"Wait a minute. Zayn, you're not... You're not serious, right? No, you're not serious."

"What do you mean? Of course I am."

"But do you not know how random this feels? And why do I have to go with you? If you want to date the girl, just date the girl."

Louis held Peanut up to his face and kissed his back.

"I don't want to date her... per se. I just want to see."

"See what? You met her. You liked her. You exchanged numbers. What more is there to see?"

Zayn stood up from the couch. "If it's the same. That's all."

"The same as what?"

He hesitated. "The same..."

Louis rubbed the hamster's back with his index finger as he looked at him. "You really confuse me. Sometimes you talk about me like I'm the weird one but look at yourself. You don't have to be afraid of women just because of Heidi. Not all women will cheat on you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. I am not afraid of women."

"Well, let me rephrase that. It's not that you're afraid of them in general. You just don't trust them anymore."

"Also not the truth."

"Then why do you always want me to go with you? Hm?"

"Because you're my friend. Duh."

"Yeah, right."

"But you are."

"I know. That 'yeah right' was not because I don't believe we're friends. It was because I know that's not the reason you want me to come with you."

"So that means you won't?"

"I didn't say that."

Zayn perked up as Louis returned Peanut to his hamster ball, which he had taken him out of earlier. "So you will?"

He sighed. "Sure. But if you want to hold hands and kiss and all that, I don't want to be there. I am not going to be a third wheel. I'm sorry."

Zayn shoved his hands in his pockets. "You won't be a third wheel."

"I better not be."

"I promise."

Louis folded his arms and watched his hamster roll out of the room. "Fine. Come back and pick me up at six. I won't promise I'll dress nice though."

"You don't have to. It's literally just an early dinner at the mall. As friends. Sort of."

Louis let out a noise that let Zayn know he didn't believe him but that was just fine with Zayn. He'd rather Louis not believe him than know the truth behind it all. It wasn't time yet. Not until he himself was sure of what was going on.

* * *

"Okay, so maybe I didn't want to do this at first," Louis whispered to Zayn. "But we just passed the book store, so this is a win for me."

"The book store?"

"Yes. You say that like it's bad but reading makes the brain stronger."

Zayn shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you can go in there if you want. But not now. I don't want to be left alone with her just yet."

He pumped his fist. "Yes."

Maitea sighed happily, not having heard a word of what they just said. "You know... I was surprised when you texted me, Zayn." She said. "I didn't have anything to do today, so I thought what the heck. I might as well go hang out with you. You were really nice last time. Plus I was excited about getting to spend time with Louis too since he didn't come with us last time when we went for ice cream."

Zayn smiled. "That's awesome. I'm- we're happy you decided to come along. I just woke up and thought about you and figured it'd be nice to get to know you even better than before."

She only hummed and continued on. Finally after walking a little more, they reached the place Zayn was looking for. "Ah, we're here. Stevin's Pizzeria."

Louis smiled. "I know about this place. This actually used to be a bakery called Sweet Tooth but they got shut down because they found out there were mice in the pantry."

Zayn and Maitea looked at him and gasped.

"But don't worry. Stevin's Pizzeria is not Sweet Tooth. Before they came in, the ridded the mice completely. It has a five star rating and the food is supposed to be good. Based on the reviews, at least. I've never eaten here before." When he saw the way Zayn was still looking at him, he shrugged and held his arms out. "What? It's all good now. I promise. That was just a little trivia before we went in."

"And that's cool and everything but let's try to keep that to a minimum. I don't know why you have an obsession with mice and rat related species, anyway."

Louis chuckled. "Zayn, I have a pet hamster. Let the record show that rodents are important creatures on the planet and also my favorite. We should all know about them."

"But not before we eat. That's disgusting."

"Fine. I won't talk about it now."

"Thank you."

"But no guarantees it won't happen later."

"Ugh."

Maitea laughed quietly. "You two are so cute."

The hostess was standing just inside the doorway and when they came in, he gladly led them to a booth and gave them menus. Zayn and Louis sat next to each other and Maitea sat across from them.

"I was thinking we could order one big pizza and compromise on toppings or just get fourths." Zayn suggested.

