Flavor of the Week

When Zayn looked over at Hannah, the pain and betrayal were evident in his eyes. The sparkle she’d grown to admire had disappeared, and his disgust was obvious as he shook his head and turned to shove his way through the crowd.

Hannah stood in shock, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment. All of the other chosen contestants had run after their band member, desperate to make them understand. Consciously, Hannah knew that was what she was supposed to do. But her entire body felt numb, completely drained after the severe anxiety that had plagued her before the truth had been dropped, and she wasn’t sure if she could put one foot in front of the other.

Finally, regaining her energy when she realized the largest camera was fixed right on her devastated face, she turned away from its glare to hide her tears and hurried in the direction Zayn had disappeared.

She had every intention of going straight through to the cabin, where she assumed Zayn would be hiding out. He was probably horrified that he’d allowed himself to fall for such a dirty trick, and he probably regretted the second he agreed to do the ridiculous television program.

But her journey was interrupted when she heard the rustling of leaves when she was about twenty feet from the cabin that had served as her second home for weeks. And there sat Zayn, sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs, just like he’d been the day he was feeling down about missing his sister’s birthday. It was the biggest step in their bonding, and the irony wasn’t lost on her.

“Hi,” she whispered as she settled down next to the boy, mimicking his sitting position. “Can we talk?”

“Talk away,” he agreed. “But don’t count on me listening.”

Hannah let out a small sigh and shook her head. She knew Zayn would listen, but he just didn’t want to seem like he was going to forgive her. She wasn’t even sure she would forgive her.

“I’m really sorry. I know that doesn’t even begin to cover anything, but I am really sorry about what I did. I’m sorry that I came on this show with the sole intention of making one of you guys fall for me so I could win the show and get the movie role. It was horrible of me, and if I could go back right now…”

She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say that she’d walk away and make a different decision because she wouldn’t. The show might have been a terrible prank to play on the boys, but it was still the forum that allowed her to be introduced to Zayn Malik. And nothing in the world could make her regret that aspect of the experience.

Zayn shook his head again and sighed, burying his face into his hands for a second. When he emerged, recomposed, he asked with a sharp tone, “Oh, so if you could just go back to the start right now, when you were asked to be on the show and break one, if not more, of our hearts, you’d do it in a heartbeat? That shows some great character, Hannah. Why would you even do something like that? Do you live to make people miserable or something?”

She could feel the hurt bubbling up in her chest, but she pushed it away, knowing that she had to stay calm in the discussion, even if Zayn couldn’t. Not that she could blame him. She’d kind of been a bitch. “I wouldn’t go back and re-do anything because it would mean that I wouldn’t have met you. And no matter what the circumstances or what happens after this, I’m happy that I had the opportunity to meet you and get close to you. You are by far one of the sweetest, most sensitive, most playful guys I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’d never take an opportunity to forget about you.”

Zayn glanced over at her, just long enough for her to see the wetness in his eyes. But before he could say anything emotional and make Hannah lose her cool, she rushed, “And I did this because of my family. I’ve been doing small guest roles here and there to help support them, but I can’t keep doing that forever. I needed a big role, where I’d get paid tons of money, and I could buy them a beautiful, huge house where they could live comfortably. Right now, they live in a cramped, shitty apartment in the slums of San Francisco, and I just wanted to get them away from that, no matter the cost.”

She heard him swallow, and then there was a long silence. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, he responded, “I understand that. I hate that I’m saying that, but I understand where you’re coming from. I’d probably do the same thing in your situation. But can I just ask you one thing?”

Hannah nodded and turned toward him, barely blinking or breathing as she waited for the question she’d been anticipating.

“How much of it was a lie? Where did Hannah stop and the character begin?”

Hannah let out a breath. “Honestly, I was just kind of being an exaggerated version of myself. It’s hard to fake wit, so the producers gave me the role because I had one naturally. I had to force jokes here and there, and I always had to keep my role in mind, but it wasn’t that hard to fall into. But I’m not always funny. And thinking back on it, there were times when I freaked out at the other girls at the beginning of the competition because I thought they were acting unprofessionally or doing their roles badly, kind of like it said in the confessional. I was just too focused on winning, and I acted like a bitch because of it.”

“So…?” Zayn asked, the corner of his mouth pulling up in the smallest of smirks.

She flushed when she realized that she’d given a really long answer for something that should only have taken a few words. “Basically, I am my character. I have other dimensions to me, too, which you saw little flashes of, but I’m not that far from the Hannah you know. I’m not like Georgia, who had to fake an entirely different persona, and I’ll never understand how she managed to do that as well as she did. I’m just…me.”

“Okay.”

The word hung between them uncomfortably, neither of them really understanding where to go from there. It was Hannah who finally broke the silence. “So are we okay now? What’s going to happen after this whole thing ends?”

“I’d be willing to give us another shot,” Zayn expressed clearly, “if you are. If your feelings for me are real, like you seem to say they are, then I say we should just pick up from before Jay said you guys were all liars.”

“I think that’s perfect.” Hannah gave him a small smile before leaning forward and pressing her lips against his.

“Ah, let’s save this for later,” Zayn whispered into her ear as he pulled her into a hug after the brief kiss. “This is a family show.”

Hannah let out a small laugh and squeezed Zayn tighter. She couldn’t have been more thankful that everything turned out for the best, and she hoped everyone else got their Happily Ever Afters, too.