Take a Good Guess

“Don’t make me cut your hair again,” I groaned, rolling my eyes at Harry, who only threw me his mischievous smirk on his face.

“What? What’s wrong with my hair?” he said, pretending to be innocent as he ran a hand through his tousled locks.

“It practically look like a bird’s nest,” I laughed, we were in a the dressing room at some TV station in New York now when Paul, being the charming tour manager he was, wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked me to come along to the big apple when I have stated that I wouldn’t be able to go to their US tour. It has been one full month now since I joined the guys. And Harry was probably the one that I’ve most grown closer with other than Liam.

“The ladies love it,” he stated cockily, shrugging.

I only shook my head as I laughed quietly, trying to ignore the fact that it was mostly true what he said. I have quite used to seeing a couple of girls trying to sneak in to the hotel, admitting that they were guests and they were only trying to get inside, but when suddenly one of them caught the sight of Louis, who was only in his bathrobe entering the lobby and she basically screamed her lungs out making the security to immediately went ballistic on them. Trust me, that was nothing compared to what others were trying to pull off, I sometimes wonder how the boys looked so calm when they have millions of girls trying to get only a glimpse of them.

“So, what’s your agenda for today, Hannah?” Harry suddenly asked as he adjusted his bow tie.

“Um, I think I still gotta look for Zayn’s hair gel, that guy really couldn’t get enough of that thing,” I muttered, stretching my arms

“I’ll come with you if you want,”

“And have thousands of girls following us?” I raised my eyebrows; “No I think I’m good alone, Harry.”

“Good point,” he admitted, just in time as the door swung open and Zayn, Niall and Louis entered the room.

“Do you really think he snogged her?” I heard Louis asked

“No comment on there, Lou,” Zayn answered, I saw his eyes on me for a flash there.

“Hannah!” I nearly jumped when Niall screamed my name, and all of a sudden I felt a hand yanked me out of my seat and pulled me towards the door

“Niall, for God’s sake—what the hell?” I managed to get out from his grip.

“I’m hungry,” he stated

“Then why are you pulling me?” I complained but followed by a laugh because I couldn’t stand staying mad at his innocent face, “And didn’t you just have your lunch?”

“Do you honestly think I’d be satisfied with only a burrito and beans?”

“And here I thought you hate beans?”

“That’s the only thing I found at the catering table,” he said, pouting.

“Seriously, Niall,” Harry shook his head

“Yeah seriously, Niall,” Louis joined in

“I’m starting to think you have to bring your own fridge everywhere,” Zayn mumbled, taking a seat beside me

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him for days now,” I rolled my eyes, “Where’s Liam?”

“On the phone with Dani,” Zayn answered, and I caught his eyes stealing another glance at me, I couldn’t help but to blush every time his eyes were on mine making me feel practically useless and desperate to hide my face.

Then I caught the sight of Harry and Louis taking a quick look with each other with a smirk on their faces. I genuinely thought it would be a great idea to disappear right in that moment because there were five of us there in the room and all of us refused to talk to erase the awkwardness that I quite positively was the only one who felt it.

“I’m hungry,” Niall, decided to speak up

All four of us groaned in unison, even though I was generally relieved that I wouldn’t be next topic that Harry or Louis decided to talk about, so I forced myself to get up and dragged Niall out of the room.

“Come with me so I can feed you, Horan,” I laughed, shaking my head.

“What would I do without you?”

We arrived at the catering room or the ‘food sanctuary’ as Niall liked to call it. I noticed there were different kinds of food perched on the three wooden tables in front of us, laying there was a plate of burritos, burgers with God-knows-what meat, red beans, two plates of fries, and countless bars of Wonka chocolates. I shot a questioning look at Niall.

“I thought you said you only found burritos and beans.”

Niall only shrugged and went straight to burger table, ignoring me. I sighed in annoyance and took a bar of chocolate and sat crossed legged on the couch, eyeing Niall as he busied himself with his two burgers and a handful of fries on his plate.

As I sat there, I couldn’t help but to wonder about what’s behind that smirk and the knowing glances that Harry and Louis shared in the other room. I had a terrible feeling that they had this absurd plan about setting me up with Zayn, I shuddered at the thought of it, why would a guy like him would want to waste his time with a girl like me? He was obviously out of my league and I was way out of his. And after all, I was pretty sure there were thousands of girls who were much prettier, smarter and fitter than me and who would love to get their hands dirty on a guy like Zayn. You just couldn’t help but to grow a little bit of a crush on him after spending a little bit of time with that fine gentleman.

I checked myself in the mirror and saw the girl staring back at me, with her shoulder-length brunette hair tied in a messy bun and her minimal make up applied to her dark brown eyes in an attempt to make them to pop out more was a little bit pathetic considering the fact that it clearly failed. And looking at her attire, a simple white cropped top shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans paired with a high cut worn out converse sneakers. Again, why would he want to waste his time with me? And did I ever mention that I was only 5”6”? Making Liam and Louis to force me to buy with their money countless of high-heeled shoes and boots for me to look a little bit taller when standing next to them. I hated it. I hated all of the attention I got from the boys; they were starting to treat me like their little sister, like someone they could spoil with.

“Hannah?” a familiar voice suddenly interrupted me from my thoughts. I quickly snapped my head and saw the person who was apparently the last thing I wanted to see. Zayn eyed me a puzzled look, “Are you okay?”

“Zayn?” I managed to say.

“You lost it for a second there,” he chuckled, “Been saying your name for the third time now.”

“What—what are you doing here?” I was trying to fine something nicer to say but it appeared that it was the only thing that I could choke out of my mouth.

