The Way I Love You

A/N: Hi. I love you Maz

The Way I Love You

~Chapter Five~

The second to last day of the school break has come to your doorstep and it won’t budge. Cara was grounded for some reason, so you can't hang out with her and even Brendon says he wouldn’t need your assistance at DoDo’s for a while.
It seems like ages since you and Cara slept over with the boys, but in fact, it was only a few days ago. Missing people makes days seem like months and months seem like years.
In favour of you, there have been no news reports or articles or anything about what happened after Ed's concert, and you guess that's good because you don't think you’ll be able to handle all the hate that the rumours will ignite. You’re just a fan. How often do people fall in love after the first time they meet? Apart from those cheesy romance stories which everyone wished was reality for them, and Cara’s case, you have never heard of any first hand experiences of such thing as “love at first sight”.

•••

Your mom and dad have embarked on their weekend road trip, and you are left at home alone. You decide to whizz up some cookies. It won’t hurt to touch up your culinary skills once in a while. Being home alone gives you no highly important reason to change out of your sleep wear; a blue tank top and white shorts.
'Ding dong!' The doorbell goes off while you are tying on your apron.
“Steph! Are you home?” A voice calls from the other side of the door. Niall!
You sprint to the door, apron swaying side to side, and unbolt it to reveal the five lads standing infront of you, looking hyperactive.
“Hi Steph!” They say in unison as if they had practiced to get it right, but then, you have watched their videos and interviews, and they always manage to introduce themselves in a united manner, quite effortlessly.
“Mind if we hang out with you for the day?” Liam asks smoothly.
“We've done all our interviews, please?” Louis whines, dragging out the ‘please’.
“Of course, of course. Come in!” You chuckle, and draw the door back to let them inside. Liam hugs you. He walks off. Louis hugs you, and then ties your apron for you while his arms are behind your back. You giggle and invite Harry in for a hug.
“Where's Cara?” He asks, looking around.
“Not here. She's grounded, sorry Styles.”
He frowns and walks into the lounge, stretching his long arms as if he hadn’t had a stretch for years. Niall hugs you and you give him a peck on the cheek. He returns a peck and hurries to join the boys. Last, Zayn.
You feel frustrated again. He looks beyond stunning in his tank top, similar to the one he wore to Ed’s concert, and a pair of loose cargos. You want him. You want to taste those lips again, but of course you have to resist yourself, or things will get awkward between you and him. Not like they weren’t already.
“Hi Zayn.” you grin, looking into his eyes. If this was in text language, there would be a smiley emoticon after that “Hi Zayn.” because it would completely and utterly represent the look on your face.
You swear he gets more beautiful everyday.
“Hey Steph.”
He pulls you into a hug which lasts for a long time. You were standing there, in each others arms, hearing the clock tick on the wall and the boys chattering in the lounge.
He smelt delicious. Cinnamon. You could feel his biceps against your skinny arms.
You can stay like this forever.
Finally, he pulls away and walks into the lounge. You wanted the hug to last at least a little longer, but you push away the sad feeling and hurry back to the kitchen to make your cookies.
“Steph! Can we play with your Wii?” Liam yells.
“Go for it! I'm making cookies, so don't include me!” You yell back, taking out ingredients from the cupboard. Footsteps come hurrying your way.
“Can I help?” It was Niall. You turn around, and he is looking at you with his eyes sparkling at the idea of cookies. Why so precious?
“Of course you can.” You decide to be cheeky and dab some flour on his nose. He was startled, before shoving his fingers in the bag of flour and grasping some in his hand.
Your eyes widen. “No, Niall. No.”
He grins evilly, before holding up his hand, taking aim towards his target; you.
You close your eyes, waiting for the bomb to drop and detonate. But it never came.
Carefully, you open one eye, cautiously, and see that Niall had instead dumped the flour in the bowl.
“I thought you were going to get revenge!”
He laughs and continues dumping flour into the bowl, occasionally letting it filter through his fingers as if it were sand. You walk back over to him and help him.
“You know I'd never hurt you.” He mutters, his eyes watching your hand scoop in flour. Those types of words are not supposed to be used in your presence because automatically, your heart will melt and you will die. Not physically, just emotionally.
You had nothing to say, and even if you did, in all probability, you’d be too stunned to say it anyway, so you giggle and peck him on the cheek.
“And I would never, ever, make cookies without giving you some.”
He chuckles.

After a while of mucking about, you had the cookies in the oven and the kitchen was all cleared up. Chocolate Chip Cookies. The classic. You did, although, think about making cinnamon cookies, thanks to the heavy influence of Zayn’s scent, but not to anyone’s advantage, the cinnamon jar was empty. Niall still had a spot of flour on his nose, which you told him to keep on, because it looked cute. He blushed. Well, maybe it was just stuffy inside the kitchen, but his face went rather red.
While the cookies are cooking, you and Niall go to join the lads in the lounge, who were racing each other in Mario Kart or something like that.
“Steph.... this is boring.... Louis keeps cheating and it isn't fun anymore.” Harry whines, holding out his controller to you.
Zayn was on the couch, tapping furiously on his phone. He didn’t look very happy, and for a cursory second, your inner rudeness came out and you were going to lash at him “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?” but some actions require double consideration before being carried out, and that was one of them.

