Give Me Love

Curly stood there in my doorway smirking at me, his green eyes piercing through my light brown ones, but I was not going to let him win.

“Place it wherever you please, just make sure to not fall or shatter any of the windows,” I said, starting to close the door, but having a rather large hand with long fingers bring the door to a halt.

“So, you’re just going to be done with me then? You don’t know my name, or the lad in back of me. We could be serial killers for all you know, and you’re simply going to let us near your house with a ladder and even by your windows?” He asked me, obviously trying to keep the most serious face he could.

“You’re not very frightening so do as you wish. Now if you don’t mind, it’s getting quite hot and I’d like to go relax in some air conditioning. Make sure your balance is impeccable, wouldn’t want any accidents there would we, Curly?” I answered back, holding my chuckles back.

“Original nickname, like I haven’t heard it before. I’m Harry, Harry Styles,” he said, with a smile so large and proud you’d think he just won a medal and plaque for initiating world peace.

“Cool to meet you, Styles. I’m Effy, new girl on the block I guess,” I answered back, now squinting my eyes.

The sun had starting blazing and really beating down now, and the light that was bouncing off was so bright, I felt that if I looked up for a second I would instantly lose some of my vision.

“Don’t forget about me, Haz! My name’s, Niall!” The blond boy shouted from the back, still a bit flimsy trying to balance his ladder, not exactly failing nor succeeding in doing so.
“Nice to meet you, Niall! You having some trouble there?” I asked him, leaning on the post of my door, cracking a tiny smile.

Niall was just absolutely adorable. His blond hair ruffled all sorts of ways and he had a genuine smile. A smile that I wished I was able to feel and truly portray on my face, without constantly having to hide behind it.

“I’ll manage!” He shouted back, almost tripping over his own two feet. If he didn’t get to place that ladder somewhere and get some help soon, he would most likely be tripping and having the huge ladder fall right on top of him.

“Harry, don’t you think you should be helping your mate out over there with the ladder, yeah?” I questioned Harry.

“Yeah, just going off to do that now, wouldn’t want the ladder to fall on him and crush him. Then you might think I purposely did it since I might be a murderer,” he said, chortling a bit at his own remark. He thought he was so clever, but I had an answer for everything. I had just met him as well, I wasn’t going to let a complete stranger beat me at my own game of sarcasm.

“Have fun getting the ball out of the gutter, mate. I’m going to lay down and relax while you have to go fetch your lame ball that you can’t even hit properly. Woops, the tongue slipped, bye!” I said quite fast but still audible, shutting the door. I laughed to myself a bit and hopped up the stairs, wanting to watch a good movie. Something, anything but unpacking.

☯☯☯

It had been two days since my encounter with those boys. I hadn’t talked to them at all, besides a casual, “Hello” from Niall, so far seeming the sweetest of the group. I still hadn’t even learned the other boys’ names yet, either. I wasn’t that interested because frankly, they were just another set of boys that I’d only know for a short amount of time.

I didn’t plan on making this place my permanent home. I honestly couldn’t wait to get out and do my own thing, which was the reason I was currently in the process of searching “emancipation” up on the internet to see what I could find out and where I could sign up. I desperately wanted to be able to have my own place and live by my own rules, legally. It’s not like Mum was there much anyways and there was no way in hell I was going to remain living with Claire. I would simply search for a simple flat somewhere in NYC or maybe even in London, all I have to do is set aside some cash and get a reasonable job.

Suddenly getting worked up, thinking about all of this was hurting my head some, so I decided to go for a stroll around the cul-de-sac, in hopes of clearing my head.

As I stepped outside, I let the sun rays burst onto my skin. The light was shimmering, as if performing some sort of ritual dance and filling me with some kind of happiness. They do say that the sun is like a therapy and I don’t know if I necessarily believe that, but it is a rather nice thought. Things hadn’t been looking up recently, so I thought I might as well try to hold onto something good. Having to move away to an unfamiliar place, always feeling insecure, not really having anyone but myself to rely on. That was one of the worst parts; the complete, utter loneliness.

Some people have some friends or at least one person they trust with everything. I don’t think I even have a stone that I could tell everything to. I had never really been the best at making friends, always usually kept to myself and hadn’t done much about it. I had longed for so long just one person, that one person who would listen and be there whenever I needed them. That one person I could have fun with and make so many fantastic memories with, you know like the kind you read about in novels or see in movies. I wasn’t asking for my life to be a dream or something out of the ordinary, I just wanted one simple friend I could spend my days with.

Suddenly, not realizing where I was walking or what I was doing due to my trance of thoughts, I felt myself bump into something, rather someone, right in front of me.

I looked up to see it had been the boy next to Harry the other day.

“Well, well, fancy seeing you here, huh?” The boy smiled, making me laugh.

“Well, I guess, I mean I don’t think the fact of us being neighbors plays into the ‘coincidence’ at all,” I continued, now making him laugh.

“I just realized, I never got your name?” He questioned, his light brown eyes searching mine.
“Effy,” I replied, “Effy Cade.”

“Well, nice to finally put a name to your face, Effy. I’m Zayn Malik,” he replied to me, starting to walk with me more around the cul-de-sac.

“Now, you mind telling me where you were doing that you didn’t realize you were headed straight into me?” Zayn asked, a smirk playing upon his lips.

“Just lost in some thought, not paying attention to where I was going. I wanted to come out here to try and explore some more. I know Claire mentioned something about some pond just up the block from this cul-de-sac. She said to head straight up and then make a right on the road but not leave the cul-de-sac. I guess I kind of just walked right next door onto your property without paying attention,” I said, laughing a bit at my own stupidity.

