Oceans for Backyards

Zayn likes his job, he honestly does; he works with good people, he’s surrounded by people who love art just as much as him, he gets a discount, and when it’s not busy he can work on his coursework. Some nights however the store will be completely dead, like tonight. He’s been there for five hours now and only about four people have walked in and three of them were together. His manager even left allowing Zayn to close the store by himself. He’s already finished his homework; he cleaned the store twice and put out new merchandise. He decided to draw anyway, grabbing his sketchbook and pencils from his school bag. He tapped his pencil on his paper for a while trying to figure out what to draw but nothing was coming to him. Finally he decided to just doodle random things he saw or thought of. His paper was almost full of drawings when the bell above the door rang.

“Hi, maybe you can help me find someone.” Zayn looked up and couldn’t believe what he saw. “I’m looking for this guy. He’s tall dark and handsome.”

Zayn smiled and pretended to think, “I might need more description.”

Mackenzie rolled her eyes, “Well he’s about this high, he’s got pretty eyes and long eyelashes and he’s got great hair.”

“Ah, yes. Now that rings a bell.”

Zayn walked around the counter and wrapped his arms around Mackenzie. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to surprise you!!” Mackenzie said giggling. “I didn’t have to work tonight and I wanted to see you.”

“Babe, you didn’t have to come all the way here.”

Mackenzie blushed, “I wanted to. I mean you’ve surprised me at work and figured I’d return the favor.”

“Well thank you, this is a nice surprise.”

Mackenzie smiled, “So you’re not busy, I’m assuming?”

Zayn laughed, “No, it’s completely dead. Here, come sit.”

“Are you sure your manager won’t be mad?”

“He’s not even here so no.” Zayn laughed. “It’s so dead he just left and put me in charge.”

Mackenzie took a seat next to Zayn, “Hm, well aren’t you just special.”

Zayn laughed and shrugged, “Yeah suppose so.”

“So what do you do when it’s this boring?”

“Usually I work on homework but I don’t have any so I was just doodling.”

“Can I see?”

Zayn shrugged, “Sure why not?”

Zayn flipped to the page he was last on and handed it to her, watching her eyes dart back and forth along the page.

“You’re really good.” Mackenzie said. “Can I look through the rest of the book or is that forbidden?”

“Yeah, go for it and thank you.”

Mackenzie smiled at him and started at the beginning; there were some portraits of his family and friends, then some still life for school and eventually there was a full page of different dolphin tails. Mackenzie stopped and starred at the page, glancing to Zayn and then to the drawings.

“Zayn.” she whispered, her fingers trailing lightly over the paper. “These are so nice.”

“You think so?” Zayn asked.

“Yeah, I do. You’re brilliant.”

“That means a lot, thank you.”

Mackenzie smiled at him, “It’s not a big deal.”

Mackenzie looked at the page for a few more seconds before finally moving on and continuing to look through the sketchbook. When she made it back to the end she opened a new page and stole one of his pencils.

“I can draw too, ya know.” She said.

“Oh yeah? Let me see then.”

Zayn watched as Mackenzie concentrated; her hair falling around her shoulders, her tongue sticking out of her mouth just a tiny bit, the bracelets around her wrist made a swishing noise as they slid across the page. This is the first time Zayn has seen Mackenzie outside of her wet suit, Zayn didn’t think she could look any cuter. She’s wearing a bright yellow rain coat and a blue sweater, tight jeans, and bright yellow rain boots.

“Okay done!” Mackenzie said proudly showing Zayn her drawing of a stick figure (with very tall hair) on a dolphin. “That’s you, swimming with a dolphin.”

Zayn pursed his lips to keep from laughing and nodded, “It’s great, babe. Really, really great.”

“You’re lying.” Mackenzie pouted.

“No, I’m not.” He said way too quickly.

Mackenzie kept pouting and laid her head down on the table, “I’m terrible at drawing.”

“No, this is perfect. It looks just like me. I mean maybe not the hair, is my hair really that tall?”

Mackenzie sat up and shrugged, “Yeah, kinda.”

“See? So it looks just like me. Here, sign it like a real artist.”

Mackenzie took the pencil from him and signed by the picture, “Promise not to throw it away?”

“I’d never do that to such a beautiful piece of work.”

“You’re such a liar.” Mackenzie laughed and pushed Zayn, nearly knocking him off his chair, “But you’re sweet, so I suppose it all works out in the end. Draw me a picture now?”

“Sure. Face me.” Mackenzie swiveled in her chair and faced Zayn who was starting a new page. “Okay smile real big.”

Mackenzie instantly smiled making Zayn as well. He set to work right away and glanced at Mackenzie every so often. Once he was done he signed the bottom of the page and showed Mackenzie the caricature of herself.

“Zayn! This is so cool! Can I keep this?”

“If you want, yeah of course.”

Mackenzie carefully tore out the paper, “Can I have a bag so it doesn’t get ruined in my purse?”

Zayn tore a bag from the register and handed it to her, amazed that she wanted to take such good care of a picture that could have honestly been way better.

“When does the store close?”

Zayn glanced at his phone, “Half an hour actually, thank god.”

Mackenzie laughed, “You must have been really bored.”

“Pretty much, yeah and I want to hang out with you outside of the store as well. Maybe we can get dinner?”

“Yeah sure, I’m starving.”

“Sweet. I’ll just go ahead and start closing.”

Zayn walked around the store making sure everything was clean for the last time and closed the registers, figuring no one was going to come into the store in the last half hour. He went through all the closing steps and finally it was nine o’clock and he could officially close the store. Zayn led Mackenzie out of the store, locking it behind them and pulled his jacket closer around him.

“So what would you like to eat?” Zayn questioned.

“It doesn’t matter to me, ‘sides I don’t really know this side of the city.”

“Fair enough.” Zayn said. “There’s a cool place by the school we can go to. It’s pretty chill and the food is ace.”

“Yeah that sounds perfect.”

“It’s not too far from here if you don’t mind the walk?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m really not picky at all.”

Mackenzie slipped her arm through Zayn’s as they walked, turning into him when the wind picked up. They walked in silence to the diner, the cars and buses going by making it too loud for them to actually talk. Neither minded anyway and before they knew it they were walking through the doors of the diner. They got a small table for two tucked away into one of the corners.

“So what’s good here?” Mackenzie asked.

Zayn looked over the menu, “Everything to be honest. Okay chicken or beef.”

“Beef.”

“Okay super grease or light grease.”

“Super grease.”

“Okay bacon or no bacon?”

Mackenzie took a second but finally answered, “Bacon.”

“Triple or double?”

“Double. I don’t want to die of a heart attack.”

“Well of course.” Zayn laughed. “Okay so you are going to get the glorified bacon cheese burger.”

“Sounds delicious. What do you get?”

“The Ragin Cajun.”

“Oh, that sounds good. Can I try it?”

“Yeah of course. There shakes are pretty good too.”

“Now you’re talking.”

Mackenzie looked through the milkshake options and decided to get a double chocolate milkshake with her burger. As they waited for their food they talked about Mackenzie’s job and how they are trying to teach the dolphins a new trick. Their conversation flowed from their work, to Zayn’s classes, to art work, to books to movies. Which ended up with them agreeing to see the new Spiderman movie together. Zayn paid for their dinner and walked Mackenzie to the train station, hugging her and kissing her cheek. He told her to text him when he got him and made the short walk to his flat.

from Mackenzie
Can I please see you again soon? Tonight was great and I don’t wanna wait weeks to see you.

to Mackenzie
you won’t have to wait weeks, babe, I promise.