Smoke & Mirrors • Zarry

21. What if there's sharks?

Eleanor's father was fortuitous enough to secure Tunnels Beaches in Devon along the rugged north coast of England, right on the beach, for Louis and Eleanor's wedding the following day. Her family was known for having money and a lot of important connections, and the venue that they had chosen was quite exquisite, to say the least. It was rather lavish, dripping in rose gold and white accents, and decked out with the most beautiful displays of wild flowers, roses and exotic plants everywhere you looked.

The ceremony itself was intimate, accessed from a private garden overlooking the sea where laid a thatched gazebo, and as Zayn stood there behind Louis during the ceremony, watching his best mate and long time girlfriend gazing into each other's eyes, he felt overcome with emotion, with this sense of fondness and genuine happiness for them both and it pained him slightly to think that he had once envisioned this for himself, that he would be the one standing up there ready to get married to the love of his life.

He used to dream about this moment once, and it still haunted him. But then Zayn's eyes artlessly darted from the blissful couple toward the wedding's audience and he spotted Harry sitting in the back, with his flamboyant, rose floral suit and black lapels, his tousled mouse brown hair falling ever so slightly from where he had casually slicked it back and Zayn's heart fluttered.

The reception took place in a beautiful bespoke building behind the garden with this delicate terrace twinkling with golden fairy lights and a magnificent, wrap around balcony that overlooked the tides and the carved tunnels through the cliffs. It was truly like a fairytale.

Zayn had been sitting beside Harry at one of the round tables with white tablecloths, towards the front of the room where the wedding party sat, Liam and Oli across from them as well as Holly and Daphne, two of Eleanor's good friends from uni as they downed glasses of pink champagne with cherries dropped into the bottom, and they dined on gourmet barbecue with kebabs, Thai fishcakes, miniature roast beef dishes, Yorkshire puddings and the most delicious canapés you'd ever have.

Zayn poked his fork around his plate, taking a stab at a roast potato as Harry dived in and snatched it from him, plopping it into his mouth with a dimpled smile.

"Hey you thief!" Zayn exclaimed, narrowing his brows.

"I have none left, that one looked so good," Harry quipped back playfully.

"Get your own...moocher," he fired back with a slight smile, but despite his tone, he was not at all annoyed by Harry's obnoxious quirks and had gotten used to them, specifically when it came to stealing food off Zayn's plate because he had been doing it the entire evening.

"Yours tastes better," Harry replied, beaming.

"It tastes exactly the same."

"It doesn't. It has your essence on it," he responded, smiling a little.

"You think you're so charming," Zayn replied with a subtle eye roll.

"No you think that," Harry said. "You think a lot of wonderful things about me, in fact, and I know you can't ever stop thinking about me, not even if you tried."

"Stop flirting with me in public, Harry."

"No," he said while Zayn's cheeks turned a subtle shade of pink.

Just then the conversation came to a halt as the MC spoke into the microphone and announced the married couples' first dance as the sounds of an acoustic version of Wonderwall by Louis' favorite band, Oasis, began playing in the background and Louis took Eleanor's arm, leading her out onto the dance floor before them. He took her hand in his and gave her a quick little spin before drawing her in closer to him as her long and beautiful, pearl white silky dress fell behind her.