Near To You (One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chapter Fifteen

Near to You

15

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But it kills me that you won't see the clear blue sky we'd fit perfectly underneath.

Missing You - Letters & Lights

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The ride to the airport was silent. I clutched my purse which I was carrying with me onto the plane tightly. I did not know what to say to Zayn, and clearly he was suffering from the same dilemma because he had barely said two words to me since he got his driver to pick me up from my residence almost over half an hour ago. I had told him it would be fine for me to just catch a cab, but he had insisted, and to be honest, I really wanted to see him.

It had been three days since our kiss, and our return to London from the quaint bungalow. Somehow I had expected everything to be different. All the running around and uncertainty that I had been feeling, I expected it all to just vanish. For that final night I had forgotten that I would be returning to a world where I kept a large secret from almost everyone I knew, a world where Zayn and I could not be seen together because it would only wreck his reputation, but it could potentially benefit mine.

All those complications were gone, but once we returned, the gloom we had escaped from seemed to settle over us instantly. I had dropped him off and returned to my dorm, not to hear from him until last night, when he asked me how I was planning to get to the airport. We had not spoken of anything that took place. It was almost as if I had dreamt everything that happened, as if it were all made up in my mind, and I was beginning to believe that maybe it was. Maybe he thought it was a mistake.

We pulled up in front of the terminal and I clambered out quickly, glad to get out of the stuffy, silent space. Now, instead of uncomfortable quietness there was the buzz of conversation and overhead zoom of jets coming and going. Now it felt as if the world were moving again, instead of trapped in that sufferable loop. Zayn lifted my sole bag out of the trunk and waved the man dressed in a simple black shirt and jeans away, indicating that he wanted some privacy. Maybe now he would tell me what was going on, what all this meant.

Had he told his management? Did he regret it? Questions raced through my mind so fast that I could barely think up of an answer for one. I bit my lip and stared down at my shoes. I didn't want to speak first in case I said something stupid.

"Are you excited?"

"What?" I said almost immediately after, surprised that he had broken the silence, before realizing what he said. "Oh, yeah, I guess. I mean, it'll be good to see my family and friends again."

"You'll have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yeah."

We lapsed into another silence and I almost let out a grunt of frustration. Things had been so easy between us before, and now some kiss had changed all of that? No matter how much I wanted this to change, our friendship, into something more, if it was making him uncomfortable I'd be glad to settle as just friends. Zayn was an amazing person, and I wasn't just going to let him go because he didn't think of me the way I thought of him.

"Listen, I just--"

"Two weeks is a long time."

"Not really," I replied. "It'll go by very quickly. There's Christmas as well, aren't you excited to go back home for that?"

"It'll be nice," he agreed. "I wish I could give you yor gift, though."

"You got me a gift?" Once more I was shocked. I had bought Zayn a cute keychain of a coffee cup, Frankie's idea. The boy was always losing his keys, or misplacing them. Maybe that way he'd identify them easier, and think of me when he saw it. I hadn't expected anything in return for the silly trinket.