in the hills • zayn malik

twelve- blithe

twelve- blithe  

song for this chapter: “happy” by Pharrell Williams  

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Zayn was walking around the house aimlessly, boredom kicking in. Iris had told him that there was no work to be done for the afternoon, and now he had no idea what to do with himself. He had attempted reading, but his body was craving physical activity, and being tranquil was a bit difficult.  

Twenty one days. He couldn’t believe how much had happened during such a relatively short period of time, but all the excitement had given him a new joy in life that had been lacking before he got here.  

Zayn was finally happy. During a night of sleeplessness and many epiphanies later, it finally dawned on him. The truth was so confronting that he had primarily denied it, because it seemed like the one thing that he had been sure of was collapsing.  

He wasn’t in love with Perrie.  

Zayn still loved her, of course. But he didn’t love her in the same way anymore, and this truth both thrilled and terrified him at the same time. It felt like he had turned a new chapter in his life, one filled with uncertainty.  

He had spent the last couple of days thinking: he thought about everything that he possibly could, some of his major topics being Iris, his family, the boys, the media and Liam.  

Zayn had decided that when he got back that Liam could live with him. They wouldn’t spend much time in Zayn’s apartment anyway, but it would be a place to call home for Liam. Now that he wasn’t getting married, Liam could stay as long as he so wished.  

A gurgling sound filled the room in which Zayn was pacing in, making him pause for a second. He looked down at his stomach and patted it absentmindedly.  

“I know, I know.” He muttered.  

With boredom came hunger, and even though Zayn had eaten two hours ago, his stomach wouldn’t cease to growl at him. He sighed and gave in, heading towards the kitchen.  

On the table were baskets of fruit and vegetables, picked by Zayn the previous day. He grabbed a bunch of green grapes and walked out the front of the house, sitting on the porch.  

He once again fell into a state of contemplation, and as he put grapes into his mouth, he thought of what would happen when he got back.  

They had a tour to finish, so they would probably give Zayn a couple of weeks to ‘recover’ or whatever, in which during his recovering period he would be in multiple interviews and hold many press conferences answering the same questions over and over again.  

He wished that when he got back that he could not be in the spotlight, but it would inevitable. It would take him a while to get back into the fast paced rhythm of his life, especially after being here for so long.  

Zayn knew the most asked question would be Zayn, where have you been? What could he tell them? They wouldn’t believe that he had stayed with some girl hidden in the middle of the English countryside. And he knew that if the officials caught a whiff that a girl had been living basically unregistered there would be an inquiry.