Deep (Zarry AU)

Rewind

2015

"Are you still in contact with him, then?"

"What, Val? Yeah. 'Course."

I was at Chloe's house, helping her with her CV. (Somehow she thought that my having had one "office" job since I left Uni - a hellish stint in a call centre - made me an expert on such things. Hardly.)

I was fiddling around with the font.

"No, not Times New Roman – please," she protested.

"Well it's better than that girly, squiggly thing you had before. Honestly, how old are you, Chlo?"

She folded her arms. "I liked it," she pouted.

I sighed. I knew I should butt out really. So what if Chloe sent out a CV which looked like a My Little Pony story? I had bigger things to worry about. Like how I was going to afford the train fare to London to see Val.

"So where are you meeting him?" she said, chewing on an elastic band she had picked out of the Smiggle pencil tidy that stood on her desk. I noticed the ruler that stood in it had the boys' faces on it. (She had told me it was supposed to be ironic - sort of.)

"Umm... some bar off Shaftesbury Avenue. He works round there, apparently."

"What does he do?"

I frowned. Chloe seemed to have grown obsessed with what people's jobs were. Reality had finally got to her, I guess.

"I'm not sure... PR or something?" I said.

Chloe turned to look at me. "Wow. I'd be happy just to get a job that doesn't involve coffee grounds and he's working in public relations in the centre of London. For fuck's sake, what is wrong with the world?"

"That's harsh, Chlo," I said, trying to save my changes as her ancient desktop computer stalled. "I know you never liked him that much, but he's actually really bright."

"Well, he might be bright... to be honest with you, I couldn't tell. I could never understand what the hell that guy was saying."

I laughed. "Oh come on – his Czech accent's not that strong. He's lived here for, like, ages."

"Well I only put up with him because he was such a devoted Directioner." I pulled a face at her. "No, seriously," she went on. "I mean he was absolutely committed to Zayn. You can't actually hate someone like that."

" Yeah - that's why I want to see him. He still tweets me a lot – especially since Zayn left the band – he was so cut up about it - but I want to see him IRL. Kind of to cheer each other up. It'll be fun. Like the old days. I mean, I'll probably get smashed on the latest hipster drink – you know what he's like - and then... crash out in at his flat."

"Or end up in the back of a very sweaty club watching men fondling each other," Chloe said, rolling her eyes.

"Or that," I nodded, smiling.

*

The Void Bar, Golden Square, Soho. Val was on the red, shiny, pop-art couch, an electronic cigarette between his fingers, looking down at the phone on his lap, his face partly hidden by that curly quiff of his that always bounced when he moved. Back in the day he had tried to make it more Zayn-like but had stopped short of dying his natural mouse brown a more dramatic Malik-black. I sighed when I saw him. At least he hadn't given in to hipster pressure and grown a beard. I was seeing him for the first time after so many months when we'd both got too busy with Real Life and I suddenly felt a surge of affection. He was, after all, my closest Shipmate and official Best Gay Friend.