FRidAY? ↠ zarry AU

chapter 6

Harry's busy entertaining Louis' gibberish as they walk home together, offering him the odd hum and agreement but his thoughts are elsewhere. He can't help but think about Zayn - think about the sex they had only a few hours ago that he so easily brushed off.

His thoughts soon stop when Louis' voice does too. "Louis, we live this way." Harry jogs up to him to redirect him in the right direction, and out of the street. "Come here," He forces Louis' arm around his shoulders and wraps his own around his friends' waist, helping him walk.

"Harry, 'm soooo hungry, I want Nandos." Louis whines.

"Okay, we'll get some tomorrow, let's get home and get some rest for now." Harry knows Louis. He'll say that he's hungry now but will fall asleep in his food once it's placed in front of him.

"Tonight was so fun. I had fun. Did you have fun?"

"... I had fun, Louis."

***

"Yea, we've got a few matches lined up here and then we're gonna go touring around Europe. Pretty sick." Liam mentioned as the waiter was walking over with their food.

Him and Louis had decided to invite him out for lunch the next day. They had told him Zayn could come too - well Louis had - but he couldn't make it and Liam showed up with another close friend and soccer teammate, Niall. Anyone who wasn't Zayn was to Harry's relief.

I'm not angry at him... I mean I have no reason to be, we're not in a relationship or anything. I just didn't see him as, ugh, the 'fuckboy' type.

Turned off was the better word for what Harry was feeling.

"So what was Zayn's excuse? Can't handle his alcohol?" Louis laughed and asked Liam.

Niall laughed and agreed with that.

"Nah, his girlfriend's here so he wanted to spend time with her." Liam answered him nonchalantly and Harry accidentally let's more sauce than he wanted spill onto his plate and some of his chips. "She's doing some fashion week thing in Italy and detoured here for a bit." Liam continues to speak, not picking up on anything from either Harry or Louis - who's blue eyes are the size of the plates in front of them right now.

He glances from Liam to Harry, but Harry gives nothing away. All he does is raise his eyebrows in slight surprise but then let's everything go, and so does Louis.

"The tall blonde?" Harry asks, surprising Louis, and Liam nods.

"They started dating in the final year of high school and been together ever since. She's trying modelling out." Liam fills them in and Harry nods.

He's suddenly lost his appetite but can't just shove his food away and cause a scene, so he acts like nothing's wrong, like anger isn't coursing through his veins.

He's pretty sure that last night happened. There's no way that he could have hallucinated the entire thing - hell, he still remembers hearing the condom wrapper being torn open in the midst of his drunken, hazy thoughts and music of the pub.

"Let's go out on Wednesday." Harry proposed once the table went silent.

"I say yes." Niall answered immediately.

"After your exam? -" Louis asked a bit shocked to hear this coming from Harry.

"Mhmm."

"It's not like that's the only one you have. Don't you have stats on Friday?"

"I want to unwind after wracking my brain for three hours. Liam, you guys should come again." Harry smiles and Liam nods. Honestly Harry didn't need to invite him because they probably would be there anyway.

***

It was the day of his exam and Harry felt like he had flunked the damn thing.

"Wasn't that bad was it?" Louis asked as soon as Harry walked in.

"I didn't get to finish my last essay, Lou." Harry sighed, letting his sling bag fall from his shoulder.

"...But you finished the other three so, that's a seventy-five right there if the last one goes to shit."

"Always the optimist." Harry smiles and says to himself.

"... So, about Zayn -"

"Yea, I don't think he's my type to be honest." Harry shrugs and Louis drops it. Right now, he can't tell if Harry's hurt or annoyed but knows that he'll come talk to him about it when he wants.

***

Since it was the middle of the week, everyone went easy on the alcohol tonight and vowed to only have a few drinks.

Again, Zayn was absolutely normal, not giving Harry so much as a second look.

A few minutes after they were all settled a group of girls walked in and lo and behold, Zayn's girlfriend was one of them, and it must have been Harry's lucky day since she decided to sit right opposite him.

"Hi, I don't think we've met yet." She smiled widely at Harry and introduced herself.

Harry forced a smile to his face and nodded, not really taking anything of what she was saying in.

She sure does talk a lot. Harry thought to himself and rolled his eyes, hearing the sound of her voice dominate a conversation once again.

"Okay, well, this round's on me." Zayn tells the group and eases out of the booth.

"You know what, I'll go help him." Harry quickly says and follows.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Harry said from beside Zayn and Zayn simply raised his brows.

"And what's your problem?" Zayn sighed.

"Are you serious?? Are you honestly going to act like the other night didn't happen, because I don't care how drunk you were, there's no way you cannot remember fuck-"

"Can you lower your voice?!" Zayn angrily whispered and Harry clenched his jaw. "Look, that night was an accident, okay?" Zayn said and looked away from Harry again, waiting for the barman to serve him.

"An accident? You're a fucking cheat who knew exactly what he was doing. Accident, my arse."

"Oh please, just drop it already, Harry. I don't know why you've got your panties in a bunch anyway, I just gave you what you were asking for."

"Excuse me??"

"I saw the way you were looking at me since you and your buddy walked in on the very first night."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. He couldn't believe that he actually liked a person like Zayn.

"You're such a prick." Harry said shaking his head.

"Go cry somewhere else, Princess." Zayn sighed, uninterested in carrying on with this conversation.

"Oh?" Harry laughed.

He wanted to slap Zayn right now.

"Maybe I'll go cry to your girlfriend, Jenni, and ask her if she enjoyed the taste of my dick as much as you did." Harry spat, ready to do just as he said but Zayn quickly caught his elbow.

"Look. Just, stop. I was drunk, Harry. I made a mistake, just don't tell GiGi." Zayn paused and sucked in a breath. "Please?"

Harry hollowed his cheeks and looked down his nose at Zayn. "Fine. Not for you but for her." He finished by roughly tugging his arm out of Zayn's grasp.

Harry snuck a glance at her. She was having a good time and knew how hurt she'd be to hear something like this so he, begrudgingly, decided to drop it, no matter how annoying he thought that she was.