Rumored Nights

Everyone was still sitting around our sad looking campfire, talking and relaxing. Everything seemed to be fun and enjoyable and, well, perfect.

The only problem was I couldn’t relax or enjoy it. My head was still spinning in thoughts of Louis and Liam. Those thoughts were filled with fear, love, hope, and, most of all, guilt. I still needed to choose, but it was just too hard.

The fresh air must have gotten to the guy’s heads, because all of them were acting funny and random and, to say the least, silly. I just couldn’t get into their happy mood. But we were supposed to be having fun on this trip, so I was determined to try my hardest to loosen up.

“NO!!!” Louis exclaimed while bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

I looked up from the fire to see Zayn and Louis laughing so hard that it looked like they were running out of breath and tears started to well up in their beautiful eyes. I noticed everyone else was laughing just as hard too. They all looked kind of ridiculous. Adorable, but still ridiculous. It seemed like they weren’t even laughing at anything. Maybe I just missed that part.

Louis finally calmed down and went on.

“Dude, I want to see Zayn’s little table dance that me and Alex missed before.” He suggested, while still laughing at the thought of Zayn actually dancing on a table.

“No way!” Zayn laughed, not wanting to repeat last time; his back and butt still hurt from earlier.

“Oh please do NOT make me sit through that again!” Liam pleaded.

“I know. Don’t torture us again. It was bad enough the first time!” Harry agreed.

“Harry, shut up. You were dancing too!” Zayn whined.

“Well, I don’t care who was dancing, I’ve had enough of that today.” Liam said, bringing the conversation to a much needed end.

“Hah…” Niall snorted, looking around at the darkened surroundings.

“What?” I asked.

“I don’t know…I just…when I decided to come on this trip, I never thought we’d end up camping in the woods; in Kansas of all places.” Niall shook his head.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought this was supposed to be a road trip, not a camping trip.” Liam laughed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Zayn stopped laughing.

“What?” Niall asked, giving Zayn and weird look.

“We’re on a camping trip…There’s six of us…five guys and one girl…in the deep, dark…” Zayn said in a frightened voice, remembering the scary story ordeal.

“AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Harry screamed.

“AHHH! WHAT?! HELP!?!” Zayn panicked.

“Haha, why are you so scared?” Louis laughed.

“It was just a story, Zayn. There’s not even a mental hospital anywhere near here. Liam tried reassuring Zayn.

“Haha, actually there is, I think.” Niall laughed, knowing Kansas pretty well.

“SHUT UP!!” Everyone glared at Niall, because we desperately wanted Zayn to shut up about Trenton Miller already.

“But they keep it locked up really, really well. I bet they have great security.” Niall shrugged.

“Geez, that makes me feel SOOOO much more safe out in the WOODS!” Zayn sighed.

“You know what? Trenton Miller is not going to come running out of those woods. We’re fine and it was just a story. Now can we please all get over it and have a little fun?” Louis begged for this whole thing to be over with.

We all agreed and let go of the stupid story…For now, at least.

“So anyway, what time is it?” Louis asked, curiously.

“I don’t know, like…eight thirty.” Niall guessed.

“I’m tired.” Harry announced with a yawn.

“Awww, is it past little Harry’s bed time?” Niall teased.

“Yeah,” He laughed.

“You know what, I’m kind of tired too.” Zayn agreed.

“I’m beat,” Liam added.

“Come on you party poopers!!!” Louis yelled, as he stood up, trying to keep us from going to sleep.

“Party poopers?” Niall raised an eyebrow, even though he had no room to talk with words like dandy and whiz.

“Yeah! You guys are lame and pathetic! The night is young! Let’s live it up!” Louis tried to persuade everyone.

“Live it up doing what? Running around in the field?” Niall laughed.

“No…” Louis said, acting a little deflated. He put his arms down and thought of something we could possible do. “What could we do?” He took a stick and began poking the dinky fire with it.

“Wait, I think I have an idea…” Zayn said, looking like a light bulb had gone off in his head.

“Uh oh…” Liam mumbled, but Zayn ignored him.

“You guys want to do something fun, right?” Zayn asked. “Even if it’s a little dorky?”

“Yeah, sure.” Louis shrugged, not sure what to say or think.

“You guys remember playing manhunt when you were younger?”

“Yeah, that kind of does sound familiar.” I thought about it.

“It’s like hide and seek, but in the dark and outside, right?” Liam remembered.

