Two Way Street

The anger burned inside of me at Zayn’s actions, but I suppressed it, not wanting to ruin the good place that Mara and I were in at the moment. Whatever the hell that place actually was.

“Alright, I’ll see you later, okay?” I asked her, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. I wanted to kiss her for real, but I didn’t want to push anything. After all, knowing our track record, I wouldn’t have been surprised if three seconds from then, we were at each other’s throats.

“Okay,” she agreed, her eyes opening slowly as I pulled away from her. “See you.”

“Bye, Liam!” Harry sing-songed. “I’ll miss you!”

I let out a snicker but didn’t answer as I stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind me.

The walk over to Zayn’s flat seemed far too long, my feet pounding against the pavement with every step I took. I couldn’t help but feel betrayed by him. I trusted him when I told him about what had happened with Mara. And we’d discussed specifically how much Louis would want to rip my dick off if he found out what had happened.

Yet he went and told Louis anyway? He was supposed to be my best friend, and he still went behind my back?

The whole thing was completely confusing to me, and the more I thought about it, the redder my vision became.

When I finally stormed up to his apartment, I just threw the door open, not bothering to knock, just like he’d done a million freaking times to me. Something that best friends did to one another.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I screeched as I slammed the door behind me. I knew consciously that I should have entered the conversation somewhat calmly, that I should have explained my position with grace, but it didn’t matter in the moment. I just saw his face, and my insides exploded with fury.

Zayn brought his eyes up from his computer screen to look at me. Immediately, he blanched, but he didn’t turn submissive. “What do you mean?” he asked smoothly.

His nonchalance did nothing to soothe my temper. “What the fuck, Zayn? You know what I’m talking about. Don’t bullshit around with me right now.”

He swallowed and got to his feet, putting his laptop down next to him. “Liam, come on. I know you’re pissed, but-”

“Oh, Zayn, I think I’ve passed the line of pissed a long fucking time ago.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, whatever. I’m just saying that I did the same thing that you did with Mara; I just didn’t want Louis to get blindsided. I was protecting my friend.”

“By betraying a friend!” I snapped at him.

“You did the same thing, Liam. You can’t even start lecturing me right now because you had the same train of thought, like, a week ago.”

“This is totally different!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration. “First off, what I did to Mara was wrong. I know that. But secondly, she and I were not close. In fact, we greatly disliked each other, and we’d been getting on well for a matter of three hours when I called Louis to tell him I thought Harry and Mara were shagging. You and I have been friends for years. We’re best mates. How could you do that to me?”

He let out a sigh. “I…I just…I didn’t want Louis to get hurt.”

“So you hurt me instead?”

“I didn’t think of it that way.”

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide how much the statement hurt. “What, are you in love with him or something?”

“Oh, come on, Liam.” Zayn crossed his arms and shook his head. “You’re making it sound like the decision was easy for me. How would you feel, if you were in my situation? Shit like this breaks bands up, mate! I was just trying to go the route that I thought would cause the least damage.”

I let out a spiteful laugh, one that sounded harsh and mocking to my ears. “This is the least damage you could cause? Really, Zayn? Because I thought I had you on my side. And now I know that I don’t.”

“You know I’m on your side-”

“No, you’re not. If you go running to tattle on me to Louis…you’re not on my side. Good to know.”

“Liam, I think you’re being dramatic about this.”

I turned my back to him and went toward the door. I was going to say something cutting, something really dramatic, something that would keep him up at night, thinking about what he’d done.

In the end, I said, not facing him so as not to show how close I was to breaking down, "By the way, if I had been in your position, I would have taken your secret to the grave. Because that's what best mates do." And then, just to up the show factor, I marched into the hallway, slamming the door as hard as possible behind me.

As I walked to my flat, I could feel the anger draining out of me, leaving pain in its wake. It just sucked that the guy I thought was my best friend turned out to favor someone else over me.

That kind of made me sound immature, but it was just how I felt. I figured that I was closest with Zayn out of anyone in the band, and it meant absolutely nothing to him. He still searched for drama, a way to stir up the first really good thing that happened to me in a while.

And he definitely found the drama he looked for. I hoped he was happy, knowing that it was possible he was on his way to tearing apart the band for good.

It took me twice as long as usual to get to my flat, since I kept missing turns and things while I was deep in thought. But once I was inside, I kicked off my trainers and settled down on the couch, taking the remote in my hand and going through all the channels.

But no matter how hard I tried to get immersed in the football game I found, my thoughts kept drifting back to Zayn.

It just pissed me off, really. I should have let my thoughts drift of to Mara, how great things were going to be, shit like that.

But instead, I sat and seethed about my so-called best friend. And worried about what Louis was going to do with me the next time he saw me.

God, being in a boy band was way more drama than I figured it was going to be. Granted, I wasn’t sure how much longer the band was going to stay together with the drama that kept getting thrown around.

Mara was officially starting to become the Yoko factor.