How's life with Crystal? Is it going hard? babies, do vote and comment! X also the starting chapters are monotonous ik BUT YOU GOTTA GO TILL CHAP 3 TO ACTUALLY DECIDE THAT THIS STORY IS GOOD OR NO (i snapped uhm) do give it a try😊
also, im a sucker for cliché so if you have a problem might wanna use the ten dollar bill and take a taxi to the exit xoxo

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when we collide
01| into her life

Crystal runs, feet slapping the concrete footpath sending her jetting pass the various figures that blurred in her speed. Running so fast, that she almost feels her foot slipping from beneath her.

Her mind frantic with thoughts, the main being 'how is it possible to run this fast?' and the second being 'lets begin the daily insulting session in three, two, one. . .'

She bangs open the door breathing heavily as she does so, trying to catch her breath.

"I'm really sorry, Mrs. Mully."

Eyes in slits, Mrs. Mully glares at Crystal moving across the cash counter whilst her dark red coated lips move slowly.

"Honey, congratulations! You broke your own record today. You are," moving extremely close to Crystal's face (who almost feels like puking due to the strong fragrance of her vanilla perfume) she whispers "Thirty seven minutes late."

"Uhm. . . I thought I was 30 minutes late?"

"Shut up, girl. I pay you money to work not to lag behind and come late like the sweetheart you are."

"Yeah?" she mumbles, awkwardly while Mrs. Mully continues screaming in her face, like it's her day job to.

"Now off you go to take some orders, this is my final warning to you, trust me on this. Come late again and you're fired." passing a sarcastic smile Mrs. Mully walks behind the cash counter and starts typing something.

"I don't even want to work here." whispering under her breath, Crystal starts walking to change in the uniform they had for the café. A combination of pink and magenta, much to her distaste.

"Should've imagined that before you decided you wanted to be a college drop out, honey." There Crystal feels how amazing it would've been if sarcasm was an actual subject taught in schools.

༻❁༺

"I'm home, mum." Crystal murmurs, sighing as she hangs her coat on the rack and walks further in the living room, falling on the couch.

"Someone looks grumpy, mhm?" says Cecile as she enters, smiling at her daughter who looks like she's been jammed back by a car, thrice.

"Don't even get me started, mum. I'm so pissed right now. Mrs. Mully treats me like I'm her slave. I was thirty minutes late, just thirty fúcking minutes and that woman went bat shít crazy on me like she called me yesterday and I reached on Christmas," she groans. "Christ, I need a break."

"Language young lady. I get it, it's hard. Why don't you take a break?" Cecile suggests, a tiny smile playing on her face as she stares at her daughter struggling.

"I'm twenty six mum, I need this money and shift out you know? Can I just win some lottery or something?" raising her hands up in exaggeration Crystal gets up to freshen up.

"Make me a cup of coffee please?"

"Sure, go freshen up and then we'll have dinner in some time."

"Works for me." she moodily replies.

Entering her room she throws her bag on her bed and falls on it too.

"I can definitely use some sleep right now."

too much to ask for? Not a minute passes and loud music starts peering her ears like venom.

"Jesus Christ, Jack!" she sprints towards her brother's room and bangs it open but regrets it immediately when the music gets louder.

"Oh my god this sounds like a human is being tortured, can you shut this stupid metal punk shít you're playing?"

"Get your facts straight sister, you don't know shít about music and to answer you," that's when Jack turns passing a sarcastic smile and mouthing a 'no'.

"Ugh Mum!"
"Ugh Mum!" he mimics his' sister and stops the stereo while standing up. "Back to your old ways, can you please officially grow up?"

"What's going on here?"

"Mum, you're throwing this weird human back at the roadside you picked him from."

"I bet there will be better people than you in some random alcoholic anonymous classes."

"Jack language, she's your elder sister!"

"Yeah, I know that. She can súck it."

"I'm out of here." Crystal whisper yells, throwing her hands up in exasperation as she sprints out of the door. More like tries, because, when you're a messy girl with an even messier brother your life can never be easy.

A scream erupts out of Crystal as she slips on the skateboard her brother owns and falls down. Her brother's laughter filling her ear like venom.

She could definitely use a break.

"That's what happens when you gift your brother a rapunzel themed skateboard."

༻❁༺

It was ten in the night and the last thing Crystal could bear was her brother singing.

