Dark Star

Chapter 24: Guilty

Zayn Malik

I turned the knob slowly, taking an awfully long time at pushing the front door to Lola's house open. The memory of it, of our first kiss on that very porch, was making me nervous and jittery. It even reminded me of the apologies Harry and I had shared in the car later that night.

That brought me to wonder whether or not the boys were already on their way to get us, since we had left them almost mysteriously.

See, after having ran away in that cab at the airport, Niall and I had gone back to our hotel even though we had known the boys would be coming there later as well. Niall had quickly began packing a pair of clothing for us each in one suitcase, while I had tried desperately to 'stand watch' at the front door.

Then Paul had shown up, confused as ever at what was going on inside. I had managed to send him off to get us some ice cream from the restaurant downstairs, having lied about the telephone in our suite not working properly enough for room service. Being Paul, I could tell that he hadn't at all been fooled by my lies, but for some reason, he had pretended to believe them.

So, with Paul ransacking the restaurant downstairs for some ice cream, Niall and I had snuck out through the back of the hotel, where our cab had been waiting since our arrival. We had then rode up to a different hotel, covered up in sunglasses and beanies to hide our identities in case people happened to be walking around at nearly two in the morning. We spent the night there and left early in the morning in another cab, took our flight at the airport, and finally arrived in Los Angeles ten hours later.

The first thing we caught sight of was Lola's father, sprawled out comfortably on the living room couch, fast asleep. Seeing him there startled Niall and I the second we entered the house. I figured it had to be her father considering he looked far too old to be a friend of Lola's. Or at least I hoped she wasn't often friends with middle-aged men.

From what I could see in the lowly-lit room, as we approached closer to the couch, I noticed that his facial features actually resembled Lola's quite a lot. In fact, a lot more than her mother's physical appearance ever had. So my theory was confirmed.

Since I was familiar with the house, having been there once before, I decided to lead Niall upstairs to Lola's bedroom so that we wouldn't disturb her father and cause him to wake. Niall, being his usually clumsy self, ended up taking a step in the wrong direction, causing one of the floorboards under our feet to creak uncontrollably.

We froze instantly, and I glared at him even though it wasn't really his fault.

Lola's father blinked his eyes open for a second, glancing at the ceiling momentarily, while Niall and I stood completely frozen in the middle of the hall. Fortunately, he didn't spot us. Instead, he repositioned himself on the couch by turning away from us in order to bury his face into the cushions.

Three people exhaled coherently in relief: the third being someone who had just appeared at the top of the staircase.

There Lola stood on the upper-most step, looking down at us in utter disbelief. Her eyes had dark bags under them and they lacked that special spark I always loved. Her shiny brown hair was a complete mess, pieces of it sticking out of the loose bun planted limply on top of her head. She was wearing sweatpants and some T-shirt that was a size too big for her body, both smeared with what looked like paint-drops.

It was something I wasn't used to seeing her in at all. Her entire appearance was fresh to my eyes. Yet, even with all those flaws, she was still the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my entire life. I had a feeling she always would be. After seeing her, even at her worst, no other girl in the world could compare.