Drown [z.m.]

16.

They were a paradox.

In a blur of beer and skintight navy dresses and laughter that sounded like thunderstorms and beginnings, he had her in his arms, pushing her up against the door.

His fingers ignited sparks where they met her cool skin, and flames guttered along her insides, scorching her heart quite permanently. His lips taste like liquor and cigarette ash, and she wants him, she wants him so bad.

And her voice is like waves, reminding him of that time at the seaside when his father was alive and Charlotte wasn't bruised and his mum had all the time in the world. She breaks him, fragments him a little bit further and he loves her for it.

Zayn and Clementine, fire and water, they're a paradox.

"Love," he whispers to her, his words all messy from the alcohol he's consumed. "Goddamn, I want you." His finger traces her collarbone and she shivers, even though the touch seems to burn into her skin.

She's swallowing because she's not good enough for the Zayn Malik, she's just an onlooker, and here he is whispering confessions of wanting that seem to settle down somewhere in her lungs, making it hard to breathe, weighing her down.

"Y-you're drunk Zayn, gerroff," she whispers, but it sounds feeble to her, standing trapped between the door who's wood splinters her bare back, and him on the other side, his body pressed up against hers, in some guy she barely knows' party, music thrumming and vibrating gently, somewhere in the background.

But Zayn always had a talent for making everything but himself insignificant, so the world seems to crumble away, and it's only him and her under a dysfunctional lightbulb, moonlight angling in through  the window and casting planes across their bodies.

"M' not, s'all good," he says with a soft laugh at her, tangling his fingers through her red locks of hair. "S'okay," he mumbles, and then his lips are searching for hers, and it's sloppy but passionate, his lips all chapped, her lipstick smeared.

Fire and water, but they're so real.

But then he's pushing pushing her towards the bed, the empty bed, and he's ripping off the sheets and pulling her down down and they get lost becoming bare bare and whispering one another's names, raw and whole, raw and whole.

Fire and water, raw and whole.

...

No physical unit can possibly measure the speed, the power of gossip. News gets around quick through hushed words and harsh stares in school hallways.

"Zayn bloody Malik slept with Clementine?"

"What the fuck's goin' on with Malik? Did he really knock up Clementine?"
"What's he up to, shagging someone like her?"

Zayn avoids gazes and stares, and especially Clementine when she tries to speak with him.

"Zayn? We- we were drunk, and you were just so bloody quick and I couldn't- Zayn? Don't walk away from me, Zayn. I barely remember- Please...Zayn?"

But Zayn's starting to set himself on fire now, because it was his fault, his very own fault and there she stood, so beautiful and real, so unlike his world had become.

"Get the fuck away from me," he growls at her, and she flinches away, because soft touches and whispered "I love you's" and ghosting kisses are what have transitioned to averted eyes and swallowing hard and clenched fists.

"Y-yeah," she breathes out, blinking away the tears because in all honesty, Zayn Malik deserves absolutely nothing. "Fine."

Zayn Malik sees her out of the corner of his eyes, tugging down her jumper's sleeves and blinking repeatedly. He will reach out and hold her and let everyone around them see how fucking in love he was with someone in a social caste so much lower than his, and they will laugh together and he'll kiss her, kiss her so hard, taste her salty cheeks and her soft lips.

But he walked away.

He always did.

And she had profanities like slut and whore spray-painted on her locker, and tears in the bathroom, dripping down onto the tiles, and rolled eyes directed towards her, and ignorance and tinkling giggles wherever she went.

Zayn Malik set her on fire.

..

hello everyone ((: it's been long yep, but hi xx
it's so cold yay I love winter :o
lemme know what you think of this chapter and sorry if the layout is weird, I'm using my phone.