Doubts increase and faith is lost. Can Crystal really have faith in Zayn, even when her mind is telling her not to? Don't forget to drop in the love in the comment section. Your feedbacks makes my day 1000x better.
Also, do checkout the official and new trailer i made for the book. Its in the trailer chapter.❤️

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when we collide
12| being sick and presentations

The sun shines brightly through the window. Crystal opens one eye quickly feeling the burn in her shocked retinas, before slamming them shut again.

But thoughts run through her brain, forbidding her to go back to sleep. She sits up with much effort, feeling her head throbbing. She remembers the panic attack she experienced yesterday and her cheeks redden in embarrassment.

Never in a million years did she ever want anyone to see her in her weakest state but alas, Zayn just had to be the one to see it. She glances to her left to notice her bed empty. What was she expecting? Sighing to herself she gets out of bed not in a mood to change.

Freshening up quickly, she wraps around her favourite shawl and slips on her fur slippers, exiting the room with the length of her hair cascading down her back, showing no efforts to tame it.

She notices Carolina dusting around in the livingroom and upon her entrance she turns passing a smile to her.

“How are you feeling now, Mrs. Malik?”  Crystal completely disregards the pang of hurt flowing down her nerves upon hearing Carolina call her that. It's really weird though, according to her, that people die to get labels. Labels to feel safe and secure.

But all meaning that the label held, was an empty relationship. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Crystal tries hiding her grimace as she sits on one of the dining table chair. “I'm good, why'd you ask?”

Glancing up, Carolina smiles again as she throws the rag on her shoulder and walks around to the main table to clear out the dust. “Mr. Malik said you aren't feeling well and I shouldn't disturb you.”

Zayn. The name rings in her mind like solid fire. Zayn. Zayn. Zayn. Mocking her conscience as her lips curl down in distaste.
“Where is he anyway?”

“Mr. Malik said he's got some immediate work to attend to, so he's racing to do just that and might be late from work.”

“Correct me if I'm wrong but it's sunday today. Right?” Crystal asks, words coming out so slowly as if her life depends on it.

“Of course, it's Sunday.”
of course Zayn's lying again. Crystal scoffs to herself, making a mental note to call him later to know his whereabouts.

“I'll take my leave now.”  and with the last of waves, Carolina walks out, closing the door slowly and leaving Crystal to ponder her thoughts openly.

She realises how fúcking difficult and tiring it is for her. To wake up everyday in hopes of falling in love. Everyday, watching Zayn cry and fight for someone he can't have.

Just like her.

And she knows how he feels for they are riding the same boat. She never wanted to lash out on him or scare him away because she knows how he feels. It just tears her apart. The truth.

That Lara will never look at him and he'll never look at her.
Life is fúcking annoying.

She wraps around her shawl closer when she notices the pictures back at the place, walking hesitantly she picks one up noticing the broken glass of the frame. Slamming it back she walks out of the house and enters the porch of her neighbour.

Maybe she could chat a little while with Martha till Zayn shows up. Knocking lightly she takes some steps back, the cold air almost freezing her blood.
The door opens and Jeffrey smiles at her.

“Hey doll, all okay?”
Smiling lightly, Crystal waves at him and asks about Martha.
“Martha went out to meet some of her friends. You have something urgent, sweetheart?”

“Oh no, just wanted to chat. Sorry if I disturbed you—”
Shaking his head furiously, Jeffrey smiles, looking playfully offended. “I was about to make some tea. Why don't you join me?”

Crystal smiles at him. She could really use some company. She enters the house as Jeffrey closes the door behind her and she's instantly hit with the warmness the house generated. Something Zayn's lacked.

“You have an amazing place.”  Jeffrey chuckles lightly, bowing down and making Crystal giggle in response. Her eyes rake the photographs litering the walls as Jeffrey enters the joined kitchen glancing at Crystal sometimes.

Crystal notices a young boy, maybe in his early twenties, smiling as he stands beside Jeffrey, both looking like they were on some fishing picnic as they hold fishes in their hands.

“That's my son, Mason.”
Crystal glances at Jeffrey to see a ghost of a smile possessing his lips as he stirred the tea.

