nebula :: [malik]

[ xxvii :: extra credit ]

Can I lay by your side, next to you, you

And make sure you're alright

I'll take care of you

And I don't want to be here if I can't be with you tonight.

- "Lay Me Down" || Sam Smith

_________

"Due to inclement weather...

classes have been cancelled today..."

Anais wakes up to her phone and Soo and this message at 6 o'clock on Tuesday morning.

"Is this some type of extended vacation?" She asks, knocking loudly on Soo Joo's closed bedroom door.

"Jesus, Ana," she grumbles, her platinum hair a mess as she throws open the door. "What? Is there a fire?"

"A snowstorm, actually," and she shakes her phone. "School is like, actually cancelled."

Soo grins.

Then, she pouts. "Why'd you wake me up, though? I don't even have class this early, anyway."

"Yeah," adds Louis, and Anais' eyebrows raise because he is now standing next to Soo Joo, his hair tousled from apparent "sleep."

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "It's really just too early for this Anais," he sighs. "Honestly."

Soo's cheeks tinge pink as Anais grins, obviously noting that Louis is also in their flat and he might have also slept over.

Anais decides to confront Soo about this later, because it is only six and even she doesn't have the energy to have this conversation.

She waves tiredly. "Just letting you know," she yawns. "I'm going back to bed."

___

If Zayn had to choose, his favorite thing about winter would be the break. It was that time at home, that time spent indoors with the people who mattered most that he loved. He loved the smell of his mom's cooking, or the sound of familiar voices. It was that feeling: that feeling of home. It was that amazing, warm feeling that came when you were surrounded by unconditional love.

But, break was over. It had come and gone and with it, first semester. It was February already, and he was looking forward to summer when he'd next be around his family.

But, it's funny, because lately, he'd felt more and more like he was on break. Sure, he had tests to take and essays to write and pieces to draw. Sure, he was in school, but lately, there had been someone who'd made him feel that feeling. There was someone who had, each time she was around him, made him feel that amazing, warm feeling that came when you were around family; when you were around the people who loved you.

And this feeling was eating him alive.

And he didn't exactly know what to do about it.

Zayn gets three texts from Anais around 2:30 that Tuesday afternoon. He's eating lunch with Niall in their kitchen having literally just woken up.

"Who's tha...? Niall asks, mouth full of his sandwich.

"Ana," Zayn replies simply. Of all his friends, Niall is probably the one who bothers him the least about Anais, and therefore, he minds the least telling him about all the time he spends with her.

Did you get that email?

The one from Cowell