Give Me Love

It had been a year since I’d met those boys who tossed a ball at my window, and here we were a year later, all still the best of friends. It was amazing how close I had stayed to them but how broadly everything had changed. Due to the popularity they had gained with their band now, it was absolutely mad. People had loved One Direction, and fans were everywhere now.

I felt like I had known the boys and Danielle since we were younger and there was something about that that made me smile so easily, so genuinely. Maybe it was the fact that before this I had never really even had someone I called a true friend and now I had six of them. Before moving to Pennsylvania, I had felt so lonely and I had no idea what it felt like to be listened to; to speak and have it actually count for something. It just felt glorious and I didn’t want to lose that feeling ever.

“Heads up, Ef!” I heard Liam call out at me, my thought process being interrupted as I saw an American football dropping closely towards my head. My body not reacting fairly well, since my mind had been elsewhere, I felt a sudden shove that landed me on the ground, under a certain weight.

When I looked back up, I saw Zayn nervously searching my eyes for any trauma and frantically blurting, “Jesus, are you okay, Ef? We went down with quite the thud.”

I smiled and laughed it off and replied, “Zayn, you’re being a bit overdramatic. Relax, I’m absolutely fine. Thanks for saving me from the villainous ball though.” I flashed him a quick cheeky smile and he proceeded to roll his eyes.

He stood up off of me, realizing he had still had his weight left on me, and offered a hand to help me up which I had accepted. I swiped my hands across my jean capris, wiping away the traces of dirt that had smudged the sides of them.

“This is boring and I almost just got hit in the head, so I’m going inside to watch some TV or do something because this game is no fun,” I announced, trotting back to my house. I was secretly ecstatic that I could go put my comfortable pajama clothes on, blast the AC, and relax with some TV or music. Or even crack open a book, I’d always been an avid reader. I just felt like lounging around, not dodging balls that were flying straight at my head.

I stepped inside and went to my room, slipping on my blue Victoria’s Secret shorts that had “Pink” in leopard print across the bum and a comfortable, oversized white racerback.

I grabbed a novel that I’d read at least a dozen times and headed for the sofa. I grabbed my white, fuzzy blanket and dragged it along the way as well. I plopped down onto the sofa and let myself sink into it, placing the blanket all around me. I opened the book and began reading, taking in all of the familiar words of the story.

After about ten minutes there was a pounding at the door, as if someone was punching and slamming to get in. I frantically stood up and scurried over to the door, but hesitantly rested my fingertips upon the doorknob. Worried that one of the boys might have been in trouble I decided to take a deep breath, swallow down as much of the fear I could, and hurriedly pull the door open.

No one.

What the fuck? I knew I was not imagining this.

Slightly confused now, I slowly shut the door and rested my back against its frame, mentally scolding myself for getting so worked up.

Bang, bang, bang!

The pounding and slamming started up once more and my heart’s pace quickened. I decided to go against my head that was telling me to run, and whirled around to open the door.

Yet again, no sign of anything, it had just been nothing.

I stared out of my door, trying to make out the different shapes and figures that the darkness had
engulfed.

All of a sudden I heard shuffling and I was stunned and shocked all at once, my body feeling paralyzed by fear.

“Boo!” Louis shouted, scaring the absolute shit out of me. I screamed at the top of my lungs while the rest of the boys nearly pissed themselves, stomachs clutched, laughter erupting from them like mad men.

I clutched my hand to my heart, trying to breathe and steady the regulation of my heart beat that was now pumping erratically.

“Fucking hell, Lou. You know I hate those types of surprises you wanker. You scared the living piss out of me!” I shrieked at him, swatting his chest lightly.

They continued laughing for a few more seconds while I eyed them down.

When they finally noticed my cold stare, their laughter simmered down.

“Sorry, Ef. It was just too easy,” Niall announced, still smiling while his last remaining chuckled hushed down to silence.

I flipped them all off and sauntered sassily back to my original spot on the sofa, while all five of the boys filed in. They all made themselves comfy and Liam sat himself in the single La-Z-Boy recliner. Harry came and sat next next to me, lifting my legs up and placing them to rest in his lap while Niall sat on the other end of the sofa. Zayn and Louis rested on the sectional, Louis’ legs spread out all over the couch, while Zayn took the spot that curved outward at the end.

“You twats are lucky I let you in my house after the stunt you just pulled,” I snarled, trying to put on my best glare.

“Oh stop it, you know you love us,” Harry started, smirking of course. I just continued to glare.

He noticed the novel on the black, marble coffee table in front of the sofa and pointed to it and remarked, “You were reading here by yourself, we most definitely just made your night less dull.”
I tried my hardest to ignore them but they all stared at me with those cliché puppy dog eyes and I cracked a laugh.

“There we go,” Liam said, shooting his signature wink my way.

“Glad you’ve lightened up, babe,” Zayn smiled at me, an usually toothy grin from him might I add.

I stuck my tongue towards Zayn and pouted, but a grin slowly swept across my face, unable to keep an agitated face on.

“Can we please go out and do something? Sitting around just staring at each other isn’t the most fun thing to do on a Friday night,” Louis pointed out.

“Well, what’s there to do around here?” Liam answered, sitting the reclining chair upward.

“We could go see a film,” Zayn suggested, his voice seeming a bit softer than usual, then yawning.

