“Hey.” Mikael sighed as he slumped onto the bench, Darcy grinning up at him with a bottle of Malibu in her hand. Mik grinned at her. “You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
Darcy simply let out a happy whoop in response before taking a swig - and then offering it to him. Happily, Mik took it.
“Where’s your best friend? Or have you finally surgically removed yourself?” Mik snickered, glancing around. There was only a group of twelve or so of them, from a mixture of schools in the area, drinking and messing around. It was late on a Thursday evening, much later than the time of the Embankment’s rush; they had to party there during weekdays, unless they wanted snooty adults or excited tourists as their audience.
“So funny.” Darcy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “This isn’t her scene.”
“You mean, because I’m here, her and her brother won’t come?” Mik asked shrewdly, waggling his eyebrows knowingly when Darcy narrowed her eyes in response.
“No.” Darcy said haughtily, snatching the bottle back - and then taking a sip, bursting into a fit of giggles and nodding. “Okay, yes! But why do you suddenly care so much? I thought Mik Malik was too cool for that?”
“I am.” Mik grinned, pretending to pop his collar. Darcy spluttered. “It’s just immature. What happened between our parents that’s so big, Zarina acts like I’m contaminating the oxygen surrounding her when I walk into a room?”
“She does not.” Darcy scoffed. “She just very elegantly extracts herself from the situation. There’s a difference.”
“Yeah, if you say so.” He grinned.
Darcy said nothing for a few moments, laughing at the antics of some of their friends in the corner. Mik was silent - thoughtful.
“Why do you care so much?” Darcy suddenly asked, turning to him - and Mik instantly felt stupid for assuming Darcy was as tipsy as she’d made out. Mik instantly shrugged, too quickly for him to be genuinely nonchalant. “Oh, my God. Do you like her or something?” Mik scoffed - and in turn, Darcy shoved him. “Mikael Malik, you tell me the truth right now! Do you have a crush on Zarina Zafar?”
“How can I have a crush on her if I’ve spoken to her, what, maybe once?”
“Nobody said fancying someone was a logical process.” Darcy pointed out, before smiling slyly. “And anyway, it could just be that you think she’s pretty. Do you think she’s pretty?”
Mik, knowing that only shrugging again would not be a wise move, pretended to think.
“She’s plain.” He finally offered, not entirely lying. Although Darcy hardly made herself look ugly, it was no secret she took pride in her appearance - the art of looking smart and sexy at the same time, be that with clothes, makeup and whatever else, had been mastered by the girl beside him. Even people who tried more than Darcy faded into comparison for her - so for Zarina Zafar to apparently not give a shit about her appearance and be seen hanging out with Darcy all the time, well, highlighted her faults. “She doesn’t care about how she looks, and you should care about stuff like that.”
“My best friend is not plain.” Darcy corrected, elbowing Mik in the ribs. “She has an extremely wonderful natural beauty that dicks like you are incapable of seeing.”
“So it’s not that you necessarily find her as attractive or hot as, say, Holly.” They both turned to look at the aforementioned redhead, who was laughing loudly with a group of boys in the corner. Darcy rolled her eyes. “But you respect the fact she doesn’t care about that stuff? Like you and Holly and everyone else here does?”
“I didn’t say that.” Mik frowned.
“You didn’t have to.” Darcy smirked. “Look, between you and I, I think there’s a kind of poetry in you and Zarina - seeing as your parents didn’t work out. But, as her best friend and on a serious one - don’t screw around. Ari’s a good little Asian girl. She doesn’t date and she also doesn’t believe in people’s bullshit, so if you want to try it with her, fine, go ahead - but don’t expect her to be in any way reciprocative.”
As much as Mik wanted to stay nonchalant, to keep pretending that he wasn’t curious about Zarina Zafar - even if he didn’t understand why himself -, Mik couldn’t help but let the word slip from his mouth; one word, but so telling.
“Because my sister is a badass.”
Mik controlled his mouth enough to not reply and shortly afterwards, Darcy and the bottle of Malibu had wandered off to the larger group.
Mik thought about Zarina “Ari” Zafar, then; he allowed himself to think about her properly for the first time.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have the resources Darcy did; everyone knew about the Zafar family’s wealth and, even if by some miracle they didn’t, it was clear from the little clues… Her studded Valentino backpack, her top-range Macbook, the diamond studs on display because she always had her hair smartly pulled back; the sunglasses, the types of restaurants she’d been to, the holidays Mik had heard her talk snippets about in the corridor. She had the money to be glamorous and sexy like Darcy, or even just a bit more… Presentable, but she didn’t seem to care. Her hair was always in the same neat ponytail, she always had a face bare save for what looked like Chapstick.
The only time Mik had thought Zarina Zafar was anything more than a nerd whose money had allowed her into the rich kids group, was when he’d spotted her just before a girl’s night out with Darcy.
Darcy, like Mik, was a partier - but she was still allowed into Zarina’s elite circle of millionaire friends, not only because her Dad was Harry Styles and a her mother a sometimes-model, but because Zarina allowed it. Mik had never seen Zarina in the party group. He didn’t think it possible.
So when he’d caught a glimpse of Darcy that day, in a tight dress, leather jacket and heels, he hadn’t expected how Zarina had looked.
She’d had her hair in its usual sleek, high ponytail - but she’d looked different. Having Ria as a sister meant that Mik had been able to identify she was only wearing very light eyeliner and maybe some tinted Chapstick, but the transformation had been unbelievable. She’d been wearing ripped, skinny black jeans, a T-shirt and a studded, sleeveless denim vest with various badges on it, with studded black boots. She’d been wearing Aviators and laughing loudly, dancing to a hip hop song with one of the other girls, the song being played from someone’s phone. She’d looked like a rockstar.
That was how it had started, Mik realised. His… Curiosity. He’d been so shocked to see that different side to her, he’d started watching her when he could. Darcy alternated between sitting with Mik’s chilled party friends and sitting with the older kids - namely, her brother, Danyal Zafar and Zarina; but Mik began watching the other table from the corner of his eye, finding himself more and more surprised as he saw the extraverted and funny behaviour of Zarina that contrasted so much to the silent, so-called “dignified” figure that acted as if he didn’t exist when they were in the same room.
And now, hearing Darcy warn him that Zarina wouldn’t ever give him the time of day… When Darcy knew Mik had a way with the girls. He always had. His Dad joked it was inherited.
Well, Mik thought to himself. I’m a badass too.