Truly Madly Deeply

Chapter Thirty Four

Author's Note

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MASSIVE ZELLA FLUFF 

keep reading xx

"These words are my own
From my heart flown
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you"

Zayn Malik bit his bottom lip as he undid his seatbelt for what felt like the tenth time today.

He turned to face the tear stained, sniffling, heart broken beauty that sat beside him.

"Bella I... I know that it was really hard for you to be honest with me, but you should know that I really value your trust in me" he whispered, his voice barely a whisper but it never felt so clear and loud before.

"People... people like...Aaron don't deserve to be around people like you, Bella. You are smart, funny, sweet, kind hearted, trusting, interesting, charming and you are the most beautiful person I know... inside and out. Bella, I'm not the kind of guy who just says things to get what he wants. Everything I say has meaning and if I don't mean what I say then I would never go through the trouble of saying it in the first place." He explained to her, all the while his hand was intertwined with hers.

 "Bella,"

He began as he looked deeply into her eyes. He didn't want to ruin what he had with her by diving into things too quick but he couldn't keep it in any longer.

"I... I really, really like you. What I feel for you and wanting to be around you isn't just to get some damn project done. I'm... drawn to you. You're like a flame and I'm the moth. I keep falling into your trap."

For the first time,  what he felt and what he was saying were the same.

He was finally able to get his thoughts organized enough to put them into words.

When he looked up, Bella was smiling for the first time after getting off the phone with her troubled father.

He also noticed that there were little tears in her eyes but they looked like the tears you would shed at a wedding or graduation...

They were tears of joy. Happy tears... and Zayn was the reason.

"Everything we do together and all the time we spend means the world to me. Just the thought of seeing you, of being around, of seeing you smile up at me makes my day a million times better. You're the only girl who can make my heart beat faster and slower at the same time. The only girl who can make my palms sweaty and my toughts jumbled. I've never... never felt this way before but I think I can say with complete honesty and confidence  that I know what it is..."

he wiped the happy tears that were trailing down her cheeks. She smiled through her tears, her smile could light up a whole city.

"And what is it?" she asked, sniffling slightly.

"It's Love."

He looked deeply into her eyes before he swallowed.

He kept her gaze as he uttered those three little words, those three tiny syllables and those eight letters.

"I love you"

He spoke, his eyes glistening with rarely shed tears.

Ever since being publicly humiliated by her own father and having her heart stomped on mercilessly, Isabella became more pesimisstic than she already was.

However, her newly established level of pessism was about at love whether it existed between her and another boy or her and her father.

When her dad had enrolled her in a boarding school she was relieved because frankly she didn't even want to live under the same roof as him.

After she made friends with three incredibly friendly girls who treated her like they'd been friends for years she realized that this experience was going to give her more than distance from her father.

It was also going to give her true friendship.

But seeing Zayn, laughing with him, painting with him, teaching him how to swim, being taught how to dance, facing her fears with him, everything they did together slowly mended that hole in the middle of her heart.

She knew she would inevitably fall into hopless love with him. It was chemical and bound to happen. It was something she barely had control over.

So when the words tumbled out of her mouth, she wasn't afraid  that he had managed to break all the walls that surrounded her heart, she actually felt like another huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I love you" she said back, slowly lifting her chin so that their foreheads pressed against each other.

She blinked away the tears of joy that were slowly moving down her cheeks, fluttering her eyes closed.

She lifted her hands to touch his dear, dear face only to find wetness. Her heart tugged at the realization that he was also crying.

She kissed his chin, both cheeks and the corners of his mouth before she finally placed her lips against his.

She poured all the emotions of the eventful day into the kiss. The fear, the excitement, the agony, the misery, the heartache and more importantly the love.

He kissed her with just as much passion, carressing her soft, tear stained cheeks as he showed her how much she meant to him.

"I love you" he repeated, once they pulled away. She smiled before she cupped his chin and pecked his perfect lips.

"I love you" she repeated once more.

It felt perfect to say, it rolled off her tongue effortlessly.

It was like saying "hi". 

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When Isabella had crept into the dorm room, she was relieved to see that the three girls were fast asleep.

As much as she loved talking to them and having someone to share these details with, she was  already overwhelmed by everything that had happened earlier.

Plus, she didn't want Melany to feel even worse knowing that Zayn, in addition to Niall, had confessed their love.

Isabella didn't even have the energy to change into her pjamas, her heart was fluttering in her chest and her eyelids  heavy.

All she wanted was to plop down on her bed, hug her favorite fluffy pillow to her chest and fall into deep sleep where she replayed that perfect moment with Zayn in the back of her mind.