zero • njh

• six •

Sleeping wasn't an option last night, as I had already predicted.

As the sun is starting to rise, shining into my room, lighting it up in a bright yellow and tinting the sky red and pink, when I reluctantly get out of the position I have been lying in for the past three hours, trying to get Niall out of my head. It was tough, because my head thought it would be a good idea to start fantasizing about what it would be like to be with him.
   My whole body feels numb and I consider staying home for a moment, but it would just get me into more trouble. Also, dad is probably home, so I'd rather skip on having to get through his treatments for my sickness. After getting dressed and trying my best in doing my make-up as good as possible, I look at myself in the mirror. Does that look okay? I turn around a few times, looking for anything that somehow looks off about me, but quickly decide that it's unnecessary to do that. As if I cared what anyone thought of my appearance... I most certainly don't, I never did and I won't start with it now. Maybe someday in college I'll try and get a hang of my own style.
Dad is sitting in the kitchen, already eating his breakfast while watching the news.
  "Good morning." I say yawning and place a kiss on his cheek.
   "Morning." He replies lost in thought, his eyes glued to the small TV above our microwave. "There was a fire in the woods nearby tonight." he then explains what's going on in the news. I look at the images of the burnt down trees. "Oh really? Do they know how that happened?"
   He exhales frustrated, shaking his head as I grab my fruit loops and sit down next to him.    "They didn't find anything yet, but I bet it was some brat that threw his unfinished cigarette into the dry leaves."
  "So are you going to be investigating there today?"
  "I guess. But I don't think there will be much to investigate." He looks at me smiling. "We'll find out, huh?" 
Around here nothing exiting ever happens. I think the biggest thing he ever had to rush into work for was a small fight of a couple men that were carrying knives. He always talks about moving further into downtown Chicago someday so he can transfer to a police station there, but that has to wait until I graduate high school. Who knows, maybe we'll actually be moving again in two years.

Right when I finish breakfast, Zayn pulls into our driveway and honks. I place a kiss on dads cheek before grabbing a jacket and rushing outside, throwing myself into the passenger seat.
   "Good morning." Zayn greets me and I smile at him while buckling up and replying with a short. "Morning."
   "What's up with the long face, M?" he asks jokingly, probably referring to the large eye bags in my face.  
  "I didn't get any sleep tonight." I sigh, leaning back into the seat and closing my eyes. "It's a really stupid reason, though." My heart starts to hammer against my chest as if I had been running up and down the stairs like a maniac.
   It makes no sense to me how I just couldn't get him off my mind. Sure, Niall was a really attractive guy and his gaze was breathtaking, but his personality just couldn't be thrown under his good looks. It was impossible to like... like him. Yuck.

   "Niall texted me last night." I say, my voice trembling slightly and Zayn looks at me frowning. "Niall Horan texted you? Did you give him your number?" he sounds as confused as I'm feeling right now. 
   "No." I run my hands through my hair and look out the windshield. "I don't know where he got it."
   "What did he text you?" Zayn asks carefully and I notice him giving me a worried look from the corner of my eye. I already forgot what had happened just a few weeks ago, when Niall and the soccer bunch first started to harass me.
   My cheeks turn red as the thought about Nialls lips on my neck crosses my mind again and I opened the window a tiny bit to get some fresh air.
   "Uh... well he just asked what I was up to. I told him he got the wrong number and ignored him." Zayn furrows his eyebrows and bites his lower lip. It takes him a while to figure out what he wants to reply to that.
  "Think he believed that?" I sigh. "No, that's part of the problem."
  "Maybe he didn't give up on you yet." Zayn suggests chuckling and I smash my elbow into his ribs, causing him to wince in pain, but bursts out into laughter afterwards.
  "Fuck off Zayn, seriously." Annoyed I grunt and cross my arms. "He better give up, because I won't be falling for that dick for brains prick. All he cares about is soccer and sex." Zayn calms down a bit and wipes away a tear that ran down his cheek from laughing so hard. "Well, you're right about that, but that doesn't mean he can't be nice, you know."
  "That doesn't make him more likable. He isn't nice to me, so he's an asshole, as easy as that."
Thinking about it suddenly made me really angry. I mean honestly, why would he make my life in school a living hell and then start to casually text me as if we have been friends all along? Zayn laughs quietly and smiles. 
 "I'm joking, M. I really don't know how Liam survives hanging out with them all the time."

     We arrive at the parking lot and Zayn parks his car in his usual spot. I decide to ask Zayn about Liam, because it seems kinda suspicious to me how he always mentions how different Liam is. I undo my seat belt and climb out of the car.
   "Zayn, can I ask you something?" I ask, grabbing my bag from the backseat and make my way around the car. Zayns looks at me and nods. "Sure, ask away."
  "You and Liam are growing really close, aren't you?" Zayn smiles and throws his bag over his shoulders. His eyes light up in a weird way when I mention Liam. "Yeah he's a really great guy. He's not like the other soccer jocks, you know?"
"I guess. You really can't judge a book by it's cover, huh?" Zayn nods, agreeing to my conclusion that prejudices suck, even when it comes to the more popular high school students.