Midnight Coffee

Letter Three

Letter 3

Dear Baba,

I met up with Mary again. It seems that we have taken a liking toward each other. Although I'm happy about seeing her again, I'm upset about the reason she called for me. Originally, I was planning on calling her after my hangover passed. When I was about to call, she rang me.

"Zayn?" she asked. Her voice was panicked and raw. She had been crying.

I pretended not to notice.

"Mary? Hi, what's up?"

"Can you come and get me?"

As soon as she asked that, I picked up my keys and a coat.

"Erm, yeah sure. Where are you?"

She told me an address. When I reached the destination, I discovered that it was lead to her home. Her house was quite impressive. It was a mansion, actually. Almost as big as ours, baba. But I bet her's was filled with more love than mine is now. As I parked the car, I saw a head peek from a window. It was Mary. She put a finger to her lips, signaling for me to be quiet. I nodded along, watching as she climbed the tree that was near her window. She landed with a quiet thump. Mary then wiped at her skinny jeans before making her way to me. I was leant agaisnt the car, hands stuffed into my jean pockets.

"Hey, thanks for meeting me," she said.

"No problem. Why did you have to leave that way?" I asked, nodding towards her high window.

She took a look back at her escape entrance.

"Oh that old thing?" she paused to make eye contact with me. "Well who doesn't want to leave a house in style?"

I raised an eyebrow. Of course I wasn't going to buy that.

She sighed before gripping her hoodie closer to her body.

"Can we just get out of here? I'll tell you later."

I agreed, unlocking the car. I opened her door for her and shut it before jogging to my side.

The car ride was silent in the beginning, but I broke it with a question.

"So where are you planning on going?"

I saw her nod from the corner of my eyes.

The ride went back to silent.

When we arrived, I paid for her drink again. She voted against it, but I knew she forgot to bring her money.

Only when I saw her in the light above our table, I noticed her appearance. Her eyes and nose were red, her cheeks were tear-stained. I felt a pang of hurt and anger surge throughout my body.

"Shit! Mary are you okay?"

She sighed again, pushing her hair back.

"I honestly don't know."

I stayed silent, hinting for her to continue.

"M-My Dad..he hit me."

My eyes widened.

"But before you judge our family or anything, he didn't mean it. Well, I don't know if he meant it. But, he never hits me or my siblings. I guess I deserved it though-"

"You don't deserve anything like that, Mary," I interrupted.

She smiled before continuing.

"No, really I did. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm quite a goody-goody. I never do anything bad. I always got good grades, never drank, never partied, never talked back..until earlier."

She stopped talking to read my expression. Seeing as it was blank, she continued to speak.

"Yeah, well earlier...my parents were yelling at me for 'sneaking out' last night."

"You snuck out last night?" I asked.

"Um, yeah. That's not the point, though. They were screaming, and I finally yelled back. Which caused me to be slapped."

I then noticed that one cheek was a bit pinker than the other.

I sucked in a breath before I ran my thumb over the mark lightly.

She flinched at the sudden contact, but soon settled into my touch.

"Thanks," she said whilst removing my hand gently.

I nodded. "Then what happened?"

"Nothing really, I kinda cursed at my parents before I called you."

"Where's your phone now?" I questioned.

"At home. I know they can find where I am if I kept it on me. And I really wouldn't like that."

"You don't want to go home?" I asked.

She took a sip of coffee. "I don't know. Not at the moment."

"Where will you stay?"

She shrugged once more. "I was going to ask you to drop me off at a hotel. Then I realized I forgot my money. So, I guess I'll just go home."

"Y-You can stay at my place," I offered.

She picked her head up from her coffee.

"Would it be okay?"

I nodded.

And so baba, that's how I ended up having a girl in our house. I felt guilty for bringing her over, but we didn't do anything. I'm sorry. I don't regret it, but I feel horrible about it.

The whole time I was with Mary, I was wondering how you felt. Was this cheating? We never had an official breakup. I still have feelings for you, even if you're gone now. I don't know, I was confused. All I wanted to do was get high and forget about it. But with Mary being near me, I couldn't. She didn't know how broken I was. I'm not so sure if I want her to know either. If she was going to be sad, someone had to be her rock.

She instantly clicked with Hatchi, the dog that you and I bought. She laughed like you did when Hatchi licked her. Hatchi loved her..like he loved you. My heart was beating fast at watching her play with him. She tilted her head back like you when she giggled. She looks like you. She looks exactly like you. I wanted to punch a wall. I wanted to shout your name. I wanted to drown my sorrows in alcohol. I wanted to cloud my thoughts with the smoke from a freshly rolled blunt. I wanted to just leave, to run away. But I couldn't. Mary's laugh kept me there. It kept me as sane as I could have been. The thought of her being like you scared me. I don't like to think about the affect she has on me. It reminds me of you too much. I think I need a smoke at the moment.

Love,

Zayn Malik