Hungry for Release

Part 4

"I like pancakes, I want pancakes, bring me up all your mother-flipping-pancakes!" Louis freestyled as they sat waiting for their server, predictably setting Harry into fits of giggles.

"Oh lads, we can't take you anywhere" Liam groaned. "What you having Zayn? I could literally eat the whole menu."

"Ehm," Zayn looked up from his card, which was rapidly becoming crumpled in the corners as he nervously flipped it up and down. "Maybe the blueberry stack? Feeling the need for a sugar hit."

Lies. Right now, the pungent smells of fried meat and eggs were driving him to distraction. But if he was going to be forced to order something aside from black coffee, the only acceptable menu item in the whole place in his opinion, he'd be damned if it would be anything other than the lowest calorie option.

"Pussy. I'm going for the 'Hungry Man' stack, for I am a hungry man," chimed in Louis. In the end, Liam, Harry and Niall ended up going for the same. Zayn cringed inwardly. How could they face all that starch and grease together?

He'd noticed recently that certain food combos, even if they were low calorie, just didn't seem right anymore. Although he'd been happy to allow himself the occasional low-fat Subway until up until a few weeks ago -no cheese or mayo mind - now, the thought of any mixing of meat and bread was seemed unfathomably wrong.

Even when he tried to rationalise it to himself, he couldn't. At some point, the pairing had been shunted into the 'forbidden' part of his brain, and there was nothing that could induce him to try it again.

Sometimes Zayn wondered when it would end - if he kept cutting and adding rules and conditions to his mealtimes, surely one day he'd reach check mate, nothing left to eat. Generally he shrugged the thoughts aside - it wasn't as though they had endless hours for silent contemplation around the merry-go-round of interviews and rehersals and fittings anyway.

Fuck. He'd been trying no to think about that last one - especially with the next torture by tape measure highlighted in angry red on his calender for next week.

The arrival of the food was almost a welcome distraction - until he saw the thick scoop of butter sliding across the top of his stack, slowly bleeding into the golden crust and leaving a slimy yellow snail trail. Disgusted, Zayn quickly wrapped the offending topping in a napkin, discreetly trying to mop up as much grease as he could whilst the others were distracted by their own mammoth platters.

It was too late though - already a dark patch had appeared on the top pancake. There was no way that was going in his mouth. The no-doubt sugar coated fruit dotted through the batter was unappealing enough.

He pushed it to the side of the plate, and contemplated pancake number two. Mercifully, the generous portion of thick blueberry syrup had been supplied in a separate mug so diners could smother their order to their own tastes. For Zayn, that would be not at all.

All chatter had momentarily died down on the table as everyone tackled their individual eating challenges. "Oh my god," Niall groaned, breaking the silence. "So, so happy right now."

"Mhmmm," agreed Harry, reaching across for yet another dollop of syrup. "What's up with your food Zayn?"

"Oh, nothing. Why?" he asked, flinching guiltily. He'd taken a few tentative bites, before affirming for sure that his food was utterly saturated with sugar. The only choice was to remove all the blueberries. Once he'd started fishing them out though, pulling the food apart had seemed much more appealing than actually eating it. Whilst the others had half full plates, in front of Zayn, there was a massive mound of fluffy, polkadot blue crumbs.

"Well, I can't help but notice you appear to have masterfully dissected it - but none if it appears to have actually made it into your mouth," Liam commented.