Nightlight (on hold)

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Zayn had been right- the guys had not been around much in the week that followed. They did take turns staying back with us and, luckily, we were not confined to my bedroom anymore. AND, I only got in trouble twice. I mean, I had been yelled at and lectured a lot, but I was pretty impressed with my behavior over all.

It was fun being with the girls that week, we'd all hang out during the day and cook and help Eleanor with her wedding plans. When Niall was with us, he sat and ate as we planned and gossiped. Poor Louis tried to have his input, but was quickly shot down when he suggested the color scheme be grey and black. Zayn seemed bored the whole day he watched us, but it was nice being around him. Harry, on the other hand, was very vocal about his boredom. But Harry was always very vocal.

Poor Liam.

The day that he watched us, I hounded him about having a girlfriend. Of course the others were present and listening, but none were as bold as I with the only single member of One Direction.

"I don't know," he had shrugged when I asked him, "if something happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't." I didn't accept that answer, but then Liam shut us all down by telling us to play the silent game again. I, not willing to be bound and gagged like I had before, let the matter drop.

As Zayn had pointed out to me, I hadn't spoken to my family for a while, so I spent a good chunk of the week talking to them. I excused my silence with Zayn being busy at work, which was kind of true, helping Eleanor with her wedding, which was also kind of true, and I told them that a friend of mine was in an accident, which was also kind of true- only I was the one in the accident, but I didn't want to worry anyone.

It had been a month since my accident, and I was still doing physical therapy, and taking meds, and eating specially, but I really felt significantly better.

Zayn still made me take it easy though.

When that week was over, we all decided to go out and celebrate.

I mean- everything was done.

The Black Devil Cartel was shut down. The girls were returned and taken care of. The guys ended up using Claire's NGO idea.

It was all over.

And I cannot put into words just how good it felt to say that.




"Are you ready yet?" I heard Zayn shout to me. I didn't respond. He knew very well that I hated shouting back and forth- if he wanted to talk to me, he'd have to come and find me and speak to me like a normal fucking person. "DARLIN'!!" He shouted even louder. He received no answer, and instead I just swiped on some mascara, finishing the makeup part of my routine.

I heard his heavy steps coming down the hallway just as I started pulling out my dress for the night. I stood in my underwear and bra, trying to match jewelry and shoes. I had so much stuff in my closet. Really a lot more stuff than I'd ever need. But Zayn loved buying me stuff, and he never accepted my 'no'.

"Darlin', have you not heard me shouting for you?" He asked when he slammed open the door. I looked over my shoulder at him.

"I did."

"And why didn't you respond?" He took a few menacing steps towards me and stopped about three feet behind where I was standing.

"Because you know why." We had the argument multiple times before, so he knew exactly what was up. I looked back into the mirror and held the short black dress up. "What jewelry do you think I should wear with this?" I spun around and showed him which dress I had selected to wear.

"I like how you look now." He teased me playfully. He smirked at me when I blushed, but I was quick to reach over and slap his arm gently.

"Shut up. I'm not going out in my underwear, you idiot. Not with this ugly fucking scar." I gestured to the three inch long gash on my torso, where the Doctors had performed the surgery. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Well I think you look beautiful." He countered. I unzipped the dress and quickly slid into it. Without even having to ask him, Zayn was behind me and zipping me up in the back. Once he was finished, his hands rested on my hips and pulled me back gently. Kisses were peppered on the back of my neck, which was exposed by the style I had chosen for my hair.

Ok, you got me- Eleanor did it earlier. It was in a pretty bun on top of my head. There were a few loose strands that were curled and framing my face.

Zayn disappeared into my rather large closet. He came back out with a necklace and some earrings dangling in his fingers.

It was the set he had gotten me for my 20th birthday a few weeks earlier.

I was still on bed rest, so we couldn't do anything spectacular, but Zayn made me a beautiful meal and we enjoyed the day just lying around together. I wasn't expecting any presents, but he had given me the pure gold jewelry, accented by the biggest and clearest sapphires I had ever seen.

I mean, it was truly beautiful.

He helped me put on the necklace, which looked gorgeous with my dress. I mean, it was so beautiful it would probably look good with anything. It made me sad that I couldn't buy anything for Zayn equally as a nice, ever, but I kept that thought to myself. I knew it would only make him upset.

And I didn't want to fight.

"Thank you again for this." I glanced at him in our reflection in the mirror. He was smiling broadly back at me, his eyes meeting mine briefly and then grazed over my dress.

"Of course, Darlin'. I want to get you anything and everything. You deserve the finest." He leaned over and placed a sweet kiss on the base of my neck. I sighed out, but let his comment go.

