Rumored Nights

When I was finished getting ready, I made my way out to the living room where I found Louis sitting on my couch, watching TV. I couldn’t tell if he was finished pouting over the idea of this trip and the fact that it was never going to happen or not. I felt a little bad too. Louis had that effect on people. You could be completely right, but Louis would flash that cute little pout and your heart would melt, leading you into giving in on what he wanted. He was like a puppy; you could never say no. So I tried to distract Louis from his idea.

“Want to go to see the guys?” I leaned over the couch, which startled him a little bit.

“Sounds good to me,” He stood up and turned the TV off, walking out the door with me.

There was no need to call; it was obvious that everyone in our circle of friends would be at Niall’s. His place was the biggest. It wasn’t that far from my place, which was usually a good thing. But I was hoping to spend a little more time with Louis before having to share him with the rest of the ‘guys’.

We walked up the cobble stone path and Louis began pressing the button repeatedly. It buzzed back after the tenth time and Louis smirked, knowing that he was probably annoying the hell out of whoever pushed that button.

“Loser,” I pushed his shoulder and we walked up the stairs in silence, due to the fact that Louis was lost in thought about his plan, and to Niall’s door. We walked inside, knowing that it was almost always unlocked.

“Hey guys!” Louis smiled at our friends as we took our coats off and put them on the hanger.

“Hey Lou! Hey Alex!” Niall replied, throwing his contagious smile at us. That’s what I loved about Niall. No matter what mood you could possibly be in he could brighten your day with that exact smile.

“Hi Niall,” I smiled back and continued my way into the room, joining everyone.

Just as I expected, EVERYONE was there. There was Niall, of course, since it was his place. He was the cute and cuddly, yet wild guy of the group. He liked thrilling things, but he was as harmful as a baby penguin. Sitting next to Niall was Harry. Harry was a sensitive and sweet guy, but he was also one of the biggest flirts that I knew. Next to Harry was Liam. Liam came off as the sensible guy of the group, maybe even the Daddy of the other boys. He was shy at times, but once you get to know him he was just as crazy as the rest of us. Liam always made me smile and I liked that about him. Then next to Liam was Zayn.

Zayn was absolutely gorgeous. He was probably one of the hottest, sexiest guys I had ever seen in my eighteen years of life. Surprisingly, we used to be a ‘thing’. We had gone out a couple of times, but it was never really official. We never really seemed to work out. And even though we never became an actual couple, our feelings for each other never really went away, no matter how hard we tried to deny it.

I must have been lingering on Zayn for quite a while, because he looked up and our eyes locked. We stared at each other, his brown eyes pulling me in. My heart raced a little bit and I was wondering if anyone else in the room was getting as hot as I was. He smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back. I wondered why Zayn and I never really got the chance to become serious with each other. I wondered why we couldn’t just get back together and try it for real this time. Then I looked and saw who was sitting next to Zayn and I realized why we had never worked out in the first place.

Sitting next to, err…sort of on top of Zayn was evil in human form. The craziest bitch I knew.

Lola.

Her long black hair had a natural, perfect beach wave to it. It cascaded down her back like an arrow pointing to her tattoo that peaked out of her ultra-low rise jeans. He flawless skin had that glow you always wished you had. She was beautiful, I had to admit, and I hated her. But that was okay because she hated me too.

Lola knew about mine and Zayn’s history, so of course she just HAD to have him. And when it looked like things were actually going to work out between Zayn and I, Lola came in and messed it all up and snatched him away from me within a blink of an eye.

“Oh Zayn!” Her nasally voice was just as bad as nails scratching up and down a chalkboard. It made goose bumps appear on my arms and I wanted to shiver. She giggled as she got closer to him. “You’re so sexy,” She sent a smirk my way and her eyes landed on me so she could see my reaction. It was like she was laughing at me, taunting me. Because she had Zayn and I didn’t. SHE was the one holding his hand, kissing him, and getting all of his love and attention and I wasn’t. She made it a habit of reminding me what I didn’t have and what she did. And if only Zayn could really see her for her and that she cheated on him and that she wasn’t as sweet and innocent as he thought she was…well, then he would come to me and we could be together and I could rub it in her disgustingly pretty face.