"Good idea." Maitea said. "I vote we compromise on the entire pizza."

"Me too." Louis added. "As long as we agree to an extra Large pizza and no pineapples."

All three of them laughed.

"Deal."

"Yes. Deal."

They ended up settling on buffalo chicken pizza with mozzarella and spinach. Thinking about the chicken made Zayn remember when Harry taught him how to eat with his eyes closed. He was supposed to see him today but Harry cancelled their plans to go wedding planning with Mindy. He wasn't upset. Sure, that meant he didn't have a cigarette to smoke today and no, he didn't get to teach Harry any new colors either. But this might be best.

After waking up and wondering if their whole phone conversation a few nights ago was considered flirting, he was forced to ask himself the real questions. If he had to question if he was actually flirting with another guy at all, then odds were that it was saying something more about himself than he realized. In his mind, he didn't feel that he could ever genuinely get into something like that. But his most recent thoughts only contributed to the contrary.

So that's why Maitea was invited today. If he could find himself attracted to a man without even trying to be, then shouldn't it be even easier to be attracted to such a beautiful girl as she was when he was trying to? Okay, maybe that wasn't exactly a sound way of reasoning. But at least after today, it could tell him where he stood with Harry. If he was actually into him in that way or if it was just a temporary result of the habitual practice of avoiding women after what happened at college.

They ordered their food and waited for their pizza to arrive at the table. Zayn was so nervous, but he was trying his best not to show it.

"Maitea, I like your hair." He said when he noticed it was pinned up by a hair clip.

"Thank you but I really just put it in a hair clamp. It wasn't anything special."

"It does look nice though."

"Thanks."

Louis looked at him with a partial smile. Zayn had actually complimented her. That was a huge leap for him. He could tell he was nervous, so he pat his back.

"Just so you know, I really am glad that you invited me here. I've never eaten here before."

"Neither have I, but you're welcome."

"Maybe one day you two could come over to my place for dinner. My mother makes the best food."

"Me?" Louis asked before he even knew it.

"Yes." She chuckled. "It would be cool. I have no doubt you'll love it."

He didn't want Zayn to think he was trying to steal the girl he liked, so he looked at him for an answer. When Zayn nodded at him, he could hardly contain his excitement. If Zayn was going to get a girlfriend out of this, did that mean he was also getting a friend out of it? Because it'd be nice to have more than just Zayn and Peanut to talk to. "Okay then. Sounds good to me. Whenever you plan it, Zayn will let me know and I'll try to be there."

"M'kay."

After that, they sat around and talked casually. Once Zayn stopped trying so hard, things flowed more naturally for him. He did find himself liking her even more as a friend because she was a cool girl. But she didn't make him feel things inside in the same way that Harry did. Even if he didn't want to like her enough for a relationship, it was still disappointing that he didn't at least like her a little.

Lunch zoomed by quickly and before Zayn knew it, they were all standing outside in the parking lot together.

"Thanks for buying lunch. It was delicious." Maitea told him.

"You're welcome."

"And you make great company. I like hanging out with you. You too, Louis. You two are cute."

Louis folded his arms. "Thanks. Although if you ask me, I'm better looking than him and far beyond cute."

She chuckled. "It's true that you're both good looking but I don't mean cute as in looks. I mean cute as in a cute couple. You fit oddly together but still cute."

Zayn and Louis looked at each other and immediately took a long step away from each other.

"What?" They both asked.

"What's wrong?"

Louis laughed. "Me? With him? I don't think so."

Zayn gasped. "Why not?"

Louis stopped laughing. "Because... You're... You. You're my best friend. Also I'm into ladies, not guys. And you too. Right?"

Zayn folded his arms and looked at Maitea. "I'm sorry, Maitea. We're not in a relationship. I'm not even-" He stopped himself because he wasn't sure if that was about to be a lie or not. So he went with what he knew to be true. "I'm not into Louis in that way. We're literally just friends."

"That's all?" She asked.

"That's all."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"How did you come to that conclusion, anyway?"

