how to love // z. m.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

"In my defense, I'd just like to point out that David has decided to choose my outfits for the rest of this trip."

That was the first thing out of my mouth after I got the dog costume off and let my outfit underneath be exposed in all of its 'glory':

The way I see it, I'm just thankful he didn't get a necklace for me to wear. That's got to count for something, doesn't it?

Zayn looked me up and down before shaking his head. "You shouldn't let him dress you if that's not how you want to dress, Toni. I would let you dress the way you want."

"Yeah, well." I shrugged the conversation off and flung my costume in the corner of the diner, as did Zayn. We turned and got our first real good look of the place.

The good news?

No teenage girls.

The bad news?

No females at all. Only teenage boys. Ages ranging from, by the looks of it, sixteen to twenty-one.

And now I feel way violated with this short dress on.

"Hello, boys!" I giggled nervously.

Improv?

Yeah. It's bliss.

"So, what's good on the menu?" I asked dumbly, walking over to one of the tables and picking up the glossy packet that contained the selection the diner had for its costumers. "I particularly like sea food. Is the clam chowder here good? Oh, do they have salmon?"

"Uhm..." Zayn mumbled, walking over to me and taking the menu from my hands. "This diner doesn't serve sea food."

"HEY!" I shouted, turning to Zayn. "I was looking at that! And how do you know that this place doesn't have sea food? This is Miami, you know. It's by the Atlantic ocean. It's a huge possibility that they have sea food here. So don't you sass me, boy. Leave that up to Louie."

"Okay, first of all," Zayn crossed his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow at me challengingly. "I know they don't have sea food because of that chalk board behind the bar over there saying, in bold letters, I might add, 'WE DON'T SERVE SEA FOOD'."

I looked over to the bar, and sure enough, Zayn hadn't just been seeing things like I'd been hoping he had been. He hadn't lied to me. Never before have I been wishing to be lied to before now.

"And second of all," Zayn continued. "I think it's safe for us to go now."

Zayn walked over to the windows of the diner and pulled up the blinds.

And there was a mob of screaming girls right outside.

Is this seriously how it's always like for them? Really.

But I guess I could see how cool it must be for them, having so many people obsessed and in love with you just for being you.

I turned and looked at my own mob of boys and smiled brightly.

"Well, hello, again!" I said, carefully stepping on top of a chair, and then on to the table. "Let's go around and introduce ourselves, okay? Since, you know, we'll be here for awhile." I laughed, and all I got were stares. Tough crowd.

Wait. The stares are at my chest.

"That, over there, is my friend Zayn Malik!" I said, pointing over at Zayn, who was also staring at me, but at my face. Which is nice. "And I'm Toni Shay. Would you all like to introduce yourselves?" Silence.

It's like Zayn from Step One, only this time they're all perverted guys.

I turned and knelt down to Zayn's level, then whispered, "We need to teach these guys to loosen up."