Last Girl Standing

Abelia let out a small sigh as she stood at her closet, eyes moving over her wardrobe. She was reaching for a grey sweater when she pulled her hand back, letting out a long sigh before collapsing on the bed.

“Don’t know what to wear?” She turned to see Kass smiling sadly in the doorway. Abelia just wanted to hug her, so she didn’t fight it, wrapping her arms around the equally small girl. She had been next to Kass when Liam had said all those things about Jenna, and had seen the pain in her friend’s eyes. After Zayn had won the challenge she had all but begged him to put Kass with Liam, but he sadly assured her that Liam would probably just skip the date and shag Jenna.

“I’m so sorry Kass.” Abelia whispered, gripping the fiery redhead to her. “You should be going with me-”

“But I’m not, so you’ll have to party extra hard for me.” Kass said, pulling back and smiling. “Now, what are you going to wear?” The brunette sighed, running a hand through her hair.

“That’s where I keep getting stumped. Tanisha said semi formal, but all I have are sweaters and jeans.” A smirk slowly crept onto Kassandra’s face.

“I think I can solve that problem.” She said cryptically. She walked over to the closet she’d been given and pulled out something, dumping it into Abelia’s hands and pushing her into the bathroom. “Try that on, but don’t look in the mirror. I’m going to make sure you give Zayn a stroke.” Abelia obeyed, walking in and quickly stripping down before pulling the black material on over her head and turning away from the mirror, but not failing to notice how tightly the dress clung to her, stopping about halfway down her thighs.

As she stepped out Kass simply smiled. “I knew we were about the same size.” She said to herself. Her eyes then flew back up to Abelia before she pushed her back into the bathroom, making sure the bookworm looked perfect. Finally a good twenty minutes later Kassandra covered Abelia’s eyes and walked her over to the full length mirror the two girls had in their room. And as she pulled them back Abelia let out a small gasp.

For one of the first times in her life, Abelia looked beautiful. Kassandra had turned her into a princess and it was enough to bring tears to her eyes. “Hey no crying, I don’t think we have time to do your eyeliner again.” Kass said, pretending to be stern. Abelia simply turned back and squeezed Kass for dear life, now a good three inches taller thanks to the bright red heels the redhead let her borrow.

“Thank you.” She choked out. She pulled back, tears still causing her big brown eyes to glisten.

“You should go; you don’t want to be late.” Abelia nodded, turning to leave again, but stopped herself. She was about to chew on her lip before she remembered there was red lipstick on it.

“Kass…”

“Yeah?” She turned back, her eyes determined as she looked at the girl who had singlehandedly given her hope again. The one who’d shown her that she’d been wrong about love. She knew there was only one way to repay her. She had to make Liam fall in love with Kassandra, and she was going to stop at nothing. But of course, Abelia couldn’t tell her this, Kass would tell her not to, so she simply smiled.

“Thanks again.”

“Anytime Lia.” Without another word Abelia made her way down the stairs and into the ballroom where they all were supposed to meet. She knew she was a few minutes late, and as she approached the door she winced upon seeing that everyone was already there but her. Tanisha heard the door creak open and her eyes flew open, causing Abelia to smile.

At Tanisha’s look of surprise the other’s all turned and Abelia felt her cheeks heat up as she saw several more looks of shock. She pressed her lips together as Zayn approached her, a look of total awe on his face. “Sorry I’m late.” She muttered, her gaze moving to the floor. She felt his hand under her chin as he tilted her head up until their eyes met and Abelia felt like she was the only girl in the whole world.

“You look beautiful.” He whispered, his eyes not leaving hers for a moment. The moment was broken however by Liam loudly clearing his throat, causing both of them to turn and blush lightly. Tanisha simply smiled before turning to the group.

“Tonight, since most of you seem to have had the same date several times, we will be turning up the romance a little bit. You and your date will be taking dance lessons, but, as usual, we want to have a little twist.” Zayn’s hand instinctively gripped Abelia’s, lacing their fingers together as the ten of them kept their gazes on Tanisha. “You will be switching dates!” She then turned to Zayn, a smile on her face. “Zayn, since you are the alpha male this week, you will be switching first.”

“What if I don’t want to switch?”

“Then hope you draw Abelia’s name.” Tanisha said, producing a hat from behind her back. Abelia sighed, knowing that the chances of Zayn getting her were slim as he turned back to her, giving her a small kiss on the cheek. Obviously the producers wanted to switch up the same old couples that had been starting to form, so they had ruined everything.

As Zayn reached inside the hat she prayed with everything she had that he would pull out her name, but when she saw the look of disappointment on his face she knew he hadn’t. He turned to the girls and walked over to Megan, who Louis seemed all too eager to get rid of anyway. The boys went on and on, and it looked like none of them would get their original date. Harry ended up with October, Louis with Jenna, Niall with Sadie, and as Liam saw that all the girls were gone but Abelia he bit his lower lip and groaned.

