When Things Got Messy

I looked around at my "friends" and wondered how we had gotten like this. I knew that things had gotten bad, but it changed. We were supposed to be friends again, but it only got worse. All because of one mishap we would always be that group of friends and I would forever be the girlfriend of that guy. Probably the entire town thought we did it, but that just wasn't the case. We were innocent. It sure as hell didn't look that way, but it truly wasn't our fault.

I looked around the room and there was barely a friendly smile or look in sight. I could even tell that my own parents had a slight doubt. I don't blame them, we did look pretty bad. Hell, if I was anyone but myself right now, sitting and watching, I would have thought the same thing.
I just wish for a slight moment we could just go back to when things were easier and life was good. If I closed my eyes, it seemed just yesterday we were younger and had been another hot summer day spent at my house. If I just closed my eyes I could picture it perfectly.

My family lived in the biggest home in the middle of the cul de sac, the Styles' lived next to us on the right, and the Paynes to the left. The Jonas' lived on the other side of the Styles' home, while the Horans lived to the left of the Paynes. The Peazers lived two doors down from the Jonas' and the Calders next to the Horans. Ms. Malik lived in the middle of the Peazers and the Jonas', but her nephew that came to visit her every other summer hardly ever came outside.

Everyone had come over with their parents for a cul de sac get together for the last day of summer. The mothers sat in the kitchen and shared the town gossip, while the fathers piled into the den to watch sports and drink cold beers. I sat in the freshly cut grass on the far side of my backyard, playing peacefully with my Barbies, watching my friends. Louis, Harry, Nick, and Eleanor gathered around the pool to watch Joe do a crazy stunt. Joe was the one to be trying the craziest things. He was known by the whole town as "Danger". Liam stood next to Joe, begging him to rethink his actions. Liam was always the one to be attempting to get everyone to behave, but he was called a hypocrite, because every once in a while would get a little rebellious himself.
Niall stood hopelessly at the glass door, that lead to the kitchen, begging my mom for another snack; while Danielle practiced her dance routines near by. She would do this for hours to make sure her movements were tight and perfect.

I shook my head at them and went back to playing. It wasn't long before my dolls were ripped from my hands. I looked up to see Harry, Nick, and Joe, dolls in hand, looking down at me. I began to scream at them as they began to rip the heads off.

"Come on guys leave her alone," Louis, my brother, yelled from the other side of the yard, wanting his friends back. I rolled my eyes knowing they wouldn't listen to him. I stood and wiped the dirt off my skirt before speaking.

"You have three seconds to put their heads back on before I kick all of your butts," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"Bull crap, you're not going to do anything," Harry said. I looked at him with wide eyes, back then the statement 'bull crap' was just as bad as saying the actual thing. Now that I think of it I shouldn't have been so surprised, Harry had always been the naughty one.

"You really think so," I asked him, grabbing him by his shirt collar which probably looked ridiculous considering he towered over me.

"I know so," he said with a smirk, obviously not taking me seriously.

"Fine," I said letting go of him. "You have three seconds to either start putting my dolls back together or to get a head start."

"You won't," Joe said.

"One," I began to count.

"We aren't scared of a girl,"Nick said.

"Two," I said slowly but they didn't budge. "You're running out of time," I said hoping they would just give me my dolls but they still didn't move. "Fine, three," I said and before I knew it I was chasing them all over the yard. Soon enough we had taken our game of cat and mouse into the woods behind my house. We ran through the trees for what felt like hours. It wasn't long before I had lost them and I was left all alone. I sighed hopelessly and made my way to the large tree where my tree house was. Just as I began to climb the ladder I heard twigs snapping underneath someone's shoe.

"If that's Harry, Nick, or Joe I swear if you don't leave me alone," I yelled out, but there was no response, as the noise happened again. "If you're trying to scare me it won't work," I yelled again. There was no response once again. I began to slowly walk towards the noise. I could feel my heart beginning to beat harder as I inched closer. "Hello," I asked and just as I got close enough a pair of brown eyes popped out from behind the tree.

"Sorry," the boy said, beginning to walk away.

"Don't go," I said grabbing onto his arm. "You didn't do anything wrong," I said, giving him a warm smile. "You're Ms. Malik's nephew right," I asked. He just nodded his head, avoiding eye contact. "I'm Aria," I said smiling.

"Zayn," he said with a crooked grin.

"Well Zayn, do you wanna come back to my house? We're having a small party and I-," I began.

"No thanks," he said. "I don't like big groups," he said, his smile fading and with that he began to walk away.

"But I'll see you around right," I called after him.

"Maybe next summer," he called back. I smiled to myself as I watched him disappear.

There wouldn't be a next summer. I wouldn't see Zayn again until our high school years, after the split happened. That was when we really screwed ourselves over, the year he came to stay. Zayn was the last addition to our group and maybe everyone was right and he did cause trouble, but could I really blame him for our problems? That was his problem, everyone seemed to blame him even if he wasn't at fault. Either way the nine of us would end up in deep trouble while the tenth would end up deep... six feet deep.