Just Give Up

"I should go now." He said, turning around on his heel to face me.

"Right." I agreed and led him through the mansion, out to the front.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow.." Zayn began, going slow down the front steps.

"Yeah."

"What time should I be here by?" He asked me, now standing on the last step.

"Give me time to sleep in," I faked a yawn, "Your girlfriend does need her sleep." I joked.

"You're right." He agreed, totally missing the sarcasm behind my words. "I'll be here by two o'clock then."

I was ready to correct him, telling him I was merely joking, but he had already turned around.

Damn it.

I watched him walking down the driveway. I waited for him to turn and look behind him but he doesn't. Turning the corner, he was no longer in my vision. I walk back inside, slowly closing the door behind me and leaned against it.

Zayn was my body guard, and now, my boyfriend. I didn't care if we were just pretend dating. He was mine.

I spend the rest of the night watching movies, falling asleep at around eleven that night. Waking up, I notice the laptop is no longer on my lap. It was on the floor next to my bed. Francis must have came into my room in the middle of the night and put it there. Remembering yesterday's events, I boot up my laptop, logging straight onto twitter. I wanted to read what all his fans were saying.

I read through the comments, not sure of what to think. Many of his fans were praising him for being in a relationship with me. The other half weren't. That was predictable. There were some pretty brutal comments in there too but some of them were so unrealistic, that I didn't feel affected. There was one comment that caught my eye.

@hannahstylesss Wow.. I can't believe that you really did drop Perrie for that girl from the mall..

I frowned after reading it a third time over. Who was this Perrie chick, anyway? They weren't dating. Zayn never mentioned it to me. He never mentioned her name at all, so why was she all caught up about it?

"Whatevs," I say, attempting to shrug off the comment.

10:24 AM

I took a quick shower, slipping into a pair of white Capris and one of my favorite sweaters. I don't feel like having my hair out, so I put it up in a half-bun, leaving some loose strands out. After I'm done, I make my way into the dining hall. Francis is no where in sight, but the table is filled with food.

Thanks Francis.

I eat in silence, humming the tune to one of One Direction's songs.

I would walk through the desert,
I would walk down the aisle
I would swim all the oceans,
Just to see you smile-Whatever it takes, is fine.

I tapped my foot to the beat unconsciously. Today strangely felt like a good day.

Or maybe it's because I'm no longer on house arrest.

After breakfast, I hung around my mother's garden, actually helping water the flowers. I hadn't done that in so long. Tulips were popping up everywhere, and there wasn't a weed in sight. In the end, I just stayed in the gazebo, relaxing with the comfort of the soft breeze.

I know your hearts been broken but don't you give up
I'll be there yeah I know it to fix you with love
It hurts me to think that you've ever cried


Busy singing, I totally forget the time. I was in a pre-summer daze, basking in the sunlight.

"And I won't be leaving. 'til I've finished stealing every piece of your heart!" I practically belted out the words.

A voice from behind startles me, and I jump up from fright. "I think you were off-key on that last bit." Zayn says, stepping up from the opposote side of the gazebo.

I whip around to face him. He isn't in formal attire today, but instead, was donning a casual outfit. He laughs at the look of shock on my face.

"I'm just kidding."

"I know, I was just surprised." I sat back down, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks, taking a seat across from me.

I open my mouth to reply-I was thinking of going back to the mall. Or if not, a different one. But I'm interrupted by the sound of his ringtone going off.

It's an instrumental to one of his songs, but I can't remember which one.

"Hold on," He says, before turning away and picking up the call. "Hello?" I can hear his thick British accent returning.

"HEY! What's this we hear? In a relationship with Renee now, aye? Didn't tell us that that was a part of your job now!" I hear someone from the other end say.

Zayn turns back to look at me, and laughs. "Hey Niall, sorry about that.. I..."

Zayn's voice fades as he walks deeper in the garden. Turning away, I head to the water fountain. I try to count the minutes he's been away for, but stop after five. Looking for something to do, I decide to play with the water, scooping it up with my hands. I see his shadow coming closer, but I act like I don't notice him.

"The boys are in town for this week taking a break.. And they were wondering if we'd like to hang out with them." He began, "Do you want? And then we could make a public appearance another time?"

A public appearance? Was that what he thought we were going to do today? Did he forget that he was my body guard?

Shoving away my pissed off thoughts, I nod my head. "Mhm," I mumble, not trusting myself with words.

"Great then, let's go!" He holds his hand out for me to take it since I was crouching down the fountain.

I hesitated to take it, but I do anyway. It's the least he can do as my body guard. We stop by my room so I can gather a few things into a bag. I pull my hair out of a bun and brush though it a few times before wearing a black headband in to stick it in place. I change my flip flops for denim toms.

I didn't know what to say on the ride there. We had the radio on, which was good but the thought of Perriewas still in the corner of my mind. I bit my lip in concentration. How in the world am I going to bring her up?

"Have you checked your twitter yet?" I asked, regretting it right after when he glanced over at me with confusion.

"Not since yesterday, why?"

"I was reading through a few who replied to your uh..photo of us and one of them was talking
about this Perrie girl.. Who is she? She was mentioned yesterday too." I sheepishly look out the window, not wanting to make eye contact.

"We used to date.. But after we had a date again, we ended up getting caught by our fans' replies. (You mean yours?) We felt really embarrassed.. So nothing happened after our date."

