Let's Pretend It's Love

“Elise!” Emma whisper-yelled as she pushed her friend’s shoulder gently. The girl gave a soft, groan-like snore in response and rolled onto her stomach with her limbs splayed out, effectively stealing even more of the bed. Emma rolled her eyes at her friend and leaned up to get a good look at the clock. It was barely 7am.

If she were in her own room, in her own bed she’d still be sleeping soundly. But of course Ivy had Louis in there and she knew how the tension was building between them. Emma wanted no part of that whenever it became too much so she settled on bunking with Elise and her friend was kind enough to let her stay in the bed. Too bad she moved around a lot and liked to spread out to use the whole bed.

Sighing, the blonde girl pushed herself up carefully and swung her leg over her sleeping friend. Once she had good footing on the other side of the bed she pulled her other leg over and then hopped down. Elise didn’t even move.

“Thanks,” she whisper-yelled into the still mostly-dark room before padding out into the hall. She paused there for a moment, contemplating whether or not it was safe to go grab some clothes so she could go take a shower but she ultimately decided against it and headed down for the kitchen instead.

As she expected, Emma was the only one awake. After making a quick breakfast of toast and fruit she went back upstairs and grabbed some clothes from her room so she could take a shower. Louis and Ivy were still sleeping but from the few limbs peeking out from the blankets it seemed like that was all they did. Emma sighed in relief at that and scurried off to take a shower.

Once she was clean and dressed and ready for the day the blonde set off to the library for an early shift. Ever since the Halloween party and the kiss after it she’d been taking the earlier shifts at the library and going the long way around to the football pitch in attempt to avoid Zayn. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him but more that she did and she had no idea what to say to him. And, well, she kind of heard a group of girls talking about how he kissed some girl out of pity at a party and she figured that she was that girl so maybe she also didn’t want to see him. It was all rather complicated but Emma was dealing with it.

As soon as she arrived at the library she checked in with the head librarian and grabbed two carts of books for sorting. It wasn’t football but it was still fun. She loved getting lost in books and forgetting about reality, even if for just a little while. And being in the library allowed her that because as she stocked the shelves she was exposed to tons of different genres and authors and subjects and that was the really great part of the job.

Taking the books to the fiction section, Emma dove straight into restocking and organizing. She got lost in all the different titles and authors, pausing every few books to read a quick excerpt and making mental notes of the ones she’d love to check out later. She was so absorbed in her work that she didn’t hear the heavy footsteps approaching her from behind.

“You’re avoiding me.” The simple statement made the hairs on the back of Emma’s neck stand up. Startled, the book she’d been holding fell from her fingers and a soft chuckle filled the air.

Emma slowly picked up the book she dropped before turning to face Zayn. Her heart was racing in her chest like she’d just run a marathon but she forced herself to do it. He was leaning against the bookshelf opposite the one she was working on, his arms crossed over his chest and his lips turned down in a frown.

“Well if it isn’t the kissing bandit,” she greeted him shakily as she set the book back on the cart.

Zayn’s eyebrows shot up. “Kissing bandit?” He asked, his voice colored with amusement.

“Yeah,” Emma nodded, “You go around stealing kisses that don’t belong to you. Or kiss people that aren’t expecting it.”

Zayn chuckled as he pushed himself away from the bookcase. He barely batted an eye at the three books that tumbled to the floor despite the fact that Emma couldn’t stop staring at them. Gaping, she glanced between him and the books, completely dumbfounded as to what was happening. She backed up until her back pressed against the bookshelf and Zayn had her boxed in with his hands coming up to frame her head.

“What if I ask next time?” He wondered, tilting his head to the side with a smirk.

Emma’s heart raced in her chest. She could feel his breath on her face and it made her shiver. Was he being more forward and obvious because she had no idea what his intentions were last time? She wasn’t sure, she couldn’t figure it out and her body was reacting erratically. Her fingers itched to reach out and touch his amazing cheekbones, to trace his amazing lips and feel his hair. She couldn’t deal with him this close but she couldn’t bring herself to push him away.

“That’s… That’s not the point,” she stammered as she stared up at him.

The boy smiled and brushed a strand of long blonde hair out of Emma’s face. “You’re right,” he nodded as he stepped back. “The point is you’ve been avoiding me just when I was getting used to seeing your beautiful face every day.”

“I’m, um, I’m,” Emma stuttered as she grasped for words. This was the second time he’d called her beautiful and on top of that she couldn’t hide anymore. Not when he was right in front of her. “I’m not avoiding you,” she finally managed but they both knew it was a bold faced lie.

“Why?” Zayn asked simply as Emma leaned down to grab the books that fell when Zayn moved.

She ignored him, placing the books back where they belonged before standing up and brushing off imaginary dirt from her jeans. When she finally looked up at him she was knocked completely breathless. He was staring at her intently, his lips pulled into a frown and his dark brown eyes practically dancing.

“Why?” He repeated again, his arms crossing tightly over his chest.

Emma didn’t like this look on Zayn. Even though it drove her crazy and she was wildly confused when he was close, she’d much rather he had her boxed in against a bookshelf.

She thought about lying again but shrugged at the last minute. “Why not?” She asked as she spun around to grab some books from the cart she’d been working on.

Silence filled the air space between them for a long moment and Emma almost thought that he left without saying anything. But then she felt him, felt his presence right behind her, shadowing her as she put away the books. A shiver twirled down her spine and she closed her eyes. What was happening? Why was it happening? And why did she love it so much? This wasn’t her kind of thing; she hated to feel out of control and that was exactly how Zayn was making her feel. But she loved it.

“Emma,” he said quietly, his voice low and husky. For a moment she almost wished she could bathe in it. “Talk to me.”

“Um, what is there to say?” Her voice was shaking but she refused to acknowledge it and carried on with putting the books away. Maybe if she carried on like nothing was wrong then Zayn would just go away. Wasn’t that what she wanted? Deep down she knew that, no, that was exactly what she didn’t want.

“I thought we were becoming great friends,” Zayn replied, his voice shallow and tense. He’d stepped back a little; Emma could feel it but she knew he was still there. “And now you’ve gone and started ignoring me.”

Emma dropped the book she was holding back onto the cart and turned around. She’d had about enough of this. The jerky back-and-forth, up-and-down business that was happening right now was beyond tired.

“I thought we were becoming great friends as well,” she replied, her voice equally as tense as his had been. “But then you went and started flirting with me and drove me mad. And oh, yeah, then you kissed me! You’re the kissing bandit!”

Zayn stared at her for a long moment. His lips were curled in like he was trying to hold in laughter and Emma honestly was too. She knew it was ridiculous, calling him the kissing bandit. But she didn’t know how else to handle it. And then the dam broke and they were both in a fit of giggles.

“I’m sorry,” Zayn said after their laughter had subsided and they were both standing upright again. “I’ll try to put a cap on the flirting and I won’t kiss you again without asking.”

Emma’s stomach dropped. That was so not what she wanted from this but she wasn’t about to voice that. So instead she offered a half smile and nodded slowly. “Okay,” she agreed softly.

“Friends?” Zayn asked and Emma nodded again.

“Friends,” she agreed. She forced another smile and tried to act happy but she couldn’t help and feel like her chest had just been stomped on by a stampede of elephants.