Under the Willow Tree (Zayn Malik Fan Fiction) *on hold*

Chapter 05: Mr. Fix It

"You did what?!" Her jaw dropped before bursting into laughter. I hold Zayn's destroyed novel close to my chest as I sit cross legged on my bed , watching Carmen as she straightened her hair for her date. 

"It's not my fault!" I pleaded. I was mortified, even my best friend was embarrassed for me. Even though I didn't want to think about it, I couldn't help but play back Zayn's reaction to the accident in my mind. He had stood up quickly and gasped, but besides that; no reaction. 

Carmen and I hear a car honk from outside the window. She carelessly drops her hair straightener to the floor and bolts down the stairs. I unplug the hot iron then trail behind her awkwardly, rolling my eyes as she preps herself in the hall mirror before opening the door. "Ready to go?" says Will with a smile. 

"Yep!" she turns to me, her long, now straightened hair whips me in the face causing me to flinch. "Tell Nana I'll be back by eleven." she orders.

"Alright then... Have fun." I don't like Will. At all. He comes off as just another a self-centered player. Carmen obviously doesn't see past his blue eyes, she adores blue eyes.

I close the door behind them and make my way to Nana who's reading the news paper in the living room.

"I heard." she says before I could say a thing. I smile and sit beside her on the large, beige sofa.

"Wanna watch a movie? We can make extra buttery popcorn..." I ask hopefully.

"You know me too well." she winks. 

Carmen, Nana and I would watch movies in the basement all the time when we were younger, it was one of our favorite things to do when we didn't feel like going out. We often watched scary movies from the 70's because they were flat out ridiculous. Even though they were far from realistic, Carmen was terrified. Nana and I would simply laugh and make fun of them.

"Back then, this was considered realistic." she would say. I always had a difficult time believing her seeing as the special effects were terrible.

Later that night, I sat out on a patio chair near the lake next to the dying fire that I had started two hours earlier. It's about midnight, all I can see is the moon reflecting off the stillness of the lake, lighting up the dark night. Aside from the chirping crickets, everything seemed so still and quiet contrarily to my thoughts. Carmen still hasn't arrived from her date and I'm beginning to worry.  My mind is racing, coming up with all sorts of horrible scenarios and possibilities of where Carmen would be. We don't know Will, god knows what could have happened.

I see a bright light appear from behind me. I turn to see a old, green pick up truck pull up into the dirt driveway. I watch quietly as Carmen gets out of the truck and waves into the passenger side window before it pulls out of the driveway and leaves. She turns to walk into the house.

"Car!" I call with a semi whisper. Her head perks up and she looks around without noticing me. "Carmen!" I call out once more, this time she notices me down on the lake front. She waves and makes her way down the cement stairs to where I'm sitting. "Hey!" she says as she pulls up a chair identical to mine. "What's going on?" she says with a smile from cheek to cheek.

"Where have you been? You're over two hours late!" 

She frowns. "I'm sorry! Will and I went to his friends house for a while after the movie and I lost track of time... It won't happen again." she promises.

"Tell that to Nana... I'm not your mom." I reminded. I  didn't want to seem dull or try to ruin her fun, but I was admittedly nervous that she was late. It's very much like Carmen to get carried away... I just don't want anything to happen to her.

After that, there was a short moment of silence. Carmen poked at the glowing charcoal coloured wood with a thin stick.

"Hey, do you remember that house we saw when we had to pull our canoe out of the water this morning?" I ask to break the silence.

"Yes." she answers. "What about it?" 

"I don't know... I've been on Greenwood before when we were younger but I never noticed that particular house." Carmen shrugged. 

By that time, the fire had died out and we decided to head back into the house. 

A few days later...

I gaze down in frustration at the gash that Carmen and I somehow made in our canoe a while ago. I find myself surrounded by all the supplies necessary to patch up the hole, having absolutely no idea where or how to start the job. I sit myself down on a large rock and continue to stare perplexedly at the punctured boat. 

"Do you need help with that?" an unfamiliar voice asks unexpectedly from behind causing me to jump. I turn around in surprise to find Zayn staring down at me with a slight smile, the sun contouring his face as it shines through the stubble on his cheeks. I suddenly begin to feel nervous, I don't even know him and some how he gives me butterflies. There's something about his mysterious personality that interests me.... I wonder why he'd want to help me with my canoe.

"Kind of." I answer with a smirk, looking back at the canoe. "My friend was supposed to help me but she left me alone, clueless to how to repair such a thing." Indeed, Carmen ditched me once more. She hadn't mentioned her second date with Will until earlier this morning. I just decided that I'd try and get the canoe over and done with without her help, thinking that maybe she'd feel bad knowing I had to fix it by myself. 

"That's a nice hole you got going..." Zayn starts kneeling into one knee. I couldn't help but notice his nicely toned arms as he reached out and placed his hand on the canoe. 

"How did you know I needed help?" I ask.

"Well, it was pretty obvious, judging by the fact that you are surrounded by tools and a canoe with a hole in it. I also saw you and your friend on the lake dragging the sinking canoe into my backyard the other day." he chuckled. I guess that solves the mystery of the house I didn't remember on Greenwood. His parents must have had it built. "Your probably wondering what you hit." he continued. "There's a giant, triangular boulder right in the center of the lake. I hit it while I was kayaking one day, I didn't make that mistake twice." I could feel my face redden. If Zayn saw Carmen and I canoeing, that means he had to have seen me in my bikini. I shudder.

Zayn took notice of my embarrassment, "Don't worry," he reassured. "You didn't look stupid or anything. You were actually quite brave to have just dove into the water and towed the canoe from so far." His compliment made me feel a slight bit better, though we weren't thinking the same things.

"Thank you. So uh, how do I fix this?" I ask motioning to the canoe. Zayn begins to show me which nails are the strongest and what I could use to seal in the cracks once I've finished. I watched him carefully as he patched up the hole, pointing out every detail that I couldn't help but miss because I was too concentrated on watching his beautiful shoulder blades flex through his white tank top as he worked. A small bead of sweat glided gently down his temple, I come to notice how extremely  hot it is today.

"Would you like some lemonade?" I ask, watching him work so hard on my canoe out of pure generosity. I figured I should do something in return, especially since I ruined his book earlier this week as well.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm alright." Zayn paused for a moment, fixating the canoe. "There!" he said showing me perfectly patched up hole. "Now we'll just have to paint it."

"I'm so sorry." I said out of the blue instead of thanking him. He turns to me, "Whats?"

"Thank you so much for fiXing the hole in my canoe, but why'd you do it? I ruined you book and stained your clothes with my hot coffee the other day... I would think I wouldn't deserve your help." I'm flattered by what he did, but I'm honestly confused as well.

Zayn stands up, my head tilts back to look at his face. He shrugs, "Everyone makes mistakes, you didn't mean to spill coffee on me, did you?" I shake my head. "So why wouldn't I want to help you with your canoe?" 

I felt awful, why couldn't you just thank him normally, Megan? Maybe I was terrible with guys... Or maybe it was just around Zayn that I become so awkward. His beautiful eyes and face are admittedly just as distracting as they are attractive. 

I absolutely need to get to know this guy.