I didn't ask anymore questions about Perrie, or any in general. Instead we listened to the music on the radio. After a few minutes, we were pulling into some Hotel's parking lot. Zayn runs around the car to open my side. I awkwardly thank him and then follow him to the hotel. Only taking two steps away from the car, Zayn turns around and runs up to me. He grabs my hand in his and I look at him in confusion.

What the fuck is going on? I mouth to him.

"The paps are in the lobby. Besides the entrace, we have no other way to get in so we gotta go in through the front. And to do so, we'll have to look like the couple we pretend to be." He replied in a hushed tone.

"Don't look so tough then!" I pull my hand out of his tight grasp, then re-intertwining our hands. "We need to look calm and carefree." I plaster a fake smile on my face, swinging his arm back and forth.

Just when we reach the front of the building, the two front doors burst open. Already the paps running up to us and forming a circle. Flashes of light everywhere. I don't know where we were going, but Zayn continued to pull me along.

"Zayn, can we have a word with you?"

"Zayn, Zayn, Zayn! Look over here! Can we ask you a quick question?"

"Zayn, is this your girlfriend?"

"Renee, can we see your face?"

I'm tempted to look up and yell at them to fuck off but I bite on my tongue. I panic when I feel Zayn let go of my hand. Instead, his arm wraps around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. "We're almost there." He whispers in my ear.

A few steps later, and we finally arrive in the lobby. We're greeted by someone named Pauly who takes us up to One Direction's room. In the elevator, I distance myself, letting go of him. There was no need to cling on to him like a sea urchin. With a loud ding, we were shoved out of the elevator and onto the eighth floor.

"The first door on the right after turning the corner." Pauly tells us before disappearing.

Hesitantly, I follow Zayn down the hallway. "Here we are!" He grins, knocking on the door.

Within a few moments, the door is flung open. "ZAYN!" a curly-brown haired guy yells before tackling him to the floor.

"Harry, Hi!" Zayn yells back.

I wince, backing away from the scene. Within moments the other three arrive. Louis, Niall and Liam shout their hellos before they help the two get up, not noticing that I was there. Awkwardly I stand behind them who group hug. They begin to talk in an animated conversation, but Niall is the one to first notice me. We lock eyes and he smiles, raising a hand to wave. I feel my cheeks burning but I wave back.

"You must be Renee," He says, breaking from the group and walking over to me. "I'm Niall."

"Yeah, I-I know." I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

Just then, Zayn and everyone else turns around to look at us. He raises his eyebrows at me, but doesn't say anything. Louis runs up to us, and slings his arm over Niall's shoulder.

"So. You're Zayn's girlfriend." His eyes narrowed down, analyzing my face.

"Pretend girlfriend." I corrected him.

"That's not what we heard!" Harry yells from beside Zayn, and he elbows him in reply.

"It's nice to finally meet you Renee," Liam says calmly, interrupting Harry. "Why don't we go inside?"

Everyone shuffles inside. I wait to go in last, but Zayn waits for me by the doorway while everyone was already inside. He still has that same unknown expression on his face.

"What?" I asked him, stepping inside the room.

"Nothing." he replies coolly, closing the door behind him.

The boys are already on the couches, two pizza boxes already out open with a box full with soda. A bowl of chips is sitting in Niall's lap. The whole couch is already filled with Louis, Niall and Harry on one, with Liam sitting on the hand rest. The love seat was empty, perpendicular to the couch, was empty. Louis snickered at the sight of us.

Are we supposed to sit there?

The TV is on, playing a movie I don't recognize, but Niall is so into it that he doesn't notice when I come into view, awkwardly sitting on the edge of the love seat. Zayn, on the other hand, casually plops himself beside me.

"How's things going?" Zayn sparks the conversation.

"Good." They all reply in perfect unison.

I sat there, watching them all talk to each other. Or should I say yelling? Niall was busy multi-tasking, eating chips while watching the movie and at the same time, was listening to the conversation. Harry and Zayn toss a pillow at each other back and fourth, asking about tour, productions and everything else that I couldn't quite catch on. Liam and I on the other hand continue to stare at each other with curiousity.

"What?" I finally said out loud.

They all turn to look at me. "I don't know, you tell me!" Liam grins.

"You're the one looking at me." I pointed out, crossing my arms.

"But why are you looking back at me? He shoots back.

I stuck my tongue out, not knowing what to say. I hated being caught off guard. To save myself, I grab a slice of pizza on the table. The movie ends but they don't notice. Niall brings out his guitar and they start to play some music. I nod my head to the beat, watching them. But then I noticed there was only four of them.

Niall on his guitar, Harry at the drum kit tapping some beat while Zayn and Louis stood around them. Where was Liam? No sooner did I ask myself that question when Liam arrived and sat down beside me.

"Sorry about earlier, I was only teasing 'yeh. Want to play a game?" He holds up one hand, showing off a Red 3DS.

"You're on!" I agreed to play against him, finally not feeling out of place.

We play five rounds, and I end up winning three of them. "You're pretty good at this!" Liam remarked in surprise.

I laughed at the surprise expression on his face.

By the end of the night, I become good friends with Liam. Later on, Louis switches with Liam and joins in but it's a tie, and we both win two games. I steal glances at Zayn every now and then, and I smile. He was finally where he wanted to be.

With his friends.