little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 9; toxic

Mona was convinced Zayn might just be a little grumpy.

He was a being a bit more broody than normal, settled in on his corner of the couch in his and Harry's apartment with his sketchbook, pencil lightly stroking lines of varying textures on the paper. He seemed to be a bit lost in his own head, pencil mindlessly roaming across the page in the sketchbook like he wasn't quite into whatever he was drawing.

Harry was in the kitchen preparing a dish for tonight's dinner at Niall and Liam's and belting out the lyrics to 'All I Want For Christmas' at the top of his lungs, much to Mona's amusement and Zayn's annoyance. The singing stopped when the timer's shrill ring signaled that whatever Harry was working on needed to be removed from the oven, and Mona took the newfound silence as an opportunity to shift over to sit beside Zayn and did the very thing everyone avoided when it was obvious that there was something on his mind: step into his bubble of quiet.

"Wanna work on your website now?" was what she initiated the conversation with. The one thing she learned from the time she's gotten to know Zayn was that it was necessary to ease into conversation with him when he was upset, otherwise he will most likely shut you out for the rest of the day. Also, she had promised to help him put together an online portfolio of his paintings ages ago and their progress on it had sort of fallen through over the weeks.

Zayn grunted in response, tossing his pencil onto the coffee table with a sigh and straightening up only to let his head sag onto her shoulder. "Sure," he murmured. Mona's heart sank when she tilted her head to get a good look at him. He looked drawn and defeated, shoulders tensed up to his ears and lips tugged downwards. "Got anything to show me?"

Mona sighed. She didn't like when Zayn got like this, locked his feelings in the depths of his chest as opposed to letting them free, and when she made eye contact with Harry, who was leaning against the kitchen door watching their exchange, she saw the same worry reflected in his features that she was feeling in herself. "Yeah," was what came out of her mouth though. She knew better than to prod at him, regardless of how much she wanted to know what was going on. "We can just pick up where we left off last time."

Zayn had wanted his site to have a very minimalist theme so the complexities of his pieces and their vibrant colors were able to shine without hindrance. They started to work on it about a month ago before getting distracted with the stress and sleepless nights that came with the preparation for exams. For the most part, the layout and general color scheme had been worked out and all they really needed to do was add the photos of Zayn's work.

Zayn watched quietly as Mona coded the page where his personal statement was to go. His eyes were trained on her screen but they were drifting in and out of focus, like he was trying to compete with listening to his thoughts and paying attention to Mona. When she couldn't take it anymore—because, honestly, the sight of someone like Zayn pouting and moping around was terribly heartbreaking—she passed him her laptop and asked him to write little blurbs to go under each one of his pieces before escaping to the kitchen to find Harry.

"I just don't get it," she murmured as she accepted one of his homemade cookies. They weren't as good as Niall's but they weren't bad either. Mona was actually quite proud of Harry's recent progression of skill in the kitchen. "He won't say anything."

Harry hummed, and when Mona looked up at him, there was a thoughtful frown on his face. "He's been like this for about week now. Or at least that's what it feels like," he got out sadly, and Mona sighed at his words. "He won't eat anything, won't do anything. I really don't know how to get him to talk, Mo."

Mona nibbled on a chapped part of her lips as she mulled over his words. She tried to remember what exactly might've happened a week ago to get Zayn so down in the dumps but was coming up with nothing. It was only when Harry offered her another cookie that it clicked: the incident with Harlow and the stranger last week and Liam's interaction with her later on must have been what Zayn was so worried about. "Oh my god, Harry," she gasped, eyes widening at the realization. "It's Harlow!"