"Jack, I reckon Jess Glynne sings a trillion times better than you, so it's better if you focus here instead of singing?" he scoffs at her comment, and then focuses back at the mathematics book barely lying there like a decoration, not before passing a comment on the lines of 'i thought it's your music'

"I came here with a broken heart that no one else could-"

"Jack!" he huffs. "Fine." mumbling, he keeps his phone aside much to her pleasure.

"Mental attack to healthy students." he whispers out of the blue.

"Huh?"

"I said Mental att-"

"Yes, I heard you but huh?"

"The full form of Maths, duh." he says. Crystal rolls her eyes to another dimension thinking how ironic it was for Jack to comment that he'll find better people at some A. A class.

"What are you? Ten?" tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear she breathes, trying to maintain her composure.

“On a scale of—”

“Don't even complete that.” she sighs.

"Anyway, so x is directly proportional to y when it-" glancing up Crystal notices Jack who is busy toying with his phone, much to her dismay. She snatches the phone from his grasp.

"Hey!" she hears him whines in response.

"Focus." he smacks her on the head and sits back amusingly.

"Do héll with you, I'm getting something to drink, you want anything?"

"Does burrowing you six thousand metres deep in the ground count?" passing a weird glance to Jack, Crystal walks to the kitchen and helps herself with some orange juice and takes a packet of doritos just in case.

She passes her parents room but stops when she hears their conversation.

"I don't Cecile, I'm just really worried you know? This is the fifth family we're trying with." she hears her father say, voice laced with worry.

"Sebastian calm down, we'll try again, she's just twenty-four don't worry." that's her mum. Crystal always observed her mother to be the optimistic one who encourages everyone.

"I don't Cecile, it'll break her. Marriage is something important and what type of people are all of them? I cannot believe it, why can't they see how beautiful she is but only the past that lurks with her. It's-"

"Dad." leaving her parents off guard Crystal breaks in the room, eyes slightly wet and heart pumping fast.

"Oh honey. I'm-"

"Adam said no?"

"Honey I think we'll talk about this in the morning." her mother suggests, her expression laced with worry.

"No mum, I've had enough of this. I don't need a boy to know my worth alright?"

"Honey, we'll try again with a way better family this time, you deserve better than him anyway. Just don't mention about-"

Crystal frowns, wanting to desperately un-hear what she just heard. "If they can't accept the past that lurks with me then they don't deserve me."

"But-"
"No dad, I've had enough. I'm over this arranged marriage bullshit. Fine! My choices are irrational and dumb but you're not going to look for another boy at all now. Just because Mrs. Colin put a word in your ear about this stupid concept doesn't mean you'll wing it. I'm out of here." slightly collecting herself she rushes out of her parent's bedroom ignoring their cries of her name.

She goes back to Jack's room, who bangs his head around in air to the music, a smile playing on his lips which wipes away when he sees his' sister in a mid of breakdown crisis.

"Uhm?"

"Doritos." she throws the packet at him and rushes to her room banging it close and falling on her bed, the pillow muffling her sobs. This was the third boy who said no to her. Now, it really doesn't matter to her but getting rejected three consecutive times will definitely give you an unsettling feeling.

She picks her mobile and opens her contacts, deleting Adam's number. For the third time consecutively she deleted a boy's number.

Wiping her tears she walks to the mirror staring at herself in it. Isn't it weird how you try to leave your past? Cutting off your long length hair to slightly longer than shoulder length. Getting a tattoo, dying your hair. You might remove every ounce of your past from your body but your brain, the one place it shouldn't be at, it stays intact there.

No is cold and heavy. It puts an end to things. In that way, it is a word of control. Its very use suggests a speaker who actually knows something about you, who won't bend, who won't give in to what you want simply because you want it. No says the case has not been made.

She realises these 'no's' were killing her.

༻❁༺

Loud voices wake Crystal up, and the realisation of going through another typical day slaps her right on the face, super hard.

She groans as she wipes her eyes, huffing in process.

"Oh you're awake?" Cecile enters the room, while whipping some coffee in a mug.

"Yes, due to unfortunate reasons I'm awake. Like reality."

"Jesus, you and your sarcasm. Now hurry up come down, you don't want to be late again."
"Yeah."

"Crystal?"
"Yes, mum?"