“Oh yeah, the pond, it’s right up this way,” Zayn said, pointing in the direction.

We spent maybe five minutes walking upward and then turning right, and once I looked, a sparking pool of water with warm, green grass was brought into my vision. There was a mini dock as well that made the scenery look even more beautiful and I loved it. I ran over to it and just stared. For some reason, there was always something about the ocean that captivated me and I know this pond was nothing compared to the ocean, but it was still very much beautiful to me.

I also noticed the huge tree that stood set upon the grass as well. “We’ve most definitely got to put a tire swing here. I think even a tree house is a cute idea, as well,” I announced, immediately wishing to take back the tree house idea because it sounded lame. I had always wanted a tree house, but mum never agreed to building one with me and I didn’t have any friends so my hopes of that never came true.

Zayn smiled and said, “I’ll get Liam to take care of that for you, he’s very good with his hands.”

Immediately taking the immature route, I laughed pretty hard at Zayn’s words and he instantly jumped in with the laughter realizing how his words came out.

“What I meant was he’s good at building things. He’s one of my friends who was there two days ago as well. He built his girlfriend, Danielle, a beautiful deck that she wanted in her backyard, almost like a patio sort of thing. It was really cool,” Zayn said. Instantly curious about the boys, I decided to ask Zayn about them.

“Well, there’s me, Harry, Niall, Liam, and Louis. The house next door from you belongs to Harry and he lives there with his mum, Anne. Niall and Liam share a flat in a more “city-like” town, maybe fifteen minutes from here. My house is twenty minutes away and I live with one of my other best mates and Louis lives by himself ten minutes from here. We all became best mates and stayed close ever since, and I love them to death, they’re like my brothers,” Zayn said.

“How’d you all become so close?” I asked, quite curious and hoping I wasn’t intruding on anything.

“Well, for now, it’s a secret, but I promise you’ll know pretty soon, babe,” Zayn said to me, and I nodded.

I was pretty curious, especially since he couldn’t tell me, but he said I would find out so I took his word for it.

“Why’d you come to Pennsylvania, out of all places?” Zayn asked me, eyeing at me.
I had suddently realized my outfit and I felt stupid because it looked horrendous. Shabby flip-flops with light blue capri-sweats and topped with a black tank-top.

“My mum is a wardrobe designer and she had to fly off to another country so I got shipped her to live with my dreadful cousin, Claire,” I answered honestly.

“Wow, seems quite shitty, sorry to hear that,” Zayn said, giving a small pout.

I smiled, trying to cover up whatever inside me was dragging me down at that confession and said, “It doesn’t matter, it’s not like I’ll have to stay here forever, right?”

“Right,” Zayn agreed, returning the smile. His smile was great, not as contagious as Niall’s laughter, but his smile definitely brought comfort to me for some reason.

“Well, I’ve got to get going, I was supposed to be leaving when you bumped into me back there,” Zayn said, gesturing me to him, “I’ll walk to back down.”

“No, it’s fine! I’m sorry I held you up, I’ve got it from here. I’ll see you around, yeah?” I asked him.

“Definitely. Why don’t you come to Harry’s tomorrow afternoon at 12? We were going to have a barbeque and swim a bit, I suppose. It’ll be fun and we could all get to hang out,” Zayn said, smiling and his voice very calm. I noticed his voice had the same tone, gentle and calm yet something to it that I couldn’t explain, but it was good.

“Oh, I don’t know, I feel bad just invading-“ I started, only for Harry to walk up and cut me off.

“Well look who we have here,” he said, lifting his eyebrow, probably wondering what I was doing here with Zayn.

“Well, Effy here is somewhat of a klutz and bumped into me as she was strolling around. Then she wanted to know where the pond was so I showed her. I was just in the middle of telling her she should come to hangout with me you and the lads tomorrow, sounds good, yeah?” Zayn questioned at Harry.

Harry looked from Zayn to me and smiled, something seemed quite sinister but not very evil, more of a mischievous smirk while he replied, “Definitely. You’ve got to come, it’ll be a lot of fun!”

I took this as a challenge from Harry, as I realized for some reason he had started a staring contest. “I’m in,” I replied. Walking over to Harry I pushed my fingers toward his face, making him blink and lose the game. I smirked at him, while he flashed me a genuine, toothy smile and then I turned to Zayn. “Thanks for showing me around,” I smiled sweetly at him.

“My pleasure, Effy. Well, I’ve got to get going, see you guys!” Zayn said, jogging off.

“You need me to help you find your way back, Effy? Wouldn’t want you to get lost now would we?” Harry playfully snickered at me, trying to contain his laughter.

“I’ll manage just fine, Styles. You better hope I don’t get fed up with you and push you into the pond this summer,” I answered back at him.

“Who knows? I’ve still got plenty of times to get on your nerves,” Harry said, flashing me another toothy smile and squinting his eyes closed.

“Watch yourself,” I said, walking away and starting to walk back down to the house.

I head Harry laughing a bit behind me and heard him shout, “Will do.” He obviously said it in a tone that made him sound just fine and not scared at all.

All of a sudden, for some reason as I was walking back down to the house, I smiled and got very excited about tomorrow. I had a really good feeling about these boys and I felt I might actually get that friend, or even friends, I had been longing for after all.

I went to sleep that night thinking to myself how I might just encounter the start of very good friendships in the morning.