"When I saw you two that night at the bar. And the way you looked at him when he told you he was going to browse in the bookstore before we left the mall. It was so adorable. And you're both so close and you know each other so well and I just thought... I don't know. I shouldn't have assumed like that. I'm so embarrassed."

"It's alright. No worries here." Louis said. "Even if one of us was to date the other, I'm way out of his league anyway."

That made her laugh but Zayn was too deep in thought to take it personal. "So... When you came here today, you came here because you thought you were hanging out with us as a friend of ours?"

"Yep." She said. But then she gasped. "Wait. Was this supposed to be something more?"

He quickly replied. "No, no. I just wanted to be sure that you did think that. That's all."

"Yeah. I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now. Once I finish with college and feel ready, then I'll look for someone."

"Ah. Cool."

Zayn was excited to hear that but a large part of him was hurt. Sure, he didn't actually like her but he was at least hoping she would think something more could come of this lunch date so that he could say a pretty girl did find genuine interest in him. Instead, she did the opposite. So did he just get friend zoned by a girl he was trying to friend zone? What was it about him that didn't make him irresistible enough for a girl to change her mind about not wanting a boyfriend? Because he never had the idea of ever liking another man but somewhere over the past three months or so, Harry managed to get him leaning in that direction. What was different about him from her point of view than Harry from his?

"Well, either way, my offer is still to both of you. Even if neither of us is dating each other, it'd be cool to hang out as friends at my mum's house over some good Mexican food."

"Definitely."

"Yeah. I'm still up for it." Louis agreed.

"Good. So, I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah. Later."

Zayn watched her get in her car and then walked with Louis to his. Once they were in it with the doors closed, Louis took a deep breath.

"Wow... So... That was weird, huh?"

He couldn't even look at him. "Yeah."

"I can't believe she thought that the whole time. You and me? I like you but not like that. Not in a million years."

Zayn faced him with a glare. "Way to spare my feelings."

"Sorry, man. I'm just saying. But I am curious. How exactly did you look at me when I went to look for a book?"

Zayn shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know what she was talking about. But trust me. I didn't look at you fondly if that's what you mean. As if."

"Nice." Louis said. "I'm not the only one who's good at sparing feelings."

That made Zayn snicker a little. "Shut up. I don't know what vibe we're giving off to people but it's clearly not what we intended."

"Tell me about it. When you came in the shop the other day, Alex assumed you were my boyfriend." Louis shivered. "So weird. It's like people can't be close without being suspected of dating these days."

Right away, Zayn felt sick to his stomach. For a moment, he actually thought the buffalo chicken might come back up. "Alex thought that?"

"Yep."

"Was it because of the whispering thing?"

Louis nodded and Zayn groaned, but it came out whiny.

"Sorry, Lou. I'm thinking but I don't really know."

"Know what?"

"Nothing."

So that made three times now. Three times that someone thought he was dating another guy. First Niall thought he was with Harry. Then Louis' coworker assumed he was with Louis and now Maitea thought so too? Was it something about the way he looked and carried himself? He was so confused. And not just about his feelings for Harry either. Why did this feel so much like his high school years when people thought it was humorous to pick out the things that made him odd?

He started the car up and backed out of the parking spot. "Let's get you home. I'm pretty sure Peanut already misses you."

He watched how excited Louis became and he had to admit he did get a bit soft inside at seeing how excited Louis was to get back home to his pet. Was it even possible not to be soft? Louis was like a lonely child. Only he was an adult with a college education, a job and living by himself.

As he thought about that though, he finally came to his senses and figured it out. Maitea was probably right. Maybe he did look at Louis with a mild fondness when asked about going into the bookstore but not in a more than friends kind of way. It was more so due to a general admiration. Because how could he not stop and smile when thinking of the fact that his quirky and erudite friend from high school was back and beside him again? Wouldn't have made sense if he could've.

Of course, he'd never tell that to Louis. He'd rather keep to himself how glad he really was that Louis spotted him as he was walking out of the home decor store. He was lucky to have him as his partner in sarcasm. But, if only he had a cigarette right about now. That would be the perfect way to end the day and would successfully take his mind off of this bitterly disappointing Saturday.

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