Delete » malik

10

10

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I struggled in finding what I should wear for the "date" me and Aria were about to have.

I wasn't going to impress her, not a fucking chance, but I wanted to feel good in what I was wearing.

Should I just wear a denim or leather jacket over?

Forget these thoughts. I needed to clean the headlights of my car, first. I went downstairs and into the record shop, the business growing more customers by the day.

"Doin' alright, Zayn?" Ashton blurted as I made my way to my car outside.

"Hm?" I turned to him, suddenly realizing what he meant. "Oh, yeah, I'm good."

"Going somewhere special? That's a first." He chuckled.

"Yup, up in your ass." I told him and walked out. I opened the trunk of my car, grabbing the cleaner and a cloth to wipe my headlights.

My car was something special since my parents, before I left them, gave this to me as a birthday present. I'm better off without my parents, to tell the truth. It felt like a million things just lifted off my shoulders after I ran off. I wanted to be my own person, but they wouldn't let me do that. It was best to leave.

My eyes glanced at the cars' tires screeching on the city streets. I watched as every car drove a millisecond by, heading to their destination. In a few minutes, I was going somewhere too with Aria.

After polishing the headlights, I grabbed the cloth and placed it on my shoulder before going back in the shop.

I strolled to where Ashton stood, seeing him tap his fingers on the countertop as if they were drumsticks. "What's up?" He said to me.

"I'm about to get some coffee. Give me a shout when Aria comes in, alright?"

"Uh yeah, sure." Ashton shrugged and gave me a nod to confirm his answer.

I barely moved a step when I saw Aria walking in the shop, Ashton yelling out my name to commit to his promise. "She's here!"

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the help." I muttered sarcastically and then looked at Aria. Her face wasn't at all happy, but I was hoping to change that. "Hey, are you ready to go?"

"Zayn, we can't do this."

"What do you mean? My car's ready outside right now." I was sort of confused in what she was telling me, but of course I had to go along with it.

"You're not going anywhere, but I am." She spoke with a shaky breath. She didn't even look at me in the eyes for once. "There is no date happening right now.. I have to go."

Now I was lost at her words. "Go? Where are you goin'?"

"Somewhere.. Somewhere not here."

She turned around and walked out the door, it maybe being the last time I'll ever see her. I've been through a lot of things and I've gotten into sticky situations, but I didn't want to pass this up.

I ran after her. "I'll go with you."

"No, Zayn. You need to let me do this."

"I promised myself to go along with whatever the hell you're doing." I raised my voice to make her stop walking so fast. She didn't have to leave all the time, just because no one cared where she went. "Let me go with you. Please."

Her eyes doubted mine, but she gave in in an instant. "I-I need to do something, on the computer. After that, we need to pack."

I had a laptop upstairs. "It's up in my room." I pointed, but she ran past me anyways. I followed behind and saw her getting on the computer herself.

As we waited for the computer to start, she wouldn't stop fidgeting. I had no idea what she was doing, but I'm hoping it wasn't anything death-like.

She typed in her name in the search engine before pressing enter.

Several links appeared with her full name mentioned in them. I swear I saw that one of the links being from the government.

"What are you doing?" I spoke with my arms crossed.

"I'm deleting myself from the internet." She said back, clicking on the first link.

She hesitated in clicking the delete button, her hand hovering over the mouse and shaking with fear. I sometimes wondered how it felt to be her and know about the thing that's going on with her life. She has kept secrets from everyone else, and her being more comfortable with me than others was an honor. I wonder what was going through her mind, for she didn't move.

"Just delete." I said as calm as I could.

"But I.."

"Shh," I told her and moved closer by her side. I tried not to breathe on her neck since I sat too close. My arm stretched across the desk to grab her hand softly and hold the mouse, in control. I made her trembling hand click on the delete button, soon seeing the website she was on erase completely before my eyes.

"Another?" I asked but didn't expect a reply. I helped her calm down as she deleted her email accounts and other websites that has mentioned her name. The websites itself though mentioned her as a criminal, and I didn't know what to say about that. I remained silent and kept my eyes glued to the computer screen.

"W-We need to leave tonight." Aria blurted out of nowhere. My head turned to look at her, still not sure what she meant about leaving. As in for days?

"To where? Why?" I hate how much of an idiot I sounded like when I asked those questions.

"Somewhere far like Washington. I'm in danger, and the least I want is to get caught." And next thing I knew, she burst out running to the car.

I followed her, many thoughts jumbling in my mind. "Caught? What are you saying!?"

I stared at her in disbelief, confused in every way possible. The girl I've been actually giving attention to could be in grave danger. She looked at me with fear in her eyes, but she was strong enough to trust a person like me. "I'm in trouble. We need to go somewhere safe." She called out to me, the cars passing by loudly on the New York streets. "Let's run away together, Zayn."

Author's Note:

Hiiiiii :) Please comment and vote! Tell me what you think- about Aria and/or Zayn :) ♥ ily

-Camille