tRuTh - z.m.

4 - Zayn

March 24th, 2015

It had been two weeks. I laid low for two whole weeks and on the second weekend my phone blew up. Tweets, texts, calls, emails. All of it. The news was out. I was shocked it took so long. I didn't know how or who but one thing I knew for sure, it wasn't Olivia. Out of all the articles I'd read or been sent not one time did I read her story. There was no early morning lift meet up being written about. No trip to Starbucks being mentioned. I owed her and I knew that.

It was a Tuesday and I wasn't doing anything. I was still laying low, but that was getting old. I got dressed, found my keys, and headed out. I didn't exactly know where I was headed, but I went to Starbucks and ordered two coffees.

Subconsciously I knew because when I planned this unplanned, spontaneous drive, I made sure to leave on the same day I went to Liam's house two weeks ago around the same time.

I was hoping to catch Olivia on her way to class. I parked my Ferrari and jogged through the slick parking lot with our coffees. I don't know what made me pull my Ferrari out. Maybe I wanted Olivia to have a little fun. Maybe I wanted to impress her.

I sat down in one of the big leather couches and waited. I tapped my leather shoes on the black tiles as I waited. I was almost nervous. I spent extra time in the mirror that morning. It had to be just perfect. I knew Olivia was a fan and I know they have high expectations.

The lift pinged and I sat up, hoping to see Olivia striding out with her pack back and red heels. But it wasn't. It was Liam.

"Zayn... were you... are you here to see me?" He stammered.

"No," I stood. "I actually- I'm waiting for a friend of mine." I chose against saying her name because I thought it'd be awkward to explain.

"Who?" He asked as if he had the right to know. As if we'd spoken since I departed from the band.

"You don't really get to ask that. We don't even talk anymore." I said. He just scratched the back of his head and searched for something to say, but before he could respond the lift pinged once more and out stepped Olivia, sporting pajama pants and an oversized concert tee and absolutely no shoes at all.

"Hey Zayn," she smiled as she saw me. She stepped over to us. "Liam," she said, greeting him. "Excuse all of this," she gestured to her outfit.

"You obviously aren't going to class this morning," I chuckled, forgetting Liam was even there.

"Yeah, you caught me. I was actually just coming down to get my mail." She shrugged.

"Well, I showed up just in time because I was gonna ask you to skip today anyway."

Her face lightened up and she grinned. "That sounds so much better than what I had planned anyway."

"Wait, when did- you guys are friends?" Liam had been looking back and forth between us.

"So I'll see you later Liam, yeah?" I said turning to acknowledge him again. I wasn't letting him in. When I left his house I said I wanted no bad blood. Since then, everyone's been ignoring my calls and texts. And I wasn't taking that well either.

"Okay, mate." He nodded as he accepted how things were gonna be from now on. "I'll see you around, Olivia."

"Bye, Liam." She said as he started to cross the lobby. When he left she looked back over at me. "That was a little awkward."

I shook my head. "Don't mind that, he's just sticking his nose in places it doesn't belong." I grabbed her coffee from the side table. "I brought you coffee."

"God, you're perfect." She said after taking a long sip, rolling her eyes to the back of her head.

I laughed. I appreciated her goofiness. Not many people can make me laugh but she did it so easily.

"Okay, let me go get dressed, I guess. Would you like to come upstairs and wait?" She asked and I couldn't turn down that offer. I couldn't wait to see what the inside of her apartment looked like. I wondered if she was messy or clean? Was it decorated or bare? Did she have pets or no pets?

We got into the lift and she was a little quiet. She was probably nervous. From time to time I do forget she's a fan. She's just so different from the rest of them. She spoke to me like we were equals. We could hold real conversations that didn't include her asking me a billion questions either.

"Just to let you know before we get in here, my cat, he's very friendly. Just don't ignore him, he'll feel a certain type of way." She said quickly almost as if she didn't want me to catch it.

I couldn't help but to laugh. "What?"

"He doesn't bode well with being ignored." She shrugged, fidgeting with the ends of her hair. She had her hair braided into two big braids that stopped just past her shoulders. It looked nice pulled back off of her face. She was so cute in the face, I liked looking at her.

The cat, Zayn. I'd gotten so distracted just looking at her. "Well I promise I won't ignore him."

"Tell him, don't tell me." She snickered.

We stepped off the lift on the 14th floor and her door was the first door on the left, just beside the elevator.

We walked in and the first thing I noticed was everything was white. The chairs, the tables, the floors, the walls, the TV, the rugs, even the picture frames. There was a huge glass table in the middle of the foyer with a metallic-like glass sculpture in the middle. The sculpture was a topless mermaid on rock with an actual little pearl necklace around her neck. It looked expensive. Really everything in her apartment looked expensive. I was gonna have to ask her one day how she could afford this place.

There was an open kitchen design in her apartment so on our way to the living room, I got a chance to peep. It was completely clean. No dishes in the sink, no food on the counters.

"Okay, I'll be right out. I don't take long to get ready," she said before slipping away down the hall to her room I guess.

I sat down in the white room on the white couch. I looked like something bad in the pure room. I was wearing all black, with red shoes.

As I was finding symbolism in literally everything, a huge fluffy white cat waltzed right into the room and into my lap. I remember what she said about ignoring him. I petted him and he went on his way.

I noticed it was very quiet in Olivia's apartment. I could hear her bumping around and dropping things. I even heard music at one point.

She finally came back out and she'd totally transformed. Her wavy hair spilled over her shoulders. She was wearing a tan, or nude as women call it, dress and a pair of strappy sandals the same color. She had a bag with her, it was hot pink but somehow it went with her outfit.

"You look so nice." I said lighting up as I saw her. "I gotta take you somewhere nice now,"

She raised her brows at me. "Wow, like where?"

"Well, I did wanna take you out for breakfast. But now I feel like we need to be seen." I grinned as I held my arm out for her. She took it and we left.

We were in the lift and I kept thinking about how good she smelt. Honeysuckle most likely.

"I like your perfume." I said looking over at her.

"Thanks, it's honeysuckle." She beamed.