All is Fair: Zayn Malik Fanfiction

Chapter 26

The woman who works here gives Harry and I our guns and vests. I thank her, and she just mumbles something rude back. I look to Harry, but he did not hear her. He is too busy with putting on his vest to care what she said. It was not very friendly, but I cannot blame her. If I had to referee a game played by voice-cracking boys all day, I would probably be just as stressed. We move out of the way so everyone else can get their suits.

Everyone is in the waiting room outside of the laser tag arena. Zayn, Harry, Louis, Eleanor and Niall as promised, and a multitude of kids, antisocial-looking people, and annoyed parents who were dragged here by their children. There are about 30 people here. The teams are going to be chosen randomly, so no one will know what team they are on until the suits light up. Then the teams can plan for five minutes and then the game starts. I am standing next to Harry, trying to figure out how this suit and gun-thing works. He helps me buckle it on, since I am clearly unable to do it myself.

"We really couldn't have gone ice skating?" I ask. I still am not in love with the idea of playing laser tag.

"You didn't have to say yes, you know." He finishes strapping on the suit for me.

But I had to. If I declined the offer, what would our relationship be like then? He is already going to find out that he cannot trust me anymore. If I kept us apart any longer, he probably would end up thinking that I do want to be with Zayn.

He catches my eyes and looks at me funny. "What?" I ask with an obvious stutter. What is that look? Does he know? God, he fucking knows.

He shakes his head. "You don't even know how to play laser tag, do you?"

"Wha-" Wait, he does not know. Everything is fine. I am okay. The nerves he gave me melt into pure giddiness for a minute. I smile. "N-no. No I have no idea how to play laser tag," I say confidently.

He stares at me with his attentive green eyes, and one of the corners of his mouth slightly edges up. "Alright. So the first thing you need to know..."

I giggle as he attempts to explain the rules to me. For some reason, I think that the fact that he gets to explain laser tag to me makes him really happy. So I let him do it for a while. He holds up the laser in front of me and points out the trigger, something I should obviously know. Then he starts to explain technique and things I do not care about. He is wearing a black, wrinkled t-shirt and dark blue jeans. He pushed his hair back with an olive green bandana he has been wearing a lot recently. He is wearing black shoes with black laces. His entire outfit makes me feel a bit awkward around him. He seems way more into the game than I will ever be, and it really sucks to have to pretend to be interested in the game for him.

He still has not stopped talking, but I have stopped paying attention. I wrap my hands around his arm and hug it to my chest to pull him closer to me, and I almost make him drop the laser. He still tries to explain technique although I keep distracting him, but I can see his smile forming. "You have to shoot when-" he stops mid sentence and glares at me jokingly. "Are you even paying attention?"

"Of course not," I say, and he shyly looks to the ground when he realizes that his efforts were futile. I grin. Being here with Harry makes me regret even more what Zayn and I did. It makes me wonder why I did not try to apologize sooner. "I missed you a lot," I say. His eyes flicker up to mine, a lot brighter than they were before.

"I missed you too," he whispers. He wraps his arms around me.

"I won't ever leave for that long again," I say, burying my face in his chest.

"Alright." He smiles and tries to kiss me. I do not let him get too touchy, because, well, there are children here and judging parents all around. And those parents can get pretty scary.