The Way I Love You

A/N: It’s sxc time

The Way I Love You

~Chapter Seven~

The last day of the holidays has found its way in, and you are not looking forward to school. Cara called you last night, frantic and rather upset that she missed out on such a treat of the boys over at yours. Eventually, she got over it, and you think it may have been because you told her Harry asked of her. You have to admit, even though they haven’t gotten together yet, Cara and Harry are worthy to envy over. Cara likes Harry and Harry likes Cara, which brings you back to Zayn and Niall.
You are not the type of person to crush on people you’ve only just met, but then again, you feel like you’ve known the boys for ages. And even if you did crush on people you’ve only just met, who would be the one? In other words, Niall or Zayn?

Snapping back into reality, straying away from your thoughts, you realize that it's 9am. Today is the last day before you go back to school, and start working your sore a** off again. It wouldn’t hurt to do something worthwhile.
Cara’s grounded for staying out past curfew, and all your other friends have their own business to attend.
Your school bag and school related implements are piled in the corner of your room, glaring back at you evilly.
Sliding off your bed, you draw the curtains to welcome in the sun, and make your way to the bathroom.
After having a quick shower, you come out to get dressed. You chose to wear a loose black tank top with buttons going down the middle. You put on a pair of denim shorts because there was some heat outside, and you didn't want to melt like an ice cube. You blow dry your hair and surprisingly, it was relatively straight, meaning you didn't have to waste 10 minutes of your life straightening it. You leave it out so you don’t have to search for your hair ties. You apply a very, very light layer of make-up just to cover up any flaws that showed on your skin.

You hop downstairs, bopping on the steps until dust rose from the floorboards. Not a good idea. Your parents are out, so you have the house to yourself. First part of your day is breakfast.

‘Stand tall, I’ll follow you this time.’

From: Niall

Morning love! What ya upta? Do you want t come swimming with us? :-)

You have been invited to another gathering with the boys, you have not right to complain about your life.
The sudden idea of your bikini body strikes you, and you decide now is not the time to scare the boys with the amount of fat you haven’t burnt off this summer.

To: Niall

Morning Niall :) Sorry, I can't, you guys enjoy yourselves! :)

It’s your second lie; whether this one counts as a white lie or not, it’s still a lie.

From: Niall

why not? :(

You can imagine the look on his face and the way his lips were turned upside down and how his eyebrows would be furrowed. It was like you kicked a puppy in the stomach. It makes you feel so bad, you want to die.

To: Niall

Fine, fine I'll come. When and Where?

You leave your iPhone on the bench and help yourself to a small portion of cornflakes. It’s better to be wise with your eating than to have your stomach blow up in the pool.

From: Niall

It's at our apartment! Sorry, no beach for us or we'll get mobbed by fans :/ We'll come and pick you up at 10! Is Cara comin?

To: Niall

Great! Cara can't come because she's still grounded... Say sorry to Harrehchu for me ;)

From: Niall

I did haha :) See ya soon love! xo

To: Niall

haha xoxo

A red Mazda driven by a driver called ‘Kieran’ pulls up at your driveway at 10am. You have just finished your breakfast and packed a bag with some necessities to help you through the day. Kieran greets you and takes you back to wherever the boys lived apart from the tour bus.

