olivia [zarry]

chapter six| you're giving me a heart attack

"What are you doing here?"

Harry halts just outside his lecture hall. Olivia's standing a few feet away from him with a too-large smile on her face. He's suspicious to say the least.

"Can't I just want to see my best friend?" She beams up at him sweetly as he cautiously approaches her.

"You just saw me yesterday," he reminds her. "What do you want?"

"Rude." She jabs a finger into his side and pretends to be offended. "Now, come on. Walk with me." She links her arm through his and begins dragging him down the hall.

"Alright..." he mumbles, still a tad sceptical. She's being weird. She never comes to meet him at his classes.

"So, how are you, Haz?" Olivia asks him. "How's your first day back been so far?"

And now she's asking him about his day? Now he knows something's up. As sweet as she normally is, Liv's like Louis in that she shows her affection for him by always taking the piss out of him. "You're asking me about my day?" He questions slowly.

She nods. "I want to hear all about it."

He feels like he's stepped into an alternate universe. "Oh," he pleasantly lets out, nonetheless. "Well, it's been pretty good, actually. I feel like this semester's going to be a great one because-"

"Brilliant!" She exclaims, squeezing his arm with a grin. "Are you doing anything right now?"

Okay, there she is. "Besides getting annoyed by you," he drawls on a roll of his eyes, "no, why?"

"Well," she starts, drawing the word out, "you do remember whose birthday is coming up, don't you?"

"David Bowie?"

"What? No." Her eyebrows pinch together, and she looks at him like she thinks he's an absolute twit, which she probably does. "I mean, yeah, sure, but Zayn's birthday is this weekend. I'm sure you knew that."

He did know that, but he'd like to pretend that he forgot. "Oh, right," he replies heedlessly.

"Yeah, so I want to surprise him," she informs Harry. "But I need your help."

He's not sure that he likes the sound of that. He knows that the bleeding organ he has for a heart won't let him stay away from Zayn this time around (not that he wants to), but he's not sure that he can handle anything Zayn-related just yet. He's just gotten his palpitating heart rate back to normal, courtesy of the week at the cabin, so he's a bit terrified to ask, "With what, exactly?"

"I'll tell you all the details later, but let's start with the fact that I can't meet Zaynie right now at the art lab like you know that I do at this time whenever he books it, so you're going to have to go for me."

She's kidding, right?

-

She was not kidding.

Harry runs a hand through his hair, shakes it out, and takes a deep breath as he stands outside the door of the art lab. Zayn can be seen with his back turned to it, and Harry hates himself, because he never gets nervous, but right now, he can practically taste his heart at the back of his throat again at the simple thought of going in there to be with Zayn alone.

Speaking of which, he should probably get to it. But he can't seem to bring himself to, because should he knock? Should he just let himself in? He doesn't know the rules. To his good fortune (or lack, thereof), he doesn't have to think about that much longer, because suddenly, Zayn is spinning around to the door like he can feel someone's eyes on him, and Harry has to duck before he can catch him staring at him creepily. Nice.