BURN

Chapter fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Monday arrived quicker than I had anticipated. Neither Malcom nor Danny talked to me all weekend. I had to admit that sucked but maybe I actually needed some time out from both of them, the time to figure out how I was going to figure everything else out without getting sucked too deep. The news of the fight had somehow leaked and I had to endure the burning stares and gossips a whole day. After classes we were over, we decided to drop by a small café for a cup of coffee and probably some doughnuts. I hated that I could not stop thinking about Malcom but I hated more the fact that all the way to the Café I had hoped I would run into him.

“Why do you keep looking around? Is there someone who is putting you on edge that I don’t know about?” Jade wiggled her eyebrows mischievously as we placed our orders.

We turned around to take a booth and I was about to seat when a familiar figure caught my eye.

“Zayn?” he turned around.

“Sophie,” a smile worked its way up his face.

“You left and didn’t say goodbye,” I said in a small voice, careful not to draw attention to us.

“I was going to call but then I realized I didn’t have your number. Can I make it up to you with dinner at Kings, if you are free tomorrow,” I was about to turn him down but Jade beat me to it.

“She is absolutely free,” Zayn flirted a confused gaze from me to Jade.

“Jade, this is Zayn and Zayn, this is my housemate and best friend, Jade,” I warmly introduced.

They shook hands and this was the first guy that Jade clearly approved. Zayn sat with us and it turns out he was more charming than I had noticed.

“So technically you are half Venezuelan and half Arabian?” Jade asked or more like stated in pure admiration.

“Well yeah. My father was quiet too eager to give me his family name but I prefer the mother my mum gave to me; Zayn. I have never learned Arabic really and practically I grew up in LA,”

“So how do you two know each other? If I may ask that is,”

“Um…he is friends with Danny actually. I didn’t even know too,” I added to avoid a series of accusations from Jade later on.

“We are really not that close. No offense meant to your brother but I’m not the type to go prancing around with goons. I prefer keeping my profile low until I’m done with university,”

“First time I’m hearing someone not interested in being seeing gracing the university hallways with the School President,” Jade smiled.

“Um…Shoot! I promised Ben we would meet at exactly seven. Can I trust to bring her back to the apartment safe?” Jade questioned standing up.

“I swear on my heart,” he pressed his right fist to his heart.

She walked away leaving me with Zayn. Suddenly I was a bunch of nerves. What was I supposed to say?

“I heard about the fight. Everybody is talking about it,”

“Yeah. I have had to endure that all day. Honestly, I had already resigned to the fact that my day was the worst but at least you brought a smile on my face,” That had not sounded so bad, now had it?

“I don’t think I deserved that. In a way I’m entirely to blame for the fight,” A solemn look washed over his features.

“No, you are not to blame. You absolutely had nothing to do with the fight,”

“You don’t understand. Your brother trusted me to stay with you till Jade came back but in the morning when I woke up, I received a call from my father. He had flown all the way here and wanted to meet me. You looked so peaceful when you were asleep so I left. The fight happened shortly after. Maybe if I had stayed a little longer I could have saved you from that,”

“Is that why you have been avoiding me all weekend?” I asked a bit surprised he could blame for something he was not clearly related to.

“I should have woken you up or stayed until Jade showed up,”

“Trust me, even if you had stayed, you would not have been able to stop them,” I squeezed the back of his palms over the table in complete assurance.

He was about to open his mouth when someone caught my eye at the corner booth. Every part of my body seemed to go alive instantly with sensations that ran through me.

“Can you excuse me for a second?”

“Yeah, sure,” I barely heard his answer as I strode to the corner booth.

“Malcom,” his gaze shot up from where it was in his coffee mug.

“What do you want Sophie?” the coldness in his tone took me aback. I had never him speak to me like that before.

‘Um…I wanted to apologize for the other day. Daniel clearly went overboard,”

“I deserved it,”

“Why would say that?”

“Because I did,” Something about this sudden nature was off-putting.

“I could not remember your apartment and I could have asked around but I wanted to ask you. Can we talk please?”

“Don’t you get it? There is nothing to talk about Sophie,” he paused standing up, his jaw drawn tight and the only thing I could read from his eyes was a dark shade of rage, “And by the way your brother was right. I did not want to be friends with you. I only wanted what was under that pretty skirt of yours. Though obviously I’m never going to get it,” he shouted before storming off angrily.

I stood in a daze wondering what the hell just happened but that was not it, he stopped at the door of the Café, turning around to face me.

“She is a good one Zayn. Keep her,” the bell chimed when the door swung closed after him.