Juliana |Z.M| |A.U| (Completed)

10.

One Direction: Steal My Girl

"Everybody wants to steal me girl, everybody wants to take her love away. Couple billion in the whole wide world. Find another one 'cause she belongs to me."

10.

It was time. He'd had enough and he knew that it was high time he did something about it. Zayn was beyond annoyed of Jack interrupting him every time he tried something with Julie.

Jack and Zayn were buddies, weren't they? They were supposed to understand each other; they were supposed to be good friends. They'd been roommates for over a year, there must be some mutual respect for each other they held. He had to talk to Jack; man to man, he needed to make things clear. In other words, he needed to tell him to back off.

He was still pissed off about how Jack had forcefully joined him and Julie today in recess for lunch; not only that, he also insisted on walking with the two of them to the library. Granted that she seemed to have enjoyed a lot, he wouldn't be surprised if Julie was okay with the three of them going for lunch together on a daily basis. She was oblivious to what was going on between the two of them. Zayn had gone above and beyond to make Julie agree for lunch with him, and god knows how hard it is to crack Julie's shell. He didn't think it was fair; it wasn't fair at all and that was precisely why he intended to talk to Jack.

Jack had some similar intentions too. He wanted to talk to Zayn too; he wanted to pursue things further with Jules. He knew, he knew that Juliana had a weak spot for Jack. He knew from how her eyes widened and her breath picked up the time he almost kissed her, he knew from how she didn't slap him off or say anything against it afterwards, he knew that he was now under Juliana Rose Augustine's good book even though she wouldn't admit it to herself.

He had this protective streak for her. She had this strong façade going on, she had an hard exterior, but from the way she talked, how deep and cynical she sounded when she talked about books led him to believe that there was a part in her soul that had been tarnished, that had been hurt terribly. He knew that there was no use of prying, he knew that he was still just a project-partner for her; a project partner of whom she was getting fond of. But all this knowledge only created this need of protecting her, of being her... well her knight in shining armor. Yes, Juliana doesn't need that, she is her own knight in shining armor, but that didn't stop Jack from feeling that.

And every time he made plans to do something about it, to take things further with her, Zayn would go over board and he'd swipe her off. Zayn was a charming guy, he could have any girl he wanted; why her? Surely, he could chose to spare Jules; Jack just needed to choose the correct words to ask him.

Zayn was lying on his bed, waiting for Jack. He was early, so decided to simply wait. To the untrained eye, he was mindlessly staring at the wall, but Zayn's mind was stuck, stuck on her.

Juliana held beauty and grace to which she herself wasn't aware of. Maybe the whole college would see it and she'd even be very much popular if she hadn't chosen to stay under the radar. She'd prefer to hide her face with a hoodie and keep a low profile, trying not to draw any attention and perhaps that was why most people didn't know about her. Zayn was rather grateful about that, he was glad no one else saw her, call him selfish but it is what it is.

She was stuck inside his head like a bad song. He kept thinking of her, he'd never heard her laugh, he'd seen her smile, proper big meaningful smiles, but never a laugh. It made him wonder, when was the last time she actually laughed? Most of the time she looked like she was carrying the weight of half of the world on her shoulders. The more he thought of her, the more she seemed like an enigma.

His thoughts were halted when the sound of the door opening interrupted him. He quickly stood up and saw Jack walking in sloppily.

"Hey." Jack greeted him nonchalantly.

"Hi umm.., listen, I need to talk to you." Zayn said standing up.

"Funny you said that, I needed to talk to you too." Jack replied. He threw the bag over his bed, "I'll be right back." Jack said making his way to the bathroom.

Zayn stayed there, waiting for his roommate to come out. He needed to do this.

Jack freshened up and finally made his way out. He saw Zayn sitting at the edge of his bed, he seemed so restless. "Zayn, mate I have something to talk about."

"Okay, what is it?" Maybe he should let Jack talk first.

"It's about Juliana."

To say that Zayn was surprised would be an understatement. "What about her?" he kept his exterior as normal as possible.

"Listen, mate you're a good guy, you're good looking, you're smart, you're charming, any girl could fall for you." Zayn frowned, not understanding the point behind Jack's words. "I just... I'm just asking you to let this one go, for friendship's sake. You can have anyone else, just let her be."

His frown deepened, "What if I don't want to?" he was trying hard not to snap, "What if I don't want any other girl? What if I just want her?"

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but shut it when he didn't have one.

"Why don't you let her be Jack? You're quite the charmer yourself; you're pretty handsome and intelligent yourself." Zayn said through gritted teeth.

"I asked you first Zayn."

"I wanted to ask you the same thing!"

"Well too bad 'cause it's not happening."

"You're quite the hypocrite if you're asking me to do it when you can't do it yourself, don't you think?"

"Are you fucking doing it or not?"

"Of course not. I like her Jack, why would I back off?"

"Go like someone else then! Why do you have to like her of all the other girls?"

"I just do, okay? Shut up."

"Zayn, you can have any girl you want."

Jack's tone lightened instantly, once he realized anger wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Jack, she's a person, she's not a thing that I can just hand over." Zayn tried to reason with him.

It worked, he knew Zayn was right. He nodded, "you've got a point there mate." He said and then laughed to himself, "I guess this leaves us with only one choice."

"What?"

"We let her choose. We simply do our thing, try out best to win her over; and at the end, she'll do the choosing." He replied.

"May the best man win." Zayn said offering his hand for a shake.

"May the best man win."Jack repeated, accepting the shake.