•••

Their apartment was glorious. ‘Wow’ was all you bring yourself to say as you explored the place up and down, guided by Liam. It had many rooms, many bathrooms, a magnificent lounge, a mini theatre, two huge kitchens, a tennis-court, a gym and so much more other rooms that you couldn't even remember.
Liam leads you to their indoor swimming pool where the boys had already stripped down to their swimming trunks.
“Steph, you can change in the room over there.” Liam smiles and points to a door at the end of the pool. You nod and walk over to get changed and unfortunately, as you are walking past, Harry bombs into the pool, the frolicking water soaking through your shirt. Y
ou hurry over to the room and quickly get changed, not wanting to miss a second where you could be getting revenge on Harry. You stop to look at yourself in the mirror before you step out into the open. The bikini was cobalt, you remember buying a matching pair with Cara, and her one is bright pink. Cobalt was a lovely colour, but the problem was the size of bikini. It seems either you have grown, or the bikini has shrunk drastically. Your boobs look fuller than they really were, and your bum was a bit big. At least the colour of the bikini matched your lightly tanned skin. Your stomach pokes out in the most unpleasant places, but you could easily suck it in.
“Steph?! Are you ready yet?!” Louis calls quite loudly.
“Bro! Hurry up!” And that one was Harry.
You chuckle at their impatience, and open the door to step out. You stroll back over to the other side of the pool, where the boys had set up deck chairs. For a second you are confused because according to your general knowledge, deck chairs aren’t meant to furbish the indoors. Before you could question anything, Liam reels something on the wall, and the roof opens up to let the sun in. You make a mental note for yourself, reminding you to never underestimate the workings of a big apartment.
“Come on Steph! Jump in!” Niall waves his arm to you in the water.
The boys were very fit, and that was all you could say, really. You avoid looking at Zayn’s torso as you climb in the pool. The water was refreshing, and as you slip further and further down, you rediscover your love for swimming.
Wading to the middle of the pool, you hear Harry cheer, “Steph! You have finally come to join us!” he grins, running a hand through his mop of hair.
Liam and Louis wrestle each other in the water and Harry joins in as an extra contender. You see Zayn out of the corner of your eye trying to make eye contact with me. His 6-pack. The perfectly toned chest. No. Wrong time to be drooling, Steph.
You ignore his effort and wade to Niall.
“Hi Steph!” He beams, the water droplets glistening on his bare chest.
“Hey Niall, you look rather bare today.” You say, as a matter of fact.
He gives you a weird look and laughs, joining in with you.
You stop and find that your eyes had crept their way to his. You lock gazes, and you drown helplessly in the pure blue ocean. His eyes shift to your top of your body, what was not yet submerged underwater, and your eyes wander to his hair. After a moment of scanning, he bites his bottom lip, sending you mixed messages. Maybe you should've taken the other bikini instead. At least that one wouldn’t have been so tight.
You see Zayn again, and he is leaning against the side of the pool, eyes trained on you and Niall. By the look on his face, you could tell that what you and Niall were doing wasn’t congenial for him. In fact, it seemed that even you and Niall being in the same room, wasn’t congenial for him. You are struck with a thought of Zayn being jealous, but that wouldn’t make sense because he didn’t like you? Did he?

