ESCAPE

Chapter-20

VALENTINA
I got into the bus along with Zayn and we were greeted by Niall and Harry.

‘Hey, are you alright?’, asked Harry as he hugged me and I smiled at him.

‘You scared us’, said Niall and I giggled.

‘Get in, Tomlinson’, came a voice from behind us and we turned to find Paul drag Louis in along with Liam.

Niall motioned for us to sit down and we did so.

Are we in trouble?

‘Oh yes’, replied Zayn as he read it and I blew out a low whistle.

‘Remind me why I shouldn’t report this’, said Paul as he turned to face us with his hand covering his mouth in frustration.

‘Er’, started Liam.

‘No, don’t’, cut in Paul and I couldn’t help but smile and I saw a smile tug at the corners of Zayn’s jaw as well.

‘Do you know how much trouble you lot have caused in the past twelve hours?!’, he asked furiously and we all hung our heads low.

‘Zayn’, he said and he got up.

‘I can explain’, he said and we all looked up at him.

‘I took her to my house’, he said.

‘You have a house here?’, asked Harry and Niall together to which he shrugged.

‘You knew?’, they both then asked turning to Louis as he looked bored.

‘Well duh. He used to take Nova back there when they both couldn’t keep their-‘, he started but Zayn covered up his mouth before he could reveal any more secrets.

‘Technically it’s her house’, he then said.

‘What if somebody had seen you?’, asked Paul.

‘We were careful’, he said and I nodded.

Pual simply shook his head and then looked at us again.

‘Please stop running away from me’, he begged and then retreated to the front of the bus.

We all grinned at each other.

‘How come you never told us about your house?’, pouted Niall.

‘We didn’t want anyone to know’, he replied.

‘Then how did Louis know?’, asked Harry.

‘The little prick followed us’, he growled and Louis pulled up his collar with a sneaky look.

‘And Liam?’, asked Niall.

‘I overheard him talking about it once and then I just followed him’, he said with a shrug.

‘’What do you mean you heard me talking about it?’, asked Zayn with a confused look.

‘Not you, him’, he replied and pointed at Louis.

‘WHAT?!’, asked Zayn stunned.

‘I might have told El’, he said with an innocent look.

‘Spill’, glared Zayn.

‘Okay fine, we’ve lived there a couple of times’, he said.

‘HOW?!’, asked Zayn stunned.

‘Nova let us’, he replied and Zayn shook his head.

I couldn’t help but grin now and everyone turned to look at me.

I immediately kept a straight face and they chuckled which caused us all to end up laughing hard.

‘Quiet you lot! You’re all grounded!’, hollered Paul’s voice from the front and we pursed our lips trying to contain our laughs.

‘Can we talk?’, asked Harry as he came up to me.

I nodded and he motioned towards the kitchen table.

We sat down and I played with my pen string as he tried to start.

‘First of all, I’m sorry for whatever happened in that room. I don’t know what happened but if it was my fault, I’m sorry’, he said and I smiled at him as I held his hand.

Harry smiled at me showcasing his dimples and I giggled.

‘I need to explain what happened at Management’, he said and I nodded.
‘The thing is that, you have to be with us for the tour until we reach Italy.
You were seen with Zayn as his friend and so that makes everyone think that you guys are dating’, he said and I nodded.

‘Zayn has already been caught up in something like this before which was he refused to become your fake boyfriend’, he said.

Oh.

‘Which was why I volunteered’, he said.

Wait.
Hold up.
Did he just say fake boyfriend?

I wrote the words fake boyfriend with a question mark and he nodded as he read it.

‘It’s nothing official, it’s just an act to make your life easy’, he said.

No way.

There was no way that I could be that close with somebody who I didn’t even know even though it was an act.

I shook my head.

‘No?’, he asked stunned and I remained immobile.

‘Valentina you have to understand that it’s already been decided and you have to cooperate’, he said gently but I shook my head again.

‘Is something wrong?’, asked Zayn as he came up to us and Harry sighed as he told him that I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

‘Val, you have to. It’ll be like being friends with someone, there’s nothing in there for you to be afraid of’, he said.

Why can’t it be you?

Zayn’s expression changed to shock as he read it while Harry remained expressionless as he read it.

I trust you

Harry then got up and excused himself saying that he was getting a call and left saying something into his phone, leaving the both of us looking at each other waiting for the other to respond.