offered her the bouquet. "Can you give them to Perrie for me?" I knew it was wrong of me to ask for a favor from her, but it was the only way to get them to Perrie sort-of first-hand. Even though she was reluctant, she accepted the flowers and nodded.

"Is that all?" She asked. Before I was able to answer, she noticed who was behind me. She looked at me as if she was going to ask me a question but we both already knew the answer to that. Jesy walked up to her and I can almost sense the girl. She was paralyzed, I could tell.

I could hear her teeth chattering and her hand were shivering even more than before Jesy arrived. Not unkindly, Jesy scanned her up and down. She held her by the chin and looked closely at her face. "She's different from how people described her," Jesy said, letting go of her face and walking back to the hallway leading to the elevator. "She's no Perrie, but she's..."

She paused. We waited.

"Something." She turned around but the girl stopped her.

"I'm sorry," the girl blurted out. She was scared. She was guilty. But she did it. Jesy looked back towards us. "What?"

The girl let out a shaky breath before repeating. "Can you please tell Perrie that," she told Jesy with all that was left of her willpower, "I'm sorry. I really, truly am sorry." Without a word uttered, Jesy left us.