My Enemy, Love

Chapter Fourteen

Zayn's POV

I don't think I've ever seen a blush quite as adorable, or a smile quite as genuine as was upon Alli's face when we surprised the girls at the docks as they returned. "You boys didn't have to come all the way here just to see us." She told me, smacking me on the shoulder lightly like she was angry but secretly seeming pleased that we had.

I grinned widely as we embraced, and I turned my head so my mouth was right next her ear and told her, "We wanted to."

After that we took them out for an early dinner, and listened as they told us about their time at Bainbridge Island. They'd stayed with an old friend of Alli's, Maggie, who is "the most charming old lady you'd ever meet," according to Jamie and Pan.

After they described shopping at a few outlets and began talking about being at the beach, I turned to Alli and wiggled my eyebrows. "So, I got your texts."

"Oh really?" She grinned. "So you all know about Jamie's sick obsession with having sex with little kids?"

They all laughed, and Jamie turned a deep shade of red. "I hate you, Alli."

Pan reached over and pulled down the back of Jamie's shirt a bit, revealing her sunburn. "And here iz ze famous sunburn," she said in an over-pronounced French accent.

"I hate you too." Jamie muttered darkly as we all laughed again. It seemed Louis and I weren't the only ones who teased one of the lovebirds.

"So what were you guys up to that made you so busy this weekend?" Pan asked us.

If the girls weren't there I would've facepalmed myself. We hadn't really thought up a story for that yet, and of course they had to ask when we weren't prepared. "Oh, you know, work and stuff." Niall answered, trying to sound casual.

"But I thought you said you were traveling right now?" Jamie cut in, forgetting her embarrassment.

"Er, well, yeah, right now." Niall stammered, and I could tell he was trying to think up something quick. "But for our work—at least, mine and Luke's work—we travel a lot. Zach's off of Uni right now and wanted to tag along, and since our company pays for it, well, here we all are." 

Thanks Niall, make me the tag-along I thought, and mentally I rolled my eyes. Well, at least I'm going to school.

Louis nodded in agreement with him. "We're medical engineers. We travel to different surgeries and check to make sure all the equipment works, and teach the doctors how to use it." I saw Niall look at him in surprise, obviously amazed that he had thought up such an idea on his own. I had to bite my lip to hide a smile, because I know that Louis actually got the idea from his cousin who works as an engineer. I still applauded him for his quick thinking, though, and made a mental note to tell him so later.

There was a moment of silence after Louis spoke, and he glanced awkwardly at Niall in hopes he would say something else to elaborate on their fake story. Niall pretended like nothing was out of the ordinary as he looked over at the girls and continued speaking. "Every now and then our company has us travel internationally, and whenever we do we tend to stay in the same country for a few months at a time. However we get a lot of breaks between work, which is why we're able to spend time with you girls."

The girls seemed to accept their story, and after asking a few more questions they let the subject drop. Niall and Louis answered the questions easily, though I couldn't help but smile at how many lies they were accumulating just to keep the girls at bay. Once they were done we all relaxed a bit more, sure that we were done making up stories. Just as I thought we were out of the danger zone, however, Pan turned to me and asked, "So, you're in school? How do you pay for it?"