Kissing Fire.

It was nearing 10:32 when I heard another groan erupt from Marina’s throat. That had been at least the twelfth in the past hour. I let out a small groan of my own as I pulled myself from the couch and made my way to her bedroom.

“Marines? You almost ready, babe?” I questioned lightly as I slowly pushed the door open. She glanced up at me from her spot on the bed with a completely distraught look upon her face.

“We should just fucking cancel. This is stupid,” she huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. She could be so childish sometimes. Though she was only eighteen.

“Ha ha, very funny. We are not cancelling. You’ve only been dreaming of doing something like this since you discovered these boys!” I retorted as I started toward her.

“Well I don’t want to meet them looking like this!” she cried as she flailed her arms.

“And what is wrong with the way you look?” I inquired, cocking my hip and placing a hand on my waist.

“I just- I don’t know how to finish it and I just look stupid. You can always just throw on whatever and look flawless and-“

“I do not ‘always look flawless’! But that’s beside the point. You look gorgeous. Just throw on your suede black platforms that I love, that blue bracelet you got on the boardwalk, and…this!” I exclaimed as I plucked a necklace from her dresser. “Boom. You’re welcome, let’s go!” I chirped as I pulled her off the bed.

“But my hair looks like a fucking bird’s nest, Em,” she whined as she grudgingly went to slip her feet into her heels.

“So throw it up. You always pull off the whole ‘messy bun’ thing perfectly. Sh’mon, darling!” I called as I gave her a slap on the ass and pranced from the room.

It’s safe to say I was extremely excited for dinner. Not only was I starving, but I got to see Zayn again. And his attractive band mates. Thankfully, a minute or two later Marina decided she could leave the apartment. I snatched my cardigan off the back of the couch before we locked up and headed down to the street to hail a cab.

Roughly twenty minutes later we arrived at our destination, which turned out to be some sort of upscale burger joint, if that makes any sense. Trust me, I was a little confused myself. Judging by the paps and the small group of girls decked out in One Direction gear, I was assuming that the boys were already inside. Though this place had made quite a name for itself and I wasn’t too sure how we were supposed to get in. Whoops. As I pulled my phone from my clutch, I watched Marina go up to the burly man at the door and speak with him. Literally a second later, she had turned on her heel and was making her way back over.

“He said no one’s getting in. Now what?” Her eyebrows were knit together and she looked a bit crestfallen. I knew she was really looking forward to this. Typically, Zayn had to pick somewhere that would be packed.

“I’ll just call Zayn. Don’t you worry your pretty little head,” I answered before finding Mr. Malik’s name in my phone and clicking on it.

“’lo?” he answered after a few rings. I let out a mini sigh of relief. Part of me was terrified he wouldn’t answer.

“Hey, Zayn. We’re uhm, outside the restaurant. This place is packed and apparently the bouncer or whatever is a total prick,” I replied with a small sigh.

“Ya alrigh’, babe? Give me a minute, I’ll come out and get you two.”

“Okay, that sounds good! I’ll see you soon,” I spoke before we exchanged casual goodbyes and hung up. Not even a minute and a half later, I was met with those familiar hazel-y brown eyes. He flashed me a quick smile before ushering us inside, not even giving the “bouncer” a parting glance. Seriously, what burger joint has a bouncer? Once we were inside he gave me a proper hug and kiss on the cheek before introducing himself to Marina and giving her the same greeting.

“Come on, let’s go find the boys!” And with that, we moved further into the restaurant, past lots of couples and groups of people in their twenties. Though I suppose I wasn’t too surprised at the clientele, given the hour and the place’s notoriety for their spiked milkshakes. Toward the back of the restaurant at a sort of huge, curved booth, we found the four remaining members of One Direction. Surprisingly, they all quickly shuffled out of the booth when we arrived to introduce themselves. Marina’s eyes were practically glittering as she went down the row of them and I couldn’t keep back a small giggle. This of course caught the attention of the band’s youngest member, who took this as an opportunity to step closer.

“Hello, gorgeous,” he purred as he pulled me into his body for a quick, but strong embrace. Judging by the look in his eye and the immediate compliment, I was willing to bet that this was the infamous Harry Styles.

“You must be Harry. I’ve heard loads about you, dear,” I said as my eyebrows rose and a subtle smirk rested on my lips.

“All rumors, I’m sure. I’d be happy to put them to bed. Anything else I can take to bed? You, perhaps?” he answered cheekily with a smirk of his own. And then I did something that was probably a little rude. I laughed. Loudly. Right in his face.

“You’re disgusting,” I spoke between laughs before Zayn’s arm was around my waist.