He got an unreadable look from Zayn as he drug his feet over, extending his hand like he was putting it into a snake pit. Abelia’s small smile was horribly forced; neither of them forgetting how eager Liam seemed to get her off the show. But Abelia had to hide her excitement, knowing this would be the perfect opportunity to get Liam back on team Kass. As the instructor, a short woman with wild black hair and fiery green eyes, approached and started the music, showing them the basic steps, Abelia looked over to Zayn.

His eyes were locked on her, making sure Liam’s hand wasn’t too low on her back and he wasn’t pulling her too close. Abelia couldn’t fight the frown that came over her face when she saw Megan wrap her arms around Zayn’s neck before the instructor came over and put them back on his shoulders. Abelia simply turned back to Liam, who was looking the same way Zayn had been at Louis and Jenna.

“I’m sure she’s fine.” Abelia interrupted. Liam’s eyes flew to hers, his lips pulled down into a frown.

“Well I don’t know if you haven’t noticed since your off in la la Zayn land, but Louis has been shagging everything that moves. And she is not going to be next.”

“Did you mean it?”

“Mean what? When I said I didn’t see what Zayn saw in you? Yes.” Abelia pressed her lips together, taking a step further away from him so they were as far apart as humanly possible while still being able to dance.

“What you said about Jenna today, did you mean it?”

“Of course I meant it.”

“Really? Because last time I checked you seemed pretty into Kassandra.” She watched his jaw clench as his eyes moved back to Jenna and Louis.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Says the guy who accused me of jumping between two guys.”

“Well you were.”

“And so are you. Kass got a tattoo for you. She’s going to have that when she’s a hundred.”

“It was her choice-”

“But she did it for you.” Abelia whispered.

“So you think I should marry her, right here and now?”

“I just don’t think you should be so quick to jump on the Jenna bandwagon.” Liam turned back, looking at the girl that Zayn had risked losing his friendship with them over.

“Alright, if we’re going to get this personal, I have a question for you.”

“Yes?” He smirked at her and Abelia could see why Jenna and Kass had fallen so helplessly for that smile.

“I’ve always been curious, who’s a better kisser, Niall or Zayn?” Abelia flushed, her cheeks burning under his heated gaze.

“Well, they’re different, and I don’t really want to compare them…”

“Come on, I won’t tell them.” Abelia bit her lip, ignoring that it might leave lipstick on her tooth.

“You promise you won’t tell them?”

“As long as I live, they won’t know.”

“Niall.” She whispered sheepishly. His eyes flew open as he looked over to the blonde Irishman, who was laughing at something Sadie had said.

“Well that wasn’t what I was expecting.”

“I’m sure Zayn will redeem himself.” She joked weakly. Liam chuckled before turning back to Abelia. He chewed on his bottom lip before speaking.

“I’ll tell you what Abelia. If you go over, dance with Niall and forgive him so you two are friends again, I’ll give Kass another shot. What do you say?” Abelia smiled, nodding at him.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” The pair danced over to Niall and Sadie, grinning like idiots.

“Niall, mind if I switch you partners for a minute? Abelia wanted to talk to you.” Niall looked at Abelia, then at Tanisha. The lesson had, for the most part, ended so now all the pairs were just dancing across the floor. Some more effortlessly than others.

“Can we do that?” He asked.

“As long as it’s not our date I don’t think they’ll mind.” Niall nodded, kissing Sadie’s hand before spinning her into Liam’s arms and causing her to giggle. He then slowly walked up to Abelia, wrapping one of his arms around her waist with one hand and taking her hand with the other.

“So…” He muttered. “What did you want to talk about?” Abelia smiled at him and Niall felt all the tension in his body leave. He was expecting a slap from her, a shouting match, something, but not a smile.

“I wanted to say thank you for saving me and… I forgive you for what happened.”

“Really?” He whispered.

“Yeah. So… friends?” He smiled, wrapping her in a tight hug and catching her by surprise.

“Friends.” He agreed before pulling back and dancing with her, both of them smiling. She looked over to Liam, only to see that he had switched partners again and was now dancing with Megan. Abelia giggled as she watched the couples switching everywhere, none of the guys grabbing a girl for more than thirty seconds before another boy came over and grabbed her. It wasn’t long before Louis came over, October with him, and restored Niall with his date, taking Abelia into his arms.

“Abelia.” He greeted, smiling. “May I say you look absolutely ravishing.”

“Thank you!” No sooner had the sentence left her lips when Harry came over, giving Megan back to Louis as he grabbed Abelia, spinning her around until she was dizzy. Everyone was laughing now as they boys traded the girls around like they were getting points for it. Finally all the couples were restored as Abelia stood off to the side, watching Sadie and Harry with a small smile on her lips before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Zayn, grinning at her.

“May I have this dance?” He asked, extending his hand to her. Abelia laughed before clearing her throat and looking at him.

“I suppose Mr. Malik.” He grinned as she broke out laughing and he wrapped her in his arms, pulling her out onto the dance floor where they spent the rest of the night in each other’s arms.