eternity. ♡ zarry ♡

6: crush

Age 11

"Zayn?"

He looked away from Harry who he's been staring at for the past ten minutes and to his teacher. She's staring at him, waiting for him to answer the question he didn't know she asked.

"Yes?" he said, his cheeks turning a soft pink when he hears the soft snickers coming from his classmates.

"Can you tell me what twelve times eleven is?" Mrs. Jacobs, Zayn's fifth grade teacher, asked.

He stared at her for a moment, his brain scanning his memory for all of the numbers he's managed to memorize since the beginning of the year.

"One hundred and twenty?" And just as it leaves his lips, he knows the answers wrong. "No, I mean one hundred and thirty-two."

Then Zayn's heart is thumping as he awaits her response, is he right or is he wrong? Waiting is always so nerve wrecking, like needles that stick into his skin and make it impossible to move because he's afraid it'll hurt.

"That's correct! Always so smart, Mr. Malik," she smiled.

Zayn felt his heart beat slow down and he exhaled, his eyes looking back to Harry who was holding out his fist and smiling at him.

"You rock," Harry whispered. Zayn pushed his fist into Harry's, he smiled back.

The rest of the class was spent ignoring his teacher and looking at Harry, his eyes scanning all of the freckles and the bouncy curls and the two green eyes.

Zayn never realized he was staring, not until Harry was staring back at him, his head tilted and a confused smile on his face. "What're you looking at?" Harry whispered.

"Someone stupid," Zayn whispered back.

Harry made a funny face, he stuck his tongue out and his eyes focused on the bridge of his nose. A silent chuckle left Zayn, his smile growing and his eyes crinkling.

When lunch came, Harry had left to his cubby to get his lunchbox while Zayn already had his.

He slowly opened his lunchbox, his eyes scanning the lunch that Zayn's nanny made for him.

His attention was drawn away from it when a girl walked up to him, her hands behind her back and a small smile on her lips.

Zayn knew her name was Kimberly, she had long brown hair and big hazel eyes, she was pretty to Zayn.

A few times during the year, the teacher would change their seats so they sat with different students and got to know each of their classmates. Zayn sat with Kimberly near the beginning of the year, so he only talked to her a few times.

He was nervous then and he was nervous now.

"Hi, Zayn." Zayn smiled at her, his heart thumping just like before.

"Hello," he said politely.

"You're friends with Harry, right? Like best friends?" she asked. She tilted her head curiously, the smile still etched on her lips.

Wow, she was pretty and Zayn couldn't stop staring at her.

"I'd say we're best friends, dunno so much about Harry," Zayn shrugged.

She nodded and licked her lips before pulling a small folded piece of paper out, it was pink with a cutout of a red heart glued to it. Her eyes left Zayn's brown ones and stared down at it, her thumb rubbed across the art.

"Um," she looked back at Zayn and held out the folded paper, "Could you give this to him? Pretty please?"

How could Zayn say no? She was pretty and kind, plus, she trusted him enough to give this to Harry.

"Yeah, sure." He took the folded paper and smiled up at her.

"Thanks, Zayn. I owe you!" Her smile was so big that Zayn's heart could've bursted right then and there. She left and went back to her seat.

Zayn looked down at the folded paper, Harry's name was written in the red heart with a smiley face just under it.

"Who's that from?" Harry asked as he sat down.

"Kimberly." Harry nodded and opened his lunchbox.

He ran his fingers across it. He wanted to open it, he wanted to see why it was for Harry and why Harry was so important to receive something as beautiful as this. But Kimberly trusted him, he wasn't going to break that trust.

"She wanted me to give this to you," Zayn stated plainly. He held the folded paper out and Harry hesitantly took it.

"Why's my name in a heart?" Harry's eyebrow rose as he slowly opened it.

His green eyes widened as he read the small note inside, his cheeks turning a soft pink and his mouth slightly ajar.

Zayn watched him turn around in his seat and look at Kimberly who was caught staring at him, her cheeks turning a rosy shade of red and her eyes flickering down to her lunch.

"What's it say?" Zayn asked eagerly.

Harry slowly turned back around in his seat, he folded the paper back up and placed in his lunchbox under all of his food.

"Hazzy, what's it say?" Zayn asked again.

"She has a crush on me." Harry's voice was soft and slow, like he was tasting the words as they came out of his mouth, making sure they were good enough before they reached Zayn's ears.

"She like likes you?" Zayn stared at him in bewilderment. Harry nodded.

His heart was crushed, but he wasn't sure if it was because Kimberly liked Harry instead of him or if it was because Harry seemed to like her back. So he asked.

"Do you like her back?" Zayn's voice was quiet, almost inaudible but Harry could hear him.

Harry looked to Zayn, stared him right in the eyes.

Why does he always look so sad? Harry asked himself.

"No.. I-I don't think so. It just caught me off guard is all," he answered. Zayn's face relaxed and he smiled a little. "Why? Do you like her?"

Suddenly, Zayn's eyes widened and his cheeks changed to that soft pink from before.

"No! She's pretty.. like really pretty, but I don't like her like that."

"It's okay if you do, I don't care." Harry pulled out his bag of carrots.

"You don't?" Zayn whispered.

"I don't." His green eyes seemed to darken.

"I don't care if you like her either." Zayn stared at him like he always did.

Harry bit down on a small carrot and looked away from Zayn.

"But you can't like her more than me because I'm your best friend," Zayn stated then pushed a small grape into his mouth.

Harry didn't know that Zayn got his likes mixed up, confusing the like reserved for friends and the like reserved for people you wanted to hold hands with.

But what confused Harry even more was that Zayn was his friend, his best friend, yet, he wanted to hold his hand.

Was that weird? Harry hoped not, he didn't want to be weird.

Weird was new and different, he didn't like new and different. He liked the same old things. His mom, Gemma and Zayn, all the same and never changing.

But maybe weird could be good, at least he hoped.

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I hope this isn't too bad, have a good rest of your week x