One Direction: A Love Story

"Because I love you," ~ Zayn Malik

Zayn.

Taleisha and Liam had disappeared off to another room, and nobody was talking. Distantly we heard arguing.

“Well… if you are, do you want to keep it?” Liam’s deeper voice echoed through the thin walls and down the corridor. Taleisha’s high pitched voice exploded and I winced.

“Do I look like I come from the ghetto?” We all chuckled at that. Not even close, she was like a model. She had long, curly, beautifully coloured hair that came to the top of her bum. I heard more shouting then it was suddenly cut off. I got up and wandered outside, I needed a smoke. Glancing back I saw Niall pouting sadly, and I laughed, pulling his hand, indicating for him to come with me. He grinned and got up quickly, following me like a puppy outside, where I rolled a smoke swiftly. I put the filter between my lips and dug around in my pocket for my lighter, which I soon found. Lighting up, I looked over at Niall and his Irish adorableness and sighed. He was too perfect, why did I have him? How did I deserve him?

“What?” He asked me, caressing my cheek softly as I took a drag, still staring intently at him.

“Nothing, I just can’t believe I almost lost you. Don’t go off with anyone ever again, other than people you know closely, promise me? Please?” I rambled. Niall put his hand over my mouth, my smoke between my index finger and middle finger, which was by my side.

“Shh, enough. I promise,” He swore to me, and I smiled. Leaning down, still having his hand over my mouth, he kissed my nose, moved his hand, and kissed my lips gently, his eyes fluttering closed, and I shut my eyes softly, letting his scent take me to another planet. His rough lips moved against my unshaven face, and my lips brushed against his before crushing them. I smiled, knowing he was mine, and he pulled away with a confused look on his face.

“Why are you smiling?” He asked me.

“Because I love you,” I told him blatantly. He blushed a crimson red and looked away.

"I gotta go," I said quickly, hearing a noise distantly. Niall looked around and gave me a sullen look. I turned, pushing him behind me so I could protect him if need be. I looked around, seeing nothing, and then he ran toward me. I punched him right in the nose and he fell to the ground, writhing in pain. I picked him up by the collar and held him against the brick wall next to Niall, who quickly moved behind me, holding my shoulders tightly. I flexed them under his grip and he massaged them subtly, moaning almost silently. I chuckled before turning my attention back to the guy I hit.

“Who are you?” I demanded. He groaned before mumbling something.

“What?” I asked him violently, slamming him against the wall again. Niall's grip tightened on my shoulders, and I relaxed slightly. 

"I work with Lucy, and I wanted to check you're doing your job as promised. But you weren't supposed to see me, and she told me if you saw me, just wake you up to the real world, but... you woke me up. And now I know what a shit job this is, and how much trouble I get in with everyone." He confessed suspiciously. I narrowed my eyes at him and he tilted his head down in a weak attempt to look cute. It only made me more suspicious of his antics. 

"Okay, so Lucy sent you to watch me, and your aim was to not get caught, yet I caught you and now you're submissive because I have you against a wall ready to bash your head in with a rock?" He nodded slowly, as if any sudden movements would provoke me. I laughed at him, dropping him to the floor. 

"Tell Lucy I'm doing fine, and you can keep your job." Inside I felt nervous. What if she found out I didn't plan on selling any of the drugs? I couldn't let Niall go through torture because of me. I wouldn't let any of my friends be in trouble because of my own stupidity. I stood up straight, staring at the brick wall in front of me, seeing nothing. Instead my mind wandered back through the years, but finally settled myself at the age of 17, and it was in late August. The birds tweeted happily as I wandered through the crowded streets, bumbling into people occasionally, apologising immediately, and moving onto stores that could have work for me. The most I ever got was lifting milk crates or hauling flour around, carrying glass was never asked of me. Everyone in the area knew how much of a klutz I was, and refused to let me handle valuables. 

