Love Again (A Zayn Malik Story)

Chapter 4

The movie was over, and the fire was almost gone. I got up and shut off the projector. I started to ask the boys, “So what did you guys think—“

“That was the worst ending ever!” Louis exclaimed. “How can it just end like that?! The joker wasn’t caught, Batman didn’t do his job, and—“

“Louis!” I interrupted. “Be quiet! I have neighbors, you know!”

He pouted and crossed his arms.

“So you liked it?” I asked.

He let out an exasperated sigh. “Yes! I liked it! You happy now?”

I chuckled and said, “Yes. Very.” I patted myself down to look for my phone, but realized I didn’t have any pockets. I had left it in my room. So I asked, “Does anyone know what time it is?”

Liam and Niall rushed to get their phones out of their pockets.

“10:31!”

“No, it’s 10:32!”

“It’s 10:31, Niall.”

“Look at the screen! It says ’10:32’.”

“Okay, now it does,” Liam said.

“Ha!” Niall declared in triumph.

“That still doesn’t matter, though,” Liam defended. “When I looked at my phone, it said 10:31.”

“That’s a load of bull—“

“Boys!” I interrupted. All five boys looked at me, and that included Zayn. I couldn’t believe that he actually acknowledged my existence. I gave him a small smile before continuing. “Since we have some time, how about we celebrate your first night here?”

I heard cheers, and Harry asked, “What’s your idea?”

“Let’s make s’mores,” I said with a large smile.

“Yes!!” the boys cheered.

“I’ll go inside and get the stuff, and you guys try to get the fire going,” I said. “Please, don’t catch anything on fire.”

Louis saluted me. “We make no promises.”

I rolled my eyes and headed into the kitchen. I searched throughout the pantries, but all we had were a few stale graham crackers, mini-marshmallows, and no Hershey chocolate except for a few Hershey Kisses. Well, this sucks.

I poked my head out the back door. To my horror, I saw four boys fighting with a block of wood. But as I looked behind them, Zayn was calmly adding wood to the fire and blowing on the left over embers to get the flames burning again. I softly smiled.

“I’m heading to Walmart!” I announced. “Who wants to come with me?”

The four boys stopped fighting, and they all raised their hands.

“Hrm…” I said. “I think I’ll pick…” I scanned the boys. Louis would be too loud, Harry was a big flirt… I could take Liam. Or there was Niall. Plus, I needed to talk to him about Darcy. “I’ll pick Niall,” I said.

Niall fist pumped, and the others dropped their hands in defeat.

“Come on,” I said, beckoning Niall inside. He hurried inside, and I slid the back door closed.

“Can you drive?” Niall asked as I  grabbed the keys and my mom’s credit card off the counter.

“Duh, I’m almost eighteen,” I said. “Go out to the car. I just need to get my phone real quick, and I’ll be right out.”