Love Again (A Zayn Malik Story)

Chapter 7

“And I didn’t know my ex-friends were so heartless,” I heard a voice say from behind me.

I turned around to see Harry, now clothed.

“You—you should have seen your face!” Niall said, pointing up at Harry from the bottom of the stairs.

“You hungry?” I asked Harry, desperately trying to change the subject. I couldn’t look him in the eye after all I’d… seen.

“Yeah,” he said flatly.

“Well, go ahead. Darcy and I have to go get ready,” I announced.

“For what?” Darcy asked, joining the boys at the bottom of the stairs. I saw her brush hands with Niall. I was tempted to say something right then and there, but I decided to talk to her about it later in a much more private conversation.

I ran down the stairs and dragged her to my room. I slammed the door shut.

“Where are we going?” Darcy asked. “And why did you drag me here by force?”

“I thought it’d be cool if we got the boys farewell gifts,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, pleasantly surprised. “What if they ask where we’re going?”

“I’ll just say that we’re going out shopping,” I decided aloud. “It’s not lying.”

“I guess your right.”

“Now get your clothes and get ready,” I ordered.

She laughed, rolling her eyes, and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

:~:~:~:~:~:~:

It was now four in the afternoon and we had all the boys’ gifts bought. Darcy and I now sat in the food court of the mall, eating our dinner from Subway.

“So what happened with you and Niall last night?” I asked.

Her cheeks flushed. “Can we… talk about this later?”

I chuckled at her discomfort, but I decided to be a good friend and give in. “Fine. But I’m going to get it out of you sooner or later.”

After we finished eating, we exited to the parking lot and got into my car.

“So when are we going to give the boys their gifts?” Darcy asked.

I started the ignition and backed out of the parking spot. “I was thinking Friday, the night before they leave.”

She nodded. “That’s a good idea.” She gazed out of the window, her thoughts obviously drifting off to other things. More… romantic things, maybe?

We were getting closer to my house when I finally asked again, “So what happened last night with Niall?”

She took a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll tell you. We started talking normally. And then we talked about the kiss… And then he told me that he liked me, and I told him I felt the same way…”

“Aw, that’s so cute!” I exclaimed, not taking my eyes off the road. (I’m a safe driver!)

“Yeah, well…” Her face fell and she intently fixed her gaze on her tangled fingers in her lap. “Then we talked about how they’re leaving in a few days, and we decided that it’d be best to stay friends. For now at least, until we know how we could make it work. God, Paige, I’m going to miss him.” Tears sparkled in her eyes.

“I understand,” I said quietly, thinking about how hard it was going to be to leave Zayn.

“Are you talking about Zayn?” She huffed in disbelief.