Two Way Street

Mimicking how Louis had woken me up a few days earlier, I slammed my fist against the door repeatedly. “LOUIS WILLIAM TOMLINSON!”

It only took a few seconds for the door to fly open, revealing a very amused Louis. “You’ve got balls,” he told me approvingly. “I hadn’t expected that.”

I grinned at him widely and slipped by him into the flat. “Just giving you a bit of your own,” I responded, surveying the living room. “Where’s Hazza?”

“I’m not sure,” Louis admitted. “Maybe helping Zayn get the drinks for the football game?”

I nodded. “Oh, alright.” A short silence fell between us, so I spoke up, “What are the teams going to be, anyway?”

“I am quite glad you asked that,” Louis laughed, pulling himself up to sit on kitchen table. “I’ve decided that we’ll have a massive game of rock-paper-scissors, and the winner will get to choose his player first, and the second-place person will get to pick second, and it’ll switch off like that.”

Staring, I stated, “You only did that because you always beat us at rock-paper-scissors, didn’t you?”

“Absolutely,” he agreed. After a fast glance at the clock, he jumped down. “Alright, we best be heading to the football pitch now. I’m pretty sure that Zayn, Harry, and Niall will be waiting for us. If not Mara, too.”

I suppressed a groan that threatened to emerge when Mara’s name was mentioned.

“Hey, mate,” Louis started as we went out into the hallway, “you promised you’d give her a chance. I’m telling you, she’s working on being better. She’s not trying to make you hate her.”

“I know,” I sighed. “And I will give her a chance. I’m trying to keep an open mind, but I keep thinking back to the Wet Mop thing…”

“Well, you didn’t have much of a personality when you first met her, I’ll give her that.” He turned to lock the door behind him. “All you did was gawk at her.”

“I was trying to get a read on her,” I admitted embarrassedly.

“And how’d that go for you?”

“Not too well.”

Louis snickered at me. “She’s not an easy bird to read at all. I should have warned you of that.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I responded seriously. “I’ve figured it out myself.”

* * *

“OKAY!” Louis screamed once we’d all gathered in the middle of the pitch. “Let’s all pair off. Liam, you’re against Niall. Zayn, against Harry. And Mara, baby, you’re going down.”

We all chuckled at Louis’ competitiveness and paired off. Niall was standing in front of me, assuming the proper rock-paper-scissors position: leaned over a little, butt sticking out, one fist resting in the other open hand. “You’re toast, Payne,” he told me, trying to sneer, but it wasn’t intimidating in the least.

“Bring it, Horan,” I fired back, mocking him by exaggerating the stance he was in.

“READY?!” Louis shouted far too loudly for a group of only six people. “OKAY. ROCK…PAPER…SCISSORS…SHOOT!”

I threw out a rock, since I figured that Niall would assume I would go for the paper, therefore choosing scissors for himself. And I turned out to be right.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “This game is a cheat.”

“Yeah, okay,” I responded with a laugh. “Who am I facing?”

“The winner of Harry and Zayn’s game,” Louis answered, moping. Which meant he lost to Mara.

Harry let out a groan. “ZAYN. Stop picking the same thing as me!”

“How am I supposed to know what you’re going to pick?” Zayn shot back with irritation potent in his voice.

Finally, Harry came out victorious, and he threw a finger in Zayn’s face. “TAKE THAT! Bradford Bad Boy, my arse. You can’t even play good rock-paper-scissors.”

“I’m going to put out one of my cigarettes on your head,” Zayn threatened.

“Ouch,” I laughed. “Alright, c’mon, Harry. Let’s go.”

Harry turned toward me before glancing over at Mara. “Wait, boobear, how’s this going to work? There are three of us left.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that…” Louis trailed off, totally ignoring Harry's adaptation of the nickname. “Um, okay, Mara automatically advances. Whoever wins between Harry and Liam faces her, and then whoever wins that will get to pick first.”

I let out a sigh and turned toward Harry. “Ready?” I questioned.

He nodded, a couple of curls tumbling onto his forehead.

“Rock…paper…scissors…SHOOT,” I yelled, throwing out a paper.

And he put out rock.

“GOD DAMMIT,” he groaned, digging the toe of his trainer into the dirt. “I hate you.”

“Love you, too,” I smirked. “Alright, Mara, are you ready for this?”

She looked over at me, seemingly surprised that I addressed her directly. “You bet, Liam,” she replied.

It was my turn to be surprised. I figured she didn’t even know my real name. “Let’s go, then.”

For the first few times, we both picked the same thing, and it was coming down to the wire. My heart was actually beginning to race over the anxiety of who was going to come out the winner.

Finally, I threw down scissors, and she had picked rock.

“YES!” she exclaimed, fist-pumping into the air. “Alright, so for my team…”