Disturb the Peace

After my disagreement with Zayn in the kitchen that morning, I was both nervous and excited to go to the Omega’s party on the other side of Greek row. There was still a chance that I would see Zayn there, especially since both of us had made a comment about going, and I couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing.

Grace insisted that the two of us not pregame for the party, so the walk to the Omega house was less eventful than it would have been if Grace had been trying to dance on the light posts or hump a fire hydrant, and we made it to the house in record time.

Even from the sidewalk, I could hear the sound of the music thumping inside, which practically shook the entire house. It looked like it was going to be a wild party, and I was trying to brace myself for the explosion of my ear drums.

Just as we began walking up, Zayn stepped out of his car in the driveway, which I had only just noticed. He gave me a soft smile as he walked straight for me, and when he was just inches away, he grabbed onto my arm and pulled me in the direction of his car and away from the party.

I looked back at Grace with my eyebrows furrowed and she smiled at me while she followed Liam inside.

“Have fun!” She called back to me, and I knew that she had been in on it the whole time. No wonder she didn’t want to pregame with me.

Turning to Zayn, I pulled my arm away from his grasp just as we reached the car and looked up at him. “What’s going on?”

Zayn chuckled a bit while he smiled down at me, opening the passenger door of his car. “I’m proving you wrong.”

I pressed my lips together and my eyes blinked slowly while I looked at him. I stayed like that for a few moments, though I knew all along I’d be going with him. After one short breath, I gave a nod of my head and hopped into the passenger seat while Zayn closed the door behind me.

When he got into the driver’s seat and turned on the car, I turned to look at him while he backed carefully out of the driveway.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I folded my hands on my lap and moved my eyes back to the windshield.
He turned to look at me with a smile. He had one hand on the steering wheel while the other held onto the stick shift. “You’ll see.”

We drove for only a few short minutes, until we were on the other side of campus, parked in front of the university gardens. It was fairly dark as the scenery was lit only by the small lamps that surrounded the path, and it looked like we were the only people in the area.

Zayn hopped out of the car and moved around to my side, popping the door open for me. He kept one hand on the door and looked down at me while I stayed unmoving.

“I didn’t exactly bring proper shoes for walking,” I said, while I pointed down to the lengthy black heels strapped to me feet.

Zayn chuckled as he leaned down and put his hands on my ankle. “Let me get those for you.”

He carefully undid the buckle, sliding my shoe slowly off my foot, his fingers grazing my skin gently the whole time he did. He took the other shoe off the same way and looked me straight in my eyes while he did it.

After he was finished with my shoes, he dropped them in my lap before reaching his arms around my body and lifting me into the air. He cradled me in his arms, my heart racing the entire time, and one of my arms fell around his neck while the other held onto the strap of my shoes.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, though I was trying so hard to keep a straight face, and he just laughed with me. He carried me across the parking lot until we reached the edge where the path began, and he set me gently down to the cobblestone walkway.

Instinctively, I began walking down the path with Zayn right next to me. We stayed like that in comfortable silence for several feet, just looking at the beautiful landscape around us before I finally spoke up.

“So,” I said, giving a small pause. “Why did you bring me out here?”

Zayn chuckled, shoving his hands in his pockets while he looked over at me. “I told you. I’m gonna prove you wrong.”

“How?”

“I’m gonna show you that I’m more than just a frat guy who is a really good fuck,” he said, a large smile gracing his face as he did.

I rolled my eyes at him, though a small smile was tugging at the corner of my lips. “Off to a bad start.”

“I was kidding,” he said, nudging me with his elbow, which actually kind of hurt. I rolled my eyes again and pursed my lips before he continued speaking. “You know, if this is going to work, you’re gonna have to pretend like you don’t hate me. Just for a little.”

“That’ll be tough,” I responded quickly, while popping my nose in the air.

Zayn glared at me, but I could just barely make out the smile he was holding back. He wasn’t fooling me. We walked in silence for a few moments before Zayn cleared his throat.

“Has Grace said anything to you about Liam?”

I tightened my eyes a bit, looking at him questioningly. “What about him?”

Zayn shrugged. “He just really likes her is all.”

“Grace?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head. “You sound surprised.”

“No, not really,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “I just – I just didn’t think you Alphas really did the whole feelings thing.”