If anyone there deserved the finest, it was him.

"Are you ready?" I asked after a few moments. His touch disappeared from behind me, and I spun around to see where he went. He sat down on the edge of our bed and patted his knee expectantly. I rolled my eyes.

I wasn't going to sit on his lap and wrinkle the dress.

"Yes, but I'd much rather stay here with you. Especially since you're dressed like that."

Another eye roll.

He raised his eyebrows at my response, and gestured for me to come to him. I complied. He slowly intertwined our fingers together and pulled my body between his knees. A bright smile shined up at me and I couldn't help but reciprocate it. He was so gorgeous, especially when he smiled.

"Let's you and I ditch tonight's dinner and have a little celebration of our own, yeah?" He suggested with a mischievous twinkle in his brown eyes. I had never been so tempted to stay inside that god forsaken house in my whole life.

"We can't! Come on, Zayn. You and the guys were so great the past few weeks, we deserve a celebration with everyone. Please?" I knew the second I started begging, I'd get what I wanted. Zayn wasn't hard to predict.

I remembered when I first met him- how afraid I was of him. To me, his behavior seemed erratic and spontaneous, but now, after two years of knowing and loving him, he was the easiest person to understand.

"Fine, fine." He consented with a huff. "but only if I get a kiss first." I was eager to fulfill his demands. I quickly bent over and pressed my lips to his. Our fingers untangled and his hands found their way to my hips. He pulled me even closer and held me firmly in front of him. My hands flew up to his face, one cupping his cheek gently, and the other tangled in his dark hair. Our lips moved in sync with each other, gently but passionately.

When Zayn and I kissed, everything made sense. It confirmed that we were made for each other, that everything would be ok, that we loved each other more than anything else in the entire world.

"C'mon, Darlin', let's not keep anyone waiting." He murmured against my lips after we broke apart. I sighed longingly, really wishing the dinner was another night.

Everyone looked amazing. It was a rare occasion that we all looked decent, nonetheless all dolled up. Eleanor and Claire looked stunning in figure flattering colorful dresses, while their boyfriend and fiancé wore a tailored black suit similar to that which Zayn wore. Madeleine donned a longer dress, that was more conservative, but made her look like a movie star. She wore simpler makeup and jewelry than the rest of us, and it didn't take me long to realize everything she had been wearing was El's. I felt kind of bad that Madeleine didn't have a closet of her own, but I had heard Niall offer to buy her stuff constantly, she just refused. Liam and Niall were wearing dark blue suits, but looked just as attractive as the other guys.

All of the guys, in fact, looked like James Bond.

I started to feel a little self-conscious standing next to the tall and thin girls, but the way Zayn was looking at me made up for it. Every time we caught each other's eyes, I felt like everyone else suddenly disappeared and it was just him and me.

All of my insecurities disappeared in those seconds.

The restaurant was gorgeous and fancy and famous, apparently, but it was completely empty.

It wasn't hard to figure out why there were no other customers.

We sat at a big round table for nine people. Harry declared that we should mix up the seating, so it was Harry, Madeleine, Eleanor, Liam, Niall, Claire, Zayn, Louis and then me. Stuck between Harry and Louis. Great.

"I swear to god, if you throw bread at him one more time, I am going to lose my shit." I warned Louis, who was reaching for the bread basket once more. He held up his hands in surrender quickly.

"You've got a really dirty mouth." Harry smirked next to me, suggestively. I saw both Eleanor and Claire roll their eyes dramatically.

"Why did we sit dumb, and dumber and dumbest next to each other?" Liam spoke up, he took a big gulp of the water the busboy hand brought over to us.

It took me a second to comprehend his teasing insult.

"HEY!" Louis and Harry protested in unison.

"How come you group me in with these assholes?" I pouted. Zayn chuckled from the other side of Louis, but then continued his conversation with Claire. It was nice that we were all finally getting along and that Maddie and Claire were finally comfortable enough with talking to the guys.

"Wait which one am I?" Harry questioned.

"Dumber." Liam responded.

"So I'm dumbest?" Louis whined way too loudly. I flinched at his volume and covered my ear drum to protect it from further damage.

"No, she is." A hand was gestured in my direction.

"So I'm dumb?! Suck it losers!" Louis chanted victoriously. I didn't know why though, it still wasn't a compliment.

"Why am I dumbest?" I snapped. Liam looked to my husband for backup, but received none. So he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Because as annoying as Louis and Harry are, they don't literally risk their lives on a weekly basis and purposefully make people angry."

Well, he had a point there.