“He's really good looking.”  Crystal compliments, smiling lightly as stares back at the picture.
“He indeed was.”  Jeffrey breathes, pouring the tea in cups and walking around the shelves to find a snack.

“Sorry for your loss.”  Crystal mumbles, staring at Jeffrey to confirm that she didn't touch a bad string but when Jeff smiles at her lightly the weight washes away.

“It's alright. Everyone has to go one day and life is nothing but a long journey of pain. My son didn't really have to go through it.”

“Just because life is painful, doesn't mean he didn't deserve to live it.” Crystal whispers, making Jeffrey smile lightly as he passes her cup making Crystal mumble a thank you.

“Death is scary but it's the only way a human realises how much can another human matter in your life.”  he says, glancing the picture with pure admiration.
“Tell me, are you scared of death?”

Crystal is definitely thrown off guard by the question. Was she scared of death? “No I'm not because life is so much more painful than death. It's immediate and the end. There's no survival or fight.”

Jeffrey sips on his tea and nods at her answer. “isn't everyday that a girl in her twenties says she's not scared of death,”

“But that's the thing about life. You have to fight for what you need because if everything was served in a beautiful plate, what reason or will to live will be there?”  Crystal ponders on the words that left Jeffrey's mouth so easily but made her think so hard.

“You think life right now is worth fighting for?”  Jeff asks, and Crystal has no idea as to why they were having this conversation in evening while sipping tea. But a smile takes on her lips when the scene of Zayn slipping a ring on her finger in front of her house comes on her mind.

“Woah, careful there sweetheart.”  Jeffrey breaks her trance. She stares at him, brows furrowing together in confusion.

“Careful about?”  she asks like an illiterate person, her voice doubtful as Jeffrey picks up her cup. “That smile.”  he whispers, smiling to himself when the bell rings.

“That's the smile I'm giving right now because I know she's home.”  he whispers, keeping the cup back and glancing at Crystal with knowing eyes.

“That's the smile that screams that you're about to fall in love.”

It was raining heavily, literal cats and dogs and the cold weather was not helping at all. The lightening strikes outside the window sending shivers down her spine. Opening the curtains and then the window, Crystal sighs, some droplets fall right on her cheeks.

She gives a glance to the watch which shows it was ten minutes past eleven. Where is Zayn?

The lad was vanished the whole day and it's understandable that Crystal is officially freaking out.

She waits and waits, cooking a quick meal for the both of them, clearing away the cutlery and almost everything that kept her busy till twelve thirty in the morning. She stares at the food now cold lying in the bowl waiting to be served.

She fiddles with a spoon, trying to divert her mind from all the possibilities where Zayn could've been. She sighs when only one possiblity strikes her mind. Her eyes wander out of the window door staring at the droplets falling ridiculously fast on the glass.

“He's not mine.”  she mumbles to the fork. “I doubt that he'll ever be in all honesty.”

Her eyes wander away from the fork she holds to the turned down pictures on the shelves.
“And that's cool to be honest. Expectations always lead to disappointment. Things won't always work the way you imagine.” she whispers to the fork again, her eyes staring neutrally at it.

“But I can't help but imagine the warmth his arms hold, how would it be being in them?”
She turns it around, examining the fork to the best of her ability.
Pouring her heart out to the lifeless object.

Picking it up she walks to the window door, opening it to be hit by a wave of wind closing in on her. Her hair flips ridiculously around in the air as she closes her eyes to take a breath in, trying to imagine his presence around.

“This díckhead will kill me.”  she whispers to the fork in all seriousness. Sighing lightly as she looks up at the sky clouded by a thick layer of clouds.

“The worst part is, he doesn't even know that he's committing murder.”  glancing at the fork her brows furrow in embarrassment.

“Jesus Christ, the héll am I doing?”  she whispers, picking up her phone she dials Zayn's number which comes out to be unreachable. She glances at the cold food and the two plates lying unused and shakes her head. Walking to the couch she lies down clutching her shawl around her not feeling necessarily secure with the weather and the loneliness taking toll on her.

