Flavor of the Week

“Freeze pop?” Hannah offered as she approached Zayn, who was sitting outside his cabin, his arms wrapped around his knees as he stared off into the distance. He looked incredibly deep in thought, and Hannah hated to ruin his concentration. But the girls had a little rock-paper-scissors competition in the cabin to see who had to go intervene on Zayn’s pensive and depressed attitude, and Hannah had lost, fair and square.

Not that she necessarily disliked the way the competition had ended. It was another opportunity to bond with Zayn, and after the paintball game that had been their first date, she wanted as many of those opportunities as possible. The more she talked to the somewhat quiet and mysterious boy, the more she liked him. He was a lot different from the other guys she’d pursued in the past, but she kind of appreciated the change in pace.

He glanced up with those honey eyes of his and gave her a small smile. “Sure, thanks,” he replied as he took the Cotton Candy Blue colored piece of ice from her hands.

Without asking for permission, she settled down next to him, stretching her long, pale legs out in front of her, shown off by the short skirt she’d decided to wear that day.

The two of them opened their treats in silence as Hannah allowed Zayn some extra time to dwell in his thoughts, staring out at the scene of nature around them like he had been.

She was incredibly thankful that Louis had the mercy inside of him to put Hannah on Zayn’s team once again. When Zayn had failed to win the challenge, thanks to Juliette remembering her role and bursting into tears in the middle of the performance, Hannah had been petrified that she would get put on someone else’s team. She felt that she was finally getting the connection with one of the boys that so many of the other girls were getting with the others, and she didn’t want it to get ruined already.

But Louis seemed to notice what Zayn wanted, and he’d made the proper choice for his friend’s best interest.

After a couple of minutes, Hannah bit her lip and asked, “So are you okay? You’ve been sitting out here for a while, and the other girls and I are getting worried.”

He let out a long sigh and broke off another piece of the popsicle into his mouth. “I’m alright,” he replied finally. “Today’s just my sister’s birthday, and it’s hard for me to miss so many of them.”

Hannah understood that. Although she didn’t have any siblings, she still knew the strong connections she felt with her family, and she’d hate not being there to wish any one of them a happy birthday.

And while Hannah knew that her role was the funny girl, she felt in her gut that the situation was supposed to be a tender moment between the two of them. It was a pivotal scene that would determine how their relationship was going to progress. Hopefully, the producers understood and agreed with the way she had decided to play the part.

“I’m sorry that you can’t be there for her,” Hannah whispered, scooting her body closer to Zayn’s. “Did you call her and tell her that you were thinking of her?”

“Yeah,” he replied, starting to squirm a little as he readjusted his position, folding his legs underneath him so he was sitting Indian-style, his knee brushing just slightly against her hip. “But it’s not the same.”

“I’m sure she understands,” Hannah eased. She felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket, probably the producer sending her notes on how disappointing and out-of-character she was acting.

Thankfully, just when she needed it most, she remembered an episode of an old television show she used to watch, and a massive grin spread across her face. “Why don’t you make her a card? You like to draw, right? So you can draw her a little cartoon or something, maybe throw in some corny joke that will make her laugh in spite of herself, and it’ll show that you care more than a phone call ever could.”

A light went up in his eyes as he leaned over and gave Hannah a sweet one-armed hug. “You’re brilliant,” he told her excitedly. “I’ll just have to find some paper and a pen. Thank you so much, Hannah.”

And to her complete shock, Zayn leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her temple. “I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”

Hannah opened her mouth, ready to say something cute, witty, and endearing, but no voice came out of her throat. She was completely taken aback that she’d actually done something right enough to make him so incredibly comfortable with her.

Before she could get a word out, his footsteps were so quiet that she knew he was too far away to say anything then. Part of her felt like she might have ruined whatever progress they’d made, but she had a sensation of certainty in her stomach that asserted otherwise.

Finally, once she was certain she was alone, she pulled out her phone and looked at her texts to see what the producer had said.

Funny, Hannah! FUNNY.

I’m not laughing!

And then, two minutes after the first two, Alright, kid, that was good. Well done.

Hannah felt herself start to beam as she got up, brushed off her butt, and tucked her phone back into the pocket of her flowing skirt. She couldn’t keep the intense feeling of satisfaction off her face as she made her way back toward the cabin, where the rest of the girls were probably sitting around and gossiping about the various difficulties of playing their parts.

Hannah couldn’t let herself get smug, though. She still had a long way to go before she was at the comfortable place with Zayn that a lot of the other girls had with the rest of the band in the competition. She wanted more than anything for him to kiss her for real, the seal the fact that he was totally and completely interested in her.

But she had to let him make the first move. She couldn’t risk having everything fall apart and putting her butt on the line like she’d done with Harry. So she just had to let the chips fall where they may and work as hard as she could to keep her character and not get overwhelmed by her need to win.