Rising Love

Some Is Better Than None

Later that day, Zayn walked into the apartment to hear the sound of slaps and clashes coming from the kitchen. He sighed, closed the door nonchalantly despite the ongoing noise in the house. He hoped the loudness of it all wouldn't make the neighbors complain.

"What are you angry about now?" he asked aloud as he walked into the kitchen, already knowing what he would see.

Lauren was standing at the granite kitchen counter, kneading dough aggressively. To Zayn, it seemed to be less of a kneading process than it was slapping a mound of dough against the counter, but hey. Everyone had their own methods.

"Camz-" Lauren huffed, as she kneaded the dough, pushing it against the counter with considerable force. "Has a boyfriend."

"Well then. What are you going to do now?" Zayn replied, ignoring the repetition of smack-slap-slap that the poor dough was undergoing in front of his eyes. He had always told Lauren that kickboxing would be a better outlet for her anger at things, but she would always defend her decision, saying that classes were expensive, but angry baking was free. To each their own, Zayn supposed.

"I don't want to be alone in life, Z, no matter how often I seem to give off that vibe." Lauren sighed, as the pressure she put on kneading the dough softened. "I want to find someone, you know? And I thought that Camz may have been that one for me, at least for the time being."

"How long has she been with the guy?" Zayn asked. 

Another hard smack of dough to granite counter. "I don't know. It was fleeting. She told me in passing as she left."

"Well then, take it out on the dough for the time being. It will give me enough time to check my handy dandy Facebook account without you lashing out at me with bread mush."

"What the hell are you logging onto Facebook for?!" Lauren questioned, finished with her kneading and now putting the dough into a lidded bowl for proving, so the dough can rise. Once she puts the dough on the dining room table, she pulls yet another bowl out of the laminate wood cabinets to prepare - yes, another dough for angry baking. 

"I'm going to see what information I can pull up over the interwebs. Shut your mouth and make your dough."

"SIRI," Lauren yells aloud as she mixes the dough with one hand, holding the glass bowl with her other. "PLAY ALABAMA SHAKES!"

"I'm sorry, I can't play movies at the moment," Siri's robotic voice echoes back, and Lauren's angered yell ripples through the room.

"Keep smacking your dough, let me try." Zayn says as he types on his laptop in the dining room. He doesn't bring up that he noticed Lauren had changed Siri's voice so that it had a female British dialect, probably because she finds British dialects sexy.

"Siri," Zayn declares. "Play Alabama Shakes."

"Playing Alabama Shakes," Siri confirms, and the sound of the song 'Don't Wanna Fight' starts to resonate throughout the kitchen, and Lauren scowls.

Amidst the sound of slapping dough against granite, eventually Zayn finds Camila's Facebook profile, immediately going to the 'About Me' page to see what he can learn. He sighs at the results. 

"She's living together with this blonde Niall guy." Zayn decides to just break the news to Lauren while she's kneading. "They've been Facebook official for like, two years now."

Lauren breathes a deep, hefty sigh, breath ragged from yelling at the iPad. "So there's no hope," she tentatively states, pushing the dough in her hands. 

"There's always hope, Laur. I know it's hard to take but you just got to know her, the longer you spend time with her, the more chance that she'll end her relationship with the Neil guy."

"Okay."

"Clearly you're not taking it well." Zayn says, rising to his feet from the dining room chair, where he was staring down Lauren's first batch of dough, which was rising. "Just - finish baking the doughs you have now. Then we'll watch some telly and smoke if you want, okay?"

"Kay," Lauren says sullenly, smacking the dough against the counter harder than ever, not caring about her bruising hand in the process. 

-

About five or six hours later, and as Zayn had promised, the two were in front of the television with snacks and weed, which had surprisingly remained unsmoked.  Lauren got to pick the show, so Chef's Table was on Netflix, with Nancy Silverton's episode playing.

"Nancy Silverton is my baking daddy." Lauren announces, munching on a slice of the bread she made earlier. The crust crunches between her teeth. 

"We know." 

"Just look at how she kneads that dough, man." She's grinning now, staring in a sort of awe at how Nancy on the screen molds and moves the dough between her hands. 

"Not again." Zayn mutters, both to himself and Lauren, even though he knows Lauren won't listen. 

"She, like, makes the dough submit to her will."

"I - Lauren, do you even know what you're saying?" Zayn asks, incredulous.

"Yes. It's so fucking hot, don't you agree?"

"Please stop, the woman is in her fifties."

"Age is just a number," Lauren defends herself, poking Zayn in the shoulder

"Yeah, and prison is just a room." He counters, bursting into a crinkled smile when Lauren has nothing to say back to him.

-

They fall asleep in front of the television for a few hours, waking up only to the sound of Lauren's phone vibrating. Texts, from Camila.

"What do they say?" Zayn asks, hair strands swinging in front of his face due to how he was sleeping, face rested against the armrest.

"She wants to meet up. In two days or so."

"Say yes," Zayn shrugs as he blows the strands out of his eyes. 

"What if she brings Neil?"

"Then just remember what I said to you, Laur." Zayn replied, voice softening a little, sympathizing with his friend. "Any hope to be with her is better than no hope at all. Just let time float by, and eventually, the world will shift itself back into your hands again. All you need is patience."

"Okay." Lauren types out a quick message. "If this ends up failing, Mailk, I'm suing you."

-

A/N: LMAO did you think the boyfriend was Shawn or Niall or someone else? Lemme know in the comments.

Also, thank you so much for 6k reads so far :) tbh i didnt think this lil guy would get past 4k

Love you all - stay safe, and stay lit ;)

- Sel <3