Escapade » z.m

40. I Break My Bloody Spectacles

He sat in the balcony. The stone was cold beneath his feet, but he had borrowed Lucas' socks and, thankfully, he could rely on his sweats to keep his lower body warm. After rummaging through his luggage countless of times, he had found a turtle neck buried deep in the back chain. He had mumbled a thanks to his past frantic self, who wasn't in the state of contemplating if a turtle neck is what he'd really ever require, but had shoved it inside in his frenzy of getting air in his lungs.

The night was chilly. Colder than most november nights had been.

Ideally, he should have remained inside the walls of his dorm, wrapped in his comforter, sipping warm coffee from the styrofoam cup held between his nimble fingers, and completing his assignment before the due date for once, but he had chosen to watch the sky tonight, with a book propped between his crossed legs.

The wintry gust hit his cheeks, accentuating the redness in them, siphoning them of their moisture. The clouds chased after each other, blanketing the sky, drifting away and coming together the way they had promised.

The dark clouds were inkling enough for the impending thunderstorm. George, however, had forecasted the snowy morning they were bound to have. Zayn disagreed though, as he looked at the sky right now, he thought the clouds weren't nimbus enough to adorn the earth with delicate flakes.

He smiled, tilting his head to look at the moon. It had finally succeeded to peek out from behind the shroud. Another gust of wind blew the asperatus farther away from the moonlight. The star nearest to the moon twinkled more than the others, more prominent was it's presence than the other scattered stars.

Amongst them, somewhere, his favourite constellation could be found too. Although, he had long stopped looking for it. Not because he couldn't have found it, he knew if he searched for it he surely would, but that was the thing, maybe he didn't have to. Maybe, he didn't want to. Maybe the myriad of stars lighting the night sky above his balcony were becoming more dear to him than he'd like to admit.

He stared ruefully at the moon for some longer seconds, turning the page of his book. It was nearing it's end, he hadn't realised it just yet, how long he had been sitting outside, leaning against the wall. The night was still, devoid of any hindrance. He read in silence, his glasses perched lopsidedly on the bridge of his nose. He had long given up on holding them to prevent them from falling, and it seemed like they had stopped their nuisance too, after realising Zayn wasn't going to pay any heed to them now.

A constant thought nagged him at the back of his mind, telling him to complete the hypothesis for psychology that was due tomorrow. He turned another page, he kept reading.

The spell finally broke when the balcony door creaked, and Lucas came outside. He stared briefly at Zayn when he looked up, his dark eyes not saying anything for a moment.

Suddenly, he rolled his eyes, throwing a beanie at Zayn, which landed on his book. He leaned against the railing, standing across Zayn, eyeing him with an imperceptible smile when he wore the beanie with a sheepish smile, realising he was being careless about his health once again.

His fever had finally gone down, the endless amount of medicines and Every's everyday soup sessions in the library had made all the difference. Although, Zayn still thought Every didn't have to do that for him.

He turned the page again, pushing up his glasses, and his eyebrows pulled taut to realise he was only two pages away from finishing the book. He finished it then, in two minutes time, the ending of the book rendering him to an internal conflict.

He closed the book suddenly, as an idea sparked in his mind, and he looked up at Lucas with a start.

Lucas raised his eyebrows in question, his elbows supporting all his weight. His head was covered with the hood of his hoodie, his fringes falling in his eyes while he made no attempt to brush them away. Zayn shook his head, with no intention to explain anything to Lucas, and stood up suddenly, rushing inside to fetch a pen and some blank sheets.