Thoughts like these are stressful for you to pore over, so you decided that it would be easier to distract yourself. Without considering over anything else, you wrap your arms around Niall's neck.
“Carry me.”
Niall seemed possibly pleased by this. “Of course, anything for my princess.”
He puts an arm around your waist and another underneath your legs. In bridal-style, he transports you around the pool, trying to swing you from side to side which resulted in ripples being created in the water.
You lean your head against his chest to listen to his heartbeat.
Niall is blabbing about something related to keyboards and he carries you infront of Zayn, passing him. His eyes were filled with... hurt and he looked down to his feet when you two passed him. He hopped out of the pool and headed to the deck chairs.
He looked broken.
Your heart starts to curdle. Was it you? Did you really have the power to make someone feel that way, because it surely didn’t look like he was sad about Niall talking about keyboards.
“Niall, can you let me down now?”
Niall frowns, confused for a moment, but he removes his arms and let your feet fall to the pool floor. It felt rather nice to have water around your legs again.
“Thanks Niall.” You give him a small smile and a light peck on the cheek before swimming off to the end of the pool where the ladder was.
You need to talk to Zayn and clear this up; whether it was you or not, whether you like him or not, or whether he’s angry at you or not. You hop out of the pool, Zayn wasn’t on the deck chairs any longer.
“Guys, I'm going to the bathroom.” you yell to the boys in the pool, before heading back into the apartment.
Where would Zayn be? You check every room, until realize that he would more likely be in his room than anywhere else.
You knock gently.
“Who's there?” You hear a grumble coming from inside.
“It's Steph.... Can I come in?”
There was some shuffling from behind the door, before it opened to reveal Zayn standing there, still shirtless from swimming. He turns around to collapse back on his bed, and you find yourself some space on the edge of it to sit.
There was a long, yet prickly, awkward silence. Finally, you speak.
“Look, I'm sorry Zayn.”
He sits up and looks you in the eye. “Sorry for what?”
Naturally, your eyes shift to his abs but you rapidly peel them away so he doesn’t notice. “For ignoring you.”
“It's okay. I know what's going on between you and Niall.”
“What's going on between me and Niall?!”
“You like him, don't you.” It wasn’t even question, it was more like a Yeah-I’ve-guessed-it-already-no-need-to-deny-it.
“But I don't like Niall,” you stutter, “I like someone else.”
“Who is this ‘someone’?” When you have no response, he starts guessing.
“Is it Louis?”
“No.”
“Is it Liam?”
“No.”
“Is it Harry?”
“Zayn, no, it's not.”
“Then do I know this 'someone’?”
“It's you.” you mutter, your throat feels dryer than bone and quite hoarse too.
“What?”
“It’s you okay? That ‘someone’ is you, I like you.”
He sits there, speechless, mouth agape.
“I like you...okay?!” you whimper, tears beginning to fall from your eyes.

It was all of sudden. His lips crash onto yours, taking the lead in this action of expressing… love?
You kiss back hungrily, letting your inner monster come out. His lips were devouring yours. It was like tasting the same dose of sweetness as you did the first time he kissed you. His hands move down to your bare waist. You were still in your bikini, but that didn’t matter.
Your hands felt up his neck and into his hair. You tugged softly at it as he pressed harder onto your lips and begged for entrance into your mouth.
You allowed entrance.
Moving off the bed, he pushes you towards the wall, pressing his bare chest against your body. His lips descend down to your neck, and he starts to suck a spot on your shoulder blade. You moan in his mouth, and he sucks deeper.
You go back into kissing, and you find your fingers tangled up in his hair while his hands are around your hip. The feeling of his breath on your skin, and your body against his, was exceptional.
You pull your lips away, gasping for breath as you stared at each other in the eyes. Honey-brown has never looked so amazing before. The bird in your heart flapped its wings frantically, desperate to get out and explode into a million pieces.
Zayn presses his forehead against yours. “You are so beautiful, Steph.”
You didn’t care whether he said that to every girl after he hooked up with them, at that moment, Zayn made you feel beautiful.
“So are you.”
He smiles and you giggle. You wrap your arms around him and pull him closer so there was no space between your bodies. Resting you head against his chest, the sensation of his gentle circle-rubbing on your back was soothing.

“Oi! Zayn! Steph! What are you two even doing?! The pizza has arrived!” Harry yells loudly from, you assume, the pool, which disrupted the perfect silence.
“Yeah, hurry! Niall misses you Steph!” Louis adds, on his own expense. Not surprisingly, it was followed by a loud splash which was probably Niall pushing Louis into the water.
You feel Zayn kiss your forehead, before pulling away from your hug and leading you back to the pool with his hand in yours.
When you see the first sighting of the boys, which was Liam on his deck chair, you shake Zayn’s hand off and he grins to himself before walking infront of you to the table.
Niall smiles at you when he emerges from the pool. It worried you for a split second; whether your lip-gloss was ruined, whether you hair looked alright, even if your bikini was on properly after that unexpected make-out session. You smile back and hurry to the pizza table. Worrying can be for later.

A/N: How does it feel like to be the character in a fanfic for once?
Well, let’s see what happens next aye?
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-KebabWoman
Song Recommendation: ‘Believe’ by Justin Bieber