Adlewood Academy

The small coffee shop was bustling with people waiting for their orders to be filled, and a large portion of them were students from Adlewood. Mia recognized most of the faces, and many of them passed her quick hellos, but she was there on her own.

Nearly every Friday night, she made a trip to the coffee shop before deciding what to do on one of her only nights off. It had become a routine for her and she quite enjoyed the scent of the coffee beans that filled her sense.

Mia’s eyes were locked on one of the paintings in the corner, admiring the new piece that had just been put up, while she sat in one of the small round tables in the corner to wait for her drink. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts – which had primarily been overtaken by the Finals Showcase as of late – that she didn’t see Zayn approaching her from the opposite side of the room.

“Mia?” he said, looking down at her as she sat at the table. Her eyes popped up towards him and when they met his she had to stop herself from letting out a groan. Since he had completely violated her privacy by playing her track, she wanted little to nothing to do with him. The less she had to see of Zayn the better. Fortunately, they didn’t have any classes together that semester, but unfortunately he frequented the same coffee shop as her.

“Hello, Zayn,” she said, as she pulled her eyes away from him. She looked back towards the counter and hoped that they would have her order up any second. The last thing she wanted was to deal with Zayn.

“Listen, Mia.” He paused for a moment as if he was waiting for her to look back at him. When she didn’t, he continued speaking. “I’m sorry about playing your track. I really am. I should have asked you.”

She simply nodded her head, while keeping her eyes locked on the counter.

“It was beautiful,” he said as he pressed his lips together. “It’s an amazing track.”

For the first time since he had started talking, Mia looked back at him, if only to simply read his expression. It was a good track, but only when he had edited it for her. It was great when he made it that way. Without his editing, it was just another bland track of Mia nothingness.

Zayn’s eyes were that same honey color that she had come to equate him with, but she couldn’t read anything else about them. She couldn’t tell if they were sad, hopeful, or some combination of emotions that she would never understand. All she could see was that he appeared to be apologetic, so with a sigh, she pushed out the chair next to her.

“You can have a seat if you’d like,” she said, motioning for the open chair. Zayn gave her a small smile and took her invitation just as the barista called out her order.

Before Mia could stand up, Zayn was rushing to the counter and had already grabbed her to-go cup which had her name scribbled across the side. He set it on the table, directly in front of her, and stood next to her with his lips twisted.

“Will you stay?” he asked, nibbling at his bottom lip. “Just have a quick cup with me.”

Mia took a deep, slow breath as she looked down at the cup in front of her. After a short pause, she nodded her head, and Zayn sat back down the second that she did. He didn’t have a cup of his own and Mia wondered if he had even ordered.

“So your track,” Zayn trailed off, looking into her eyes as he did. It was obvious that he wanted to bring it up, but he wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“You fixed it,” Mia finished before taking a sip of her coffee. “It’s a lot better now.”

Zayn gave her a half smile, letting out a deep breath through his nose. “It was great before. I just tweaked it a bit.”

Mia nodded and took another drink, letting the sound of the chatting people and grinding coffee beans fill the air. The silence between the two was deafening and as the length of it increased, Zayn began shifting in his seat.

“Listen, Mia.” He paused, folding his hands across the table. “There’s actually a reason I came over here –”

“Oh, there is, is there?” she interrupted, looking at him with a devilish smirk.

He sighed and pressed his eyes shut. “There is.”

“And it wasn’t just to apologize for invading my privacy?”

Zayn’s eyes popped open and he frowned. “I apologized for that.”

“You did,” Mia said, bringing her coffee to her lips once more. She thought Zayn would say something else, but when her cup had landed back on the table and he didn’t, she continued. “If it isn’t that, then why did you come over here?”

Now Mia was genuinely curious. She wanted to know exactly why Zayn had approached her at the coffee shop, because they were far from being friends and had talked only a handful of times before that day.

“I thought –” he paused, nibbling at his lip again. His eyes looked down at the table before back up at her. “I’ve been working on my project for the Finals Showcase and I – I just – something’s just not right.”

Mia knew the feeling. She felt the exact same way every time she tried to work on anything related to their final project.

“I thought that, well, you’ve got an incredible voice and I’m a not-so-terrible DJ.”

“And?”

“And I thought we could work together,” he said, looking at her with his soft eyes. She froze as his statement had nearly taken her breath away. It never would have even occurred to her to team up with him. In fact, he was the last person on her long list of people she wanted to work with, but as soon as he mentioned it, it all made sense.

Her track that had seemed so bland only got better when Zayn worked with it. He had talent – that was certain – and maybe they could both use the other one to their advantage.

Mia was reluctant, because they were both so opposite and any collaboration they would do would be far from what Mia’s instructors expected. But, maybe that was a good thing. They didn’t like anything she did without him, but maybe they would like what she did with him. Maybe he was her ticket to breaking out of normal.

She took a deep breath before looking back at him to respond.

“What were you thinking?”