One Deception

Chapter Eight

Written by Kenz (TogetherWeRise)

Chapter Eight
Zayn 

“I fucking hate interviews.”

I glanced over at Harry, in the passengers seat. His arms were crossed and he was glowering at the dashboard as if he absolutely loathed it. It made me want to smile; He was nothing more than a teenage boy, in truth. Moody with the pretense of toughness, vulnerability lurking just beneath the surface.

“I think it went well,” I told him, flicking the blinker on to turn down on to the winding rode that lead to the house. We’d been gone near an hour and were almost back.

“Oh, yeah, because her hinting at my being a slut every five seconds is ‘well’?”

“Well, you are a slut, Harry.”

I could practically see the image playing in his mind of him choking the life out of me. This kind of thing was to be expected of him. He was bitter because thought he should be the leader. In his mind, he was so much more clever than anyone else walking the earth.What he didn’t understand was that he wasn’t fit to lead. He was smart, sure, but he let emotions control his actions all too often.

A snarky voice in the back of my mind decided to speak up; But you’ve been doing that a whole lot lately yourself, haven’t you, Zayn?

My cordial smile faded and into a grimace. I shook my head to clear it of that damned voice. For the past week and a half it had been right in the back of my brain. Mocking me, whispering things I didn’t want to acknowledge. For the most part I was able to ignore it but sometimes, late at night, it crept up on me and forced me to realize what was going on in my mind- and my heart?

“Stop it,” I murmured aloud.

“Stop what?” Harry asked, though he was focused on messing with the settings on his seat.

“I was talking to myself,” I told him.

His head lifted and he turned towards me, one eyebrow raised in question. 

“Thats a sign that you’re about to crack, you know.”

I looked at him for a second, hating the smug expression on his face. He cocked his head, his curls falling to the side in a manner that couldn’t be described as anything less than ‘adorable’. A strong urge to punch him in his pretty face overtook me, but I let it pass. It wouldn’t do to fuel his power-driven fire. Sinking to his level wouldn’t help my case any.

“If the pressure’s too much I’ll be glad to take over the reins for awhile, Chief.”

“I’ve got it, Styles,” I snapped through gritted teeth.

“Touchy.”

Yeah, touchy. Maybe I was finally cracking. After two years of remaining cool and collected, two years of being the group’s own heartless, cruel leader in sin, I was losing it. Not to mention, it was over something as stupid as a girl? There was nothing that made me feel as absolutely pathetic.

I’d had a hand in the murder of so many girls over the years, and one was making me lose it all because of some feelings that I wasn’t even sure were there. It sounded like a plot from a badly written romance-thriller movie.

Turn it off, Zayn, I warned myself.

“Zayn, you missed the turn.”

“What?” I asked, coming back to reality.