Crystal's jolts up, her eyes filled with terror. She strokes her face to be assured it was only a dream. A nightmare. Her eyes glance at the clock to see the time as three in the morning and when her eyes glance at the door she notices a pair of wet shoes and rage fills her veins.

Standing up she stalls to Zayn's room, almost tripping and opens the door. Her eyes catch the immensely drenched and soaked clothes on the floor. Looks like someone didn't have an umbrella.

When she notices a body lying on the bed, chest heaving up and down in rhythmic movement, Crystal's blood turns cold in rage.

“Zayn Malik!” she almost screams but gets no reaction from the lad lying limply on the bed. She staunters ahead pulling the duvet covering his face and making him groan.

“Zayn, you do realise you should have a sense of responsibility, right?”  she yells, but gets no response.

“Zayn I'm talking to you.”
“C-can you get me a glass of water?” he stutters, voice extremely throaty.
Her brows furrow in confusion but she ends up sighing. Does this guy have no sense of guilt?

She grabs him a glass of water and slams it on the side table.
“Do héll with you, Zayn.” she comments, stalking out of the door but a breaking glass catches her attention making her turn around immediately.

And when she notices a struggling Zayn, almost leaning down the bed and the glass of water on the floor, her breath catches in her throat.
“Zayn!?”

She sprints to him, and help him up on the bed, noticing how drenched his hair is and how scarily hot his body is. Pun intended.

“Zayn, you're burning. The héll.” she whispers, making him lie down as he groans in pain.

“I think you're down with fever.”
“Can you order me some cake?” scrunching her brows in confusion she stares at Zayn as if he talks in some alien language.

“W-what?”
“I refuse to die without eating cake.”  Crystal shakes her head as she walks to retrieve a towel. Managing to somehow make Zayn sit after many groans, world wars, volcanic erruptions she finally starts drying his head with the towel.

“You're hurting me.” he complains, trying to wiggle away his way from the towel.

“Mutual balance.”  Zayn stills down in his position, sighing as Crystal dries his hair and helps him out of his shirt that he, embarrassingly, wore upside down.

She goes down to get ice cold water and a soft rag and after helping Zayn with some medicines starts putting the wet cloth on his head.

Zayn stares at her, doing it all. Putting the wet rag on his burnind head and pressing it to help with his headache. His mind conflicted as to why is she not lashing out. Not like he'll tell her the truth but still.

Isn't she angry?
That's so not Crystal.

“Why are you taking care of me? Aren't you angry?” he barely whispers, his throaty voice making him sound like a dying whale and making him cringe.

Crystal glances at him as she presses the cloth on his head then rediverting her focus on the cloth when Zayn's glossy eyes become too hard to handle under the lamp light.
“I don't know, Zayn. I'm confused.”

Zayn stares at her for seconds, waiting for her to elaborate on whatever she feels.
“I wish you'd tell me how you feel instead of me trying to figure out your side because one second we're stragazing until three in the morning and shít and the other day you won't pick up my calls.”

She picks up the cloth and dips in the water, squishing it and putting it back on his head.
She hears Zayn sigh.
“Everything will be alright.”  he whispers, making Crystal smile much to his confusion.

“And on days you'll tell me everything will be okay, I'll be alright. Other days you want me to leave you alone.”  Zayn removes the cloth from his head and sighs. “You're playing mind games.”

“I'm not, Zayn. I'm just letting my heart out isn't that what builds a relationship? I could've lashed out on you but all I'm asking you is to tell me what to think because one minute you're here and the other you're not.”

Zayn sits up almost immediately, his face scrunching in pain as he hisses due to his throbbing headache. “Lie down, Zayn.”

“You make it sound like a piece of a cake, Crys.” he complains, grasping Crystal's arm to stay still in his sitting situation.
“See, we're talking like actual humans and not dogs so this is amazing. You think I don't try? I'm trying. I want a good future, I- and, trust me on this and a-a good future definitely has you but—”

“Oh god, Zayn. You need to admit to some real shít if you ever want to heal!”  she yells, her voice catching Zayn off guard and make him stop rambling his word vomit.

