Idol (Zayn Malik)

Chapter sixteen - Living hell

Astrid's POV

"So how's everything with the Direction boy?" Max asked smiling sweetly.

I made a gesture that made him realize that things weren't ok.

"Wanna talk about it?" He interrogated me.

"Nothing to talk about, Max. We arranged to talk every day, but for the past week, he has not even answered the texts."

"Have you talked to any of the other Directions?" I denied with the head "Maybe you should, Tri. I hate seeing you sad." He pressed his hand softly against my cheek. If I didn't know that he had a girlfriend, I would have thought that he wanted to kiss me.

"Maybe I should, but I don't feel like it. I don't feel like having another bunch of hot guys ignoring me, you know?" I explained and he nodded.

"When was the Liam's guy birthday again?" He seemed seriously concerned. He was really cute.

"It's tomorrow." I responded dryly.

"Then you're going to salute him as you said you would?" I denied with the head. "Tri, you promised him. He's your fucking idol, you have to do it!"

I denied with the head again.

"You know what, Tri? You said that you would do anything for me since I had gotten you to meet them. You know what I want you to do?" He dared me "Call Liam at 8 pm of today. Call him and be the nicest girl ever. Don't even mention the Zayn guy.  Just wish him the bestest of the birthdays. Tell him you love him and fangirl."

"But" I tried to protest.

"No buts. You owe me this, remember?" He winked and smiled "Remember, today at 8."

"But he's in LA anyways! No time change indeed!" I responded and he waived me with the hand.

"Independent to that, you'll salute him UK time, remember?" He winked at me again and then kissed my cheek. "Go to practice, but don't forget to call him at exactly 8 o'clock".

"Okay dad" I joked and he smiled.

"I love you, Astrid." He said and my heart melted. I knew that he didn't mean it as couple kind of love, but I still liked to believe that a guy like Max could fall for me.

"I love you too, Maxi."

***

Snapchat, email, twitter and instagram.

Texts.

So many texts.

At 12:06 (UK time) he finally responded.

"Hey, darling?" He spoke and I smiled. I could tell that he was smiling too.

"Hello Liam Payne" I responded and he cracked out.

"How are you doing?" I hated how nice he could be even though he knew that I was calling to salute him for his birthday.

"I'm doing fairly. How about you?"

"I'm great" He responded.

I smiled, but I was jealous on the inside.

"Well, Liam Payne, I wanted to wish you THE HAPPIEST OF THE BIRTHDAYS EVER" I nearly screamed the last part and the whole campus saw me as if I was a weirdo.

Well, I was.

"THANK YOU" He screamed back in response.

"Any plans for tomorrow?" I asked and he chuckled.

"I love how you actually called me on UK time. Not really, I'll be chilling here in LA. It's a huge bummer that Zayn can't be here though."

What?