All the Leaves are Brown (Zarry AU)

Chapter 14

Zayn’s woken the next morning by the sound of the phone.

‘Don’t answer it,’ he mumbles into his pillow when Harry stirs.

Ant says the same thing, yelling, ‘Don’t answer it!’ from the bathroom.

‘Why? Who is it?’ Harry asks, rolling onto his back with a yawn.

‘Who knows? But no one good ever calls the house phone.’

‘What if it’s your mum?’

‘She calls my mobile.’

‘My Nan always calls us on the house phone.’

‘Everyone I know calls my mobile.’

‘So why even have a house phone?’

‘So we know not to answer it.’

‘Why?’

Zayn presses his face into the pillow and groans. It’s not even 8 a.m.. He doesn’t do conversations before 8 a.m. without at least two cups of tea.

‘I’m just saying: why pay for a house phone if you don’t use it?’

Zayn rolls onto his back too and looks up at the growing crack in the ceiling. ‘’Cos we have to give our number out sometimes and we’d rather not use our mobiles.’

‘To who?’

‘The bank.’

‘Is that who’s calling?’

Zayn nods and it turns into a yawn. ‘Ant’s just gone over his overdraft limit.’

Harry’s quiet for a moment and Zayn wonders if he’s ever had to worry about stuff like that, if he’s ever had to live on Pot Noodles for a week to pay the gas bill.

Probably not.

‘So have I, actually,’ Zayn says, closing his eyes as he remembers the pack of fags he bought yesterday knowing full well that there wasn’t enough money in his account.

‘What are you going to do?’ Zayn can’t see him but he knows that he’s frowning.

‘Sell a kidney, probably.’

‘Why don’t you get a job?’

Zayn rolls his eyes. ‘I have four.’ He counts each one off on his fingers. ‘I work at Piccadilly on a Saturday and during the week I tutor, DJ and work in the student union. I used to work at the Hat and Stick as well but they just let me go, which is why I’m broke.’

‘Jesus,’ Harry breathes. ‘Thank God for the summer holidays, yeah?’

‘Not at all,’ Zayn chuckles bitterly. ‘I’ve got no tutoring work unless any of my students have to do resits, which would make me a pretty shit tutor, wouldn’t it? Plus the union’s shut for the summer so I’m fucking fucked.’

‘What? But isn’t uni done? Aren’t you going home?’

‘I wish. This isn’t halls. We don’t rent by the term. Ant and I signed a 12-month contract so we still need to pay the rent until September whether we’re here or not.’

‘Fuck.’

‘It’s alright,’ Zayn says, stopping to rub his face with his hands. ‘Mal at Piccadilly will be gone for most of the summer doing the festivals so I’ll pick up his hours.’

‘So you’ll be working full-time?’

‘Yeah. Six days a week plus three nights DJing so I should be sorted.’

‘What?’ Harry practically spits. ‘For the whole summer?’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s bollocks!’

Zayn laughs because it kind of is.

‘Shit. And then in September you go back to working forty jobs and going to uni?’ Zayn nods. ‘When do you have time to study?’

‘I don’t. Last month I skipped a tutorial to pick up an extra shift at the union.’

‘What about student loans?’

‘They cover my fees and some of my books, but not my rent and bills and stuff.’

Harry goes quiet again. When Zayn finally turns his head to look at him, he’s drumming his fingers on his stomach and looking up at the ceiling.

‘Is it worth it?’ he says.

The phone starts ringing again.