Selcouth  : When everything feels strange and different but you find it marvelous anyway.

The moment my eyes met his breathtaking ones, he gave me a bright, goofy smile. Looking at me as if we've know eachother since forever. I'm honestly baffled, why the hell is the gorgeous ice cream stealer looking at me like that?

He walked forward and came to stand right in front of me, I stared at him blankly though my heart skipped a beat,

"I'm Zephyr."

Gosh, his voice.

He clasped my cold hand in both of his warm, calloused ones and shook it vigorously, all the while smiling creepily. I looked around to find Willow trying to muffle her laughter while Azreal looked shocked.

"Melantha." I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him.

What?! I'm still not over the loss of my ice cream.

"I know you," he mumbled.

I tilted my head up at him.

When he continued shaking my hand, I glared at him and his smile widened even more. Why is he not running away like the others? Normally if it had been any other guy, I'd have stabbed him with my pen.

Maybe I was not in the mood.

Definitely not because I was partial or anything.

"Okay! How about we go and eat?" Wil clapped her hands, her voice cutting through the awkward silence like a knife.

We all moved to sit in a corner and I found myself sitting across Zephyr who was still staring at me with a dreamy expression. I squinted my eyes at him but he was totally unfazed, still grinning at me. What scared me was that I wasn't uncomfortable under his gaze, strangely it made me feel flattered and I could almost feel my face starting to get heated up.

And I've never blushed under a guy's gaze.

"Zach? ZACH?!" Azrael said loudly, breaking us out of our staring contest. We both looked to the side to see a young female waitress in front of us, eyeing up both Az and Zephyr greedily.

Wait. Zach?

"It's my first name, Zephyr is my middle name." He added, seeing my confused expression.

"He probably wanted to look cool, that's why it's Zephyr for you and Zach for the rest of us peasants." Az snorted, making Willow laugh. I bit my lips harshly to control my own stupid smile.

"Atleast you got that peasant part right, fucker." Zephyr grumbled.

The girl cleared her throat and looked at us pointedly. Oh right.

"I'd like a lemon tea and some double cheeseburger please." I said politely. She ignored me and Willow completely and turned towards the boys.

I think she's drooling a bit.

I get the fact that they're gorgeous and I did not blame her from eyeing them both but couldn't she discreetly do it? Me and Willow always checked out dudes discreetly.

I don't think Az is going to be pleased with that though.

But honestly I didn't find any fault in checking an attractive person....We don't need to participate in the show but we sure can enjoy them, right? But she literally looks like a child in a toy store though.

The second hand embarrassment, I swear.

"What can I get you guys?" She asked flirtatiously.

Azreal blinked at her and Willow shoved a fist in her mouth to control her laughter. Zephyr on the other hand looked utterly uncomfortable under her lustful gaze, especially when she leaned towards him to give him a perfect view of her cleavage.

He averted his eyes immediately and looked at me.

She was staring at him like a piece of meat even when he seemed clearly uncomfortable.

Snapping my head towards her, I stared at her intently. Scanning her from head to toe just like she had done to him and suddenly she looked nervous and uncomfortable.

"W-what can I get you?" She stammered, avoiding my eyes.

"Um, a larger BBQ burger for me and coke with large fries too." Zephyr said enthusiastically.

"Same." Az grunted.

She quickly nodded her head and scurried off without meeting my eyes even once. Such a shame I tell you. Moreover, we should always treat people the way we want to be treated, Zephyr was clearly uncomfortable and now she understood what it feels like.

"Do you like girls?" Zephyr blurted out, looking quite anxious and I almost reached out to smooth the frown resting on his forehead.

"No." I said firmly.

He nodded his head happily, returning back to his cheerful self.

"What do you do? I'm a Med student, along with Az. I'm actually in my final year, what about you?" He rambled energetically.

"Dentistry and I'm currently doing my second year." I murmured, gazing into his eyes. They were bright electric green and though they were absolutely gorgeous, what drowned me in them was their intensity. His eyes held so much depth, so many stories buried in them and though he appeared like a bright ray of sunshine, his eyes were stormy. The kind that reflected a melancholy darkness if you'd look closer.

But alas, only a few did.

"Az, stop it!" Willow giggled and I turned towards her to see Az cling to her and try to tie up her hair.

The guy was oddly possessive of her hair.

It was as if he had a hair kink. Is that even a thing?

I turned back to Zephyr just to see him look at them with longing in his eyes.

"How did you and Az become friends?" I asked quietly, hoping to distract him a bit.

"Oh, our parents were very close," He said.

