Our Cheeky, Movie Star Romance (Zouis Talik)

Chapter 1

"Mum! I'm home!" Zayn called when he walked through the front door. He was greeted by the smell of baking chicken and green beans. As he carelessly pushed his shoes off of his feet, he heard his mum shout, "Good! Dinner's almost ready!"

He strolled into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar, watching his mother cook. She quickly pulled a pan of chicken from the oven, added some salt to the pot of green beans on the stove, and began to pull plates out of the cupboard.

"Zayn, honey, would you go get your sisters?" Patricia asked. Zayn nodded quickly and began to run up the stairs to each of his sisters' rooms.

"Safaa! Waliyha! Get your bums downstairs so we can eat!" Zayn laughed as he heard two collective groans meet his ears, and then hurried back downstairs just in time to see his father walk through the door.

"Hey Dad, how was work?" He asked nonchalantly. His father just gave him a gruff nod, which made Zayn cringe a little on the inside.

Things between Zayn and his father had been a little rocky ever since Zayn came out to his family. Yelling, crying, fighting... All those memories still haunted Zayn. It was Zayn's mum who had finally calmed the seething Mr. Malik, convincing him that Zayn was still their son and that they still loved him. But the damage had been done. Zayn knew that his father didn't love him anymore, and that was that.  

Zayn walked into the dining room, where he found the table set and ready for dinner. He took his normal chair and waited patiently for the rest of the family to join him. When they finally did, and everyone had their food on their plates, Zayn spoke.

"Umm, I have some news," He said. Everyone looked at him with curiosity, even his father, which surprised Zayn as Yaser hadn't shown him any kind of attention for weeks. He took a sip of his water before continuing.

"I kind of got a job," He said.

"That's great, honey! What job is it?" His mother asked, saying what everyone else was thinking. Zayn smiled.

"Well, you know that movie that is being filmed here in Bradford?" He asked. "That huge one with Louis Tomlinson in it?"

"Yes..." His mother said as the rest of the table nodded. Zayn smiled.

"Well..."

He then told them the events that had happened at the coffee shop, going into brief detail about his encounter with Eleanor Calder. When he was finished, his family was a bit speechless.

"Is it even legal for her to hire you like that?" Waliyha asked him. He shrugged.

"I don't know. I wasn't going to ask, though. Why would I try to mess up the chance of a lifetime?"

"I hope you know what you're doing," his father then said, a bit harshly. Everyone at the table looked at him, Zayn with a bit of a bewildered expression, his mother with an almost angry one.

"I'm sure that Zayn will be fine, Yaser."

It was quiet for the rest of dinner. Zayn finished his food early, and then excused himself to go outside for a smoke.

The sun was setting. The sky was a pale orange that darkened as it reached the sun. Zayn clicked his black lighter with the pad of his thumb, shielding the tiny flame with a cupped hand so that the slight breeze wouldn't put it out.

He heard the shudder of the front door opening, and turned his head to find Waliyha standing on the porch warily.

Zayn took the cigarette that rested between his lips with two fingers; his middle and pointer. He nodded at his sister, gesturing for her to sit with him.

"You know, I wish you wouldn't do that," she said, taking a glance at the cigarette in his fingers. Zayn sighed.

"Yeah, I know."

It was quiet for a minute. Zayn inhaled a puff of smoke, holding it for a second before letting it flow back out of his lips. Waliyha still stood by the door, not wanting to take a seat by Zayn on the porch steps because she hated the smoke. The sky was slowly fading into darkness, and Zayn could see a few of the neighbors flicking their porch lights on. It was Waliyha who spoke first.

"Don't let what Dad said get to you."

Zayn looked at his sister with a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He exhaled a breath of smoke.

"Thanks."

He put out the cigarette by scraping the end against the concrete. It left a black streak that his mother was bound to scold him for. Waliyha came and sat beside him and he flicked the butt into the grass.

"Ya know, I don't understand why your sexuality is such a big deal. Dad honestly needs to get over it."

Zayn shrugged. He rested his elbows on his knees and stared out into the near-darkness. They'd never talked about this before.

"Like, I know that it goes against some beliefs..." his sister continued. "But, I've never seen any scripture say that you should hate someone if they are gay."

Zayn looked over at his sister, barely making out her features through the darkness. He just looked at her for a second. He wasn't sure what to say.

"Well, Dad just doesn't seem to think the same way. But thanks."

The siblings sat in silence for a minute. Zayn could hear yelling coming from inside the house. He knew exactly who it was.

"What is it this time?" He asked hopelessly, mostly to the air and the trees and the sky. But Waliyha answered anyways.

"Same thing it always is," she sighed, because they were both tired of their parents fighting, and Zayn was tired of it being because of him.

After a few minutes the yelling inside stopped. The porch light flickered on and the front door opened behind them.

"Hey, you two need to get inside. It's getting dark."

Zayn stood up, followed by Waliyha who was groaning something along the lines of, "I'm not four, Mum."

Zayn walked into the house, ignoring his mother's comment on how he shouldn't smoke anymore because of his health. She said it every night, and he ignored it every night. Just like how his father ignored him.

He pretended not to notice her red and puffy eyes, or how she still had a tear on her cheek. He also pretended that he didn't care when his father pushed past him like he was a piece of trash. And, most of all, he pretended that everything was okay when Safaa asked if their parents were alright.

"Do they still love eachother?" She asked. Zayn took her smaller hand in his own.

"Yeah, they do. They just... Got in a small fight. It's okay."

And Zayn was tired of having to reassure his sister of that fact, and he was tired of being waken up in the middle of the night by his fighting parents, and he was tired of acting like he didn't notice their fights.

But, most of all, he was tired of feeling like this was his fault, because Patricia and Yaser never faught before he came out to them. Rarely.

Zayn was just tired, so he went to bed early that night, after placing a kiss on Safaa's forehead and squeezing her hand, and pretended that he didn't hear his father's car leaving the drive way.

He also pretended not to notice that he did an awful lot of pretending.

-+-

This chapter is more of an insight to Zayn's family life. I'm sorry for the long wait, as I'm sure that some of you have been waiting a while for this. I am trying to keep up with my Niam story, my Larry one shots, and this, so I'm kind of busy. Not to mention school work, friends, band, sports, and my extra curriculars. I'm doing a pretty good job at juggling all these things, I think. Thanks for being patient:)