One-Shot Book (One Direction/ 5 Seconds of Summer)

Hanahaki (Zayn Malik)

I screwed up. I made the biggest mistake I could ever make in a lifetime. What is this mistake you ask? Simply,

I fell in love. With my best friend.

Why is this such a huge mistake you ask? Well, the thing is, in this world, falling in love has major consequences. Falling in love, especially unrequited love, can be absolutely deadly. Fatal even. And now, since I have made this mistake, I'll be forced to deal with its consequences.

It was English, and of course, my first lesson ever. I had social anxiety, so that only made things harder for me, especially since the teacher asked me to introduce myself in front of the class. "M—my name... my name is Sara... my name is Sara Hilbur and I just moved here..." "Cat got your tongue, newbie?" some random boy interrupted. His name was Ambrose, and boy, did he have a reputation.

I blushed heavily. "I—I'm sorry. I just—I sorta have social anxiety..." I stuttered. "Snap out of it, will you? Your stuttering is annoying," he snarked. "Ambrose!" the teacher reprimanded, "That's very rude!" "But, Miss! She's making it up! Social anxiety isn't a real problem! It's just something people make up, so they don't have to go up on stage or do presentations!" he exclaimed.

"Like hell it isn't!" Zayn yelled, and the first thing I thought was, wow. He was muscular to say the very least, and his skin was slightly tanned, unlike mine that was probably as pale as a corpse. And his voice... it was like caramel; sweet and heavenly. "Social anxiety is a real thing and some people do have to deal with it!" he continued.

I was blushing like a madman. Here was a hot boy, standing up for someone he barely knew. Heck, the only thing he knew about me at the time was that I was the new kid named Sara Hilbur and had social anxiety. "Really, Malik? You're standing up for this nobody? Might I remind you what happened to your sister that day when you stood up for her?" Ambrose mocked.

I really didn't know what was going on, but that sentence clearly triggered something in Zayn, because he was launching himself onto Ambrose and seemed to be choking the life out of him. "Stop it! Both of you!" our teacher was yelling, "Detention after school! And Zayn, I expected better of you! Ambrose, you are getting real close to expulsion as it is, so I suggest that you keep your hurtful comments to yourself."

She then turned to me and said gently, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that on your first day, Sara. Please, have a seat. You can take the one next to Zayn, there." I blinked. I had to sit next to him?! Gosh, I thought that I was going to faint on the spot. However, I somehow managed to bring my legs to walk over to him and sit down.

He grinned at me toothily as I did. "The name's Zayn Malik. Sorry about Ambrose over there. He's just a jerk in general. Ignore him, kay? Social anxiety is a real thing and it seriously must suck to deal with," he said. "No—no problem. I'm sorry you got into detention because of me. And I'm—I'm Sara Hilbur," I said. He laughed. Oh, that laugh! "No big deal, and I know," he said, "You managed to say that before being rudely interrupted by that guy."

I blushed again. Curse my pale skin! "I, um... I'm sorry, I just—" "Hey, it's okay," he said, "Don't worry about it." "Miss Hilbur and Mr. Malik, as glad as I am that both of you are getting along, please refrain from speaking in my class, thank you very much," the teacher said. I was mortified, but Zayn spoke up clearly to her, "We're sorry, Miss. Won't happen again." The teacher nodded and turned back to the whiteboard. "Well, you heard her. Speak after class?" he said. "Y—Yeah," I replied. He grinned at me and turned back to the teacher.

Throughout class, I was jittery in my seat. When the bell rang, I packed up so quickly that I nearly dropped most of my things on the floor. I nearly missed it when Zayn tapped my shoulder right before I left the door. "Hey, what class do you have later?" he asked. "M—math," I answered, "Do you— do you know what room it's— what room it's in?" "I have the same class!" he said enthusiastically, "Come on, let me walk you there."