Love, Laila (ON HOLD)

25| In Zayn's Shoes

Crash!

I throw the tennis ball repeatedly on the wall until it hits a vase my vicious girlfriend got me. It was ugly anyway.

Not learning from my mistakes, like I always do on the daily, I swing my arm backwards and shoot the ball again. It doesn't entirely come back to me, just a few inches away.

Laila...

Her face invades my mind and I drop my head into the palms of my sweaty hands.

She wasn't like this.

Leaving her for 10 years couldn't have made her like that. I've been told she's depressed, but god knows who I believed. I believe the sounds of her cries every night.

I'd be strolling down her neighborhood and hear her high pitched, quiet wail from afar. It squeezes my heart in every direction, and stabs it when I know I'm not there for her.

She needs some time for herself.

The door of my room opens abruptly, and I glance up to see Aiden opening it and screaming inside, "Robber!"

He exits the room and returns to do the same to Joana's room. She shrieks loudly when her door opens. I wonder what's she's doing.

Probably with Liam. Poor Aiden.

Turning my head aside, I stare at the wall that separates me from Joana's room. I've always envied her, but not as I envied her right now. Her smiling, and laughing with Liam compared to me in a relationship with a girl who isn't worth it.

And possibly me crushing over Laila but who knows?

No, I'm not. That's certain.

I kick the tennis ball to the wall and grasp on my hair, then fall back onto the mattress. Rethinking the events of today.

Mrs. Stars? To Laila?

No.

But then I remember the rare sincere and blank look on Laila's eyes when she said it all. I noticed how barely her blue eyes show emotion. Yet she did there.

I believe her, and I'll believe her again and again and again.

Laila's walls are higher and stronger than a dam, could I be the one to destroy her wall and get her soul to open up to me...like when we were younger?

She twirls in her red dress until it got caught into branch so she had to stop. She huffs and speaks in Italian, "I hope it's not torn."

"These branches are strong but not as strong," I snatch her dress from the branch and it makes a big torn from impact, " Uh Oops. Sowwie, Lily."

She frowns and twirls the floating string on her dress in her hands. I notice she's making circles on her palm. She nods and turns around from me.

"Lily? What's wrong?" I walk towards her and tap her fabricated shoulder.

"Zayn, it's Papa," she frowns deeper, "He's weird."

"How weird?"

"Sweat is always on his forehead, he's getting more lazy. Not the adventurous papa I know," she explains, still faced away from me.

"Maybe his work is making him tired?" I tentatively ask.

"I don't think so."

I screw my eyes shut and the room to my door opens again, "Go away, Aiden."

A girl chuckles and I recognize her voice, "Hey, baby," I tightly smile back.

Her legs start shuffling on the carpet as she inches towards me. She sits on the bed as my head is staring at the ceiling, "Well, is everything good?"

"Perfect," I say, "Just some stress on studies."

"Ah, I can imagine. I've heard Mr. Dolan's homework is hell itself," she laughs quietly and stops when she sees I'm not copying her, "Zayn?"

I breathe in, "Yeah?"

"What's on your mind?"

Laila.

"Nothing, baby," I get up and sit beside her, tightly smiling. Her lips quirk up in a smile and my eyes flicker to her lips. She flushed and I could hear her heart pounding against her chest. This time, her eyes trace my lips and cup her face in my hands, looking at her in the eye.

Her breath hitches in her throat and her skin is warm. Tilting my head to the side, I brush my lips against her and she does the same, hungrily. She gets up and sits on my lap, straddling me with her fingers in my hair.

I suddenly pull away, getting a glimpse of her swollen red lips. Her eyebrows tilt upwards, and look of disappointment washes her face. She looks down and gets up to sit beside me again, "Zayn? Why did you...?"

I grind my upper teeth into my lower, not replying to her. I swoosh my head aside to see the window, only Laila's floral balcony in view. What if Mrs. Stars is there? What will Laila do?

My girlfriend sits beside me and follows my gaze, then huffs, "So she's the reason." I could actually feel her rolling her eyes, "Pretty doll face."

I jerk my head to properly look at her. Blond curls, flushed cheeks, an oversized hoodie of mine on her body, "She's never the reason for anything."

She crosses her eyebrows, forming a crease, "Then you're too blind," she parts her lips to speak, "You don't see how she's placing people under her spell, babe."

I keep staring at her until sarcastic trepidation starts to take place, "Oh don't tell me you actually are under her spell. She's faking depression. I can see it."

The intensity of my eyes looking at her makes her pupils decrease, "Talk about yourself. She's a fighter. An alluring one. I dare you to be confident enough to go tell her that into her face. I fucking dare you." My tone comes out tougher than usual, making her Adam's Apple move, gulping tightly.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't," she stands up from the bed and plants a kiss on my cheek, "See you later, Zayn."

I watch her distastefully as she exits the room. I rub the traces of her lips from my cheek, then my mouth. Groaning loudly, I fall back into the mattress, with my girlfriend's voice ringing in my head.