All is Fair: Zayn Malik Fanfiction

Chapter 13

I said I would end it the next day, so I do. The first thing I do that art class is confront Mr. Reynolds about changing seats. He allows it, very willingly too. I think he understands that Zayn and I are having problems. How could you not by now? The note and the week full of innocent, silent collaboration. He would normally never get that cooperation from us. Zayn and I are not exactly trying to be subtle, though.

He moves me across the room to the corner near the door. Which is good. Now I can leave class quicker too.

For the rest of the year, Zayn tries to reach me. He catches me at the door, tries to talk to me in the halls. He texts me a lot. But he burns out towards the end of the year. I guess he realizes that I am not going to respond. Ever.

School ends so quickly.

********

Graduation. Everyone in their caps and gowns. I hug my friends and family. Lots of pictures. We are all smiling. Especially me. It is all done. Finished. Over. I can move on.

My mother asks to take a picture of Charlotte and I. I smile at the camera. She says "cheese" and the camera flashes. My sight takes a second to return.

When it does, I see him staring from across the room. In his matching cap and gown. He looks emotionless.

Over. We are done. I look away and welcome a hug from my sister.

"I can't believe you're done with high school," she says.

"Me neither," I look back up to see if I can find Zayn. But he becomes just another face in the crowd, and I never find him.

So the summer goes by quickly. And so does the next. And the next. Each year passes with the new meaning to the scar of the day my dad died. It hurt the first year. But I got over it. I buried the memories of high school and focused on college work. I actually tried to forget it all. And it worked pretty well.

But now I am here, in the summer of 2014, 21 years old, sitting in a little coffee shop alone.

When someone approaches me. I look up and see a man I know I recognize.