Took Me By Surprise [Zayn Malik] ✓

Chapter 29: Fans, Awards.. Another thing, kid?

Later that day, I was on my bed, staring at the ceiling.
   My heart was beating in time with my mind
Je-nan, Je-nan, Je-nan..

**

   *Jenan*

   "What about this one?" Lou Teasdale asked, grabbed my shoulders and turned me around to let me face the mirror. The dress I was wearing was white as snow and I noticed that my face didn't look good in a white scarf. Behind me I could hear Harry quietly chuckling.
   "You and Zayn will look as if you're going to marry on stage." He laughed and I threw an angry look at him, turning around to put this awful dress off. Why was it in the top 8 in the first place?!
   I stared down at the last dress; a plain and simple one. It was light grey and silver in colour. Its scarf was very beautiful. After putting the dress on, I placed the scarf on my hair and tied it in a bun at the back of my neck.
   "Wow." Harry muttered as I stepped out, heading to the mirror.
   "Aww, this is it!" Lou almost screamed and gave me thumbs up. I shot her a smile and then looked at the reflection of me in the mirror. The dress made me look good and not over-dressed. It was comfortable and suited me well.
   "This dress makes you look beautiful and modest. It makes you look like you." Harry, who was now standing right behind me, whispered. I looked at the reflection of his eyes and smiled shyly. "So, this one?" I asked and both him and Lou nodded.
   After I took it off again, Lou carefully put it away and then farewelled Harry and me. She had to go.

   "Are you.. excited?" the car's radio was on and I could hear the tunes of Chris Brown's Don't Wake Me Up. I liked Chris Brown but wasn't really fond of that song.
   "Somehow." I replied to Harry and looked out of the window. My heart jumped at the beauty of London and its people. I started to feel like I'm actually a part of all of this here.
   "Zayn is." He stated and stopped at some red traffic lights. A comfortable warmth took place in the middle of my heart and I imagined Zayn's image infront of  me. I wanted the lights to turn green soon so that we could get home quicklier. I wasn't used to not being around Zayn for a long time.
   "I am too." I corrected myself. "I'm just a little bit afraid of the fans and the media."
   Harry gave me a pitiful look and hurtled off after the lights went green. "I feel sorry about that. You two are not even dating and people are already freaking out."
   "Yeah, and it won't become better when I show up at the awards by his side." This topic made me uneasy and I wanted to talk about something else so I said: "What are you even performing there?"
   The curly-haired boy smiled and answered: "One Thing." Before I could show my happiness about the song, he added: "It's good that you remind me. They told me I should tell you that we will start rehearsing tomorrow. Will you come with us?"
   He was seriously asking whether I will come to the studio with them or not? I was confused. It had always been something normal that I join them so why are they asking me now? "Shouldn't I?"
  "Oh, no no!" Harry quickly said and shot me a look. "I just thought it might be boring watching us singing the song over and over again."
   "Oh." I muttered and thought about it for a while. Then I said: "You're right, it might be boring. I'll likely stay at home." And with that, we arrived at home.  

   **

   "You've got everything?" Liam asked me and took hold of my suitcase.
   In my mind, I checked my list of the things I wanted to take with me to LA and when I believed there was nothing missing, I gave Liam a nod and said: "Yeah. But I can carry my suitcase, it's okay." He shook his head and in the next moment he had left my room with my luggage. I made sure that the window was closed before leaving my room. Flurry of activity faced me downstairs. The boys were running around the flat, picking things up, putting things away, talking with relatives or friends on the phone, and throwing things into their suitcases. Only Niall was quietly sitting in the corner on the couch. I walked over to him and sat down: "Everything okay?"
   The Irish boy looked up at me and smiled: "Yah, everything's fine. I'm just a litte anxious, that's all."
   Just as I wanted to reply to him, his cellphone started ringing. He threw a look at the display, gave me an apologetic look and whispered: "Amy." standing up and leaving the room.
   Amy Green was Niall's date for the awards. He had picked her by himself, saying she was a nice girl and a close friend of his. I was very curious about her and couldn't wait to meet her tomorrow. My thoughts drifted to Liam who kinda cheated on Management by his decision to go with his best friend Andy as his company. Without a doubt, Louis will show up there with Eleanor and the secret of Harry's company hasn't been revealed yet. He had refused to tell me.
   "Let's go." I heard Louis saying to me, so I rose from my seat and walked over to the boys. Soon, we left the flat and got into the van.
   We had to enter the airport from a backdoor, avoiding the crowd of waiting fans outside. Paul hid us somewhere and said: "Wait here. I'll go check the situation and then call you."
   "Don't worry." Zayn whispered into my ear. The familiar shivers ran down my spine and I turned around to him. "It's okay." I replied with a shy smile. "As long as you're with me, I'm fine." I don't know why and how this sentence left my mouth, but it did and I could see its effect on Zayn in his eyes. I blocked out the boys around us, the airport, everything, and just concentrated on Zayn's face and how he stared down at me. I could see that he was going to say something but the sudden appearance of Paul yelling: "Come on!" made us wince. We turned around and in quick steps followed Paul to complete our journey. I avoided the gaze of Zayn and the boys, trying to get rid of the feelings inside of me but it didn't really work.
    It never worked.