“Admit that they hurt you, made you weak and took your self worth and your ability to trust and whatever good you had it in you.”  her hands move in air in exasperation. Zayn looks to his right staring outside the window where the rain had slowed down but it was still down pouring.

“And you allowed it Zayn because you never really loved yourself enough to love someone else. From the start you've been criticised for what you love and do and who you are and—”  she exhales a breath she didn't know she was holding and looks at Zayn who looks scarily defeated, staring at the duvet covering his legs.

She gets up from the single couch and sits in front of him, holding both of his hands in hers and making him look up.
“Can I talk like a bestfriend?” she whisper asks, noticing Zayn nod lightly and looking extremely vulnerable. She takes out her ring and puts it on the side table and then slides Zayn's ring off his finger.

She takes a deep breath in. “You're a fúcking idiot, Zayn.”
“Woah okay, give that ring back.”  Crystal holds his face, making him face her and staring at him as to pierce his soul with the truth.

“You need to know that you have all the right to move on. At the end, they were just a lesson you needed to learn to have a better outlook on life, Zayn. Didn't you go against your dad to do what you wanted to?”

Zayn maintains eye contact, trying to soak in as much information as he can.
“That's the fire. The rebel in you. A rebel who demands to move on, to have a better life, to not be held back by a girl. Move on with whoever you like. A career, a pet, a hobby. . . a person. But atleast try.”

Zayn clutches back on her hands and sighs. “Yeah.”  he replies, barely over a whisper. “Can I get a hug now that these rings and irritating air is off. I feel like I could help myself with a friend.”

Crystal smiles, reaching out with her arms extended as unlike all times when Zayn pulled her into his chest, he goes in to lean on hers, his body is firmly held against hers.

She smiles lightly as he pulls his arms around her waist and breathes a sigh of relief. His head resting on her shoulder while Crystal starts stroking his hair and rubbing his lower back softly.

“I sympathise for her.”  She whispers in his ear, making Zayn mumble a 'who'
“Lara.”

Zayn sighs lightly. “Don't mention her.”
“But I do. I sympathise for her because she left you for someone else, took you for granted, cheated on you, belittles you and made you feel any less than a human. She's gonna realise one day and it'll hit her like a ton of a bricks, I swear, that she let the wrong part of herself go.”

Zayn stares ahead at the door and then nestles in her shoulder. Crystal's word make him feel good and no one really told him that.

“Aren't you angry?”  he mumbles in her shoulder making Crystal chuckle. She takes her hands back and rests them on her lap. “Trust me, I am. I just don't want you to bare with it in such bad conditions. I mean look at you. You've drool all over your face.”  she makes a cringing face, jogging out of the room while chuckling.

And Zayn realises, maybe that drool wasn't due to the fever.

It's morning and Zayn has a hard time waking. He clutches his phone, eyes squinting and begging to close as he stares at the time. Five in the morning.
He still has the lingering taste of the chicken soup Crystal made him some hours back.

Zayn can imagine himself in the same situation but without Crystal. Probably he'll be lying in his bed coughing. Sounding like the dying version of hulk as he stays limp with his hair wet and probably drowning in his own tears of irritation.

But here he was, stuffed with food, with a cold cloth on his head, water on his sidetable cut fruits and some light snacks with it, headache slightly better and life, life definitely better.

He turns to see Crystal, lying in an extremely awkward position on the couch as she sleeps.
Is this girl photoshoped? Why does she look so good? She made Zayn feel like dogshít. He tries locating his hoodie that Crystal helped him out of in the middle of the night because it was irritating him.

“Zayn? You're okay?”  he hears Crystal groggily whisper as she rubs her eyes in order to rub away the sleep in them.
“Yeah. You should sleep. You look really tired.”  he suggests, Crystal puts a hand on his forehead, making Zayn stare at it.

“You still have fever, I think it's better now.”  she gets up, slipping on her famous fur slippers and clutching her shawl around her to exit the room.
“Uh Crys?” she turns around staring at Zayn to elaborate.

