Irresistible [A Zarry Fanfiction].

Chapter Eleven

Zayn looked at the note that was in his hands. It had his name on in an italic, scruffy handwriting, and for some reason, Zayn didn’t know if he wanted to open it or not. He looked back up at Liam, who was staring at the note intensely, as if he was thinking the exact same thing. Liam’s hair seemed a little more ruffled than usual, and Zayn couldn’t help but stare at the small, pink marks across Liam’s neck. Zayn diverted his eyes away from his best friend, wondering who the lucky person was. He’d question Liam about it, but he knew how defensive Liam would start to get, especially with the fact that he looked more tired and fed up then usual.

Zayn decided to just take the ‘act cool’ approach, and sat back in his chair. He lifted one of his legs onto his other knee, like he always tended to sit, before unfolding the note. Zayn’s chocolate eyes read over the small amount of information, in the same, scruffy handwriting. At the top of it, was Alex’s phone number. Below that was an address, and then a name and amount of money that they owed, and then under that, Alex had told Zayn to meet at the allotments before and after the delivery, and the time he wanted to meet him there, nine o’clock. Zayn read over the military-like instructions, before catching one last, slightly more personal instruction scribbled across the bottom of the piece of paper. ‘Don’t fuck this up, Malik.’ Zayn didn’t even want to think about what would happen to him if anything went wrong…

He folded up the note and put it in his blazer pocket, before looking back up at his friends. Niall was watching him with a small smile, and Zayn sent him a small one back before looking back at Liam. He looked absolutely shattered, but he also looked miserable. This wasn’t normally like Liam, he normally didn’t show if he was upset unless he was on his own with Zayn or Niall, but he looked openly sad. Zayn started to ponder whether he should ask if he was okay or anything, or whether to wait until Josh and Niall had gone off somewhere, but it appeared Josh and Niall had beaten him to it. Niall was chuckling as Josh leaned over and pulled Liam’s collar down to reveal more of those pink marks across his neck. Liam quickly hit Josh’s arm away.

“Get the fuck off me, man!” Liam practically yelled, attracting attention from the other members of the school sat in the sixth form common room. Josh went straight-faced and quiet and leaned away from him. It was extremely unusual for Liam to shout at anyone.

“Liam, maybe you should calm down…or eat something…” Niall mumbled quietly, slowly pushing a muffin that had been left on the table over towards Liam. Liam scowled at him, his hands holding onto the side of the table angrily. There was a silence at the table, and Zayn leaned over to his best friend, extremely worried for his sake.

“Liam,” Zayn started, putting his hand on his arm gently. Liam immediately flinched away from Zayn and almost retaliated by throwing a punch back over to him.

“Liam! You almost punched Zayn!” Niall outburst in shock, and Liam just stood up, his chair flying backwards as he did so.

“Just don’t fucking touch me, okay? Don’t fucking touch me!” Liam yelled, looking directly in Zayn’s eyes, before throwing his bag over his shoulder and leaving. There was a lot of anger in his eyes, Zayn thought, as he watched his friend walk away from him, but there was something else…something he couldn’t put his finger on. Liam almost seemed…ashamed?

 **

“I didn’t think it was going to be this cold…or dark…” Niall’s Irish words whispered through the air, and Zayn rolled his eyes again. He didn’t know why he’d let Niall come with him. For the rest of the day after Zayn had gotten the note from Alex, and seen Liam walk out of school, another trait that wasn’t like him at all, Niall had bugged him about what was in the letter, and when Zayn had told him it was a few errands he had to run, Niall didn’t stop until he would be allowed to come too, but now, as they walked down a dark alleyway towards the allotments, he hadn’t shut up once.