You were out for a walk through the park with your boyfriend Zayn. It was a ritual the two of you shared when he came back from tour. You’d stroll through the park hand in hand, watching the squirrels frolic and the other couples lazily make their own way through the park. It was really romantic. At least it was...up until Zayn lit up a cigarette about halfway through the trail.
“Babe, I wish you didn’t do that.” you sighed just like you had on all the other walks you’d gone on with him. Plopping down onto the same bench you’d sat on every other time Zayn had stopped to smoke his cigarette, Zayn even responded with his usual silent shrug. Everything was following the same predicable pattern that it always did. But not for long...You were about to unleash a devilishly crafted prank on your dear boyfriend.
A couple of weeks ago, you had been contacted by the people at Punk’d to ask if you’d like to partake in a prank on your boyfriend. It had seemed like a harmless bit of fun, so you had agreed. Next came the seemingly endless amount of meetings to plan out the perfect prank. You had been sure you were going to let it slip to Zayn what was waiting for him when he came back from tour, because there was only so long that you could lie about picking up extra shifts at the store you worked for.
And now, your diligence was about to pay off! Hidden cameras were watching your every move, trying to capture every angle of the prank that you had so lovingly planned out with the help of the Punk’d crew, and it was only a matter of time before it started. You were just waiting on Zayn to finish his cigarette. And if pattern served as any sort of indication of his next step, he was about to walk right into your trap.
Pulling one final drag out of the cigarette Zayn reached for your hand as he tossed the glowing nub into the nearby trashcan. The two of you had barely turned away from your rest spot when you heard the loud boom as the trashcan expelled the rather large fireball into the air.
Zayn pulled your face into his chest to protect you from the blast, though it was clear from the shaking in his voice that he was pretty shook up himself, “What the fuck was that?!” he exclaimed.
You tried to sound convincing in your terror, though you didn’t have to dig very deep to be startled by the explosion, “Oh my god we could have died!!” Though you knew full well that the pyrotechnics had taken every precaution to make sure that fireball would be of no danger to either you or the surrounding fauna. “What do you think caused that?” you asked clutching at Zayn’s shirt.
Zayn was shaking his head frantically, “I don’t know!” he stuttered, “I mean...I just threw my cigarette butt in there...but you don’t think that could have caused this? Right? It was just a little cigarette!”
You made your eyes go wide as you looked up at Zayn, “What else could it have possibly been!” your voice going up a couple octaves.
Perfectly on queue you heard a set of stern voices quickly approaching, “Hold it right there! Let me see your hands!”
The two of you jumped nearly a foot in the air as you sprang apart. Both of you held up your hands up for the policemen to see, as you shared a nervous glance with your boyfriend. “What seems to be the problem officer?” Zayn tried to ask calmly, but he was still a little shaken from the recent explosion.
“Young man, do you know that arson is a felony?” the older of the two officers questioned, “We’re going to have to take you down to the precinct to ask you a couple of questions.”
“I swear we had nothing to do with that!” Zayn said gesturing to the smoldering trashcan, “I was just smoking a cigarette and it--”
“So I see we have our confession!” the officer cut Zayn off before he could finish, “Put your hands behind your head, we’re taking you downtown.”
“There’s got to some sort of mistake!” Zayn pleaded as he put his hands behind his head, “We were just out for a walk!”
The officer turned Zayn around so that he could reach his hand, the whole while Zayn couldn’t to plead his case. To play your part, you tried to do the same, slowly sounding more and more desperate as Zayn was put into handcuffs. In a last ditch effort, you flung yourself at the officer arresting Zayn trying to appeal once more to the cop that you were in fact innocent of the arson.
In an instant you were tackled to the ground by the second officer, which caused Zayn to cry out in dismay. He didn’t know that you had spent the better part of this last week practicing with a stunt coordinator to make this tackle look convincing while escaping unhurt. “Assaulting an officer is also a punishable offense miss, I would advise you to stop what you’re doing,” the officer pinning you facedown to the ground said.
Zayn struggled a little in his handcuffs, trying to turn in the grasp of the officer to speak to him face to face. “Please sir” he tried to reason, “Please let my girlfriend go. She didn’t mean it. We were just going for a walk, we don’t know anything about the exploding trashcan. We’re innocent bystanders, that’s all!”
“But you said yourself that you tossed a lit cigarette into the trashcan. That along carries a heavy fine, and who’s to say that you didn’t intend for the cigarette to be the catalyst?” the officer said gruffly.
“We didn’t! I didn’t!” Zayn said urgently, “I promise that if you let my girlfriend go, I’ll never smoke another cigarette in a public park again! Please--”
The officer cut him off, “You’ll never smoke again in a public park?”
Zayn was quick to agree with him, “I promise!”
The officer started to undo Zayn’s handcuffs, “Well if you promise to never smoke in a public park again...” as he removed the handcuffs his voice changed to one of glee, “You should probably know that your on an episode of Punk’d!”
The two officers roared with laughter at Zayn’s reaction. He just stood there in complete shell shock, not saying a word as stared at something very far away. They pointed out the hidden cameras, and brought out a couple of hidden camera men as the host of Punk’d came out to also laugh at Zayn’s expense. When he did speak he turned to you, still facedown in the dirt and asked, “Did you know about this?”
You brushed yourself off as the fake police officer helped you up off the ground. “Who do you think they called?” you said simply, flashing Zayn with one of your megawatt smiles.
“You the absolute worst, you know that right?” Zayn said rubbing his face with his hands, though he wore an exasperated smile, “I thought I was safe from pranks, because I wasn’t with the other boys!”
“Just trying to keep you on your toes love,” you said as you snaked your arms around his neck, “Now what was it you were saying about not smoking anymore?”
