Je t'aime. {A One Direction fanfiction♥}

Chapter Six: Swimming lessons.

Loud dance music filled my ears as I opened the sleek glass door that led into the indoor pool area. Multicolored lights flashed from the ceiling and inside the water, giving the room a club-y feel. Random beach balls bounced around in the colorful water, and it took me a couple moments to realize that the boys were not alone.

A tall blonde girl sat beside Liam on the edge of the water. She was splashing her long, supermodel-like legs in the water, giggling at something he had said. "Oh gosh, I haven't laughed so much since I hung out with Justin Timberlake at the Grammy afterparty," she gushed. Liam laughed along with her. I gritted my teeth. It was obvious that he was flirting with her- even if it was just in a friendly manner. Didn't he have a girlfriend?

I recognized the second guest; Josh, the band's drummer. He gave a small wave in our direction. "Hey, guys. What took you so long?" he called.

"Uh..." Zayn and I exchanged worried looks before settling down on the edge of the pool beside Josh, who was wading in the water. "I needed help picking out my bathing suit," I blurted out bluntly, hoping that for Zayn's sake Josh wouldn't see through my facade. Zayn nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," Zayn cut in. "She takes forever to actually pick out an outfit and get dressed; that's why she always dresses bad when she's in a rush. She pulled me into her room and asked for my help, so I helped her out with picking the best bikini- I thought it was her pink one, but we managed to settle on this one since she said it made her boobs look bigger and wanted to wear it. Before I could leave, though, she needed help untying a knot that was on the back strap of her top. I didn't want to help her but she insisted, so I was stuck. It took forever to get it fixed... so that's why we took so long."

I elbowed him in the shoulder. "Too much," I hissed. I shot him a death glare, but he didn't notice. At least he sounded convincing enough.

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a good time." He pulled himself up against the edge of the pool so he was almost at eye level with us. "You didn't have to make up such a crazy story to cover up, ya know. I don't have to be really good at reading people to know that you didn't actually do that. But don't worry; your secret's safe with me," he added in with a wink.

It took me a couple seconds to register what Josh had meant by that statement, but Zayn's reaction time was a lot faster. His eyes went wide; his face turned pale. "No, no, no, we didn't..." he faltered and cleared his throat, visibly affected by Josh's words. "Hey, I wouldn't do it with Ava; she's like sixteen, man!"

Josh gave a shrug. "So?"

Then I realized what Josh had just implied and almost choked on my own spit. My lips formed a perfect "O". "Ha," I began, stifling a laugh, "you honestly think that I'd let Zayn-"

"We did snog quite a lot, though," Zayn interrupted with a straight face. I started to feel the urge to choke again- but thankfully, I didn't. WHAT?! NO WE DIDN'T! I wanted to screech. Since when did Zayn have the right to make up stuff about us? I had never even gotten close to kissing Zayn Malik. (Well, except that one time when I met him that he practically kissed my neck and I wanted to kiss him back... but he was the one being all sexy and seductive! It wasn't my fault, right?)

I was well aware of the fact that my eyes were wide and my face was as red as a tomato. I wished that Zayn had made up another story, where we had gotten caught by some of his fans and he had to sign autographs for twenty minutes.

Josh was standing at the shallow end of the pool; perfect! No one could drown there. Before Josh could fit in a reply, I decided on getting my revenge on Zayn. How dare he go and say things about us that weren't true! I knew that he was just covering up the whole crying fit he had, and I was totally fine with that, but he could've made another story up instead of one that involved us... smooching. I probably wouldn't have decided to do such a thing to Zayn if he hadn't been a total jerk to me earlier, too. He deserved what was coming. I started to count and ready myself for what I was about to do.

One...

Two...

Three!

Right as Josh opened his mouth to say something, I wrapped my arms around an unsuspecting Zayn and pulled him forward, crashing into the water with me. We hit the bottom of the pool, with me practically drowning because I was laughing my ass off and Zayn's eyes going really, really wide. Ah, revenge is sweet.

We both reached the surface as sputtering messes- for different reasons, of course. I kept spitting out the gallons of water I had swallowed while I was laughing. I expected Zayn to be seething with anger, but once I glanced over at him, he looked oddly calm. Too calm for my liking.

Then suddenly I was pushed back underwater, and this time I was the one freaking out. Zayn had somehow managed to grab hold of my shoulders and push me downwards into the pool. He was underwater too, though, and I could've sworn that he was... laughing? His eyes were open again, but this time his look was of amusement.

When I came up for air, Zayn was cracking up. What the heck? I spit out the remainder of the water that I had swallowed, coughing. I was about to slap the heck out of Zayn until I realized that I had pretty much done the same thing to him. It wouldn't have been fair... even though he scared me half to death.

"Wh... what?" I spat out, confused. My breaths were coming up in quick, short heaves, and my hair was plastered all over my face in a very unattractive manner. Thankfully, my bikini top hadn't fallen off or lifted up in the process, otherwise everyone in the pool would've gotten a very nice view of my boobs.

Zayn was still laughing like a madman. "Y-you... you really, honestly think that I haven't the slightest idea how to swim?" he breathed, trying to regain his composure but failing miserably.

"He's been taking swimming lessons, Ava," Josh said, cracking a sympathetic smile. "He just didn't tell anyone other than the lads and I because he thought it'd be embarrassing." I could tell that Zayn was trying hard not to laugh again- I had half a mind to tell him he looked constipated with that smile of his, but I knew it was just the anger (and slight jealousy that he hadn't told me) talking.

I swallowed hard. "Oh," was all I could say. Zayn just wrapped an arm around me and squeezed my shoulder. "You could've taken me to the deep end, you know," he told me. "It'd be the perfect place for us to kis-"

I punched him in the shoulder, hard. "Oh, shut up," I said, but my tone was playful. I smiled. "How 'bout we forget about all of this, huh?"

He smiled back. "Sure thing."