Breaking The Ice

Ain't That The Truth

TJ's POV

"Holy shit, don't choke! I was just kidding." Zayn laughed as I coughed up the water that had been stuck in the wrong tube of my throat.

He'd said something hilarious just as I took a sip and I instantly choked, inhaling water as I laughed, and I'd been coughing for a solid minute before I got it together. I cleared my throat before I took another sip of water, satisfied that I could now breathe properly as he smiled over at me.

"You good?" He chuckled.

"Yes I'm fine." I laughed. "But please refrain from cracking jokes about the frat house while I have something in my mouth I can choke on."

He smirked at me, and I knew he was holding himself back from making a dirty joke, before he just nodded and let out a light laugh.

"Noted." He smiled. "Anyways...It's nice to see you laugh. You seemed a little bummed earlier."

For the most part, Zayn had completely distracted me from the fact that Harry didn't seem to be speaking to me, and I'd almost forgotten all about it. I felt my stomach clench slightly at the reminder, and a look of guilt crossed Zayn's face for bringing it up.

"I'm alright, just...roommate stuff." I said simply.

"I guess things can get pretty intense for you guys, huh? Living together and playing together, you spend so much time around each other there's bound to be stuff that pops up." He shrugged. "It would be like that with anyone who hung out that much."

"True. I mean, we're like family, they drive me crazy sometimes."

"I bet. Being the only girl can't be easy either, you probably end up doing a lot of babysitting and cleaning up." He laughed.

"I guess, but I'm kinda used to it, I grew up with brothers. I mean you know Louis, he himself can be a full time job." I laughed. "But it's not so bad, Harry helps out around the dorm and stuff quite a bit so it's not always me having to do everything."

"Well that's good, at least you've got someone to help out." He nodded.

"Yeah, we work pretty well together." I sighed, deciding it was time to change the subject before I got bummed out. "So, what brings you all the way out here from New York? Aren't there like a million schools there specifically for art?"

Zayn had mentioned to me the first night we'd met that he grew up in New York, and I'd always found it interesting that he would study art in Michigan of all places.

"Well..." He started as he leaned back in his chair. "Don't get me wrong, I love New York. It's home and really great for a lot of reasons, but it's just so busy. I didn't really know any different growing up there, I thought it was like that everywhere, and I know that the reason I got into art was because of where I come from. There is literally art everywhere in the city, everywhere you look there's something artistic about it, something to draw inspiration from. But when I looked back at the kind of art I was inspired by, the things that made me feel something, they were always surrounded by this sense of nothingness."

"What do you mean?" I asked, fascinated by the way he spoke.

"Well, for example, I remember my dad took me to this museum when I was a kid. There was this picture there that stuck with me, I was seven years old and I can still see it like it's right in front of me. It was this woman, just sitting on a bench in the middle of central park. There was nothing particularly eye-grabbing about it, other than the fact it was black and white, but she was just sitting there as the people scurried by they always do in the city, paying no attention to anything or anyone else. The look on her face...it was like you could feel her loneliness, how alone she felt."