The Comic Book Store (z.m)

Chapter 3

^Alex Daddario as Bailey Porter

Zayn woke up as early as he had before, throwing his shoe at his sister when he saw her sleeping peacefully. He yelled "wake up" just as she started raining insults on his head in Arabic, rushing out of the house before she retaliated. He probably needed to get food. But maybe later. Of course, that was a dumb plan, seeing as ADHD and memory do NOT work well together but he had more important things to do. Like check if Liam Payne was at the store.

Liam had struggled thinking of whether to go by the comic book store or not in the night, when he was meant to be sleeping, but his overthinker brain eventually decided that not going would mean admitting Zayn made him feel... Weird. Weird was the only word te could use to describe it. But that definitely didn't happen when Zayn was around or when Zayn looked right at him with those golden eyes and smirked so he psyched himself up and went.

This time, Zayn got there before him. He was scribbling hard in his book and Liam panicked for a moment as Zayn began to raise his head, rushing to the other end to greet Stanley.

"Stan! Hey!"

"Liam, what do you think you're doing...?"

"Uh... Saying hi before I go to school?"

"Saying hi. Goodness, boy, Zayn tried to be so nice to you yesterday. Go say hi to him. Back in my day-" Liam groaned, coughing with a forced apology when Stanley gave him a look. "As I was saying, back in my day, you would've gotten a beating for all this silliness. Now get your ass over there! Zayn! Liam's here, look!"

"I- uh, yes. I'm here. So... Zayn, huh? That's a really nice name." Zayn smiled slightly and shut his book as Liam plopped down next to him on the floor. Liam didn't even catch glimpse of what he was working on and scolded himself for not being attentive.

"I guess. I had my name legally changed from Zain with an 'i' to Zayn with a 'y' when I... Umm... Moved here but it still means the same thing. Beautiful king. Sounds a little weird and a little conceited but eh-"

"I think it suits you perfectly." Zayn blinked and Liam froze, shaking his head. "Shit. I mean like your name, like the change, not- uhh not-"

"Calm down, Liam. First off, calling someone beautiful is actually nice so don't feel embarrassed for doing that?"

"I'm sorry. I just... Well, I have a girlfriend, so..."

"Okay? So...? Having a girlfriend doesn't mean you can't casually compliment someone else, right?"

"Well... Don't know if Bails would agree with that." Bails. He wasn't sure if it was that it sounded stupid or if it was jealousy but he snorted either way, covering it up with a cough. Liam nudged him playfully, then rolled his eyes and Zayn chuckled at his attempt at sass. Why was everything he did cute?? It really wasn't helping his simping.

"Well, to each their own, I guess."

"Yup. She's great. And very pretty. Maybe I can introduce you two, you know? One beautiful human interacting with another, I think we might just fuck over the space-time continuum." Liam smiled slightly and Zayn bit the inside of his cheek because he was completely normal and fanboying because a pretty man called him beautiful sounded insane. Totally, totally insane. He had too much self-respect. Yes.

"Alright, then. Maybe." Maybe when he was dead because he didn't want to meet this girl, not in the slightest. But Liam seemed happy enough to rant about her so she must have been great. He deserved great.

They only remembered to say goodbye to Stanley on their way out when he cleared his throat, then they were walking together. What was meant to be a fifteen minute walk or so took twenty-five because Zayn would complain that he was too fucking fast or they would get lost in an argument over the comics.