"Hey Zayn! Can you come move these bags of potatoes over to the other side of the store? $20?" Stella offered. I merrily wandered over, easily lifting the heavy potato sack over my shoulder. We quickly engaged in polite conversation, talking about work, about how we were doing that week. I noticed she wore a skirt to work today, which was different from her usual black slacks that had a neat crease in them. Stella was 2 years older than me, and we were really close. By this age, I wasn't dealing drugs, and I'd never done them, but Lucy still called in on me every now and then to check how I was doing, to see if I wanted to rejoin her. I always said no, not unless my life was at stake and I needed money. I vowed never to go back to that life, it always led to fights and black eyes, which led to questioning from everybody I knew, and in the end, resulted in lying to those closest to me. Nobody but Lucy knew I dealt with drugs, and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn't want my reputation to go downhill, because if anybody ever found out about my past, I'd be shunned and wouldn't get much work. 

Shaking my head, I took in how Stella looked today; her fiery red hair up in a neat bun, not a hair out of place, her usual black work shoes changed into red pumps that looked beautiful on her. She wore a purple scarf around her neck, probably hiding a hickey that would have been from her fiance, and her usual button up work shirt that had her name tag pinned to it. The cheesy 'Hello, my name is...' was not something this store did. Their tags read 'Hi, I'm ..... What can I do for you?' I wished I had a full-time job, and considering I was out of school, not in work or any kind of education, I kind of wanted to go back to school. 

"Thanks so much. Here you go," Stella pulled out her purse and gave me a $20 bill straight out of it. I took it, and looked at her incredulously. 

"I can't take this, it's your money. If I was going to accept any money, it'd be from the till. I'm not taking your money that you've earned." I handed it back to her and she smiled wryly.

"Thanks, Zayn, I'll make sure you get your money." I shook my head.

"Don't worry about it, I love seeing you anyway, even if I do have to move heavy potato sacks." I worked out a fake kink in my shoulder, trying to emphasise how heavy they apparently were.

My mind was worked out of that random memory when Niall's hot breath was on my neck, giving me chills down my spine. My eyes still faced the wall and my back had slouched, with Niall probably trying to snap me out of my 'trance'.

"Sorry, was caught up in a memory..." I explained with a frown. Why did that memory come to me? Why not another about Lucy, or my parents, or Niall? I didn't even realise I'd cherished that memory until it was relayed perfectly. Niall stood behind me, his arms caressing my chest fondly over my shoulders. I turned my head and his was right there, beside it. I grinned and kissed him gently, noticing our 'friend' was gone. He must have scurried off when I was in my dream land. We walked inside hand in hand and found Harry lying on the floor unconscious, his head in Louis' lap, and Louis trying not to freak out.

"Guys! Where the hell have you been??? You disappeared and we haven't seen you for an hour and a half!" Liam screeched, and it scared me. Liam wasn't supposed to be scary. I just gaped, Niall doing the same.

"What happened?" I asked carefully. My response was a 'Well if you were here...' from Lou. I gave him a dirty look before feeling bad. I sat down next to him. 

"Lou? Are you ok? What happened to Haz?"

"He just passed out, nobody knows what the fuck happened. One minute he's walking Liam and Taleisha out of the bedroom, the next minute he's fallen to the floor out of breath, pale, dizzy looking, and then he passed out. He's alive, don't worry too much," Lou spilled when I was about to feel his throat to see if he had a pulse.

"Seriously though, this doesn't look like an accident..." Niall said out loud, obviously not intended for us to hear. We all looked at him in horror and he flushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean- I mean, I did mean-But I meant that if -" I cut him off. 

"Nialler, it's okay, we know. Lucy's gonna have spies all over me and you guys now..." I told them forlornly.

"So you're saying we'll be watched like rats in a lab?" Taleisha sounded shocked, and I shook my head.

"No, nothing like that, I just mean we have to be careful. Don't go anywhere alone. Always take a knife between two of you, and have emergency services on speed dial at all times. This will be tricky, no doubt. But I think we can do it. I just need to sell heaps of fucking drugs to get out of this... Shit. Should be easy.. Should. I did it before, and I can do it again." I was trying to convince everyone and myself that we could do it, when in reality, I wasn't 100% sure we could. 

All we could do was try.