Following In Your Direction [One Direction: Zayn Malik Romance]

27. Band Problems

             I woke up to a grinning Harry staring at me. Surprised, my eyes flew open and I let out a yelp, crawling until my back was against the headboard before I let out a calmed breath. What the hell? Harry chuckled at me as I heard another laugh come from my left — I turned to see Louis there, looking just like Harry was. Again, I yelped and jumped, forcing myself to relax before I narrowed my eyes and darted my gaze between the two boys.

                "What are you doing in my room?" I questioned accusingly, running a hand through my brown hair as I regulated my racing heart and quickened breathing.

                Harry shrugged. "Zayn told me to wake you up."

                My brow furrowed — were they having a party or something? "Why is he here, too?"

                "All the lads are here!" Louis exclaimed happily. "It's two in the afternoon, love! It's time to get up already."

                Two? Sure enough, when I glanced at my clock on my nightstand, the big bolded letters read a few minutes past two in the afternoon — maybe I still had jet lag. Shrugging to myself, I threw the cover off of myself and slid out of bed, my feet hitting the freezing hardwood floor as I did so. Trailing out of the room, both boys followed me until I reached the kitchen, Zayn making breakfast on the stove.

                My boyfriend grinned at me when I woke up, turning the oven off and leaning over to peck me on the lips. "Finally, sleeping beauty is awake! I made you some breakfast."

                Immediately I brightened up, slipping on a stool at the counter. "Food!"

                Zayn chuckled, sliding a plate in front of me with a wink. "I'm a brilliant cook, if I do say so myself."

                "He's right. Remember the burgers he cooked when we were back in London by the pool?" Niall chirped, stealing a piece of my toast as he leant against the granite counter, munching on it. "They were delicious."

                I smiled at the memory. "Oh yeah, the day you and I started dating."

                Zayn smiled as well, probably remembering what I was remembering. My happy mood quickly came to an end, though, as everyone — but Jamie, who I heard was in the shower — turned to Zayn and I with their brows furrowed, obviously confused. Liam, sitting beside me at the counter, shook his head slowly at us like we were complete fools.

                "No, you two started dating when we were still on the tour bus, touring in America." Liam told us a-matter-of-factly, eyes still trained on us.

Oh my God.

We never told the boys the truth.

                I shot a panicked look at Zayn when it finally dawned on him: the whole fake dating thing that we pulled off as a prank before we actually started dating. We had never told the guys about that, or anyone, for that matter. Nobody knew — when we actually did start dating, the boys didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary because we had already claimed to be in a relationship.

                "Um, lads..." Zayn said awkwardly, getting all of their attention. "Rose and I fake dated during the tour up until we were in England that day and we kissed and it, well, wasn't fake."

                The room fell silent. Harry, Louis, Liam, and Niall were all looking back and forth between Zayn and I, obviously unbelieving to the information we had just shared. For a few minutes, we kind of just stood there, the boys staring down myself and Zayn before exchanging glances. Before anyone spoke, Jamie bounced in the room in yoga pants and a tee shirt, her wet hair tied in a bun.