Flawless // z.m

Fourteen.

Zayn's POV:

"Good morning, Mr. Malik." Catherine greeted me the second I stepped off the elevator. I gave her a short smile, hoping to dodge a conversation. My eyes flickered to Arabelle's desk, where she was hunched over and typing away on her computer. "You have a message, sir. I would've left it with Miss Samuels but, uhm, well just read it." Catherine jumped from her chair and walked around the desk to shove a piece of paper in my hands. "It's from Mary."

I inhaled deeply and set coffee down at her desk. "I thought I told you not to let her in here again."

Catherine nodded, "I know, but it was a bit of a struggle to get her to leave. She just said that it was important that I pass a message along to you."

"Very well," I nodded, picking up my coffee and folding the paper into my suit pocket, "thank you."

I passed by Arabelle's desk without a "hello" or "good morning." She didn't look up from her work, but I did see the corners of her pink lips turn up into a small smile.

I settled into the plush leather chair and refrained from kicking my feet up onto the desk and throwing my head back in satisfaction. In a few minutes Arabelle would walk through my office door and we'd quickly go over my schedule before I just cleared it all to spend time with her.

Before I forgot, I pulled the folded yellow paper from my pocket and set it onto my desk, smoothing out the paper so it was legible.

Saw your little pet out with Styles last night—don't think his little games are over just yet, Zayn.

 

I shut my eyes and leaned back into my chair. Taking deep breaths, I slowly balled up the paper and tossed it angrily at the trash can, completely missing. I couldn't fully trust Mary's words, but I knew there had to be some truth behind them.

Harry had a habit of meddling into my personal life and mixing it all up so it'd throw my business off. He had done so with Mary and Aura, and Katrina not too long ago. After confronting him and helping his business take off, I thought he had put that into his past. But I guess old habits die hard.

Harry and I have been best mates since we were ten years old. I ran into him—literally—whilst I was trying to get away from home, if I could even call it that. Mary had social services coming to visit that night and I wasn't up to play the part of a perfectly happy boy, because I wasn't. During my third attempt to run away from home that week, I decided to take my skateboard with me. Whilst I was trying to make sure no one was following me, I ran straight into Harry, who was busy playing on his Nintendo DS to have seen me approaching.

Harry cursed and cursed at me for what seemed like hours because he dropped his game console and cracked the screen, all while I sat on the ground to nurse a sore ass.

After I promised Harry I'd buy him a new Nintendo with money I didn't have, he asked me what I was doing out so late and offered me a place to stay the night. I almost declined, but knew I'd be on the streets that night if I didn't say yes, so I did and Harry and I quickly became friends. I stayed at his place almost every night before he moved to London.

Harry and I kept in touch, mostly because he was the only one that knew about everything going on in my shitty life. He and I both ended up majoring in business and starting our own companies. Mine took off right away because I invested all my time and the little money that I had. Malik Incorporates became my entire life and Harry didn't like that.

He started visiting Chicago, seeing Mary and Aura behind my back and spilling all my software prints and codes to them. I brushed it off as an accident, but when he did the same when Katrina came along, I knew there was something wrong.