“Shall we look at the menu?” he asked before leading me toward the booth. “Behave, Harry!” he called over his shoulder as we both slid onto the plush leather seat. By the time I had finished scooting into a spot, I realized that I was sandwiched between Zayn and Louis, which was not a problem with me. Based on the few videos Marina had made me watch, he seemed like a nice guy with a good sense of humor. Sign me up. Next to Lou was Niall, who was closely followed by Marina. I soon realized that I was directly in the middle, Liam being flanked by Zayn and Harry, who could not stop looking at me, unfortunately.

About twenty minutes later, I was sipping on an alcohol-free milkshake as everyone chattered about while we waited for our meals.

“So which of you have girlfriends?” I asked randomly, purely out of curiosity. From my left, Louis let out an exaggerated gasp.

“You don’t know?” he practically cried, causing me to laugh probably more than I should have. But it was late and I was giddy, being around so many attractive foreign boys.

“Pardon me for not knowing everything about your lives!” I retorted, causing him to join me in my laughter.

“No, no, thank you. It’s nice talking to someone who doesn’t already ‘know’ us,” Liam jumped in easily, finger quotes and all. I couldn’t help but smile. Woohoo, brownie points for Emerson. I also couldn’t help but notice Marina glance down at her hands nervously, though. She was one of those people who knew more about the boys than was considered appropriate. I mean, she wasn’t some creep who knew every single detail, but still. I shot her my most reassuring look when I caught her eye. “But anyway!” Liam piped back up, “I’ve got a wonderful girlfriend named Danielle. She’s absolutely brilliant, you’ll have to meet her,” he spoke easily. Whoa, meet his girlfriend? Did that mean they planned on keeping us around?

“And I’ve got Eleanor, who you also have to meet! I can see you and Marina getting on perfectly with her. And Zayn’s dating Perrie from Little Mix!” Louis chirped with a smile. Good god, the boy was a ray of fucking sunshine. A smile reached Zayn’s face at the mention of Perrie, but nothing more was said on the subject. Hmm.

“What about you, then? Have you got a boyfriend?” My boring chocolate colored eyes rose to meet Harry’s breathtaking green ones and I partially heard Liam reprimand him.

“What? It’s a fair question; she asked about our relationships,” Harry quickly defended himself. Marina shot me a concerned glance as I swallowed the rather large lump in my throat. The only things filling my mind were thoughts of Collin and his mystery girl from that afternoon.

“Uhm, no. Not- not anymore,” I finally answered, finding sipping my milkshake much more interesting. It was only when the roof of my mouth was completely frozen that I released the straw from my lips and flopped back into my seat. Zayn seemed to sense my discontent and placed a gentle and friendly hand on my knee. Before the silence could linger, Niall spoke up.

“And how about you?” he asked, his gaze flickering to Marina’s as a hopeful smile reached his lips.

“Single pringle!” she chirped back. Oh, how I loathed her fierce independence. I spotted Niall’s arm moving slightly and I was willing to bet that there was now a Niall hand on a Marina knee and/or thigh. Cute. Before I could dwell any longer on how I wished I was able to cozy up with someone, our food arrived and I was ready to tear that shit up. Wow. Pardon me.

For the next hour or so, happy and surprisingly easy conversation filled the air as everyone totally grubbed. I couldn’t help but notice how Harry was constantly texting someone though. Who could he be talking to?

“Is that Caroline? Harry, really, you’ve got to stop,” Louis spoke suddenly, seeming to be watching Harry like I was.

“Piss off, it’s important,” he grumbled as he sent another text. Louis let out an aggravated sigh, but dropped the subject and started talking about plans for the rest of the night. For some reason, it made the most sense that Marina and I go to the hotel with the boys because Niall was dying to watch some movie that I can’t even remember. Yeah. Okay, Niall. That and cozy up with my best friend. C’est la vie, though, right? So after a petty argument from me about paying my own bill – which I lost, by the way – we made our way onto the street. Unfortunately, the SUV we’d be traveling in could only get to the end of the block, so we’d had to walk through the gaggle of young girls and the paps. Lovely. I made sure not to stand too close and any one of the boys, since I did not need to be linked to any of them as a love interest or some bullshit. Marina, however, let Niall lead her through the crowd with his hand on the small of her back. Several things were being shouted at the group of us between the girls and the paps, but I did my best to ignore it all. Once we finally made it to the car, Liam opted to sit shotgun while Niall insisted Marina just sit on his lap. Seriously, boy! I was stuck in the last row between Zayn and good ol’ Harry, who was once again texting this ‘Caroline’ character. In fact, about three-fourths of the way through our journey, his phone lit up and I was able to read what it said as he did.

Caroline Flack

I really do miss you. I’m sorry for everything that happened I was stupid

Meh, sounded sappy and lame and reminded me all too much of what I wanted to hear from Collin. Great. Thanks for bringing him back up, Harold.