how to love // z. m.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

I can't even explain how good it feels to be home.

Even if it did feel nice to be in a luxurious hotel for a long weekend, it's still indescribable being home in this cozy little apartment.

Mikaela is going back to work tomorrow, and Macy still has absolutely no idea who I've been hanging out with most of this weekend. If she did, you'd probably hear her screaming from wherever you're at in the world.

I don't know the set date for Andy and Jake's wedding. Andy is the Bridezilla type, so it's probably going to be a while, still, to get everything perfect.

So, basically...

All is well.

I trailed my fingers against my comforter, which didn't feel as comfortable as the duvet that the hotel had, but at the same time, it felt just right. It felt like me. It felt like home. And nothing is better than that.

Okay, maybe put home on a private island and add a couple extra zeros to the end of my total savings, and then life would be just peachy.

Suddenly, I heard a little tapping sound at my window. A ticking, really.

A little groan escaped my lips and I opened my eyes, squinting at the window. It took several moments for my eyes to get adjusted to the dark, because it was late at night.

The ticking sound stayed at a steady beat as I crawled off of my mattress of a bed and pulled myself up to my one window in my bedroom. I reached a hand up and pulled on the blinds.

"AHHH!" I screamed, jumping back.

Standing there, on a window washer's platform, was Addison, a huge grin on her face and the rest of the platform covered with suitcases.

All too familiar suitcases.

I pushed open my window and stuck my head out.

"Addie!" I whisper-yelled. "What are you doing with my suitcases?"

Addison pulled out two slips of paper --- plane tickets --- out of her pocket and fanned herself with them, smirking. "What would your answer be to hopping a plane to Boston and coming with Niall and I --- and the other guys, too, of course --- to all of the One Direction events they have there?"

I stared at her, waiting for her to burst out laughing, throw my suitcases --- that all this time were actually empty --- into my bedroom, and hit a button on the platform control panel to make her go up to her own bedroom window.

But, of course, she didn't.

"You're being serious right now?" I blinked. Addison nodded, and I quickly looked over at my phone, but the screen was black. I dove for it and tapped the screen to make it glow, and I checked the time. "But it's 2:27 in the morning! And what about Macy? She can't stay here all alone. Not at night. This is New York City. This is Manhattan."

"That's already taken care of, Toni," Addison said proudly. "While you were on the phone with telemarketers on the plane from Miami, I was on the phone with Talia, Katia's mother. She'll be picking Macy up first thing in the morning and she'll be staying with her."

"...Just how long are you talking?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"A week."

"No," I said immediately. "Definitely not. And what does Macy think I'm going to be doing away from home for an entire week?"

Addison looked down. "You've entered a chess competition in China..."

"Really?" I sighed, crossing my arms, but on the inside?

That sounds like so much fun.

I mean, I don't know the first thing about chess, but I guess it's the same reason why I want to be on that show, 'Big Brother'. I've heard all about the arguments they have from Addison and stuff but I don't even know what the show is about at all.

So I want to be on it and while everyone else is arguing about who knows what, I'll be baking cookies.

Which leads to another important decision:

Snickerdoodle or oatmeal?

"Katia has a TV," I continued. "She might've seen something about Zayn and I. Or, if not, they're bound to watch TV or search the World Wide Web about One Direction, and obviously, there's gonna be something that'll pop up about us. It's too much of a risk. I can't have that happen."

"So, what?" Addison put her hands on her hips. "You're just going to keep your friendship with Zayn a secret from your little sister for the rest of her life?"

"Well, no, but---"

"And the infamous Toni Shay isn't going to take an opportunity to go on a flight in the middle of the night to another state just because she doesn't want her sister to find out she's friends with a celebrity. That makes sense."

I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair, frustrated. "Look. I'm just not going. Okay?"

Addison looked at me with an expression on her face that I couldn't quite place. Some kind of cross mix between shock, hurt, and betrayal. All of which I just caused and I don't really even know how or why.

"Wow," she said faintly. "I never thought I'd see the day Toni Shay turned normal."

"Addie---"

"Save it..." she sighed, reaching over to the panel to move the platform up, down, sideways, who knows. "David really has left a mark on you. A bad one."

And then she disappeared from the view of my window.

And I had no choice but to fall back asleep on my bed.

__________________________________________________

I stretched my arms out beside me, reaching for the ends of my mattress. Once I felt the lumpy ends, I smiled. I had been so used to feeling them when I woke up every morning for years straight that even just a few days away from them had felt completely alien.

But that comfortable-ness that I'd been feeling quickly drained away when I heard the foreign sound of muffled laughter. Muffled by hands, not walls.

My eyes flashed open and I expected to see the closing-in, chipped walls of my bedroom, but instead saw luxurious furnishings.

My lungs filled with the scent of Hawaiian Orchid. That is strange. I haven't smelled that in years. Unless you count that artificial crap sprays that you can get at drugstores for a buck, sometimes less. But I'm talking the real thing.

I sat up straight and looked around.

Lavish leather chairs... Crystal glass coffee tables... One Direction... 48" flat screen TV...

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

One Direction?

"Surprise..." Zayn said nervously, spreading his arms out, gesturing toward our surroundings, which I now realized was a five-star private plane.

I am going to kill Addison.