Another World

After work today, I decided to go to the supermarket to do food shopping since we had nothing to eat at home other than pizza and water.

I went home to quickly change, grabbing the closest pieces of clothing and headed to the nearest supermarket.

As soon as I reached the supermarket, the sound of thunder was heard loud and clear which caused me to jump in fright. I held my hand over my chest to recover, feeling a burst of cold air hit me as I went inside. I shivered, mentally thanking myself for wearing my favorite sweater.

I looked around for a cart to take with me and made a B line to the junk food isle. I reached into my back pocket and took out my phone, going to Kate's number.

At the supermarket, want anything from the junk food isle?

I texted her. Before I could put my phone away, she responded:

Kate: Chocolate chip cookies!!

I laughed and grabbed her favorite cookies, placing it in the cart. I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I wanted to take everything but I had to remind myself that Kate put me on a tight budget for my own good, knowing how I can get when it comes to spending money. I sighed and moved on to getting only the essentials.

* * *

I looked at the list of items to buy that Kate and I made earlier this week one last time as I stood in front of the check out woman who began scanning them.

"Good afternoon!" She greeted with a big smile.

I broke my gaze from the list and looked at the check out woman. "Good afternoon...Debra." I responded, reading her name tag as I returned the smile. I looked back at the list, making sure I had everything.

"Okay, two egg cartons, milk, orange ju- dammit! I forgot the yogurt!" I hit my fist on the cart next to me and got questioning looks. I looked behind me, counting the people that were waiting in the line. Only three.

"Would you mind if I got something really fast?" I asked Debra.

"Not at all!"

"Thank you!" I began to run around the market trying to find where the yogurt was. When I finally found it, the yogurts were placed at the top of the shelf and, of course, vanilla was at the very top of it all. This wasn't something short people appreciated.

I groaned and reached as much as I physically could but failed. Feeling irritated, I tried again, mistakingly dropping a few things and shook my head to get the pieces of hair away from my face when someone reached for the vanilla I was reaching for.

"Excuse you-" I began but turned, surprised to see Zayn standing there with his hair perfectly done up and a smile appearing.

I crossed my arms against my chest. "Well if it isn't Zayn Malik from One Direction." I said with a mocking smirk.

He shyly smiled. "I see you found out."

"Yeah, thanks for telling me." I said sarcastically, slapping his arm.

He raised his hands defensively. "Harry told me not to say anything, sorry babe."

He gave me the yogurt and I smiled, forgetting why I was there.

"Can you do me a favor? Grab about five more of these?" I pointed to the yogurt.

"Sure." He very easily grabbed five and placed them on my hands.

"Ah, I'd love to stay and chat but I really have to run back to the check out center. Nice talking to you!" I called out as I jogged the opposite direction from Zayn.

"No problem!" I heard him reply.

"Here you go," I said, giving her the handful of vanilla yogurt.

"Someone's a fan of yogurt." Debra said chuckling.

"Ha, yeah. It was all I ate in the mornings back home."

"I see." She scanned the yogurts and placed them in the last bag.

"Thank you!" I said as I took the money out of my wallet and handed the total amount to her. 

I looked down at the cart which had all of the grocery bags. "Um, Debra? Do you think I can take this home? I don't have a car and I promise to bring it ba-"

"That's quite alright, darling."

"Thank you so much!" Turning the cart to face the exit, I struggled being that it was pretty heavy.

"Oh before you go!"

I looked at her. "Yes?"

"I wanted to know, where are you from, love?"

"I'm from New York but I moved here."

"Oh," She began to shake her head. "You made a terrible choice."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Because...?"

"Because of that." She pointed outside as it was pouring rain.

"Oh my god!" I ran to the doors to get a closer look. The doors automatically slid open revealing the sound of thunder and lightening flashed soon after. 

"I don't have an umbrella!" I cried out as I looked outside.

Why didn't I bring enough money for a damn cab! I scolded myself as I contemplated on how to get home without getting soaking wet.

"Need help?"

I turned around and yet again Zayn was there to save the day.

"You have a car?!" I asked as I refrained myself from giving him a big hug.

"No, but I do have an umbrella." He explained as he opened the umbrella he held.

I began to laugh, as did he. "That doesn't look like it was made for two."

"Do you have another plan?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

I pouted. That was all it took for him to walk over to the cart I left and return to me.

"Here," He handed me the umbrella. "You're in charge of the umbrella while I hold this, alright?"

I nodded. "Got it," 

I looked at him, giving him a hug. "And thank you. You saved me today."

"Stop it." He joked as he smiled.

I held the umbrella over us and prepared myself for the rain.

"Now come closer, it's hard to move with this heavy thing and I don't want to get wet."

I did what I was told and got closer to him so close that I felt his body heat which I was definitely grateful for since it was a bit cold. The automatic doors opened and he began to count to three.

