Zayn expertly shakes off the woman’s grip on his arm and his eyes flick back to mine, his jaw clenched, as the song forces memories of us from that night to flood through me. Suddenly I’m back in my old bedroom, my legs tangled with Zayn’s, my heart overflowing with love for the boy who stole my heart from the very first moment we met.
In present time, Zayn’s face turns as white as mine.
Then the woman next to him leans in to whisper in his ear, and he rips his gaze from mine to look at her.
I don’t wait around to see how the night ends for them.
35
“Just message him and ask.” I sigh at Anna, finally turning to face her under the covers of her spare bed. That’s where she found me when she followed me home from the reunion.
I’ve been lost in my thoughts, sobbing quietly into my pillow as the emotions I’ve been stifling for the last few weeks rise to the surface and refuse to be pushed back down. Anna, on the other hand, has been voicing her thoughts to me as they pop into her head, her voice playing out like the running AFL commentary while I lay curled next to her, her hand rubbing slow circles over my back.
“I’m not going to ask if he left with anyone else!” She huffs, brushing my hair back from my face. I wipe my nose with my sleeve.
“Why not?”
“Because he’ll think I care!”
“But you do care?” I sniff.
When she doesn’t respond, I add, “It’s okay to admit that you care, you know.”
She eyes my red and blotchy face for a few moments,and I’m convinced she’s going to say that I care and I don’t look okay. But instead, she sighs. “Okay, fine. I care.”
I offer her all I’ve got, which is a watery smile. “He cares about you, too. I can tell.”
She bites on her lower lip, worrying it between her teeth as she considers my words.
“Tell me, what’s different about Percy than the other guys you see?” I ask, desperate for any distraction from my own messy love life. I can’t help the lyrics from our song playing on repeat inside my mind, or from seeing that woman’s hand resting on Zayn’s arm.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s that there’s history between us? We just have this connection that I’ve never felt with anyone else before and it’s hard to explain it. I find myself genuinely interested in what he has to say.” She sounds surprised by her own words.
I sniff again as I nod slowly, understanding her completely.
“You really think he cares, too?” she asks, and for a moment I have to remind myself that it’s Anna I’m speaking to and not some weird alien that looks like her. She’s never cared what anyone else has thought of her, let alone asked me about it.
“Yeah. I can tell by the way he looks at you.”
“How does he look at me?”
“Like he’s trying to commit your face to memory.”
We both jump when Anna’s phone pings between us.
“It’s him!” She snatches the phone up and her fingers start flying across the screen. I chance a swift glance down at my own dormant phone.Of course Zayn isn’t going to text you, you idiot. You told him it was over and that you’re going back to your ex.
“Guess he didn’t leave with anyone. He asked if I want to meet up.”
I force out a small laugh and ignore the stabbing pain in my chest. Did Zayn leave alone too?
“Wait,” Anna says abruptly, her fingers pausing. Her eyes soften on my face. “Do you mind if I go?”
“Of course not. Be free and have conversations that you’re genuinely interested in.”
I give her another watery smile and she snorts, whipping off the covers and exposing me to the cold air, not that I even feel it.
“Hopefully there’ll be a little less conversation and a little more of the horizontal tango on he cards tonight, though.” She leaves before I can muster up the will to laugh.