“Boring. We’d basically be doing the same thing we’re doing right now, just sitting around,” Niall chimed in, shaking his head.

“What about a game of bowling?” Harry said, looking around at everyone to see their reactions.

“Brilliant! Let’s go, guys! We’ve always had a jolly good time bowling, let’s go!” Louis said, suddenly off the sectional bursting with energy.

“Mate, did you just say “jolly good” out loud?” Niall said, beginning to laugh extremely hard.

“Of course I did, let’s go!” Louis answered running out of the house, grabbing Niall alongside with him.

Liam stood up and walked towards the door, trying to catch up to them as well, followed by Zayn.

I felt so lazy and if I was going to go I had to now get up and get ready to go out and bowl.

“What’s wrong?” Harry said, eyeing me quite seriously looking for any distraught.

“Nothing, I just don’t feel like moving or getting up but since we’re going to go out and go bowling, I guess I ought to go get ready, I suppose,” I announced, slowly getting up from my spot and taking a few steps.

“If you don’t want to go you don’t have to, I’ll stay here with you and we can just watch a movie or do something over here,” he said sincerely, giving me a soft smile.

Harry was honestly always there for me no matter what. Don’t get me wrong, he couldn’t definitely be a total arsehole when he wanted to be and extremely cheeky at times, but at the end of the day he always had my back and made me smile. He was just a genuine person and I was so very grateful for him to be around, as well as the other boys too.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve just got to go do my hair and makeup really fast but then I can leave. I feel bad making you guys wait so just go and then I’ll take a cab or something there,” I said.

“Don’t be an idiot. We’ll wait and if the lads don’t like it, they can find their own way there,” he smiled, giving my shoulder a light squeeze and kissing me on the cheek, “We’ll be next door.”

I had loved the fact we had made it a point to come back to Pennsylvania in the summer and stay at Harry’s house where we had all met. It was so nice to be able to be so close to them, after I had missed them for months. They had gone on tour and had to perform so many concerts back in London and France. Of course we still skyped and chatted every day, but it was hard because I wasn’t there with them. I honestly wouldn’t know what I would do without them.

With that, he walked out the door and I ran upstairs to do everything I needed to get ready.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Finally! Princess is finally here, lads!” Louis announced, bowing down to me as if I really were a princess.

He was just acting all high and mighty because he somehow kicked all of our bums and bowling and I had to go pee so went to the bathroom and then took forever because I wanted to get food before we left.

“Oh shut it, Lou. We all know you’re the true princess of sass, even your fans agree,” I shot back, remembering all of the tweets we saw earlier before on his phone.

“Good one, Cade, good one,” he said, laughing back and draping his arm around me.
We all piled into the car as Harry said, “Ready to go home?”

Not waiting for our reply, he backed off and sped off onto the completely deserted road.
Liam put on the Jay-Z album and started blasted “Big Pimpin’” and begun to rap every single word and I nearly pissed myself, it was so funny.

Here was Liam, the innocent boy who couldn’t tell when we were making a sex joke, rapping to Jay-Z. All of the rude lines and everything, it was just perfect.

“Crank it, crank it!” Niall said, indicating to make it louder, and that’s when I stopped laughing.

“Crank the fucking stereo. Crank it!” He shouted and I did as I was told. “You lying bitch, you told me you wouldn’t tell anyone but you went and did. You fucking did,” he said, slamming his palm into my cheek, living it stinging. Tears came to my eyes because the pain was so great and I couldn’t believe I was stuck in this situation. I felt worthless and disgusting and I couldn’t believe he had the power to make me feel like this.

“I didn’t tell anyone, someone heard-” I was instantly cut off with a shove into the bookcase, my back banging so hard against a wooden shelf.

“Liar! I know you’re lying to me. You’re a fucking joke, you know that right? Even if people ever did find out about this, they wouldn’t care. Even your own mother doesn’t care, too busy running around the world and back for herself. No one gives a shit about you,” he said, making me cry.

I didn’t even care about the pain at this point, sure that my back was all scraped and cut up from the shelf and that that my cheek would definitely be bruised tomorrow. I could easily hide all of that. Clothes and makeup. What hurt the most were his words, the truth in them. No one gave a shit. I could die right now and no one would even fucking notice.

“Effy, look at me. Effy! Effy!”

I suddenly snapped out of the flashback, and took in my surroundings. The boys were all looking at me and the music was very faint in the background, and I must have looked horrid because they all looked petrified.

“Effy, you’re as white as a ghost. What just happened?” Liam said, looking right at me.
“Nothing, sorry guys it’s nothing, just remembered a really bad dream is all,” I said, forcing on a smile hoping the boys would believe it.

“Seriously, what’s up?” Harry questioned, looking really worried.
“Nothing, honest, let’s just get back home and go about what we were going to do!” I said, trying to sound exciting and still keeping on that fake smile.

They didn’t look too convinced but I guess they thought I didn’t want to talk about it anymore so they left it alone.

I felt someone reach for my hand and start caressing the back of my hands with their soft fingers. I looked up and instantly saw Zayn smiling down at me with the look on his face that read, “Everything’s going to be okay.”

I mouthed, “Thank you,” and he simply responded with a kiss on my head. The whole car ride home Zayn held onto my hand and made me feel secure and made me forget somewhat about the terrible flashback that had just occurred. I simply rested my head against his shoulder and shut my eyes, trying to rest and take a short nap on the half hour car ride home.