concealing ➸ tomlinson

xl

i feel like this fic should be alternatively titled 'how to torture christian' because that seems to be it's specialty

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"louis and kris should be back in two days."

harry and zayn were walking towards the ugc. zayn sort of figured the extra clingy-ness was because of what had happened with jacob, but that wasn't admitted.

zayn wondered about how louis was going to take the news; because there wasn't any way he could hide the situation from him. hell, he wasn't going to be able to keep it a secret from harry very long with how easily and often he could figure out zayn's lies.

they rounded the corner, and, low and behold, jacob was standing there.

zayn would normally chalk it up to circumstance, but, well, circumstance seemed to be nonexistent around him.

both he and harry tensed up, but harry seemed bent on getting past him. so zayn quietly slipped behind him and made sure not to make eye contact. that seemed to work, until it didn't. zayn was almost past when jacob stuck his hand out and stopped him.

"do you mind if we talk?" he asked in a low voice.

harry had stopped too, and zayn could feel growing heat begin to radiate off of him. either he was going to combust on his own will, or he was waiting on some form of signal from zayn.

zayn cleared his throat. "yeah that's fine."

harry kept his face stone cold. after a few seconds, he said, "i'll meet you in the ugc, then."

he had taken maybe seven steps in the opposite direction when zayn finally faced jacob. "what is it?" he asked, the goosebumps beginning to fade from his skin.

"i thought you said that only i would be able to get past the security you set up."

"um, yeah. are you having a problem getting in or-?"

"i'm having a problem with people getting in."

zayn's mind raced for some sort of response; particularly one that wouldn't get his neck snapped. "what makes you think that someone got past it?"

"the lights were on, and things were moved around."

well couldn't you have just done that yourself and forgotten about it? "i'll, uh, i'll double check it before tomorrow." zayn promised, finally forcing himself to look directly at him for more than a mere few seconds.

jacob nodded, not breaking eye contact either. "you'd better."

and he left, giving a less-than-friendly grip on the shoulder before walking away. zayn took a deep breath, exhaled, then began to walk as fast as he could down to the ugc.