"Go, go, go!" He called out and we raced outside, running home.

"I just wanted to say!" I began to yell, the rain hitting the ground was rather loud and the thunder didn't help either  "I'm really sorry for not telling you I had a boyfriend!"

"It's oka-"

"And I'm sorry if I was ever leading you on!" I added breathlessly amd unsteadily (we were still running) "I mean don't get me wrong, if I were single I probably would have a crush on you but, you know!"

"It's alr-"

"Also, I'm sorry for ending that arcade fun we had a couple of days ago! To be honest there were these two girls in the bathroom talking about you and it bothered me! And the girl you were taking pictures with-"

"She was a fan!" He answered.

We finally stopped running and began to walk as the rain calmed down a bit. "Yeah I thought you were like a player or something, I'm sorry!"

"Wait, what do you mean it bothered you?"

We were close to home and I saw a silhouette in front of my door using something big to shield their body.

"Apparently you're the mysterious one in the band so now it's my turn to be mysterious." I said flashing a teasing grin at him. 

He looked at me and chuckled. "Fine, don't tell me then. Now come here!" He put his arm around my shoulder and brought me close. "I'm getting wet!

I laughed. "This umbrella isn't helping at all! I'm soaked!"

"Do you think I'm dry?!" He said in between his laughter.

As Zayn and I got closer I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Valarie! Where have you been! I've been waiting here for you for hours in the rain!"

I was at a loss for words, blinking a few times to make sure I was seeing correctly. Was Jason really in front of me? Was he really here in London?

"Uh....uh." Was all that escaped my lips.

"Valarie, what's going on?" Zayn asked.

"Who the hell is this clown?" Jason asked, pointing his thumb at Zayn.

"Who the hell are you?" Zayn responded as he connected his eyebrows.

My eyes widened. "Um...Jason this is Zayn, my friend. Zayn, this is Jason...my boyfriend."

Zayn looked at me. "Oh.."

"That's right, now go-"

"Excuse me! No, he was kind enough to help me with the groceries now, please, let's all go inside before we catch a cold."

Jason began to walk towards the door when Zayn stopped me.

"I think I'm just going to go."

"Zayn, no. You're soaking wet and you're going to stay to at least get dry. If anything happened to the precious band member, your fans would kill me."

He chuckled but quickly stopped himself and looked at me. I stood my ground, hoping that he would give in soon because my hair was not reacting well with the humidity.

He grimaced. "Fine. But only to get dry."

"Thank you, now come on!" We took the cart and struggled up the stoop, into the hall, and up more stairs to enter our home. I ran inside and closed the door after Zayn entered.

"The bathroom's that way," I showed Zayn as a finished catching my breath. "There should be a dry towel on the rack."

He mumbled something that I couldn't understand and headed for the bathroom. I rolled my eyes and walked in to the living room to find Jason sitting on the couch looking irritated.

"You didn't tell me you met a guy." He said, getting up to face me.

I tensed up. "I didn't think I needed to."

He grabbed my wrists. "Valarie are you cheating on me? Because if you are..." His grip tightened.

"Get the fuck off of me. I'm not doing this with you now." I demanded, keeping my voice strong as I struggled free.

"Answer the question and I might or might not let go. Depending on your answer and whether or not I believe you. We wouldn't want a repeat of last time when I found out you lied to me."

My wrists throbbed with pain as he gripped tighter. I tried not to give him the satisfaction by crying out like I usually do. I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. "I'm not cheating on you. I've never cheated on you because I love you and only you."

He eyed me once more. "That's much better. I only do these things because I love you, you know that."

He released me and cupped my face to give me a kiss. "I'm going to go unpack. Where's your room?"

I silently pointed to the direction and rubbed my wrists when he was gone. I was on the verge of tears when Zayn walked in and gave me a puzzled look.

"Are you alright?"

I cleared my throat. "I'm fine."

"What happened there?" He asked pointing at my now red wrist.

"This stupid sweater irritates my skin." I lied as I pulled the sleeves over the marks.

Jason never hit me, he would just have moments when he would hold me too tight. He was always sorry whenever he sees what he left behind and always tells me that it's because he loves me so much. It never fails when I give in to those green apologetic eyes that looks back at me, begging for forgiveness. This didn't happen a lot which is why I've always kept it a secret. I didn't want anyone to hate him because he was very much loved.

Zayn looked a bit unconvinced with my excuse but it quickly went away when I gave him a hug. "Thanks again for helping."

"What would your boyfriend say about this?" He joked.

I on the other hand took it seriously and let go. "I'll, uh, see you another time?"

"I hope so," He smiled and walked toward the door. "Bye."

I sighed, walking back to the living room and flopped on the couch.

I hope so too...