eternity. ♡ zarry ♡

14: u

Age 16

"What's your name?" the young girl, Phoebe, asked as Zayn set up two chairs opposite each other with a small side table beside it.

"I'm Zayn," he answered with a small smile.

He placed the clean palette on the side table and began to squeeze out paint onto each of the tiny divots in the palette.

"Are you my big brother's friend?" She fiddled with the brushes Zayn had laid down.

Zayn bit down on his bottom lip. He shouldn't say no, he knew that, but the only reason he was here was because Harry asked him to do this favor for Louis and he liked to make children happy on their special day. So, he nodded.

"Yeah, actually, he's my second best friend." She smiled.

She placed the brush down and intertwined her fingers together. "Can I be your first best friend? Pretty please?"

He blinked. "Why would you wanna be my first best friend?" he questioned.

"Daisy's mad at me and said I'm not her best friend anymore, so I need a new best friend and I chose you," she explained.

"What if she changes her mind? Won't she be sad you already replaced her?" He took the floral patterned cup Louis gave him and walked back inside of the house. Phoebe followed him inside.

"Well, it's what she gets for being mad at me on our birthday!" she huffed and crossed her arms.

He walked into the kitchen and filled the cup with lukewarm water. "What'd you do to make her mad?"

As he walked back toward the back door with Phoebe following closely behind him, he could hear the front door opening followed by laughter. He turned for a moment as he slid open the back door to see Harry, Niall and Louis walking in with wrapped gifts.

"Are you listening to me, Zay?" Phoebe asked with a pout, completely oblivious to the noise behind her.

He looked down at her and grinned, letting her go to the back porch first then followed out behind her and slid the door closed behind him.

"Who's Zay?" he asked.

"You." She sat down in the chair across from where he just sat down. "It's like Jay, like what people call my mom, but instead with a 'Z' since your name starts with a 'Z'."

"So can I call you Pay?" He set the cup of water down next to the palette.

"Only if you let me touch your hair." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Please? It looks so soft."

He sighed and nodded, leaning forward. He could feel her small fingers raking through his hair and a soft 'wow'.

"All done?" he asked.

"All done."

He leaned back to see her smiling at him. "Now, since you're the first child here, what would you like? I can do flowers, bunnies, cats, dogs, anything you want."

The back door slid open to reveal Harry and Louis who were then followed by Niall.

"Louis!" Phoebe screamed and jumped up from her seat.

She hugged him tightly and then stared up at him when they separated. "Is Daisy upstairs?" Louis asked.

"Yeah, she's helping mommy clean." She frowned. "She's mad at me."

"Hey."

Zayn turned away from the two siblings to see Harry sitting in front of him. "Hi," he whispered.

"How's it going?" Harry asked.

"It's going," Zayn answered.

It was quiet for a moment then Harry sighed.

"I know we're at a birthday party right now, but there's something I've gotta tell you." Harry paused and scooted his chair closer to Zayn until their knees touched. "I told my mom and Gem last week. I just told Louis and Niall. I won't get to tell Liam till he comes, but that's okay."

Zayn nodded and leaned in closer. "Okay."

Harry looked passed Zayn to see that Louis, Niall and Phoebe had went back inside then he looked back to Zayn. "Promise me we'll still be best friends," he said and held out his pinkie.

"Did you hurt someone?" Zayn asked as he hesitated to wrap his finger around Harry's. "Did someone hurt you?"

Harry's nose scrunched up as he laughed. "Nothing like that. Just promise me."

So, Zayn wrapped his pinkie around Harry's. "Kiss your fist to seal the promise." Zayn kissed his fist and watched Harry do the same.

"What's so serious that you had to make me seal the promise?" Zayn questioned.

Harry unwrapped his pinkie from Zayn's. "We didn't seal the promise when we were fourteen, so I'm kinda making up for that. Best friends for eternity, remember?"

Zayn scoffed. "How could I forget?"

Harry grinned. "I knew you wouldn't," he said.

"Now, tell me what's up," Zayn demanded.

Harry took Zayn's hand in his and stared down at it as he fiddled with Zayn's fingers. "Truthfully, your thoughts matter most to me besides my mom and Gem. So, if you don't like me afterwards, try not to show it, okay? I'll cry like a baby if I think you hate me," he said as steady as he could.

Zayn didn't say anything, he just watched Harry press their palms together. "Small," he heard Harry whisper.

"I'll always love you, Haz. You know that," Zayn spoke.

Harry chuckled. "You can't say stuff like that, it might give me hope."

Zayn looked up from their hands as Harry fit his fingers in between Zayn's. "Hope for what?"

He stared at Harry. He watched the way his eyelashes fluttered when he blinked and how his curls moved slightly with the wind.

"I like boys." Harry looked up from their intertwined fingers. "Girls too, but I figured you already knew that."

It was silent other than the soft laughter of Louis' sisters and the pounding of Zayn's heart. He wondered if Harry could hear just how loudly his heart was beating.

He held Harry's hand tighter, pressing his fingertips against the back of Harry's hand.

"How'd you figure that out?" Zayn asked shakily.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "That I like girls? Or that I like boys?"

"Boys." Zayn felt shy all of a sudden.

Harry sighed and looked back down at their hands. "Isn't it obvious?" he whispered.

Zayn shook his head. "Was it a friend you liked or maybe someone from our school?"

"You helped me figure it out." Zayn could feel Harry's hand shaking.

"Me?"

"You." Harry took a deep breath. "Always you."

*****

finished my exams last week :0, hopefully more updates to come. thank you for reading :D