"You're alright aren't you?" Crystal stares at her mother's face shooting a worried look her way. She couldn't possibly say that she wasn't okay to that face.

Instead, she passes a genuine smile, "Could've been better but I'll manage." her mother smiles back and walks down.

Freshening up, she changes her clothes and does her hair into a ponytail, applying a decent amount of makeup to look slightly alive and not a semi dead human trying to function. She starts walking down the stairs with her wallet and everything in hand.

"Good morning sweetheart, how's your morning going?"
Sebastian asks cautiously, looking at his daughter who seats herself across him and helps herself with a toast.

"It's morning Dad, what do you expect, why is my eye hurting?" she stops sipping her coffee immediately and wipes her right eye.

"You know remove the spoon maybe?" she hears Jack say, looking absolutely amused out of the situation. Embarrassed beyond tolerance she keeps the spoon on the table and continues sipping, cheeks tinted red now.

"You won't believe what happened today."
"It's been like barely five seconds that a new day started, what could've happened?"

"I suggest young man that you might want to hold onto those not so hilarious comebacks when you're talking to me." Sebastian's eyes turn to slits as Jack continues to focus on his toast instead.

"So what happened?" Cecile questions, looking at her husband curiously.

"Dad, I swear if it's not something interesting." Jack warns making Sebastian roll his eyes. "Oh shoot young man, that was scary."

"Jack, stop being so ridiculous." his mum states. "So the 'for rent' board just got removed from the house sideways."

"You have to be kidding me, dad." Crystal whispers, her heart beating faster than usual.
"I think some family is moving in." her dad says, crushing all her hopes. "You don't believe The Malik's might be shifting back?" she whispers, her hopes touching the brink.

"I highly doubt that honey, they lived in London last time I contacted them, that was probably a year back. Why would they?" Crystal sighs, finishing her toast and getting up, "I forgot my mobile upstairs, I'll be back."

Rushing upstairs, she comes in front of a room, pushing the door slightly as she enters the room. A window through which the piercing sunlight enhances a spot on the floor, looking around the room filled with some angular bar like structures that were brilliantly shinning and shelves filled with books. She presses a switch, light all of sudden glooming around the room. She looks around at the different photos and witnesses each and every picture personally, mixed with her family and the family that she misses whole heartedly.

Crystal's father was a family man, holding on to each and every possible memory that he could. His office room was beautiful, walls covered with pearl white paint and huge shelves with books stacked alphabetically. Other walls and shelves filled with almost every good moment she can recall sharing with her family.

Crystal busies herself looking at the pictures.

Memories flood her mind, as she remembers all the dinner parties, night outs, camps she shared with the family that once lived across.

A photo of her bestfriend and Jack wearing jerseys catches her eye and she reminisces how they used to bet on football, Jack always lost. Wonder where half of his pocket money went, and why Zayn was literally a billionaire giving her ice-cream treats every now and then, and their bullshít crazy never ending fights over who was a better football player.

Then a big painting gets her attention. She looks at the painting of herself, looking the most beautiful she ever felt, questioning was it the ridiculous talent of the artist who drew her ordinary self into such a beautiful girl?

Under it a message, by yours truly obviously.

❝For our forever cherished friendship. Z.M❞

Recalling when Zayn squeezed her hand promising that all the hardships will go away, and life wasn't as difficult as it seems. She recalls how he took her to a small picnic spot near Bradford and drew her on his canvas, promising her that she'll be blown away by the immense beauty everyone saw in her, except her. How she looked in his' perspective.

There she stood on the canvas wearing a white blouse and a normal pair of jeans, hair messy and slightly flying, eyes shining. Looking as ordinary as ever, she believed what he said, she looked like a beautiful mess.

She didn't know where he was, whether he was alive or not, that's a little off limits, but she's proud to say this, she still believes him and wherever he is, her only possible best friend ever, she still waits for their roads to cross again.

________

Wow okay the feedback i received on the prologue was crazy, that's so lovely of you guys, i WAS SHOOK. SO A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE WHO HELPED ME OUT THERE, YALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE YOU'RE AMAZING.

This is just the start and might not be interesting but HANG ON i swear things will get better, pls dont forget to press the star button and vote. Drop some feedback?

What's the weirdest dream you've ever encountered?

And also,
Messi or Ronaldo?