“That sounds like fun, I guess. But since it’s dark wouldn’t we need, like, flashlights?” Louis asked.

“Oh yeah…” Zayn frowned. “Maybe we could find one……or six…”

“I think I have one.” Harry announced. Surprise, surprise.

“Of course you have one. You have a whole survival kit and half a playground in your precious bag.” Louis laughed and Harry just rolled his eyes.

Like he hadn’t heard a joke about his bag before. To him, it was getting old. But it us, it was still funny.

“Wait a second, I brought a couple flashlights. It’s cool. They’re in the…van…” Louis sighed. “Never mind.

“I could use the light on my cell phone….Wait, no, never mind. I threw it in the woods.” Zayn remembered.

“Okay, so we have one flashlight. It could work…maybe…” Louis shrugged.

The boys thought some more about it, before thinking that maybe the bus would have some spare ones. Louis and Zayn went to retrieve some light, bringing back the only one they could find.

“Okay, we can have two people be the ones who have flashlights and they can go find the other four of us. It can be kind of our own little game…I guess.” Zayn suggested.

“Hmm, sounds good to me.” Niall shrugged.

“Yeah, dandy as a whiz.” Harry joked. Niall didn’t find it that funny.



After getting ready for our game, we decided on letting Louis and Zayn have the flashlights first.

“YAY!” Zayn cheered, snatching one of the flashlights from Niall’s hands.

“Freak,” He shook his head and went to get ready with the rest of us. “Rules?”

“Don’t go too far away, because we could get lost. That’s about it.” Zayn shrugged and we all shook our heads in agreement.

“On your mark!” Zayn yelled.

“Zayn, it’s not a race.” Louis laughed.

“I know, whatever. Ready?” He looked around at everyone and we all nodded. “CHARGE!!!” He screamed as we all did as we were told to do and charged towards the woods.

Harry, Niall, Liam and I were all ahead of Zayn and Louis so they could eventually find us. We were finally in the woods and it actually was REALLY dark. The only light we had was from the moon and a little teeny tiny light from the other people back at the camp on top of the hill.

Liam squeezed my hand to let me know he was there for me; not only for the game, but for something more as he always did. In the moonlight, I could see his adorable smile that made my heart melt every time I saw it. God, did I love him…but if it had been Louis holding my hand right now, then I would’ve thought the same thing.

I could still make out the shadow of Niall and Harry, who were running only a short distance ahead of Liam and I.

“OUCH!!” Harry yelled, but in a whispering voice.

“What are you doing?” Niall whispered back.

“Tree.” Harry groaned.

“What?” We all asked in unison.

“TREE!” Harry whispered loudly.

As our eyes adjusted more to the dark, we could see what Harry was talking about. His body was leaning against a huge tree that stood tall in the woods we were in.

We finally put the pieces together.

“Did you…?” Niall started to laugh quietly.

“Yes,” Harry moaned in pain.

Harry had run into a tree. How could you not laugh at that?

“Don’t even say anything…” Harry snapped.

That didn’t stop us. We all laughed as hard as we could while still staying quiet.

“How did you manage to run into a tree?! Especially a 30 foot tree!” Liam chuckled.

“I couldn’t see it!” Harry pleaded for us to believe him as he brushed some bark off of himself.

Suddenly we saw two flashing lights and heard footsteps and laughter. Zayn’s signature laughter, that is. It was definitely them.

“Quick! It’s them!” I hushed them, but I should’ve known they would overreact.

“AHHH!” They screamed and scattered behind bushes, things, and trees.

“Haz, watch out for those trees!” Niall advised as he ran off to hide.

As Zayn and Louis came closer we could hear them talking.

“Marco!” Zayn called out.

“Zayn, no one is going to say Polo. They’re hiding from you.” Louis laughed.

“Well, we could definitely find them if they said polo. I think they should; it’s a good idea.” Zayn shrugged.

“Whatever, just look for them.” Louis commanded as he looked around, shining the flashlights above our heads without even seeing us. “You look that way,” Louis advised, pointing to the direction Zayn was supposed to go in.

“Okay,” He began to walk off. “OW!!!” He screamed.

“What?” Louis asked as he spun around just in time to witness Zayn run into the same tree Harry had. “Did you just seriously run into a tree?” Louis shook his head.

“It jumped out at me!” Zayn smacked the tree with his hand, grumbling.

“Hold on…I sense they’re around here…” Zayn told Louis.

“I sense your parents dropped you on your head when you were a baby. Now let’s go.” Louis urged.

