My Stepbrother - Zarry

Smoke - 25

Zayn's P.O.V

I tried to take deep breaths as I sat at the dinner table, right beside Niall, chewing the poor chicken strips a little too aggressively.

No, I wasn't angry. I was fucking furious.

Now that things got the littlest bit better between me and Harry, he just had to pull a stupid stunt and wreck all the progress we had made.

If that's how it's going to be every time I meet Niall, I might as well meet him every day. Why? Because I don't enjoy when people try to play the dominant role and display their 'authority' on me. That's just not how it's supposed to work, is it now?

I felt something tickle my ear, and flinched back as I was knocked out of my thoughts, seeing Doniya evilly holding up a wrapper.

"What were you thinking stink-brain? You were looking like:" Doniya made a face as she pursed her lips, widened her eyes, and flared her nostrils.

"Doniya... What is your secret to looking more hideous than you already are?" I spoke, making an imaginary microphone with my hands and directing it towards her.

Mum abruptly put her fork down. "Doniya, Zayn, you both aren't seven year olds anymore, for God's sake."

Doniya decided to drop it, but only after sticking out her tongue at me, to which her boyfriend started laughing uncontrollably, that sounded more like a donkey choking on the Niagara Falls.

And there's another reason of why I don't like my sister's boyfriend.

I made a mental assignment to steal his wallet before attacking the chicken strips once again.

After dinner was over, I led Niall to the balcony, since I was nowhere near being in the mood of sitting in the same room as Harry.

Ah, If only he knew what I did to people like him.

I took a cigarette out of it's box, lighting it up with my gold plated zippo lighter and holding it between my lips, I blew out a puff of smoke before taking another drag of it.

I had been trying to cut down on the amount of cigarettes I smoked, the number having reached the mark of 30 per day at one point. I had reduced it to 15 by now but I was still trying to get it to 10.

Mum and Harry constantly told me to stop smoking altogether, but it was easier said than done. Smoking relaxed me, and I'd heard by many that it was just a psychological affect, but my mind believed that 'psychological affect' now, didn't it?

I noticed Niall staring at me through the corner of my eye, his eyes following the smoke as it escaped my lips and disappeared into the atmosphere.

He took a step closer, but got a little too close when he ended up inhaling the smoke and doubled over as he coughed uncontrollably.

I laughed lightly before crouching down.

"You okay there, mate?"

Niall coughed once more before he burst out laughing and had to hold onto my shoulders for support or else I'm pretty sure he'd be on the floor by now.

It took Niall a moment to calm down before he snatched my cigarette out of my hand and stomped on it with his sneakers.

"Smoking kills." He ruffled my hair and then sat on the floor with his legs crossed.

"You're something else, Niall." I said as I mirrored his actions and sat beside him.

He gave me a smile and it wasn't long before the both of us were lying on our backs, just looking up at the stars in a comfortable silence.

"Do you believe in aliens?" Niall questioned out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Do you believe in aliens, Zayn?" Niall chuckled lightly as he realised he had caught me off guard as I was about to doze off.

"I mean, you can never say for sure, can you? It's such a vast universe, and we still haven't found out a lot of things about our own galaxy."

"Yeah, I think so too... Have you heard about the Area 51?"

"Who hasn't." I laughed. "It was on the news."

"I kind of want to go but with the amount of memes being made about it, I'm pretty sure the military put whatever was there on Mars by now."

"Wow."

"What?"

"We're seriously having a conversation about aliens."

Niall got visibly awkward as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Well I'm- uh... a little bit weir-"

"I love it!" I put on my biggest smile and high-fived Niall.

"You scared me for a second there." Niall shook his head.

It was silent for a minute before Niall spoke again.

"Um... Zayn?"

"Yeah?"

"W-What's up with... Harry?" Niall questioned, sounding unsure.

I took a deep breath before responding.

"To be honest, I don't really know. He's just acting really weird and bitchy all of a sudden."

"You think I haven't seen that." Niall scoffed. "He hasn't been replying to my texts or picking up my calls, and he didn't even say hi today. It's been like this since the day I visited you at the hospital."

"That's odd. Like aren't you supposed to be 'best friends forever' or some shit?"

"Thought so, but I guess not."

"By the way, I haven't asked you this yet so... what's your job?"

"I-uh... You know? I-It's uh- a truck haulage company or whatever." I stumbled over my words.

"What days do you work?"

"Um... it depends. Sometimes only week days and sometimes I have to go on the weekends too."

"Sounds tough. I try to take as many days off as I can. I'm just a really chilled out and lazy-ass guy, if you haven't already figured. And I try to work in the afternoons so I can sleep till noon."

"That would literally be my dream lifestyle. And I normally work nights."

"Oh, that's cool."

I stared at him for a second, watching him glide his fingers through his brown hair that was blonde at the tips, his deep blue eyes glistening in the moonlight.

I thought if I really wanted to say what I was going to next, this being the first time I was going to do so, but I realised that this was worth it, and decided to go for it.

"Um... Niall?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to... go out with me?"

Niall's eyes widened and his mouth hung open before he grabbed my hand.

"You swing that way?!" Niall asked excitedly, his eyes looking even brighter than before.

"I do, yeah, but I'd appreciate if you kept it a secret." I said shyly, looking down at the floor.

"Of course! Of course! But... is this like... a date?"

"I mean me wanting to take you out to a romantic candle-light dinner doesn't sound very 'ay bro you wanna hang', does it?"

"True." Niall erupted into a chorus of giggles.

"So?"

"I'd absolutely love to go out with you."

~

I apologise for doing another late update but like always, I have another good excuse: I was extremely sick and hospitalised the past month through but I'm much better now so :)