Taking Chances

I walked back into Zayn’s apartment and closed the door behind me, biting my lip to keep from smiling too widely. I was just so thrilled that Louis and I were okay with each other again, that a dramatic situation was completely resolved before it exploded into something really horrific.

“Good morning,” a voice came from beside me.

My heart leaped into my throat as I jumped and gasped for air, totally scared out of my mind, as I checked the source of the noise.

Rebecca was standing in front of the stove, using Zayn’s tiny frying pan to make pancakes one at a time. She had changed into a flowy purple dress, and her dark hair was up in a curly side-ponytail.

She laughed at my reaction as she flipped over the pancake. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s alright.” I laughed off my embarrassment as I sat down at the table, turning the chair around to face her. Watching her make breakfast made my stomach growl. With all the excitement that had happened that morning, I completely forgot about eating.

“What are you so happy about?” Rebecca questioned with a smirk.

“What?” I shot back, wiping the smile off my face.

She just turned and gave me a look, which made me chuckle as I caved. “Alright, alright. So…there was this drama with Louis, and I was irritated with him, but then we talked about it this morning. And we’re fine now.”

“Drama? What about?” she asked nonchalantly as she took the pancake out of the pan and put it on top of the stack on the counter next to her.

I felt almost awkward as I said, “He’s kind of…in love with me.” Even the words didn’t seem real to me. The idea just seemed ridiculously farfetched.

“Oh. That.” She flipped over the pancake with the spatula.

I stared at her. “Wait, what? You knew?!”

She snorted and shook her head, calling me pathetic without saying a word. “Of course I knew. I have eyes, Bailey. I saw the way he looked at you. And the way he greeted you when he saw you again at Emerson? Kind of hard to miss the signs.” Rebecca glanced over at my shocked expression and added, “Or…I guess it’s not that hard if it’s you…?”

I blew a piece of hair out of my face in exasperation. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Wasn’t my secret to tell.” She turned and smiled at me. “I knew you’d find out eventually.”

I stared at her. “Alright, enough about my soap opera. What happened with Liam?”

A blush enveloped her face while she backed up and turned off the stove. I waited patiently as she got out plates, silverware, cups, syrup, butter, milk, and orange juice, carrying them to the table one at a time.

Finally, she put the big stack of pancakes in the middle, and I snapped, “What are you doing? Are you trying to kill me with suspense?!”

She flushed again as she settled down into the seat across from me. “No.”

“Then start talking, woman!” I laughed and took some pancakes before pouring on enough syrup to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Instead of doing as I asked, Rebecca waited a bit more, her cheeks getting redder, as she poured herself some orange juice.

I glared at her for what seemed like an hour before she finally sighed and said, “It was really awesome.”

I stopped chewing and stared at her, waiting for an elaboration. But she wasn’t giving me anything. “Rebecca, I swear to God, you better not leave me with that. You’re killing me here.”

She burst out laughing. “Alright, alright. You should see your face, by the way.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and started eating again. “By the way, these are fantastic. Please keep cooking.”

“Oh, I’ll always cook for you,” she assured me. “But anyway, Liam and I went out for breakfast, and that was really nice. We hung out at his apartment and watched Toy Story. Well, we kind of watched Toy Story. Mostly, we just talked a lot.”

I knew I was grinning creepily at her, so full of emotion over the fact that she and Liam were getting along so well, but she was nice enough not to point it out. “What else?” I urged on when she stopped telling the story.

“Nothing much. We just talked a lot. Until three in the morning.” But there was obviously something she wasn’t saying, judging by the explosion of color on her face.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I questioned suspiciously, narrowing my eyes and smirking.

“Um…okay, so maybe right after I said I was going to leave, Liam might have…” She flushed deeper, which I hadn’t thought was possible, and made eye contact only with the tablecloth. “He might have leaned over to kiss me.”

“OH MY GOD!” I exclaimed, an enormous grin dominating all my features. “Did you kiss him back?! Did you like it? Oh my God, you liked it, didn’t you?!”

Rebecca let out a small cough. “Um, I kind of turned away at the last second and he kissed my earlobe.”

Unable to control myself, I burst out laughing, not even caring if I woke up Zayn in the other room. “Rebecca, honey…why did you make him kiss your ear?”

She blushed again. “I just…I don’t know! I panicked. It was late, and we were both going crazy with exhaustion, and I…I guess I didn’t think he meant to do it? Or something?”

“Do you want to kiss him?” I asked, a knowing smile on my face. By then, my pancakes were in stand-by while I approached this subject. Because there was no way I could focus on anything else, not even for a second.

“Yeah, I guess,” she admitted in the smallest voice in the world. “I really like him. But like I’ve said before, I’m just scared. I’ve never really done this before.”

“Trust me,” I reassured her, reaching across the table to put my hand over hers, “Liam’s not going to care. Just tell him about it.” I let out a groan as something crossed my mind. “After he tried to kiss you, did you go darting out of the apartment and come back here?”

“Um…no?”

“REBECCA!” I threw a napkin at her, chuckling when her face scrunched up as it hit her nose. “Honey, what are you still doing here?”

“Eating breakfast…?”

“You’re stalling, aren’t you? That’s why you made breakfast.”

“No! I thought you’d want me to make you something. I saw that you charred a pan making eggs yesterday.”

I laughed as I blushed. “Shut up. You’re changing the subject. Just admit it: you wanted something to take your mind off talking to Liam.”

She said nothing, which said everything.

“Alright, after breakfast, you’re going to talk to him, whether I have to push you down the hallway and force you to.”

She looked like she was going to whine at me, but a warning glare from me turned it into a laugh. “Fine, fine, I’ll do it. After I wash the dishes.”

“You’re not washing any dishes,” I told her with a raised eyebrow. “Zayn will do the dishes.”

“He didn’t even eat anything.”

I thought about that for a second. “Oh, I should probably wake him up and let him know breakfast is waiting, huh?”

“Probably,” Rebecca laughed.

With that, I skid my chair across the floor loudly and went into my boyfriend’s bedroom to wake him up for food.