“No wait…” Zayn stopped and looked around. He cupped his hands over his mouth, “MARCO!!!” He called out.

“Polo.” Niall said in an unrecognizable, deep voice and then ran quickly before Louis or Zayn could make out where he’d gone.

“Told you!” Zayn exclaimed as he walked around, looking at the surroundings more closely with his flashlight.

“Hey, I see you Liam!” Louis pointed to Liam as he and Zayn both put their lights on him. He gave them a deer-in-the-headlight look.

“No you don’t.” He disappeared quickly.

“Aww shoot, where’d he go?” Zayn sighed.

“I don’t know, but there’s still two more.” Louis reminded him.

Our bush was right behind Zayn and he kept backing up, looking around. Harry looked at me and we shared a smile at our friend’s clueless guess to where we were.

Suddenly, Harry’s face had a hurt expression on it.

“What?” I mouthed.

He closed his water filled eyes and pointed to his hand. I looked down and saw Zayn’s foot crushing Harry’s fingers.

Harry started to look a little pale, but he wasn’t giving in and losing.

“OW!” He mouthed back to me.

“Where are they?” Louis stressed. The two boys looked around. “Wait…Zayn…” Louis pointed his flashlight to Zayn’s foot. “What are you standing on?” He asked quietly.

Zayn looked down and quickly jumped away once he realized it was a human hand. He let out a scream.

Harry pulled his hand back quickly and held it tight, shaking it to make sure he could still feel it. He could…and it hurt.

“I’ve caught you, Harry!!” Louis yelled, playfully.

“NEVER!!” Harry screamed as Zayn charged towards him.

I had to laugh.

Then I realized I was the only one left and Louis was looking for me. I didn’t really care about winning, but I didn’t know how to make a move. I felt frozen and helpless every time Louis was near.

I suddenly lost my balance and tumbled over onto the ground.

“Halt! Who goes there?” Louis asked in a playful voice.

I smiled as I stood up and tried to walk away quickly without Louis hearing me…but I stepped on a twig and he spun around, putting his flashlight on me like a spotlight.

“You can run, but you can’t hide!” He taunted.

“Oh no!” I played along.

I tried to make a run for it, but Louis caught up quickly and wrapped his arms around me, dropping the flashlight in the process.

My eyes had adjusted to the dark by now and I could see Louis’ handsome features in the moonlight. He was smiling and his dark, sparkling eyes were looking right at me in that intense and sexy way of his that made my heart pound out of my chest.

Louis ran his fingers through my hair and I knew we shouldn’t have been doing what we were doing right then. But, of course, I could never find a way to say no. I never seemed to want to.

I looked at Louis and realized maybe he was the one…but I had a strange feeling in my gut that told me, like before, that if Liam would have been the one standing there, I would have felt the same way. It was that even between them.

Suddenly, Louis pulled me into a beautiful kiss that finally made me relax. When we finished the kiss, I looked into his eyes with tears in my own. How could I keep doing this?

A tear rolled down my cheek as Louis held me and kissed my forehead. Did he actually understand? Was he actually there for me? Was he really willing to wait?

The answer to all of those questions, I had a feeling, were yes. And that just made things even more blurry and confusing.

Louis kissed my cheek again before picking up his flashlight and flashing me a sad smile. Not because he was sad, but because he knew I was sad.

“I got you,” He whispered into my ear. I knew he meant more than just the game.

Louis and I joined the rest of the group, which Zayn had already found.

“I win, I win, I win!” Zayn danced around in a circle.

“You suck” Liam shook his head, laughing.

“No, I win!” Zayn smiled.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder and surprising me.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine.” I told him and I knew he didn’t buy it.

“Are you sure?” He asked, squeezing my hand.

“I’m sure,” I smiled sadly at him. He nodded and let it go, not pushing any further into it.



After a few more rounds of the game, we were finally tired and came out of the woods, laughing and joking and making fun of Harry and Zayn for running into a tree. And, also, for Harry accidentally hiding in a prickly bush.

“Hey, that really hurt!” He yelled, but had to laugh at himself a little bit too.

“Well, didn’t you notice it before you sat in it?” Niall shook his head.

“It’s dark out!” Harry defended himself.

We all ended up taking blankets and stuff and spreading them out in the field, just looking up at the moon.

I tried my best not to think of my situation; it could wait until morning. Right now, I was going to just enjoy sitting under the stars with my best friends as we laughed ourselves to sleep.

Too bad things would get even more complicated in the morning.