Took Me By Surprise [Zayn Malik] ✓

Chapter 14: Headlines

   *Zayn*

   Three days have passed since our short trip around London. Three days since the paparazzi took a snapshot of Jenan and me. Honestly, I had expected it to be published earlier, like at the same day or at least one day afterwards. My tiny tiny hope of Jenan not being captured in the photo was destroyed by the phone call I got this morning.

   I was sitting on the couch with the other lads swallowing a headache pill as I had a terrible hangover. Jenan was still upstairs, probably sleeping, when my iPhone, which was lying in front of me on the cocktail table beside the cigarettes, rang.

   "Who is it?" Harry asked in a dragging voice, I think he had drunk even more than I did.

   "It's Simon." I answered, not picking up.

   "And why the hell don't you pick up?? This is giving me a headache." he growled and hid his face behind his hands.

   He was right. Why did I hesitate? It's just Simon.

   "Good morning, Simon." I said, giving my forehead a massage to release the headache.

   "Take a look at the news and then you all shall visit me at my office immediately. The 5 of you." Simon said in a constrained voice and then hung up. I stared at the phone in shock when Louis said: "Hey, what was that? What did he tell you?"

    I swallowed. "He said I should take a look at the news and then we should go and see him in his office." I realised the boys looking at each other in surprise. Liam took out his tablet from a drawer and started to type something into the search engine.

   Please don't let it be what I think it is, please don't let it be what I think it is.. I repeated like a mantra. But when I saw the expression on Liam's face as he saw the results of his search, I knew that it actually was what I had expected. He opened up an article and put the tablet on the cocktail table in front of us.

   Zayn Malik's New Flame? Was written in huge headlines at the top of the page. And underneath.. a pin sharp snapshot of me and Jenan. I sighed as I noticed that half of Jenan's face was captured and her arm streched out, grabbing the inner handle of the car. In the photo, I was looking down at her with a tiny smile played around the corners of my mouth.

   Quickly, I skimmed over the article.

   British-Irish boyband One Direction are currently having a loose schedule and especially heartthrob Zayn Malik seems to enjoy it to the fullest. Three days ago he was spotted hanging out with an unknown girl in London. Passersby have seen them coming out of a prestigious store having a laughing fit. Later they were both seen in front of the London Eye, entering Malik's car.

   At the moment, fans are going crazy about the identity of Malik's unknown company, already making up rumors about their relationship. Half of them by now think that she's his new flame while others say he would never date a Hijabi (a girl wearing the islamic headscarf). We will see if One Direction will answer to the fans..

   "We should go and see Simon." Was all what Liam said and we all nodded in agreement.

**

   "You can't be serious!" Simon looked at me in anger, hitting his fist on his desk. "I assigned you all with the task of taking care of the girl and not exposing her to the media!"

   "Yeah, we know. It really was not supposed to end like this." I said in a quiet voice. Simon was really mad at me but I could see where he was coming from.

   "I personally think that what happened today would have happened sooner or later, Simon." Liam said. "It is almost impossible to keep something from the media and she is not only something but a human being. We can't lock her up in the basement and never let her out." His voice was soft, trying to make Simon calm down.