If Time Stands Still

20- winging it

Zayn's POV

"You know-"

"Shh!" Aylin glares at me as she continues pacing around her room.

I watch as she bites her fist, too lost in thought to hear me out, so I decide to leave her be and lay back on her bed. When she notices that I'm not sharing her distress, she stops in her tracks and folds her arms.

"This affects you too."

"How?" I chuckle.

"It's not funny." She whispers.

"We're adults." I scoff, "Who cares? We could've just stayed downstairs and sat in the kitchen, let them see that no funny business is going on and play it cool."

Her shoulders drop, "Shìt! Why didn't I think of that? So stupid."

I sit up and grab her wrist, "You're not stupid, you just can't wing it." I tease.

"Well, now we're in a pickle. What now? Since you're so smart."

I look around the room briefly as I try to come up with something. When her windows come into view, I suggest, "How about the window?"

"What about the window?"

I stand up and walk towards it. There's a huge bark practically grown in a way that looks like it was specifically made to escape this room, "I could climb out."

"Are you out of your mind?" She looks at me with eyes widened, "That's dangerous. Besides, we've got CCTV in the yard which dad checks first thing every morning. No way."

"Wow, he's just as paranoid as you are." I joke, but once I've said it out loud, it hits me that the qualities she dislikes in her dad, are qualities they share. Makes sense.

"Okay, well how about I just wait here until they go to sleep then?" I suggest.

"That's fine, but someone might still come up-"

A loud knock at the door interrupts Aylin from finishing her sentence. The doorknob turns a few times before Luna yells, "Why's it locked!?"

"Just got out the shower!" Aylin yells back, "I knew you'd just barge in."

"Well, are you done? We brought you a waffle."

"Ooh, waffles." I comment quietly.

"Give me a few. I need to get dressed." Aylin says before approaching me, "You need to stay in my bathroom. I just need to get Luna out of my room, greet my parents and say I'm having an early night."

This is ridiculous. I understand that it may look bad in her parents eyes, but we're both grownups. I sigh, "Sure."

Once I'm in the bathroom and Aylin closes the closet doors, I hear her unlock her bedroom door. Meanwhile, I walk around in here, studying the products she uses. She definitely like pomegranate and almond, which explains why she smells so good all the time.

"Guess who got praised by every one of her teachers?" I hear Luna boast.

"That's great!" Aylin exclaims, "You guys are back early."

"Yeah, there wasn't much to say really since I've got perfect attendance, perfect grades. Though, the waffle place was busier than usual for some reason."

"On a Monday night. That's weird." Aylin comments.

While the sisters chat about Luna's achievements, I take a seat on the bathtub and shoot my aunt a text before scrolling my Instagram feed. Three consecutive posts from Clinton is the first thing I see, no shirt, flexing in workout videos, all which are captioned 'beast mode'. The rest are pictures of people who I haven't been in contact with for years, so I click on my notifications instead.