“Um, alright?” Zayn answered her comment with a confused expression, but let it slide. It didn’t really matter though, because she was already practically licking his face off as she kissed him, desperately trying to make me so mad that I would cry or leave or something and give her the satisfaction of hurting my feelings. But over my dead body was she going to win; I was not giving in.

When she came up for air from her nauseating kiss with Zayn, her dark eyes glared at me and I was pretty sure the next thing she was going to do was hiss. That’s how bad our “feud” was.

Damn…I really wanted nothing more than to jump over that table and start the biggest cat fight anyone had ever seen before…



I had it all planned out. Lola was going down. I stood in the same spot, glaring at her as she slobbered all over Zayn, taunting me with every excruciating kiss they shared. Or more like every kiss she forced on him. My fist were clenched at my side as I thought of how fun it would be to punch Lola in her surgery perfected nose. But before I could put my plan into action I felt a warm, gentle hand grab ahold of mine and tug my arm in its direction.

All of my thoughts of smashing Lola’s face disappeared as I looked down and followed the arm to its mysterious owner. Or…not so mysterious.

Liam’s brown eyes met mine as he squeezed my hand once more as to say ‘Don’t worry. I’m here for you, Alex. I’ll protect you from evil Lola, the wicked witch of the campus’. And I felt a little bit of comfort as Liam held my hand. All of my anger began to vanish.

“She’s not worth it,” Liam mouthed to me. I smiled just a bit.

I knew Liam was right, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to smash Lola’s face in. Liam’s words made me calmer though. But it was so hard to ignore when her loud, obnoxious voice wouldn’t shut up.

“Hey Alex!” Harry waved his pizza in the air and smiled at me.

“Hi Harry!” I gave him a smile back.

“Hey Alex,” Zayn said casually, like we hadn’t just acknowledged each other and shared a meaningful hello with our eyes.

“OH ALEX! I didn’t even notice you were here!” Lola cried in her fake, sympathetic tone, trying to sound nice but actually just being mean and nasty.

“Oh my God! How IRONIC! I didn’t see you either!” I said, mocking Lola without her even knowing it. Then I realized I shouldn’t have used the word ironic; she may not have known what that word meant.

“Hah!” She squeaked, focusing her attention on me. “Well, hey hun! Kiss, kiss!” She laughed in her fake, superficial Barbie-doll voice.

‘Hey Hun, kiss this!’ I thought sarcastically, but Liam nudged me before I could use my original response. So I used my sarcasm to say;

“Hi! Kisses!”

Niall snorted, trying to hide his laughter; for he found this funny because he knew how I felt about Lola. Harry kicked him discretely and they both looked at each other, trying not to laugh. They succeeded.

Louis also bit his lip, hiding his laughter. And if I wasn’t upset at that moment I probably would have laughed to. She was such a poser and she annoyed me in the greatest way possible.

Liam saw by my face that this could get ugly if he didn’t do something about it soon. He tugged on my hand and led me to a spot between him and Harry. As I sat down, Lola and I shared a pretend, sarcastic smile.

“Uh…so…” Zayn was starting to feel suffocated by the tension in the room. He tried to get rid of it by starting a conversation and it worked.

“Pizza?” Liam offered, kindly, because he really didn’t know what else to say to me at that moment.

“No thanks,” I gave a small smile, too distracted.

“Don’t let her get to you, Alex.” Liam advised, quietly, as he squeezed my knee under the table ever so gently.

“I know, sorry.” I smiled, trying to get back to normal and enjoy myself.

“Ahem,” Harry coughed, leaving the other conversation and joining Liam and mine’s private one. Harry raised a curious, but pleased, eyebrow at Liam and mine’s interaction.

“What?” Liam’s tone changed to an embarrassed one and he blushed a little bit.

“Hmm…nothing,” Harry smiled as he turned his head a bit, going back to his pizza, yet keeping an eye on Liam and I.

Liam and I looked at each other and laughed. Harry was right. ‘Hmmm…’ What was really going on between Liam and I? There was something in both of us that really didn’t want to ruin it (whatever it was). So we held hands under the table for nobody to see but us. Well, and maybe Harry too. But that was it. We wanted to be a secret for now, because neither of us truly knew what we wanted.

But how long can secrets last?