I'll Love You For Always { A Zalfie Fanfic }

Alfie

We got to the restaurant first and picked out the table where we going to sit. There was a really awkard tension at the table between me and Kimmi. She wasn't talking to me and I wasn't talking to her and everything was just really tense. I still loved her though, we were just having a bad day. Everyone has bad days. 

We sat together in silence for about ten minutes before I saw Zoe and Louise outside the window and my face lit up. "That's them. Oh I hope you like them. They really are the sweetest," I said the words spilling out of my mouth. Kimmi gave me a sort of sad face but I didn't really pay all that much attention to it. 

The bell above the door tinkled softly when they opened the door. I caught Zoe's eyes and signaled her to come over to her table where I introduced her and Louise to Kimmi. They then sat down and we started talking. 

The conversation was off and disjointed. Someone would say a few things and then break off and there were just a lot of awkard silences. I didn't care though. I just wanted to get to know Zoe better and I already knew way more about her. 

After we ordered our food Louise and Zoe excused themselves from the table to go to the loos so it was just me and Kimmi again. 

"Do you like them?" I asked looking at her expectantly. For some reason it was really important to me that she approved of my friends. If they did become my better friends and we started hanging out more than I wanted her to like them. 

"She's really peppy," Kimmi said slowly. 

"Which one?" I asked, but I already knew what she was going to say. 

"Both of them." The expression when she said those words broke my heart. 

"So you don't like them?" I asked my face drooping. 

"They might grow on me," she said softly. After that there wasn't any talking between us, we just waited for our food in an awkward silence. 

Finally our food came, but Zoe and Louise weren't back. We ate quickly, still not talking. I kept looking back into the hallway where the loos were and hoping that Zoe and Louise would emerge from it. "They're fine Alfie," Kimmi said in a reasurring tone looking at me with the face that I had fallen in love with all those years ago. "I'm actually going to go home. I can get a cab, unless you want to leave to," she said trailing off. She wanted me to go with her. 

"I'm going to wait. I'll see you at home," I said not looking at her. I could hear her stomp off in a rage. There was the tinkling of bells above the door and the whooshing sound that meant the door had shut.

I sat at the table for about ten minutes waiting for Zoe and Louise who still hadn't returned. After ten minutes I stood up and walked down into the hallway to look for them. I was surprised to find that they weren't in the loos but just sitting on the floor. 

Zoe was pale and Louise looked desperate. Louise told me that Zoe was having a panic attack and they would have to go back to their hotel. I said I would go with them. 

Again, for probably the fifth time that night, there was no talking in the cab on the way to the hotel but this time it was a different kind of no talking. It was the kind where you're worried about someone you care about and are too nervous to say anything to them because they might explode, for lack of a better word. 

I paid for the cab driver just like I paid for dinner much to the protest of Louise, but I didn't care. They didn't have to pay when I could. 

Louise was struggling to hold up Zoe as we brought her up the stairs to their room so I picked her up and carried her the last five flights. She weighed practically nothing so it wasn't that hard. When we got to the room, Louise walked in front of me to unlock it. 

I gingerly placed Zoe on the bed once I was inside. "Could you just stay here with her and calm her down a bit, I'm going to wet a washcloth," Louise said leaving me with Zoe. 

She was sitting on the bed looking at the wall with her eyes glazed over. Her breath was quick and shallow and her face sweaty. She looked terrible. There were tears rolling down her eyes and at first I didn't know how to comfort her, but then I just wrapped her up into a big hug as the minutes ticked by. 

Her breath slowly started to return to normal as I wiped away her tears. We stayed in each other's embrace until Louise came back from the loo with the wet washcloth. I ended up staying the night taking care of Zoe the whole time. 

xxx