Give Me Love

“No Liam, I will not fuck you in the shower. You’ve got a girlfriend, I mean, come on,” I heard Louis shout, and the whole room erupt into massive laughter.

“Good one mate, good one,” Liam said, only to continue on, “Now why don’t you go on with Harry to the back room and have your way with him. You know, the usual.”

I heard the room mutter a couple of “ooh’s” but then I heard a very prominent scoff from Louis with additional speech, “We only save that for Tuesday’s and Friday’s, right Haz?”

By this time I had made it to the kitchen, where all the boys had been, only to find Harry nodding with his eyes squinted and lips curved up into a funny smirk.

“Maybe now wasn’t the best time for me to join in…” My voice trailed off as I turned around, pretending to leave, only for Lou to rush over to me and embrace me with his arms.

“Don’t be silly, you came at just the right time if anything,” Lou said, winking at me as I turned to him. I swatted at the top of his head and mumbled, “Dick.”

“I know you want my dick, so does Harry, Liam, Niall and Zayn. Sorry babe, you’re just going to have to get in line,” he answered to my rude remark, adding a pat on my head as if I was some sort of house pet or something.

I turned to him and appeared to be offended at his sly comment, then went on to roll my eyes and he reciprocated with a kiss to my cheek. Lou knew mostly everything, except for my situation a couple of years back. Other than Harry being my best friend, I was second closest to Louis. He helped me with so much; he was basically the older brother I never had.

“Would you like some breakfast?” I heard Liam ask, starting up the stove with the toaster already plugged into the wall.

“Sure, I’ll just have a waffle, with some of that sugar you put on top of it, Liam,” I said smiling at him. Suddenly cautious he was going to try and get me back for my previous antics, I answered with, “Actually, I’m not very hungry. I’ll skip.”

Liam smirked at me and replied, “Think I’m going to get you back, eh?” He had a cheeky, devilish grin on his face.

“Sorry, Payne, I’m not taking any chances,” I said, raising my hands in a somewhat defensive yet surrendering matter.

“You can’t just not eat, are you crazy?” Niall exclaimed, making me burst out into laughter. Niall and I always had the best laughs together; we understood each other’s humour so that’s what helped us get on so well. While I would go to Harry and Lou for advice most of the time, Niall would always crack a joke to help me smile again.

“Niall’s right, we can’t just let you starve,” Zayn chimed in, a simple played up on his face and eyes gleaming into mine, “I’ll make you one. You can trust me.”

I strolled up to him and gave him a tight hug and firmly planted my lips onto his stubbled cheek. I lightly ran my fingers across it making a note that I needed to tell Zayn what was up. “I know you’ve been super busy, but you’ve got to shave as soon as possible,” I said, chuckling a bit.

“I offer to cook you a well-prepared and safe meal and this is the thanks I get. Not even a proper “Thanks, Zayn” or “Wow, Zayn you’re my hero” sort of thing, I just get a measly hug and kiss topped with “You’ve got to shave.” So kind of you, Ef,” he finished, trying to keep his face serious in hopes I would apologize but he cracked down because the all of the boys and myself couldn’t contain our laughter.

“Poor me, poor me, look at me I’m Zayn, and Ef didn’t give me a proper thanking for making her a breakfast that’s basically already been prepared and it’ll take me four minutes top to heat up,” Lou mimicked, bringing his fists to his head and twisting them back and forth to pretend he was wiping tears.

“You’re all twats,” Zayn replied, getting back to my breakfast.

“Shut up, Malik. You know how much I love you, you tosser,” I answered back, hugging him even tighter than I had before and pressing my chest into his back.

“Yeah, yeah, Effy,” he said, turning around to hug me back and return the embrace.

“Ahem, if you don’t mind, I’d enjoy keeping my breakfast down, thank you,” Louis said, letting his sass kick in. Kick in? What was I even saying? This boy always let his sass take over, not giving a single shit when it came to looking downright sassy. He had to keep his cool in front of fans and maintain the maturity that he could but sometimes it would still, falter and slip through, however it commonly only made us laugh.

“Leave the couple be, wouldn’t want to disturb them on their joyous occasion,” Niall chimed in, always having to add his two cents into the mix; “three cents” as he would put it, just because he liked to be a wanker smart arse.

“Acting like we didn’t see you two holding hands in the backseat of the car last night, you think we’re that dull?” Liam questioned, however still smirking a bit. Liam was usually the one who would get the boys to simmer down about these kinds of jokes, but now he seemed to be adding along to the banter clearly as some sort of payback for what I had done a few hours ago.

All of the boys filed out besides Harry and I had heard Liam call for him, still playing up his dish of revenge, “Harry, what are you doing? Get out here; leave the lovebirds to their business.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I eat something,” Harry said, his feet firmly planted on the kitchen floor surface, arms crossed over his chest. I turned to him and laughed and replied, “The boys are just being stupid. You don’t have to go any—”

“HARRY, GET OUT HERE NOW! YOU MUST TICKLE MY PICKLE AT ONCE!” Louis screamed, hurriedly running in the kitchen and pulling Harry away against his own will out of the kitchen.

“I don’t understand why they always do this with us,” Zayn mumbled, his cheeks turning a pinkish colour, obviously getting embarrassed.

It was true, the boys had always paired Zayn and I up for some reason. Except for Harry and Liam, they just thought it was a stupid, foolish thing. Well, it’s not necessarily that they paired us, but Niall and Lou were constantly making jokes about Zayn and I being together or hooking up with one another. I even talked to Lou about it once privately. He swore they were just joking but I couldn’t help but feel like there was some truth behind that joke.

