love again 2 [z.m au]

∞ t h i r t y - f o u r ∞

Evelyn

"Are you mad at me?"

"No..."

I lied. Sorta.

Maia has been too close to Zayn during our stay here and it's driving me up the wall. They talk like I'm not even there.

What's been bothering me the most is when we were at dinner last night and Maia walked into the restroom the same time as I was leaving and stopped me.

"It's okay to feel threatened by me, because you should be."

...okay.

I thought I could be fine with her and Zayn and I tried. They were childhood friends, I get that they missed each other. But is it necessary for her to "show us" around like she's our tour guide?

"You guys, we have to take a look at this!" She'd say about almost everything and Zayn would agree, dragging me along when we could be doing things on our own.

Without Maia.

She was being nice...too nice. I don't know if that's her motive or I'm just feeling annoyed by her presence with everything she says or does.

But here we are...at the end of our hike from Fira to Oia to watch the sunset.

"I've been walking along this trail for as long as I could remember," Maia said as she brought her hair to one side of her shoulder, smiling.

It wasn't at me, that's for sure.

"No one asked," I muttered under my breath.

"Ev..." Zayn trailed off, giving me a look.

He'd say that every time I made snide remarks. I've kept up with this for too long and I'm about to snap.

"Did you say something?" Maia asked me.

Yes, bitch. "No," I managed to say.

I wanted to choke myself than be here.

Maia arched a perfectly tweezed brow at me before she shrugged. "Hm, okay then. Isn't the view gorgeous?"

"Breathtaking," Zayn commented, looking ahead as the sun was beginning to set.

You know what, Ev? Just shake it off. She's only showing you guys around. Nothing more, nothing less.

I took my phone out and tried to take a picture of the sunset, which looked absolutely amazing to say the least, but not with Maia in the way.

"Cropped." I smirked to myself as I cropped Maia's body out of the picture. "Much better."

Zayn turned around and held out his arm. "Evelyn, come here," he said, taking a step near me until his hand wrapped around my wrist to bring me closer to him.

I slipped my phone back into my satchel and kept my eyes to the ground, avoiding his stare. Now he wants to acknowledge that I'm actually here.

"Hey..." he lifted my chin up and looked at me, worriedly. "Is everything okay?"

"Fantastic," I answered, flatly.

"You've barely said a word to me the whole hike," he pointed out.

"I'm sorry I didn't want to interrupt you two," I snapped, catching him off guard.

Zayn sighed. "What are you talking about? She was just telling us about the history of this city and it would be rude of me not to be engaged into the conversation."

"You said I've barely said a word to you but it's the other way around. This is in fact, the most we've said to each other since the beginning of this stupid hike!"

"Zayn! Are you looking at the sunset?" Maia called out from a couple feet away. "You're missing out!"

Zayn looked over at Maia. "Just a sec!" he replied back to her before looking at me again. "Evelyn, I think you're overreacting. Maia was kind enough to show us around Santorini. If this is such a big deal to you, why didn't you say anything?"

I tried. But I didn't want it to seem like I was envious that they've had a whole lot of history together since they were young.

"Just forget it then," I mumbled, quietly. The last thing I wanted is to argue in front of Maia.

"Babe..."

"Don't babe me."

"And here we go again with the attitude, Ev! And the side comments towards Maia needs to stop, please?"

I pulled my wrist away from his grip and took a step back. "Attitude?"

"I..." Zayn sighed in defeat. "You know what I mean. The way you act towards Maia...she's been nothing but nice to you."

I scoffed, shaking my head. "Nice? Alright."

"There's no use in trying to reason with you," he muttered.

If only he knew what she said to me last night. Fuck it, I'm going to tell him.

"She told me that I should feel threatened by her."

Zayn looked at me, surprised. "What? When was this?"

"I don't think it matters because you think she's been nice to me all along and I'm just overreacting, right?" I croaked out, my voice barely audible.

"Zayn! You're missing out on the view!" Maia exclaimed, making our heads turn her way.

I took another step back away from him. "Yeah, Zayn. You're missing out on the view."

I turned around and began to make my way back down the trail. I could hear Zayn walking behind me before I stopped and turned slightly to face him.

Maia came and I was going to lose it. The longer I stayed, the more I got aggravated.

"What's going on...?"

"I'm leaving."

"You don't even know how to get back," she said.

"I'm sure I can find my way. Thanks, though."

"Evelyn, please- Maia, can you give us some privacy to talk?"

Maia looked me dead in the eye before letting out a loud scoff and crossed her arms below her chest. As she was about to leave I stopped her.

"There's no need to give us privacy. We have nothing to talk about."

"Evelyn, stop!"

"Enjoy the sunset."

And with that, I slowly walked down the pathway and fought the urge to break down right then and there. The look on Zayn's face broke my heart but the way he talked and assumed things only made it hurt even more.

After all, maybe I'm just overreacting.