Anonymous

“Lou!” Zayn’s voice interrupted my game. I lost my concentration, and the guy found an opening and blew me up with a grenade.

“Ugh, fuck,” I snapped, throwing down the remote and shutting off the console. “What is so important that you ruined my zone?”

“Sorry,” he muttered, holding out his laptop. “I just found something that I think you should see.”

I rolled my eyes. “HARRY!” I called out. “YOUR TURN.”

He scrambled to the living room floor, a look of determination about his face. “I’m gonna beat him.”

“Okay,” I patronized as I sat down at the kitchen table. When Zayn came up next to me, my eyebrows drew together in confusion. He put the computer down in front of me.

“This is a fan-fiction,” I stated plainly, staring at the dark purple background, the white words almost seeing to jump off the page.

“I know,” Zayn replied.

“Why…?” I trailed off before clearing my throat quietly. “Why am I looking at a fan-fiction?”

“Okay, so, I was searching the internet for stories of me-” Zayn started, but I interrupted him with a groan.

“Ugh, gross,” I grimaced, pushing the computer away as if it was disgusting food. “I’m not reading some porn story about you.”

“It’s not porn, and it’s not about me. Will you listen for a second?”

I stayed quiet, a silent acknowledgement of his demand.

“Okay, good,” he sighed. “Anyway, I was looking for stories of me because I was bored, and one of the first few links was to this story on a site I’d never heard of before. And the story was really good. It was written as if it were a real novel, with timing that built up slowly and had an actual plot, unlike most other fan-fictions I’ve tried to read.”

I blinked. “Alright, you’re going a little too English-teachery for me.”

Zayn chuckled for a second. “Sorry. What I mean is that the story was brilliant, so I clicked on this girl’s page and found a story of you. And holy shit, mate. It’s absolutely fantastic. Like, I’ve never read anything this good on the internet.”

I’d never seen Zayn get so worked up over a fan-fiction before. His eyes were sparkling, his cheeks were flushed, and he looked like he was about to burst at any moment.

“I can’t believe you looked up stories of yourself,” I murmured teasingly as I clicked on the link for the first chapter, bending over to ready myself to read.

Zayn sighed. “Just read the story. We can talk about my vanity issues later.”

I did as he asked. It was really weird. In a good way, I mean. It was in a sort of in an alternate universe, where all us boys weren’t famous. Unlike most authors, she kept around Danielle and Perrie to be with Liam and Zayn, but they weren’t famous either. Almost all of us went to the same college, minus Liam, who worked at a place that had yet to be named. The main character, Emma, and Book Me met in a drama class, since I would have studied to be a drama teacher if One Direction hadn’t taken off.

But it wasn’t the plot that shocked me, although that was very good. Every word this girl wrote was spot-on character, and she treated the characters with a kind of care I’d never seen before. It was hard to explain, but there was something about all the elements worked together that made me want to read more. And I hated reading.

“Great, yeah?” Zayn questioned with a grin, reading my expression.

“Brill,” I replied. “Is there a way to comment on this to tell her how perfect her story is?”

“I think you have to make an account or something,” he responded. “So no.”

I bit my lip, staring at it. I really did want to tell her how wonderful her story was, since I felt so strongly about it. But making an account? What would happen if the press found out that I had an account on a fan-fiction website?

“BULLOCKS,” Harry screeched. “HOW IS THIS GUY SO GOOD AT THIS GAME?!”

“What’d he do?” I asked in a sigh.

“Blew off my face,” Harry grumbled. “It’s so annoying. I JUST WANT TO WIN.”

I sighed and shook my head. He was ridiculous.

Zayn took the opening of me being distracted to take his computer away. “Alright, I have to go back. Perrie’s in my apartment.”

“Can’t keep the lady waiting,” I teased with a small smile.

He widened his eyes jokingly in agreement before disappearing from the flat.

For a second, I sat in the chair, debating over whether I really should give in to my thoughts.

After a very argumentative deliberation inside of my head, I finally snuck into my room, ignoring another shout from Harry, and brought up the writing website.

“What should my username be?” I mumbled before bringing up a new tab and going straight to the story.

Her username was Like_A_Sunburn, which I knew was an Ed Sheeran quote from my obsessive listening to his newest album. I started to like her a little more, since she clearly had great taste in music.

I thought for a few minutes before I just decided to make my username TakeMeHome, after the new album. It was simple, but it still gave the illusion of being a One Direction fan.

And, of course, I couldn’t use my real name, since the paparazzi would have an absolute field day if they found out. So I put my name as Laura, a twenty-year-old girl from the UK.

Once I set up my account, I went right back to the story and left a huge comment, way bigger than anyone else had done.

okay so this is my 1st story that i read on the site since i just joined today and holy shit. i dont know what to say honestly. ive been on other sites before and all the stories i read were horrible. they always move too fast and everyone falls in love in the first chapter and then it goes nowhere.

but your story isnt like that and i cant believe how talented you are. i dont know how old you are or anything but it doesnt really matter. the fact that you know how to pace a story and came up with a kind of plot that i havent seen before is perfect.

even more i feel like you know the boys from how you characterize them. everything that you have them say or do seems real to me, almost like i know them too now. please keep writing this story forever and ever. you absolutely have a faithful reader in me.

Before I could second-guess myself, I posted the comment, bookmarked the page, and logged out.

I just really hoped that the girl didn’t think I was crazy from my ridiculous gushing over her writing.