Icarus | Z.M.

5 | Twelve

Victoria Tomlinson

Z had been slightly on edge since yesterday when that man approached us outside the gym. I still had absolutely no idea who he was or how he knew my name, but it made me uneasy.

He dropped me off at home and waited until Liam got here with Louis until he left to go and tell my dad about what had happened. I was guessing he knew who the man was, and thought it was bad enough that he had to alert my father.

Everybody refused to tell me anything that was happening, and I had bombarded my dad with questions when he got home from the office, all of them brushed off as something that I didn't need to worry about. It didn't exactly soothe my nerves at all. My dad had always had me training and being prepared for any attacks, but never once had I been approached by someone in a threatening way. The man yesterday hadn't made any attempt to hurt me at all, but I was so sure if I were alone walking out of the gym, then yesterday would have gone much differently.

I did exactly what I wanted when I got home, and binge watched some random show while lying on the couch cuddling Cujo as we shared some chicken. It really was the highlight of my entire day getting to spend time with him.

Now, however, I was at a cute little cafe with Hazel and Niall, eating muffins and drinking iced coffees in the summer sun. It was a nice day out with them since it was one of the days I didn't have to go to the gym or didn't have to sit through painful dinners with my family.

Z was here too, except he was at a table himself, not wanting to sit with us even though I said I didn't mind.  He seemed more content over there and was doing some work in a journal, while occasionally glancing up at me and my friends to check that everything was okay.

"Is he just going to follow you around every day now?" Hazel asked me after taking a bite of her blueberry mudding, glancing at Z who was a few tables away. He looked focused on what he was doing.

"Yeah, I guess so," I shrugged,  "It's kind of creepy,"

"Creepy?" Niall repeated in question.

"I mean it doesn't bother me that much, he just follows me. He doesn't speak to me, and he basically ignores my presence," I said to them, glancing at him. He looked harmless now, but I'd gotten to see the personality he didn't like to show in front of my father, "Also, he's a dick,"

"He's hot though," Hazel said, staring at him with a mouthful of muffin.

"He's a dick." I reminded her.

She turned to me and gave me a look that told me I was stupid, "A hot dick,"

Both of looked at Niall, waiting for his input on Z.

"No comment," Niall held up his hands in surrender and shook his head.

"Why don't you fuck him and win him over?"  Hazel suggested, leaning back on the white chair while taking a sip of her iced latte, "Get him pussy whipped and maybe he'll be less of a dick,"

I widened my eyes and laughed, shaking my head, "You know I can't do that,"

"How not?" She seemed like she didn't get it.

"Well firstly I don't even know his name." I started the list of a million reasons that fucking Z to win him over was never going to happen,  "He won't look at me, or talk to me, or acknowledge me. What makes you think he'd want to fuck me? What makes you think I want to fuck him?"

"Cause you're hot as fuck," Hazel stated, tilting her head to the side as she looked at me again like I was stupid, "duh,"

"Mhh," I raised my eyebrows, "You're hotter,"