"I'm so hungry," He groaned suddenly, tapping his fingers on the table. "Why do they even take this much time? All they have to do is heat the already made food....I swear they're just trying to torture us by starving and then serve us food so that we find it very delicious." He grumbled childishly.

I raised an amused brow and watched him fiddle with his rings for a few seconds. Then his eyes fell on my hair band and kept gazing at it mournfully.

I silently removed my hair tie and placed it in front of him. He grinned widely and picked it up, stretching it to make different patterns.

"Did you know that it takes 364 licks to reach the centre of a Tootsie Pop?" He asked randomly after a few seconds.

I shook my head not knowing how to reply to that. And right at that moment the food was placed in front of us, Zephyr looking delighted like he hasn't eaten for the past two weeks.

Suppressing a smile, I stared at him as he leaned towards his plate of burger, his nose almost touching it. His curls hung from his forehead in a gorgeous mess. Taking a large bite of his burger, he looked up at me, feeling my gaze on him. His cheeks were puffed and BBQ sauce smeared across his chin.

He looked like a child. And for the first time in a while, my lips twitched secretly into a genuine smile.

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"Mel, do you mind convincing Willow to come with me? I planned a secret date for her..." Azreal asked as we waited outside for Willow who was in the restroom.

"Sure, loverboy. No problem." I snorted.

Right then Will was back, "Raps, how about you come with me?." He asked.

"But Mel wanted some help to do her assignment." She  replied.

"I already did it yesterday night and I don't want Az to follow us like a lost puppy." I said, gently nudging her towards him.

"You're lying about the assignment, aren't you?" She narrowed her eyes.

"I swear." I nodded seriously.

She stared at me for a few moments, scrutinising me. Probably trying to figure out if I was lying or not.

"Fine." She muttered after a few minutes and I grinned.

Waving them goodbye, I walked towards my car and climbed on to the driver's seat but right as I was about to start the car, Willow knocked on my window.

Rolling it down, I popped my head out.

"Do you mind giving Zach a ride? Someone slashed his tyres it seems." She said worriedly. I craned my neck to see Az and him inspecting the tyres of his sleek black Audi.

My eyes met his and he pouted sadly, pulling at my heartstrings when he resembled a kicked puppy.

Oh screw it.

"Yeah, sure." I said automatically. Zephyr grinned and hurriedly climbed on to the passenger seat, both of us waving goodbye to AZ and Willow as we rolled out of the parking lot.

"So where do you live?" I asked.

"Olive street, House 49," He said, "Az, me and some of our other friends share a house." He added.

I noticed that my hair tie was now on his wrist.

My stomach flipped weirdly and I clenched my jaw.

Nodding my head, my hand reached to play the radio as raindrops splattered on the window. A comfortable silence settled around us as the sound of Ed Sheeran filled the space.

"Stop the clocks, it's amazing
You should see the way the light dances off your head
A million colours of hazel, golden and red

Saturday morning is fading
The sun's reflected by the coffee in your hand
My eyes are caught in your gaze all over again

We were love drunk, waiting on a miracle
Tryna find ourselves in the winter snow
So alone in love like the world had disappeared

Oh, I won't be silent and I won't let go
I will hold on tighter 'til the afterglow
And we'll burn so bright 'til the darkness softly clears"

"Stop!" He suddenly yelled.

I slammed on the brakes and parked on the sidelines hurriedly turning towards him with wide eyes.

"Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you...can we have ice cream?" He asked and pointed towards the shop, 'Boomerang'

I stared at him,"I just wanted to make up for the ice cream incident at the supermarket," He said with a grin.

"That and the fact that I've not eaten anything sweet for two whole hours." He exclaimed with wide eyes.

Such a diva.

"Fine." I nodded and grabbed the umbrellas from the backseat and handed one to him. Grabbing my own, we both stepped out of my car and walked quickly to the ice cream parlour and grabbed two big scoops of brownie ice cream.

"We can sit here." I suggested, motioning towards the couches inside but the boy just grabbed my wrist delicately and dragged me to the bench of the bus stop just outside the shop.

"There's nothing more awesome than eating ice cream when it's raining, mujer diminuta." He exclaimed and pulled me next to him.

Mujer diminuta?

And just like that, we spent the time simply eating ice cream and him ranting various interesting facts and me listening, all the while the music of the raindrops surrounding us like a beautiful melody.

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Hey guys!!!!💃💃💃

Hope you like this chapter....what do you think about Zephyr and Melantha?

So I hope you guys have a wonderful day ahead.

Remember that you're beautiful and awesome in your own way and whatever you're going through will be fine,

"It always will be fine, even if it isn't today
You just have to hang on a little more."
- Melantha Mikael

XxAelinAsh.