"Umm... hi." A nervous voice squeaked from behind me. All eyes turned up to focus on the girl who had just approached our table. "My name is Sophia and I'll be your server tonight. Can I start you off with something to drink?" We all looked to the girl, who was so beautiful and familiar, but she looked terrified.

"Do you have pinot griggio?" Zayn asked, without looking up from the wine menu.

"Yes sir."

"Ok we'll have three bottles of that for the table."

"Alright," she wrote it down, "would you like to hear our specials?" I watched her intently as she summarized the delicious sounding food. Where had I seen her before? I wasn't exactly paying attention to the specials, but I already knew what I was going to get off of the actual menu.

"Sophia..." Claire spoke up at the end of the specials. Her eyes were narrowed and she was looking over the girl intently, too. "Sophia Smith!" She exclaimed excitedly. She shocked me when she hopped out of her chair and came around the table quickly to her. "It's me, Claire! From uni!"

A look of recognition crossed Sophia's face and a white smile broke out from behind her broad lips.

"Claire!" She said warmly. Everyone else around the table looked at each other in confusion, but I was quick to join in on the reunion.

"Hey Sophia! I don't know if you remember me, but I was in you intro to philosophy course." I smiled at her.

"Hannah! Of course I remember you! You're the American who always interrupted the professor with her own opinions!" Claire and Sophia hugged lightly, and then Sophia gave me a gentle hug too.

"Sounds about right." Zayn muttered from where he was sitting and watching the interaction.

"What have you been up to?" I asked her, ignoring my husband.

"I'm almost done with uni, just working to pay off tuition. What about you two? You guys fell off the face of the-" Sophia quickly stopped talking when a couple pairs of eyes narrowed at her. She had forgotten that we had an audience and she immediately reverted to the quiet and fearful server she had been just moments before.

"Oh ignore them, they're all idiots." I reassured her. She looked shocked at my rudeness towards the most feared men in the country, but honestly, I was used to it. Everyone was always shocked about my lack of respect in the way I spoke to my friends.

"Yeah, really, they're just big talk." Claire piped in. Sophia didn't look any more reassured and I could see her realizing why me and Claire dropped out of school so early.

"Oi! Introductions might be polite!" Louis interrupted. Claire blushed slightly, I guess she thought we were being rude but I just shrugged.

"Um, everyone- this is Sophia, she used to go to school with me and Hannah. Sophia these are my friends Madeleine and Eleanor," she gestured to the two girls in order. Eleanor waved and said hello, but Maddie just smiled softly. "And Liam and Niall," they both nodded at her. It was very obvious Sophia knew exactly who the guys were, but she didn't stop the introductions.

"And this Hannah's husband Zayn," well that definitely shocked Sophia. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, but she was very quick to compose herself. Zayn didn't offer up more than a look to her, but at least he didn't comment on her reaction.

"And this is Louis." He smirked at her, his eyes looking devilish and intimidating. All of the guys were putting up their scary front, as they always did in front of strangers. It was quite annoying to be honest.

"And this is my boyfriend, Harry." By that time, Sophia had been able to mask her disgust and horror to our relationships with the guys, but I could see in her eyes it didn't sit right with her.

"Lovely to meet you all." She said quietly.

"Why don't you sit and join us, love?" Harry suggested as he stood from his chair.

"Oh no, really, I should-"

"Nonsense." He shut down her protests and called out for the manager of the place. "Sophia will be joining us for dinner. Bring us another server." He demanded.

"Please." Claire added in, immediately regretting her decision as her boyfriend's head whipped around to shoot her a glare. Something told me they'd be discussing that later on that night. Unfortunately, Sophia saw it too, and she ducked her head shamefully.

The manager scurried off quickly as Liam reached behind him and pulled a chair from another table. He slid it in between himself and Eleanor. We all had to scoot over a bit to fit her in. Although I felt bad that Sophia was being forced to join us, especially since she was terrified of every man at the table, I was also glad she was joining us so I could finally talk to someone and catch up with someone who knew me before One Direction.

"Come sit with me." Liam offered nicely, although we could all hear the demand in his voice. She didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Why can't she sit with me or Claire, huh?" I snapped quickly, hoping to at least put Sophia next to someone she knew to ease her tension.

"No." Liam retorted just as quickly.

"But-"

"Enough, Darlin'. You can talk to her from across the table." My husband shut me down. I didn't protest after that.

Sophia sat down quickly, not willing to add any more tension to the table. She tried to sit as still and to herself as possible, but she was sitting more on the edge of her chair towards Eleanor than Liam.

Poor girl.