Know Your Enemy

By the end of the hour spent in lockdown with my Psychology teacher, I was ready to jump out the second story window. With my fingers matted in my hair, my eyes trailed up to meet my teachers'.

"Just about done?" She asked in a sing-song tone.

"Well, no-"

"I'm afraid that's all the time I can allow you, Miss Hayes."

Fuck you...

Her tests were always harder if you didn't take them the day she planned it for. While everyone else had some joke of a multiple choice test, I was sitting there racking my brain trying to get through an all open response version. I hoped I wrote enough bullshit down to salvage a passing grade.

I took my sweet time to fold my test into a paper airplane and sent it on over to her. She flinched a bit before catching it.

“How nice."

I gave her one big, fake smile in response before walking out. Luckily, Zayn was waiting right outside the school doors with the car already running.

"How'd it go?"

"Rather not relive that one."

"Cool. So..." He tapped his palm against the top of the steering wheel anxiously a few times.

I pressed my lips together and rotated to face him. "What is it now?”

After taking in a breath, he let out, "Niall's coming to the drive in with us."

"Zayn! Nothing like a buzzkill! It's not like we've been talking about going to see this movie forever or anything."

"Thanks, Lana. I know I could count on you not to wig out.” He rolled his eyes in my direction.

"Very funny.”



It was close to dusk when we pulled into the drive in. The place was still filling up as a few other late cars rolled in. No one said anything, but I know it wasn’t just me who noticed a few Mustangs parked on the opposite side of the lawn. Zayn found a spot that was just about as far away from them as possible.

I pushed open the car door and hopped out onto the grass. The hood let out a groan when all of us sat down on it; them on the sides, me in the middle. The breeze picked up and swept through the field. I rubbed at the goosebumps that were forming on my arms.

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Frisbee heading straight for my face. Clumsily, I slapped it down and tried to get my heart started back up again. Niall choked back a laugh, while Zayn proceeded to give me a very confused look.

A high-pitched giggle sliced the air and I instantly saw a girl at my 10:00 heading towards us. She was a bottle blonde with cutoffs that hung low on her hips.

“I am just so sorry,” she smiled sweetly, looking back and forth between Zayn and Niall. She looked straight past me and focused back on Zayn. For some reason, girls always felt the need to dumb themselves down to get close to him. He never called them out; just went along with it. I had a feeling this chick would be no different.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, you almost took my head off.” I lowered my voice and turned to Niall. “Can you believe this right now?” His elbow bumped my arm and he shot a look towards Zayn and Blondie. Zayn had his whole smolder eye thing going on, and that was when I got up.

“I’m going to get food,” I announced. No answer.

“Get me somethin’, would ya?” Niall chimed in.

I groaned in response before walking away. I couldn’t have explained why I was a little more frustrated than usual with Zayn. All I knew was that I wanted to piss him off. With every step closer to the concession stand, it was also one step closer to the group of jocks now hanging out of their cars.

I slid some bills out of my back pocket and smoothed them out as I grazed my eyes over the list of food above the cashier’s head. When I got up to the front of the line, I ordered a Coke. While the cashier grabbed one for me, I looked back to see that Blondie was still chatting up my friend.

Holding onto the neck of the Coke bottle, I paid for my drink before popping the cap off.

“Over here, baby!” That was when the drunk hooting and hollering started. Normally, I’d have told them all to fuck off, but given the circumstances, I needed some entertainment.

Taking a gulp from my Coke, I eyeballed the contenders. There was only one that I thought was remotely good-looking. From what I could tell, only a select few were sober. Without a care in the world, I went over there.

“Lanaaaaa! Come on over, honey!”

“Sit on down next to me,” the relatively good-looking one said as he patted the spot next to him on the hood of his car. I could tell from the sound of his voice and mannerisms that he was buzzed. I sat down and saw that there was no sight of Liam Payne within the group.

“Wanna take a walk?” He asked, offering up his beer-free hand.

I rejected the offer but hopped off the hood and took a few steps. The guy laughed a bit before getting up and following me.

We had only gotten a few yards away when he stopped at a place where the lights didn’t hit anymore. “So, what do you think of me?”

“I think you’re drunk.”

He smiled, “I’m not, but honestly?”

“Honestly, your posse makes me sick.”

“Ouch... But I’m not bad, right?” he smirked.

What the hell was he playing at? Shit, I thought he’d be a bit quicker. I stretched up to kiss him and his hands fell to my waist.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” I heard Zayn say, grabbing the guy by the back of the shirt and pulling him back.

He stumbled and fell onto the grass. A few seconds later, he hoisted himself back up. A condescending laugh came from the jock. “Should’ve known you’d show up, Malik.”

“If you have any common sense, you’ll get the hell out of here.” Zayn was doing his eerily calm tone of voice that he only did when he was two seconds away from losing it.

“Cool it. Listen, she came onto me, man,” he smirked.

Before I could even register what had happened, Zayn had punched him square in the jaw. A groan sounded from the kid as he staggered back.

“Let’s go,” Zayn said gruffly in my direction. He waited for me to pass him before walking with me. “Are you out of your goddamn mind?” I ignored him. “Lana!”

“Let’s just watch this movie, alright?”

He caught my arm and stopped. He gave me a look like there was no chance of him letting it go.

“How’s Blondie?”

He rolled his eyes. “If you had stayed for about two more freaking minutes, you would’ve saw that I got rid of her. She was lame.”

I got quiet and changed the subject. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“I know, I just wasn’t about to let you-” He groaned and stopped for a second. “Just come on.” The screen lit up and previews started rolling that filled the silence on the way back to the car.