Awakening

He was unsure about attending this party but being sent tons of photos by Daniela made him change his mind and attend. He arrived silently like last time and took a seat out by the pool dipping his toes into the warmish cold water. He watched his friends enjoy themselves swimming in the water. Zayn didn't interact with them too much because he didn't want to be a third wheel to their relationships going on. Their interactions were only a reminder that he wasn't lucky in relationships. Zayn loved being in the company of his friends but once their gatherings included their partners, Zayn quickly dissociated. They never paid attention to his pulling away so it went unnoticed but not to everyone.

Aubrey paid much attention to Zayn who didn't mind unless he began to make things weird. Aubrey was using that small space Zayn left open to worm his way in. He was well aware many people thought lowly of him and his actions but that didn't phase him at all. Aubrey stood on the balcony of Aaron's room that overlooked the pool, inhaling his vape. His eyes focused on Zayn and a big wide grin graced his face. "He's alone."

"Hey, Zayn." Zayn popped out of his bubble of daze. He slowly looked up at Aubrey and tried to hide his disdain. Zayn didn't say anything but nodded in acknowledgment. "What are you doing?" Zayn rolled his eyes because obviously, he was doing nothing. Aubrey promptly took a seat next to Zayn who scooted a bit because of his annoyance of skin contact. Zayn brought his fruity drink to his lips and scoffed at the atmosphere.

Aubrey drank in Zayn's outfit. Here was his team captain shirtless and glorious as ever.

"Stop looking at me like that." Zayn muttered, feeling Aubrey's gaze on him. "When people look at me like that I feel like a whore. It's adoring but almost degrading." He added. Aubrey nodded feeling slightly embarrassed and took a hit of his vape.

Aubrey wasn't looking at him just for the creep reasons Zayn was sure about but because of something he discovered and this just made him excited to push Zayn's buttons. Being indirect friends, him being in the boy's business would only cause a rift in their almost non-existent friendship. He wasn't sure how to bring this up without creepiness spewing from him but he just had to see how Zayn would react. His lips bought themselves closer to Zayn's ears and whispered. "I know your secret." Zayn pushed him away and stared at him. "I've been watching you." There was no way he could say that without sounding creepy.

Zayn did his usual charming chuckle. "Everyone watches me."

Aubrey rolled his eyes at Zayn's response. "No, I've been watching the way you two-" he points between a wet Christian who was currently cuddling his girlfriend in the pool and a confused Zayn. "-stare at each other. Something is definitely up." Zayn was nervous but fought not to show that. Was Aubrey reading him or something?

"What the fuck are you talking about." Aubrey snickered at his friend's hostility.

"He passes on longing glances and you go into a daze into that man. If this is bromance then I'm the gayest man in the world." He didn't like where his peer was taking this or what he was implying.

"Then you're fucking blind then." Zayn tossed his drink into the pool and stood up finding his balance to leave this conversation.

"I'm just sayin-"

"Don't say anything." Zayn shoved Aubrey who tried to stop him from leaving by standing in front him into the l.e.d lit pool. Aubrey yelped being drenched in the pool but acknowledged it was his fault for bringing this up with Zayn. He made his way inside the house slightly wet. He spotted Lorel in a crowd that he didn't want to see. She waved at him and he did his best not to see her.

"Hey, Zayn!" She came over to him and pulled him into the crowd. "Wanna play suck and blow?" He was scared the crowd would include three people he wasn't too fond of at the moment but they were missing.

"Sure." He shortly realized one other person he didn't think well of, Chantelle was right there with them. He could ignore him. "What are we using?" She pulled out a pack of cards and handed them to Aaron.

"Pick a card Mr. host." He pulled out a six of hearts. "So the game begins. Me to Chantelle, Daniela, Zayn, Aaron, Saintclair, Renee. How bout tha-'' Lorel was cut off by the giggling couple of Christian and Elenore in their wet glory joining them, sitting next to Zayn.

"Add us." Elenore giddily giggled.

"Okay you two then Zayn. Y'all ready?" Zayn could sense this wasn't going to go well for nobody here but they were all tipsy and not thinking too much about how south this could go. "Wait twist, if you drop the card you take a hit on the blunt." He didn't think about how weird it would be to be in a kinda kiss with a friend with a thin piece of cardboard keeping them from colliding. Zayn backed off causing the card to drop. "C'mon!" Lorel passed the weed to Zayn who held a wide eyed stare. "It's not like you two were gonna kiss. If you were uncomfortable passing cards to guys you should have said something." He shrank into his seat at what just happened; he didn't even hear Lorel's words. "Let's go again, Zayn, pass it to Aaron." Fuck he didn't even registrar he had to pass the card to Aaron before. He sucked the card Lorel was holding against his mouth and turned in the direction of Aaron while Aubrey warnings echoed in his head. Fuck! He should get this over with. Aaron happily took the card and continued the game while He let out a pent up sigh.

They went for three rounds and each time he dropped his card when it was passed to him and when it was time to pass on. Lorel was disappointed her good friend was failing this game she expected him to succeed in. Jealousy was bubbling at the table but Zayn was recoiling himself too much to not notice. He was trying very hard to drink away his awkwardness but no amount of alcohol could make him not feel like this. The others were conversing with each other while he thought about Aubrey's annoying observations. He was letting Aubrey get into his head and it wasn't favored by him. Zayn slumped into the couch letting his worries fade into his tiredness.

Christian sat in his seat next to Zayn taking a backseat to just wonder about his own conflicting feelings while Aubrey stood in the doorway taking notice of what he was seeing. He knew what he was suspected but these two had their own things going on too blind and too dumb to actually admit what they were feeling. He knew more about them than they knew about themselves. Zayn specifically was blind to what was going on around him in the past weeks because he was caught up in his own thing but everyone knew and was surprised the once sleuth didn't see it.

"C'mon get up." Zayn was pulled into the arms of someone whose voice sounded grading and annoying. He dropped all his weight on whoever was handling him. "Are you listening?" Zayn could only smile. Zayn was thrown over the shoulder of the person asking in an all too familiar manner. "This is Aaron."

He could feel himself being carried through the party to somewhere upstairs and could feel the atmosphere had died down like the party was over. His back made contact with a soft surface and he smiled. He felt his shoes being removed from his feet and someone coming close to his face to remove his sunglasses. He grabbed the face of the person above him pulling them down into a kiss that wasn't really reciprocated due to the pure shock on the other end.

"Isn't this what you were looking for?" He smiled and giggled before passing out again. Aaron held a hand over his lips in shock at what happened. He kissed Zayn Snipes. Oh my lord. He didn't know what to do other than stare down at the boy who stole the kiss. He needed sleep, he needed to just get over this. Maybe by morning this might all be a blur and fade into the dark void.