“Thanks for y'know helping. I'd be dead by the morning if it wasn't for you.”  she lightly smiles at him and nods opening the door.
“Crystal!”  she turns again, raising her brows to signal him to continue. How in the héll was he supposed to ask whether she could lie with him and she doesn't need to go to that room again to sleep?

“Can you call in sick for me? At work.” replying with a 'sure' she takes one step when Zayn calls her again.

“YES?”  swallowing the lump forming in his throat, Zayn smiles. Forget it, I'll chicken out as always.

“Can you get me my laptop bag? I need to complete my presentation and some paperwork, it's in two days.”  nodding she stands there for second waiting for Zayn to say something but when he stares back dumbly she exhales and walks out.

This is harder than Zayn assumed.  He lies back in his bed staring up at the ceiling and piercing his lips together.
He remembers his mother saying something on the line of 'you are meant to be' when he was leaving for London with her.

Did she mean forever? And why does he assume it's meant to be forever? Maybe what they have will not last forever and maybe she's here to teach him things.
Afterall forever isn't the person but what we make with them. Right?

“Z-zayn? Were you sure your bag was waterproof?”  Zayn hears Crystal asking hesitantly as his eyes move to her standing by the door with his laptop bag in her hand. “What do you mean?”

Crystal presses the corner of the bag and a drain of water flows down. Zayn feels his heart racing. “Don't worry the laptop will be alrig—”  a flow of water pours down as Crystal tilts the laptop. She awkwardly stares at the laptop and her eyes move to Zayn who stares at the laptop like his life just slipped out of his hand.

“No. Way.” he whispers, getting off the bed with much effort and grasping the laptop. His tries go in vain when he repeatdly tries to switch it on. Frustrated groans come out of his mouth and he feels his eyes stinging.
No way is he gonna cry

If he loses this presentation. He loses his promotion. He'll lose his job. He'll lose everyt—
“Zayn?”  brows furrowing in exasperation he glances up at Crystal and notices her fiddling with his bag.

“Who was the last person who touched your bag?”
“Why?”

“Because it's got cuts and holes on it,”  Glancing up, Crystal presses her lips together in fright as Zayn stares at her, his lips parted, eyes almost about to give up to the tears.

“Someone did this on purpose.”

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A quick chapter, its not that long, i was thinking to write ahead but then i thought naah let me just leave it here.

For those who don't remember the presentation Zayn's talking about is the one his boss mentioned in the second chapter, the intro chapter in Zayn's life. Strikes a bulb?

Thoughts on this chapter?

Anyone missing Matt? He might make an appearance soon ;] lol ... Maybe lara too?

Y'all are gonna hate me in a couple of chapter sjksjs but i sat down and wrote Zrystal's first kiss today. It's in later chapters but wtvr lmao.

Also, i have a final ending decided. And im scared cos y'all will riot-

I shall escape now sjsksj

What do you think will happen now? X

Character questions (inline here) x ❤️

LAST CHAPTER CHARACTER QUESTIONS—

ZAYN:
Q. If you and Crystal don't work out, will you marry me?
If me and Crystal don't work out, then I'm just a hopeless case. I shall live my life with instant noodles and dogs.

Q. What will you do if Crystal goes back to Matt? (i hope that doesn't happen)
Y'all really think that round glasses hispter can steal a girl from me? Hah. Watch my hulk ass go batshit on him if he tries.

Q. Can you stop lying to Crystal pls?
I lie because i cant tell her the truth. Wait... Last time i checked im not explainable to you. Bye.

MATT:
Q. FUCK OFF
Wow, i barely just entered sweetheart. Wotchu gon' do when i take matters in my hand.

Q. Who the fúck do you think you are?
The better one is who ;] Crystal's gonna see it soon.

[A/N: i laughed so hard on matt's questions tho]

CRYSTAL:
Q. Dont be blind babe, you can't trust Matt.
Who said i am? It's just like old scars yk? They are there and you don't pay attention and then on certain days you notice them and it just... switches something in you.

Q. Give Zayn some time, pls?? He loves you too.
That guy barely likes me, y'all rly have your hopes high im-

Until next time xoxo thanks for the love. Don't forget to press the star ⭐