Brave || Zerrie AU

Things Can Change.

In celebration of 10k reads I decided to post this chapter a little earlier than I had planned. Enjoy! "Happier" by Ed Sheeran is LITERALLY Zayn in this book lol especially this chapter so play it during his conversation with Perrie.

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"Have you been taking dance lessons or something?" Perrie asked Zayn as the song finally came to an end and she moved away from him. Everybody around them headed back to their seats, but Perrie and Zayn remained in the middle on the floor, closer than before. 

Zayn laughed as he ran his hand through his now, long hair. "No, I just lived in the moment."

"Very poetic, but we both know you don't dance, Zayn." Perrie joked, the tension slowly lifting.

A low chuckle escaped from his lips as he looked at Perrie. "Things can change, Perrie."

"I guess so." She said, their eyes locked as unspoken words were left before them. His soft hazel eyes made Perrie's heart clench as she saw how happy he looked in that moment.

She hadn't forgotten about Zayn, but her life had moved on since the last time they had seen each other. Before, looking at him would make her think of everything that went wrong in their relationship and how broken it had left her. These last six months had helped her realize that she was strong and even though she fell a couple times, she always got back up. That had been her hardest battle and she had survived. Despite that, she still felt angry at Zayn for the song he wrote about her and even though she had moved on, she knew that what she felt for Zayn had changed. She just wasn't sure how it had changed because now she had two men in her heart.

Zayn held out his hand, but Perrie was hesitant to take it. When she looked at his face she wanted to scream of anger, but her heart wasn't capable of hurting him. She stared at him for a moment longer before taking it and letting him lead her away from the party and up the stairs. The party seemed to drift away while she let her heart guide her into the night with the man who had broken her heart more times than she could count.

"Where are you taking me?" Perrie asked, her heart beating out of control. 

"It's a surprise." He turned and sent her a quick wink before leading her out the party and onto the hallway.

"I'm not a fan of surprises, you know that." Perrie pointed out, not letting Zayn think her guard was down.

"I'm aware."

A thousand questions rushed through her head as she took in the fact that Zayn was here, in New York at the same party as her.

"Wait," She hadn't realized that she was still holding Zayn's hand until she pulled it to make him stop walking, "How are you here?" She shook her head. "Why are you here?"

"I was invited." He simply said, causing more questions to form in Perrie's head.

"You know Megan?" Perrie asked. She knew that Harry and Megan were friends since high school and she knew for a fact that she was in Uganda while One Direction was taking over the world. Harry would occasionally mention her work when they attended charity events together.

A grin appeared on his face as he pulled Perrie close enough that his lips brushed against her ear. "I didn't say Megan invited me."

Perrie's eyebrows furrowed, "Then by who?"

"I won't tell. Now come on, the night is about to start."

"Wait," Perrie called out to him, "How did you know I was going to be here? I mean, you're making it seem like you knew I was going to be here and that you would end up spending the night with me."