Let's Pretend It's Love

“Up for some one on one?”

Emma froze at the sound of his voice, her fingers fumbling with the shoelaces on her cleats. This was just supposed to be her, the football pitch, and her thoughts. No boys, no sisters, no anybody. Sighing softly, she closed her eyes and forced herself to finish tying her shoes. Zayn was there waiting, standing right in front of her when she finally stood up, a smile on his face and a ball resting on his hip. He looked hopeful.

Unable to turn him down, Emma nodded slowly. Ever since they agreed to be friends and nothing more in the library the blonde found it a little difficult to be near him. The only time she let herself hang out with him was when there was someone around to act as a buffer, whether it be one of her sorority sisters or one of his fraternity brothers. Otherwise she refused to be alone with him, if only for the simple fact that she was scared of how she would act.

After tugging on the socks covering her shin guards, Emma stood up again and jogged over to where Zayn was standing on the field. He was setting up cones at half field, a smile on his face as he did. She wasn't sure why she agreed to this. Being alone with Zayn, especially on the pitch was a bad idea for so many reasons Emma lost count past ten. But mostly she was terrified of making an even bigger fool out of herself in front of him.

“I figured we could just use the cones as net instead of going up and down the full length of the pitch, alright?” Zayn asked as he stood up. Emma nodded slowly, her long blonde ponytail brushing against her back as she did. “Great,” Zayn continued, his foot reaching out to pull the ball towards him. “You can have the ball first.”

Emma nodded again, her own foot flicking out to grab the ball as they moved towards the middle of the area they were using. As soon as the game started and they settled into chasing each other around the blocked off part of the pitch the blonde relaxed. She even laughed as Zayn hip checked her around the pitch as he tried to take the ball away.

The longer they ran around the pitch the more comfortable Emma became. Her confident, vocal side even blossomed, coming out to play after a little while the way it usually did. She barely even noticed as she teased him, tossing out playful insults as she stole the ball and blocked him from getting it between the two cones serving as his net.

“What's wrong Malik?” She taunted softly after beating him to the ball once again, softly lobbing it into the open net as she did. “Haven't upped your game at all since I last kicked your butt?”

Zayn groaned. “I think I like quiet Emma better.”

Emma threw her head back and laughed before chasing after him again, her foot swiftly sneaking in to steal the ball as he dribbled back towards the cones. “It's just really sad is all,” she teased as she took off for the races, “that you're not even any kind of competition.”

She'd barely made it anywhere before Zayn barreled into her, his arms wrapping around her waist as he guided them to the ground at the goal line. He landed on the grassy ground first with Emma landing on top of his chest. They were both laughing, their chests heaving as they gasped for air between the laughter and physical exertion.

“What was that for?” Emma asked as she rolled off of Zayn's chest to lay next to him. “Tired of getting beat by not only a girl, but someone half your size?”

Zayn scoffed and shook his head before a soft burst of laughter fell from his lips. “For someone so tiny you sure do talk a lot of trash.”

Emma rolled her eyes then and didn't say anything. They settled into a comfortable silence and for the first time since the party she realized that being with Zayn alone wasn't actually awkward. It was actually kind of amazing and she liked it a lot better without a buffer. They could speak more freely, laugh a little harder, and act like complete wankers without having anybody around to judge them. And even though Zayn's smile and big brown eyes and overall stupid face made her stomach swim with butterflies that was okay. At least on the football pitch, anyway. And at least for now.

“Am I going to have to corner you like this every time I want to hang out, just the two of us?” Zayn asked, breaking the easy, comfortable silence they had going.

Emma didn't answer for a long moment. She pretended she was staring at the clouds through the twine of the net but her mind was actually a million miles away. It astounded her that Zayn seemed to know what she was doing every time she did it. He picked up on the fact that she was avoiding him. He noticed that she wouldn't be alone with him. Did that mean he knew she was harboring a massive crush on him, too?

“Are you scared of me, Emma?” He asked, his words sending the blonde spiraling back down to Earth.

“No!” She protested as she rolled onto her side and propped her head up on her hand. “Why would you think that?”

Zayn shook his head. “You won't hang out alone with me anymore.”

Emma sighed as she fell back onto her back. “I'm not scared of you, Zayn. I'm scared of me.” She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “But how did you even know I was here?”

“Elise told me when I went to the house looking for you,” he replied softly.

Emma waited for him to continue, to ask why she was scared of herself but he didn't. They lapsed into silence again, comfortable and easy like there conversation moments ago hadn't dipped into serious territory. But even Emma couldn't relax into it for that long and she was known to sit up in her room by herself for at least a little while before someone coaxed her out of it. She was just about to say that maybe they should head back, that she was feeling kind of gross and wanted to shower.

Zayn beat her to it. He hopped up and held a hand out to Emma which she gratefully took. “Do you want to go get some food?”

Unwilling to let this progress towards normalcy go to waste, Emma nodded and gave him a big smile. “Yeah, I've got to back to the house and shower but that sounds nice.”

The blinding smile he gave Emma in return, she couldn't help but think, was worth absolutely every awkward moment they had ever shared.