Daisies • Zarry

2. Of course

Zayn woke up earlier than usual the following morning and felt particularly motivated, an unusual way for him to feel since he typically loathed getting out of bed most of the time.

Either you run the day or the day runs you is what Zayn always heard Anne say at the coffee shop.

Her words rang in his head as he slipped into a white t-shirt with a small rose embroidered on the front pocket, a pair of ripped, light denim washed jeans, dark cherry colored dr. martens and threw his rucksack on his back before heading out the door. He stopped at the bodega on the corner to grab an energy drink, only ever grape, and hung one of the colorful fliers he made with graffiti letters in the window before venturing off to put one on every lamp post and mailbox littered down every side street on his way to campus.

Zayn normally didn't care to interact with people much, but that day he felt different, so he began handing fliers out to the students who were hurrying by.

"Open mic night at Daisies on Friday," he said to each person and sometimes they looked at it while others threw their fliers on the ground and Zayn rolled his eyes at their carelessness not only for the event, but also for the environment.

An olive skinned girl bent down to pick up one of the fliers from the sidewalk and looked it over, smiling to herself before she approached Zayn. He noticed that she was quite pretty, tall, with almond shaped eyes and long, silky, dark chocolate brown hair and she smelled sweet, like strawberries.

"So you know Harry?" she asked.

"Yeah a bit," Zayn answered, hiding a smile that wanted to creep upon his lips as she said his name.

"This is a dope flier. He'd probably make something like this himself," the girl added. "I'm Kendall, his girlfriend."

Girlfriend.

Zayn wasn't surprised to learn that Harry's in a relationship, and with a girl, but the g word still stung like that time he stepped on a bee as a child and he felt a sudden heaviness in his chest.

"I'm Zayn. I'm Harry's...erm, I go to Daisies a lot. I'm a regular there so I guess we're just acquaintances...sort of," Zayn explained and wished he could have at least said friend.

"And you made this flier for an acquaintance?" Kendall questioned, raising an eyebrow but still smiling. "That's pretty nice of you. Harry's really looking forward to this, so I hope there's a good turn out."

"He asked me to spread the word so I was just trying to help. Hope so too," Zayn answered, twisting the silver ring around his thumb.

"Well, I gotta get to class but I guess I'll be seeing you there," she replied and waved Zayn off as she walked away.

Zayn waved back and put the rest of the fliers into his bag before shoving his hands into his front pockets of his jeans, making his way to Caspian Hall for English class.

I'll be seeing you there.

Zayn felt like the worst person for wishing that she wouldn't show up, but why wouldn't she? Of course Harry's girlfriend would be there to support him.

Of course.

He thought about how lucky she was that she knew him, that she got to hang out with him, that she could wrap her arms around his neck and stare into his emerald eyes and kiss him whenever she wanted to and Zayn would never know what that's like. He thought he's stupid for even thinking about it because he had only ever spoken to Harry for five minutes in his entire life anyway, plus, Harry was most likely straight.

Jealousy, what a terrible illness to have.

* * * * *

He walked into Daisies closer to 2:30 that afternoon after a long lecture on Greek Mythology and he saw Harry already behind the counter wearing this loose black tank top, revealing his black and white old sailor-esque tattoos scattered down his arm and Zayn realized he had never seen Harry's full biceps quite like that before. He looked strong, like he could bench press quite a lot, like he could push you up against the wall and pin you there so you couldn't move and Zayn started to feel his mind wander to a place it shouldn't be wandering to in the middle of the day.