My Enemy, Love

Chapter Thirty-Three

Zayn's POV

I was sitting on the couch, flipping through random channels on the girls' television, waiting for someone to appear. It's been almost a week since Alli and I have made up, and Louis and Liam are leaving tomorrow. They're both going back home to visit Eleanor and Dani, who they haven't seen in a while. Harry left a couple of days ago with the excuse of visiting family and friends, but we all know he just wants some alone time. He loves the girls, he really does, but he gets a little uncomfortable with being around everyone for long periods of time and wants to go off alone. He's been like that a lot lately, and the lads and I are getting a little worried.

Right now Pan is running errands, Jamie and Niall are out, Alli is taking a shower, and I have no idea what Liam and Louis are up to other than being at the hotel. I was completely and utterly bored, having nothing to do and no one to talk to, which was why I was currently channel surfing.

"Hello?" I looked up to find Alli standing at the base of the stairs, hair dripping wet and body wrapped in a large purple towel as she looked around.

"Here." I waved a hand and caught her attention. "The others are out, it's just me."

"Oh, okay, hold on." She ran back up the stairs and came down a few minutes later wearing a t-shirt and shorts, her wet hair brushed out and pulled over one shoulder. She was holding a DVD case in her hand, and she went over to the TV and turned on the DVD player.

"What are we watching?" I asked as she put the disc in the tray.

"The Walking Dead. I've been watching it and I've only made it up to the beginning of season two. You can keep me safe from all the scary parts."

I smiled to myself but kept my tone normal. "Come on, Niall says it isn't that scary."

"It's really suspenseful, and you know I'm a big chicken when it comes to things that jump out at you." She whined, coming over and sitting next to me.

"That's true, you are a chicken, but you've seen it before so how can it still scare you?"

"It just does, okay? Don't question me." She scooted closer to me and curled her legs up under her, her knees just barely touching the side of my leg. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, wondering at the sudden closeness. Her face was expressionless and held no indication for her actions, so I decided to ignore it and turned my gaze back to the television.

We got through half of the first episode before she complained about being hungry, so we made some popcorn. When we settled back down I held the bowl in my lap and she leaned against me, resting her head on my shoulder. I loved the feeling of her so close to me, her body heat radiating against my side and her wet hair soaking into my sleeve. She smelled good, like some sort of green apple—probably from her shampoo—and every time I inhaled, her scent filled my nose.

We stayed like that for a couple of hours, getting through another two episodes. When the second one ended and it went back to the menu we just sat in silence, staring at the immobile screen.

"Alli?" I asked, thinking she must've fallen asleep, seeing as she'd taken command of the controller and would have changed the episode by now.

"Yeah?" Nope, she was awake.

"Are you going to click on the next episode?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking."

"What about?"

She didn't answer at first and instead played with my fingers, which were resting on my knee. "Just stuff."

I grabbed her hand to stop her fidgeting, linking her fingers with my own but making sure that my grip was relaxed. "Stuff, what kind of stuff?"