In Another Life - Zarry

Third Weekend

"Really Zayn?"

"Really what?" Zayn grunted, typing away in his MacBook.

"You usually visit him on the fourth weekend", Louis retorted, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Oh really?! I didn't know about that", Zayn rolled his eyes.

"Stop with that sarcasm you wanker."

"Then you stop bothering me!"

"Guys", Liam called, trying to be the grown-up one. "Will you stop acting like hormonal teenagers and start acting like adults who are in their early thirties?!"

"I am being the most rational one here Liam! It's you two who are being too casual about this shit!" Louis yelled, causing Zayn to look up from his precious MacBook.

"You're not being rational, you're overreacting."

"No Dr Malik, you're just being stupid."

"What is wrong with going to visit your boyfriend a week early?!"

"Are you even hearing yourself Zayn? He's your boyfriend for what? 18 months?"

"Fifteen."

"Yeah, fifteen and you've known him for eighteen months. Since you both started dating, which was fifteen months ago, you flew all the way to the other side of this country just to spend some time with him. Every month, every fourth weekend, fourteen times—"

"You've got some amazing math skills there my boy!"

"—Shut. The. Fuck. Up. And how many times did your boy make any effort to see you in the past eighteen months? Fifteen months of dating? Zero, Nada. You were the one who liked him first, you were the one who asked him out first, you were the one who confessed your love first. It was all you. What has he ever done for you other than taking everything you can give him? What did he ever give you?" At this point, Louis was just yelling.

"His love", Zayn shrugged, too casually for Louis's liking which caused him to blow up again.

"HIS LOVE?! Where's love in this Malik? Where the fuck is love here? How do you call it love when he made no efforts to prove you that? You are a fucking scientist, tell me what fucking proof you have to prove your—'he fucking loves you' —theory. Where's love here Zayn?"

"Louis", Zayn started, very calmly. "I don't know how to prove you but, he's not an experiment for me to prove you anything. I see it in his eyes every time he looks at me, I feel it on his fingertips every time he touches me. What more do I want? Red roses every day? Nope, that's not what love is to me. I love to wake up next to him every morning too, but I know what I was signing up for when I said I liked him when I wanted to date him."

"And that is? Making one-sided efforts?"

"No, absolutely not. Just because he doesn't fly all the way across the country to meet me doesn't mean he doesn't love me, Louis. When we started dating he was completing his third year and into his final year in MD. You know how crucial that year is for a medical student. How can I expect him to leave it all to come and meet me?"

"You are a Grad school Professor and a fucking scientist who has a lot more work to do than him. How many bloody experiments did you leave in the middle and went to meet him? How many thesis corrections did you leave in the middle to meet the 'the love of your life'?"

"Is this really about him not coming to meet me?"

"It is about him making zero efforts in this relationship Zayn! What did he do for you? What did he sacrifice for you? How many sleeps you've lost for him? Why are you letting people take your love for granted again and again Zayn?!"