The Summertime & Butterflies » Zarry ✔

🦋 4: Second Summer : Friends

When Zayn first went back home after spending the summer with his grandparents, he always hoped that he would be able to go back. When he got his licence, it became a possibility and when his father gifted him a car for his birthday, it officially became a reality. However, things had changed since then.

Zayn didn't know why but Harry would not return any of his calls or text messages. For the first week, he texted him everyday. Because he recieved no repsonse, he ended up calling him and leaving a voice message about how sorry he was even though he didn't know what he had done. He felt pathetic doing that but he had his first kiss with this boy. He'd hate for things to end as quickly as they started without even knowing the reason behind it.

Soon, texting everyday turned into once a week, and then once every few weeks and before he knew it, he had given up altogether by month four. Clearly Harry wasn't going to acknowledge him and honestly, he didn't even know why he tried for that long.

By the time the nine months of his senior year and preparing for college had ended, he was so angry at Harry for ruining his desire to go back. So for the first two weeks of summer, he stayed home and pouted. It wasn't until he came back from his graduation ceremony and his father had questioned him about seeing his grandparents that he realized he was very interested in getting to the bottom of the problem and going to visit them for the summer might be the only way. Harry may have been avoiding him over the phone but it would be very hard to avoid him if he saw him face to face, wouldn't it? Zayn wanted to see how right he was. So he packed his things, called ahead and headed to his grandparents' lake house for the summer.

He had no plans or anything. So after his aunt had left him alone with them, he stayed inside and tried to put one together. What was he going to say to Harry if he saw him? Was he going to yell and scream at him or be calm about it? And what about Harry? What if he pretended he didn't ignore him an entire school year? That would be so awkward. But it would also probably hurt less than watching him pretend he didn't remember him either.

So really, the uncertainty of how things would play out made it very hard to have a plan. Therefore he made up his mind that winging it would be the much better option. That way he couldn't be disappointed by things not taking place exactly the way he expected them to.

"Are you hungry, dear?" Nan had asked as she peeked her head in his bedroom.

Zayn was lying in his bed and staring blankly at the ceiling. He faced her. "No ma'am. I'm not hungry. I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

She looked worriedly at him. "Are you okay? You've hardly come out of your room since you got here. Even Papa asked about you."

That put a smile on Zayn's face. Papa liked his time alone and he respected when others did too. So if he was asking why he hadn't seen someone in a while, that was because he was truly worried for them.

"I'm okay, Nan. I promise. It's just that being on the lake gives me time to really think and I think I just got carried away. That's all."

She gave him a smile that reached her eyes. "Alright then, if you insist you're ready for bed, then I won't stop you. I'll see you in the morning, I guess." She told him.

"Yes ma'am, you will."

Without asking him, she went on ahead and closed his bedroom door. He put his hands behind his head and he sighed to himself. Right then and there, he made up his mind that he was not going to let what he was feeling about Harry ruin his vacation with his grandparents. Because he wasn't just here for Harry. He was here for them too.

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The next day when he woke up, it was around noon. His grandparents were sitting in the living room when he came in. Papa was trying to do a puzzle on the little table that had been placed in front of his chair while Nan was watching the weatherman on TV predict the forcast for the next seven days.