“You think we don’t have feelings?” Zayn asked, chuckling a bit as he spoke.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “Not for girls.”

“Well, you’re very wrong about that,” Zayn said quickly, pressing his lips together as he looked off at the path in front of us.

“Says you,” I replied matter-of-factly while I moved my eyes to the spot Zayn was looking at.

“Says our kiss,” he said easily, stopping me dead in my tracks. I turned to look at him, my lips pressed together while my eyebrows furrowed. When I didn’t say anything, Zayn spoke again. “Come on, Lyds. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel anything.”

I opened my mouth to speak before quickly shutting it over and over like a fish out of water. When I finally spoke, I turned my gaze away from Zayn to look back towards the walkway. “You know nothing about how I feel, Zayn.”

“I know –”

“You know nothing,” I interrupted, immediately silencing him. “If you did, you never would have left me that morning.”

“What?” Zayn asked, letting out a deep breath as he spoke. His face looked like he honestly had no clue what I was talking about.

“Oh, come on. Freshman year. At the Alpha Delta meet and greet. You came up to my room and when I woke up the next morning you were gone.”

“That’s what this is about?” Zayn asked, furrowing his eyebrows. “Lyds, that was freshman year. I hardly knew you.”

“But you knew you wanted to fuck me.”

“I wanted to fuck anything,” Zayn breathed out, his hands dropping down to his sides. “God, Lyds, I was 18. It was my first year as fraternity brother. If I didn’t fuck anything that moved, the guys would ream me for it.”

“Oh, and so much has changed since then.”

“It has, Lyds.” Zayn let out an exasperated breath. “It has.”

“That’s a lie,” I said quickly, shaking my head. “I see you with a new girl at every party I go to.”

“That doesn’t mean I slept with them.”

“Oh, yeah?” I said, my voice going a few octaves higher than it was before. “Explain Hailey.”

“I didn’t fuck Hailey,” Zayn said, breathing deeply while he shook his head. “I slept in her bed, yeah, but I didn’t fuck her. Ask her yourself.”

“Well, Hailey’s just one girl anyway,” I said, shrugging my shoulder while I folded my arms across my chest. “There are dozens of others on campus that –”

“Are you just looking for a reason to hate me?” Zayn asked, his upper lip curling up while he nibbled at the bottom.

His eyes were locked on mine, a small glint in them like he had just figured everything out. My mouth opened slightly, but it took me a few seconds to get myself together.

“No, it’s just I –”

“That’s it, isn’t?” Half of Zayn’s face turned up in a smile – the sort that a teacher gives a student when they catch them cheating. “You like me. You really like me and that scares you, so you’ll look for any reason to hate me just so you don’t have to admit it.”

“That’s not it at all,” I said quickly, shaking my head so suddenly I hurt my neck.

“Then say it,” Zayn breathed out, cocking his head to one side. “Say you don’t like me. Say you don’t like me and we’ll turn around and I’ll take you back to that party so you can go find another guy to take back to the last room on the left. Another guy who doesn’t give a fuck about you, Lyds. Another guy who doesn’t care about you the way I do. Because that’s how you like it, isn’t Lyds? No feelings so you can make sure you won’t get hurt.”

My mouth agape, I let out an annoyed breath, shaking my head once. “Fuck you, Zayn.”

“Say it,” he repeated. “Say you don’t like me and I’ll take you straight back.”

“Shut up,” I nearly shouted, throwing my hands down to my sides.

“Say it, Lyds.”

I looked up to the sky as I let out a long, deep breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding. I stayed like that for a long moment, just looking up at the stars while Zayn looked at me. It got to the point where I knew I couldn’t wait any longer, so I finally spoke again.

“I like you, okay? I like you, Zayn. Fuck, I like you.”

There wasn’t even a second of hesitation as Zayn leaned forward, crashing my lips against his while he wrapped his hands in my hair and kissed me over and over again. His kiss was just as perfect and mind blowing as it was the first time, and I could hardly breathe when he pulled away.

His eyes were looking down at me, switching between my own eyes and my lips frantically. I took a short breath before I spoke again, my voice just barely above a whisper. “Kiss me again.”

Zayn gave me a quick smile before leaning forward again and pressing our lips together, his kiss much gentler than before, like he thought he might break me.

We stayed like that, underneath the stars, and I never, ever wanted to pull away again.