Engaged [z.m.]

Chapter 28: Away

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - E I G H T

Zayn

A month had passed since our small dinner date at my place and I still had to the put the flutes back into their original places. The days passed unusually fast and in the midst of last minute packing, lunch dates, sitting at a leather couch watching her rehearse and her calling me every hour to make sure if the item of clothing she put into her suitcase was suitable enough.

Her departure was hard. For both of us but it was inevitable. Despite everything I knew she was excited for the tour and I was excited for her. I found myself to be slightly selfish to want her to not go away for such a short period of time compared to the months on months that I went away to do the same thing.

She was always considered to be the more understandable person in our relationship. She had made many compromises for my sake and I was so very thankful for that.

So I decided to occupy myself in other things. I worked my ass off for the new album that we all were taking so much time to produce because we wanted it to be our best one yet but slowly it was all coming together, we were done with the writing part along with recording part. The editors were working on it whilst the graphics were being composed alongside all the publicity stuff they did before it came out but since I had nowhere to be, Liam and I would typically spend hours in the studio, working on new sounds or producing remixes with the rest of the guys occasionally joining in.

Alongside working with the band, I would try to make time for working with other people in the studio, I was trying to learn new things and it was all working out for me so far.

I met with old friends and got dinner or lunch with every single of them who wanted to see me. I went to more parties than usual and it was more fun than it had ever been.

We flew to Los Angles for two award ceremonies scoring more awards than we had imagined. It was an incredible experience and I was so very thankful. LA happened to be an amazing trip, I was more social then usual and met up with some old friends while I was there.

I realized how much time I had to do other things when Perrie wasn't around because when she was, I was constantly in her company, usually disregarding other tasks that required my attention because I wanted nothing but to put all my time and effort into her.

Despite how active I had been and how productive I was being, not a day went by that I did not wish Perrie was with me while I worked towards a better and more productive mind set. We talked as much as we could on the phone, we Facetimed, she texted me; filling me in on every detail about her day as she possibly could. I tried to do the same although I failed mostly and Perrie complained about it.

I could tell from the way she spoke that tour made her very happy and that she enjoyed it a great deal but despite that, she reminded me daily that she missed me just as much as I missed her.

I had envisioned the period of two months that Perrie would be gone to be much more harder that it had been. I completely relied on her for so many things. My entire routine revolved around her. I would wake up at either her apartment or mine, if I had happened to have been at my place, I would shower and drive to hers, watch her get ready and then take her out to get some breakfast, that would be followed by me dropping her off where ever she needed to be whereas I would proceed to the studio, we would get lunch together and on weekends end up at a party together and on weekdays with takeout for dinner in my apartment.

Not only did my routine revolve around her, I relied on her for advice on so many things. I would always refer to her when I had to figure things out. I would look for her support on so many matters.

She was my oasis.

And when I thought about her leaving, I assumed myself trying to figure out an entirely different routine. The idea of her although seemed miserable had turned out to be not so miserable when I had learned how to keep myself indulged.

~

Perrie

A month had passed by quicker than I thought. It went by in a whirlwind of rehearsals, concerts, meet and greets and parties. I had never in my life been more busy, more tired and along with that this excited and pumped to get on stage.

Our entire day consisted of getting ready, getting to rehearsals, getting ready for the concert and so on. On a day on which we did not have a concert, we would either have an interview, some promotion work or we would have to go to the studio and have a meeting with our managers. We barely got to roam around the city or try a new restaurant since for us this wasn't vacation, we were here for work that we needed to get down with as much dedication that we could basically provide it with. We had to attend a lot of parties and despite how busy I was I still managed to squeeze in some time to meet some of my old friends in the states.

Although we were here for work, it never felt like work no matter how tiring and hectic it got. It was an adventure that I was living it to the fullest.

Engaging myself in all of this made me feel less homesick although I did wish I was back in my bed with Zayn at night rather than the foreign hotel room beds that I was forced to sleep on.

I tried to call him as much as I possibly could. I probably called him more than he called me although I was the busier one out of the two of us but I didn't mind at all because phone conversations were never something that he was very good at so I knew that this was where I had to step in.

I was so very thankful when he would tell me about all the things he did with his day. It made me happy that he wasn't lodging around his flat like I thought he would since the only thing that he was working on at the moment was the album and since that was done with, he would do nothing but stay at home. Fortunately, that was far from the case. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the amount of things that he was involved in. He was just as busy as I was with numerous things that I didn't think he would put so much effort into.

We were both occupied in different things but it kept our mind off of how far apart we were.

Things were going well for both us, I knew that. We were both in happy places and I was glad that the two months that we were to be apart weren't as bad as I thought they would be and that meant everything to me.