the necklace ⇢ z.m

Chapter Twenty One

"I'm stronger than I've been before."

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"Where are you taking me?" I laughed as I turned down the radio on Zayn's car. "You ruin all the fun." He pouted as the volume decreased. "Zayn." I whined. "Where are we going?" I asked him again. "It's a surprise. Now shh." He shushed me and turned the radio up.

"Life is a highway. I wanna ride it all night long." Zayn yelled completely off key with the music. "Please, stop!" I exclaimed while laughing. "Never." He said and sent me a wink. I looked away quickly with a blush on my cheeks.

"C'mon, Crys. Have some fun." He said and grabbed my hand and threw it around. "Stop." I laughed and tried to pull my hand from his grip. "I'm only stopping because we're here." He laughed and let my hand go.

My facial expression dropped, but I quickly put my smile back on. He quickly pulled into a parking place and unlocked the car doors. I stepped out and shut the door carefully behind me. "It's a door. Not a piece of glass." Zayn chuckled.

"This probably costs more than my life is worth. I'm not going to break it." I said with widened eyes. "Nothing is worth your life." He said quickly and firmly. "Y-Yeah. I j-just meant..." I trailed off and he nodded. 

"I know what you meant, but don't say that. Okay?" He asked and I nodded. "Okay." I said uneasily. "Now." He said with a sigh. "Let's go." He smiled and nudged his head for me to follow him. I quickly followed beside him as we walked to God knows where.

I've never really been in the city before, other than once when I was little and I don't remember it. "This is a good area, right?" I asked him nervously. "I wouldn't take you somewhere with gangs and rapists, Crystal." He chuckled.

"It was an honest question." I defended myself. "Sure." He said sarcastically. "Can we just go to wherever we're going?" I asked with a groan. "Sure." He said, but this time it wasn't sarcastic like last time. 

We walked through the streets side by side. I was taking in the new surroundings. "Stay close to me, okay?" He asked and I furrowed my eyebrows. "I thought this wasn't a bad area?" I asked and he nodded.

"It's not. There's people from the media around. If they see you with me, then this will get back to Harry." He said and I nodded in understatement. I stepped closer to Zayn and looked down at the ground. "Let's go in here." Zayn said and opened the door to a small restaurant.

"Good afternoon, Master Zayn." The woman at the front greeted Zayn. "Theresa." He nodded his head at her. "Table for two?" She asked, looking over at me with a smile. "Yes, please. Somewhere in the back." He said giving her a weird look.

"Of course, sir." She said and grabbed a menu from the back. She then guided us to an area in the back with no one around. "Thank you." I told her as she handed me a menu. "Simone will be right with you." She smiled and left.

"Don't you have a menu?" I asked, looking over at him. "I own this restaurant." He laughed. "I've memorized the menu." He added with a smile. "Oh." I said sheepishly. "Just order." He said while shaking his head with a smile.

I looked over the menu and it was hard to decipher because it was in French. "Zayn." I said catching his attention. "Hmm?" He asked as he scrolled through his phone. "I don't-I can't- It's in French." I said finally with a sigh.

"Let me order for you, then." He laughed and took the menu from my grip. "Fish, beef, pasta...?" He trailed off while looking at me. "Fish, please?" I said and he nodded and shut the menu. He then signaled someone over to take our order. 

"Bonjour mon nom est Simone . Que puis- je obtenir pour vous , aujourd'hui?" She spoke in French making my eyes widen. "Nous aurons le grand homard et la crevette, et..." Zayn trailed off and looked towards me.

"Drink?" He asked and I shrugged. "Surprise me." I said and he nodded. "Nous aurons également le meilleur champagne en stock." He spoke and the server nodded. "Monsieur de supprimer le droit." She said with a nod of her head. "Merci, Simone."He spoke and then she left.

"You speak French?" I questioned and he nodded with a slight blush on his cheeks. "Little bit." He said with a shrug. "What did you order?" I questioned and he shrugged again. "It's a surprise." He said and I rolled my eyes. "Why is everything a surprise?" I said under my breath.

A few moments later he sighed. "I wasn't going to talk about this until later, but seeing as there's nothing to talk about, might as well rip the bandage off now." He said and ran his hand over his face. "Be completely honest with me here." He said and I nodded.

"I'm asking you this as your friend, alright?" He said and I nodded once again. "What do you love and hate about Harry?" He asked and my eyes slightly widened. "Oh, uhm." He said and was interrupted by our server coming back.

"Voici." She said and popped the cork off of the bottle. She poured the sparkling liquid in our glasses and excused herself before leaving. "What's this?" I asked, knowing what it was already. "Don't avoid the question, Crys." He said softly and I nodded and cleared my throat.

"What do I start with?" I asked uneasily. "What you love about him." He said with a strained voice. "Uhm, okay. Well," I took a breath. "I've never really had anyone who's showed any interest in me, and he's gorgeous so that's a plus." I chuckled lightly.

"He makes me feel special. He makes me feel like I'm the most important person in the world. He's really caring and puts everyone before himself. He's himself, you know?" I said and realized I was done after that.

"What do you hate about him then?"

He's not you.

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[A/N: She didn't actually say that last part, bUT SHE WAS THINKING IT! Well yes I hope I didn't bore you to death with this chapter, but yeah! I love you guys. Keep reading and if you'd like to follow me on twitter or help promote The Necklace follow me @JmwFtHoran or use #TheNecklaceFanfic and I'll love you forever.]