nebula :: [malik]

[ xlvi :: scone ]

'Cause all you want is

Recreational love, love, love.

You say you need your freedom,

I just don't believe your reason.

"Recreational Love" || The Bird and the Bee

__

"Next in line!"

Anais sits in the little cafe Zayn first introduced her to and stares out the window.

She's got coffee in her hands despite the way the weather is warming. The temperature has risen to the thirties today, and the sun is out, which means that hopefully spring is somewhere around the corner.

Anais has her sketchbook open, and she stares at the designs she can't decide on choosing or editing for Daphne's show.

Which was right around the corner, too.

Everyone was participating, it seemed. From Jourdan and Cara and Soo to Diego and Adonis and Lucky. It was a big deal to Daphne, to be the first Junior to put on a spring show by herself. She was really going big - they'd all be graded on execution - or going home.

And Anais wanted to do a good job.

Because this was what she wanted to do, design. And because this was what she wanted to do when mostly, most often during these shows she was asked to model, she's really really looking forward to being able to show off her talents as an actual artist and not just be another pretty face for once.

So, she stares at her sketchbook and raps her fingers against her chin, manicured nails drumming on the saucer of her cappuccino as she realizes that is has really been a long time since she's drawn and doodled and got caught up doing the things that all of her friends would have once said was the reason for her unavailability; her distance.

But, life is funny like that.

It is.

At the beginning of the semester, it was her obsession with perfection and work that kept her from realizing that Lucky actually did like her back.

But, had she acted on these feelings, she'd have been with him.

There'd have never been a Zanais.

There'd have never been a Zayn, and somehow, the thought of no Astronomy and no rooftop and no Zayn seems so unsettling and so wrong.

And with this thought, Anais begins to draw...

...as Zayn quietly enters the cafe.

He's just come from his apartment, which he really had to find a way out of since Louis had invited over  Soo, and Niall was playing video games with Cara, and Liam and Harry (who, as Magdalena's new best friend had told her they were doing 'brunch,' so of course that meant she'd dragged along Jesse) had come over with Sophia, who Soo and Cara were both gossiping about and the commotion was just a lot when all he wanted to do was sleep in on this Saturday morning.

And he peers around the cafe, looking for an empty seat somewhere, preferably near a window, because that's where he liked to doodle, when he catches sight of curly hair being twirled around a thin finger as those eyes he loves are downcast, staring at what he's assuming is her sketchbook.

And Zayn steps to the cashier, ordering a coffee before asking, "And um," he pauses, "do you like, d'you have any scones?"

The barista nods. "Flavor?"

"Blueberry."

"Must be your lucky day. There's one left."

"Thanks, mate."