“Zayn, don’t even bother listening to them. They love being pests and starting things up, you know that,” I reasoned, lightly pressing my hand upon his shoulder, feeling somewhat bad. Maybe he didn’t even want to be paired with me, I would be embarrassed to.

I wasn’t anything special, not pretty in the slightest, and I was dull; just plain, boring, old Effy. I didn’t blame Zayn for acting the way he did, when the truth behind the matter was he probably didn’t want people to think we were together because of me. I would be embarrassed to be seen with me, so I couldn’t hold it against Zayn to feel the same, if that was what he actually felt.

“Even Liam is doing it today; he’s usually the sensible one with these things. But not today, he seems to be pressing it the most,” he sighed, running a hair to his quiff, playing around with it a bit, just ruffling through it.

I bit my lip as I thought about the fact that I wasn’t good enough for Zayn; why did I even care?

“Don’t even let Liam bug you, he’s just paying me back for how I scared him earlier. You should have seen him, nearly jumped out of his socks. He was trembling and everything, so he just wants to give it back. Don’t let it get to you Zayn,” I replied, trying to somewhat soothe Zayn, although I felt like shit since I felt like Zayn would rather be caught dead than seen dating me.

“I just hate how they try to make things awkward; honestly whether or not we were dating it wouldn’t be their business anyway, so why bud in?” Zayn defensively shot out, taking me back a bit.

I had seen Zayn get angry and very frustrated at times, but never this bad with the rest of the boys. of course there had been some mini squabbles and banter back and forth, but I had never seen Zayn look so ticked off with the boys before.

“Just ignore them, seriously, it’s really nothing to worry about,” I reassured him, smiling at him and trying to get him to calm down. He smiled back and put all of my food on my dish. “Dig in,” he said, smiling at me and then walking away.

For some reason the fact of Zayn being embarrassed of me was still sort of bothering me…



“Harry, you prick, give me my sweater back!” I yelled, chasing him around the table trying to grab my sweater. The AC was on full blast which meant I was freezing.

“Why should I? Thanks to you and Zayn flirting this morning, you fucked my breakfast,” Harry said, squinting his eyes at me. This crazed fucker, keeping me from the warmth and comfort of my sweater, I seriously wished I was rude enough to kick him in the balls.

“We weren’t fucking flirting you old bat, now stop being a dick and give me back my sweater. I’m absolutely freezing cold!” I shouted at him, beginning to become sort of angry.

Harry and I had never actually had a big fight; we saw them more as tiffs we would get into, but nothing ever major that had severely impacted our friendship.

“Oh, well, someone’s acting quite feisty about Zayn rumours. I’d say you’re bluffing when you claim to not have flirted. I think it’s rubbish,” Harry said smirking at me, dangling the sweater above my head now, since I had come into contact with him by standing just right in front of him.

“You know damn well that it wasn’t us flirting, you’ve even said it yourself how you think the boys are acting like complete idiots when they say we’re together and hiding it from you,” I now answered, trying to figure out the game Harry was playing. He thought he was sly and cheeky, but he was crazy if he thought he would get anything past me. I just wouldn’t allow it.

“I’ve come to some speculation, I guess you could say,” he answered looking me in the eyes, searching for anything that might indicate I was making up stories about how Zayn and I weren’t together, looking for any hint of fabrication in my statements.

I caught him off guard and snatched my sweater from his fingers, to which he tried to retort but prying it from my hands but I wouldn’t allow it. With one last tug, it was firmly in my grip and I announced, “Well then, maybe Zayn and I are fucking. The world may never know.” With that I walked off coolly, as if I hadn’t just said what I did, off to the living room.

I genuinely had no idea what had just come over me to be honest; I really couldn’t understand why I would create more confusion amongst the boys, leading them to believe Zayn and I were an item. I think it was just the frustration building up and the burning to know why Zayn wouldn’t want them to think we were flirting.

Or maybe I just liked fucking with people too much.

As I sat in the living room, sweater pulled over me and completely warm and cozy now, a half hour after getting my sweater back, I heard a loud squeal from the kitchen.

All of a sudden, Lou appeared in the living room immediately and shouted, “I knew it!”
Taken back quite a bit, even somewhat frightened, I yelled back, “You knew what?! You started me you arsehole.”

“You and Zayn, I was so sure of it. Niall and I always knew but the other boys never even bothered to look. We knew it all along, we so knew it,” Lou kept repeating over and over again, doing some sort of happy dance along with it.

“Lou, please fill me in on what the fuck you’re talking about,” I said, not understanding at first, but then realizing what he had been talking about.

My stupid remark that I hadn’t even known why I said it in the first place; my mouth was bound to get me in trouble someday.

“Word spreads fast, you and Zayn fucking, yeah?” He said, giving me one of those smiles where he grinned real big and squinted his eyes.

“It was just a joke because I wanted my sweater back I was fucking around with Harry, that’s it,” I said, trying to resolve this before it became an issue.

Zayn seemed pretty pissed today when the boys were all talking about us, so the last thing he needed to hear was how I mysteriously somewhat confirmed sex between us that hadn’t even existed.

“Wow, thanks for getting my hopes up,” Lou said, suddenly discouraged and unexcited.

I smiled at his defeat, only for him to mischievously smile and raise his head and say, “However, it’s like you said. The world may never know, so don’t think I’m not onto you, Ef.”

“Lou—”

“Nope, I’ve got my eye on you, Ef. I’ll get to the bottom of this if it’s the last thing I do,” he said, walking off towards the staircase leading towards his room.

So now the boys would think Zayn and I had sex, all because I had acted on a stupid impulse, that at this point I kind of wish I could take back.

Fan-fucking-tastic.