“Well, uh—“ he started as he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “I am starting to worry that Niall’s hunger is getting contagious.”

“What, you’re hungry?” I laughed, “there’s plenty of food in there, I’m sure you’ll find something decent enough to eat,” I tried to sound as calm as I could manage, I was seriously relieved that he couldn’t hear the slamming of my heart inside my chest.

“A Wonka bar?” he suddenly asked, eyeing my untouched chocolate beside me.

“Well yeah,” I shrugged, hiding my face that probably already turned as red as Niall’s polo shirt. “Not a big fan of whatever’s on there,” I said, gesturing to the tables, ”I am terribly envious of Niall’s appetite at everything.”

Zayn only chuckled and turned his head towards Niall, who was now busy munching his fries and his burritos. “Wouldn’t want to disturb the lad,” he said, “fancy for a lunch out?”

I swore to myself I misheard whatever he was saying moments ago; I actually had to uncover my ears from my hair and say, “Huh?”

Very smooth of you, Hannah.

He formed a playful smile across his face and laughed, “Do you wanna go for a lunch out with me?”

“I, uh—“ I stuttered, “I’d love to.”

“Great, let’s go.”

“Wait, aren’t you guys supposed to perform in an hour?” I asked, as Zayn opened the door for me.

“There’s a lot you can do in an hour, Hannah,” he said, smiling. “Besides, we’ll just go to a diner nearby, it’s not like we’re going to Time Square or something.”

“Right,” I only said, followed by a giggle that sounded more like a choke

He literally led me to the back door of the TV station with his hands on my shoulders, with a few high-fives and some ‘vas happening’ every time we ran into anyone we knew, but he never left his hands on me. I also couldn’t help but to notice a few stares from a couple of girls who maybe were curious what was the meaning behind Zayn’s gesture towards me, I just simply faked a smile and carried on.

We entered an almost-empty diner that we found across the office. With only an emo couple hunched over the last booth of the place, we were quite positive that they didn’t really care about Zayn Malik being in one room with them. We slid on the second booth and occupied ourselves with the menu. I decided to order pancakes with vanilla ice cream while Zayn ordered waffles along with chicken sausage.

We ate our food in silence as we occupied ourselves with our own plates that came fifteen minutes later.

“I have to ask you something,” Zayn suddenly said, as I struggled with my pancakes I stopped, looking at him in confusion.

“Okay, shoot.”

“If your house is on fire what would be the first thing you save?” He fixed his eyes on me, those beautiful dazzling brown eyes. If only he knew how his stare would do to me.

“Look at you, sir,” I laughed at his randomness; I could see a smirk that was starting to form in his lips, “What a way to start a conversation!”

He smiled wider as he sipped his can of coke, “Just answer me, Adler!”

“Alright, Malik! Calm down,” I giggled once more and put down my fork, I really didn’t know what was on this boy’s mind, but something about that question really made me think. I thought for a second before I answered him, turning my attention away to the busy street of New York.

“I don’t really know,” I finally said, turning to him. “Probably my dog, Ninja, but since he’s dead so I’m not quite sure.”

“Who named their dogs ‘Ninja’?” Zayn raised his eyebrows, chuckling. “Come on, you have to think, something that you cannot live without, your most important thing.”

“You gotta stop being so random, Zayn,” I said, shaking my head, “You’re killing me with those things.”

“What? Me being random?”

“Yeah.”

“I like to call it being unpredictable” he said, showing off his cheeky grin, “it would sound more appealing than only being random.”

“Oh God, you and your vocabulary words,” I rolled my eyes playfully at him, “Okay, fine.” I laughed, sipping my water, “why do you like being unpredictable so much?”

“Because it’s better than being boring,” he shrugged.

I literally raised my eyebrows at him; I could feel a smile tugging on my lips. “You made a fair point there, Mr. Malik.”

He only smiled at me and said “And I believe that you are not a boring person as well, Miss Adler.”

I stopped at his words, not really knowing what to say to him. “Well, I don’t know what I’m gonna say about me,” I managed to choke out the words “but you, sir, are far from boring.”

“Thanks?” He laughed

“You are very welcome,” I said, “but thank you for believing there’s more to me than this,” I spoke again, gesturing to myself awkwardly.

I swore that I was extremely thankful that he couldn’t hear how fast my heart was beating off my chest. This boy clearly had no idea how much affect he could make on me. Those laugh and smiles that he kept throwing once in a while, his randomness, or unpredictability, as he liked to call it, were starting to grow on me. And I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it or not.

We paid for our lunch and headed straight back to the studio before Paul decided to go bananas on us for bailing. Zayn actually wanted to check out the vintage store that we found nearby but I had to literally dragged him out of there so we wouldn’t get killed by Paul and the rest of the guys.

“Where the hell have you been?” Niall asked, when we saw him back at the dressing room.

“You’re on in ten!” I heard one of the crews shouted towards us.

I quickly fixed everyone’s hair followed by slapping Louis’s hand from touching it too much, shouting at Harry to not touch Louis’s hair, thanking Niall and Liam to have a short hair so I didn’t have to fix it, and putting on hairspray on Zayn’s. I tossed Zayn his red varsity jacket before the guys went out of the room.

“You still haven’t answered my question, you know,” he said, leaning on the doorframe. He was the last one leaving the room. There were only the two of us now.

“Seriously?” I groaned in frustration “I think your question is going to haunt me in my sleep forever now,” I laughed, “I need time to think.”

He only chuckled and smiled, “let me know if you figured it out then.”

I nodded and flashed him a grin, walking towards the door to close it.

When he was about to leave, he stopped. “Thanks for today, Adler. I know you are something else.” He stole me a wink and casually slipped out of the room, leaving me alone.