Liam and Louis were sitting on cushions on the ground, discussing about Mario and Princess Peach.
“We can play something else.” You suggest, taking a seat on the couch.
“Can you take us golfing?!” Harry asks almost immediately. Puppy eyes work for him, but sometimes even puppy eyes can’t change the fact that you suck at golf.
“No, sorry Styles. I am not going out when my- I mean, me and Niall's cookies are in the oven.” You reply, not meaning to sound harsh to Styles, and you hear Niall chuckle when you mention his name. Harry puts on a sad face.
“We can play Truth or dare!” Louis exclaims, which doesn’t shock you at all. People often speculate him to be the childish one.
“Yes!” The other lads say in unison.
“Majority wins, sorry Wembley” Louis grins at you.
You roll your eyes. “Sure sure.”
Gathering in a circle on the carpet, the boys leave a spot next to you for Niall when he comes back from roaming the kitchen .
“Me first!” Louis yells. “Ok. Steph, truth or dare?”
You groan. There is definitely a playful aura in the air. “Dare.” you say, but almost instantly you regret it, knowing Louis. His dares would be very daring.
“Brave aren't ya? Ok Steph... I dare you to... wait. Do you have a Twitter?” Louis asks.
Yes, in fact, because of the boys, you found old one, and for a while, used it to keep up with the latest updates and such. There won’t be much of a point, now that you know them personally.
“Well, tweet; ‘@louis_tomlinson has the most swag out of everyone in this whole entire universe. And he smells very nice! I like his farts!’” Louis says, proud of his ideas.
Niall cracks up beside you, clearly finding this quite amusing.
“Go, go on!” Harry grins, encouraging you to make a fool of yourself.
You pull out you iPhone and tweet it from your Twitter app. You thought you could get away from this unscathed because you only had about one hundred followers last time you checked. But you were wrong.
The number almost sends your eyeballs out of their sockets. Fifteen thousand followers?! It turns out that the boys have all followed you back (which made you wonder how they found you) and tweeted that they were hanging out with you for the day.
“Gosh Lou, I will get you back!” you say before deciding who to pick on. “Harrehchu, I choose you!” Your singing earns you weird looks from the boys, but you never get offended by such things. “What? I like myself some Pokémon.”
Niall puts his arm around your shoulders. “Same!”
You peck him. You peck him for everything he does and you weren’t sure if it was particularly healthy, but it made him happy, and it also made you happy.
Niall grins and squeezes your arm.
“So, Harrehchu. Truth or dare?” You ask, looking intently at Harry.
“Truth.”
A pang of sadness hit you. Harry certainly seemed like the type to be all badass and choose dare, and then end up with some ridiculous task that will give you guys the authority to make fun of him. That was how it was supposed to go, at least.
At last, you come up with a question. “When was the last time you showered?”
It wasn’t too harsh, it’ll be better to make peace with your enemies than create war.
All eyes focus on Harry. “Umm... erm.... yesterday?”
You pretend to be very shocked, but it didn’t shock you at all. It would be hard to shower all the time in that little tour bus shower.
“'Harry! No wonder why you always stink!” The boys laugh at your reaction and Harry sniffs himself. “Haha, just joking. You smell... alright.”
He smiles and pokes his tongue at you. “You smell... alright too, Steph.”
You keep to the appearance and pretend to be offended by his comment. “No! You are supposed to say that I smell very, very nice, like I always do!” you remark.
“Nah, no way mate.”
You poke your tongue at him. “Niall thinks I smell nice, don't ya’ Niall?” You turn to Niall, your eyebrows wiggling in a silly sort of manner.
“Of course Steph smells nice!” He says, grinning back at you.
Liam and Louis were continuing their in-depth discussion about Mario and Princess Peach. Zayn was quiet the whole time, but you could swear you saw him shift uneasily in his sitting position every time you interacted with Niall in any way.
“Harry, it's your turn.” Niall announces.
“I pick.... you, Zayn!” Harry turns to him. “Truth or dare?”
He’s the type to pick truth, and then get given something deep down and personal to answer.
“Dare.”
You were truly taken aback. It seems your prediction skills are not up to standard today.
Harry shoots you an evil grin and turns back to Zayn. “Zayn, I dare you... to make out with Steph!”

A/N: Haha, the story is starting to get interesting, especially when the cliffhangers come out from the closet.
Well, let’s see what happens next, aye?
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-KebabWoman
Song Recommendation: ‘This=Love’ by The Script