*Jenan*
And there he was, looking down at me in silence. His appearance caught me off guard, my heart skipped a beat and my mind was blank. What have I just asked Liam? I couldn't tell it anymore. And honestly, it didn't matter.
The only thing that mattered was the arrival of the boys. No more awkward situations with Harry or even Eleanor and Emily. It seems after spending over one month with 5 boys, I forgot how to act around girls. Much to El's and Em's amusement.
However, I was more than glad that the boys were finally back. Everything will return to normal and maybe I will be able to lock away my disappointment about what happened with Harry and continue our friendship as it was. I will stand up every morning, struggle with the mission of raising the boys out of their sleep, prepare breakfast with Niall, farewell them if they have work, read loads of chapters in my books, draw a lot, chat with my friends, choose a fancy meal to cook, mess around the kitchen (probably with the help of Zayn), play some chords with Liam on his piano, watch the evening news with the boys, laugh and just have a little fun.
All these things crossed my mind as I stared into Zayn's eyes.
"Hey." Zayn said in a husky voice. Although he almost whispered, for me his word seemed to echo through the whole room. How long have we been standing there in silence, just staring at each other? I could feel my cheeks becoming warm.
"Hey." I replied to him, eying his features. It felt as if I haven't seen him for ages. "How's America?"
Zayn smiled and looked at the ground for two seconds, then his gaze met mine again. "It was alright." Does the appearance of people change when they go to America? Cos I didn't know Zayn looked that stunning, even with his three-day stubble, the tattoos and the earring..
"How long are you two gonna stay like this?" Harry's voice ran through my veins and I winced. He broke the magic of the moment.
A movement began to spread among all of us. Niall blinked a few times, scratched his head and then entered the kitchen. Louis grabbed two luggages from the ground and started climbing up the stairs. Harry stood up and stretched his body. Only Liam didn't move, instead he was staring at Zayn and me in a strange way.
Zayn himself closed the door behind him and locked it with his key.
"Jenna! What's that?!" I heard Niall exclaiming behind me. I turned around and gave him a quizzical look.
He was standing in front of the opened fridge. Well.. the empty fridge, to be exact. I threw a short look at Zayn, which he replied and then gave Niall another look, this time an apologetic one. "Sorry, we couldn't manage to go to the supermarket, Nialler."
Niall closed the fridge and seemed frustrated.
"That's okay." Liam said and took hold of his luggage. "We can order pizza."
**
"I want to get a job." I blurted out and caused the boys to freeze. They stared at me as if I had just told them that I wanted to run for president in the US this year.
"Nice one." Niall muttered and continued eating his slice of pizza. Louis shrugged and continued drinking from his glass. Only Liam, Harry and Zayn didn't resume their actions.
"Are you serious?" Liam asked.
I nodded powerfully and laid my knife and fork down. "Yes."
"Why?" Zayn asked with wide eyes. Today, instead of sitting in front of me, he was sitting beside me, which was Harry's usual place. I was glad I could avoid being around the latter. "Is it because of the money? Really, Jenan, you don't have to worry about that.."
"Zayn." I tried to interrupt him.
"You are never a financial burden or something like that, we earn enough money for all of us, including you.."
"Zayyyn."
"And you even help us with the housework, you cook, wash the dishes and always support us, besides that—"
"ZAYN!" I yelled and gave him a stern look. The boys snickered quietly but didn't comment.
"What?" he exclaimed.
Sighing deeply, I replied: "Zayn, what you say is not the point. I don't wanna have a job to earn money, but to have something to do." This was only half of the truth. In fact, I was really running out of money and wherever my mother was, I didn't think she would be able to send me dibs. But I really wanted to have something to do, something beside cooking, drawing, reading, housekeeping.. . Something new and interesting. Something I had time and opportunity to do here. Something meaningful. "So I need a job."
"Jenna.." Zayn started but I quickly interrupted him for the felt 100th time.
"Period."
He looked at me and sighed.
"So you want us to help you find a job?" Liam inquired. I turned to him, happy about the fact that someone seemed to care.
"Ya, that would be great!"
"Hmm.." Zayn muttered and looked at Liam. "I think I've got an idea.."
**
Zayn's idea turned out to be quite perfect for me. Four days later I was getting ready for my first day and I was nervous like don't-know-what. "Stop worrying, Jenna. Everything will be alright." Zayn smiled and handed me the needle which had fallen out of my shaking hands onto the ground.
"Inchaallah." I replied as I took the needle, turned to the mirror and fixed my scarf with it. After a moment's hesitation I heard Zayn almost whispering: "Inchaallah."
My heartbeat became faster and my hands stopped in the middle of the action (which was about ordering my clothes) and it took me a lot not to stare at him in astonishment. Instead, I slowly turned my head towards him and gave him a smile. He had his hands shaved in the pockets of his jeans, his hair was a little bit messed up and for the first time I saw him without an earring. He shot me a crooked smile and volcanoes started erupting in my stomach. I don't know what this was, but I was getting weird!
Before I could get deeper in thought and at the same time drown in Zayn's eyes, Liam bumped into the room saying: "Hey, are you ready?" his eyes moved from Zayn to me and back again.
"Ya, sure." I replied hastily and grabbed my bag, taking a last look into the mirror, looking sceptically at my appearance.
"You look great." Zayn said and as I looked at his face I saw him rolling his eyes, but with a smile upon his lips. My heartbeat fastened up again.
"Come on guys!" Liam left the room. "The boys are waiting in Paul's van."
Paul turned out to be a frightening man who also looked like a bodyguard rather than a driver. I was still confused about the boys' personal lives. I mean, they had expensive looking cars, a van, a driver and they travel abroad for business. My curiousity was killing me but I couldn't ask them about their job, I don't know why. Maybe I was afraid they might turn out to be drug dealers, haha!
"What's up?" Louis asked as I entered the van. Paul greeted me with a short nod and turned the engine on.
"Nothing, Lou." I answered and moved to the right to make place for Zayn to sit down. As soon as he closed the van's door behind him, Paul drove off.
"Then why are you frowning?" he inquired.
"Stop bothering her, Louis." Zayn said. "She's already worried enough." Louis' response was about to huff and look out of the tinted (!) window. With every metre the car was moving forward, the knot in my breast got tighter and tighter.
"You look pale, babba." Liam's deep voice on my right muttered. He eyed me with a worried expression on his face.
"It's nothing." I said, feeling the beginning of sweat drops on my forehead. "Only a little buck fever.." I trailed off as I noticed every single boy looking at me. Suddenly, Harry's face expression changed into a familiar one; the expression he always gets when he has a (in his opinion: brilliant) idea.
"Sing!" he exclaimed and when he saw my face he added: "That will take your mind off things."
"Harry.." I started protesting weakly. Me and singing? The 'Be Alright' thing was just... a mistake.
"Nah, no back talk!" he interrupted me. "Just sing!"
"Yeah, that'll help." Niall commented, leaning backwards and fishing for something, which turned out to be his guitar. Should I or shouldn't I? Before my heart could fully burst out of my chest, I slowly started singing. "You stuck with me and my laughing eyes, I can't pretend though I try to hide.." Niall couped up with me with his guitar. "I like you, I like you.." I couldn't read the reaction of the boys. They just kept staring at me and didn't move. "I think I felt my heart skip a beat, I'm standing here and I can hardly breathe, you got me yeah, you got me.." my voice faded away as I started to realise that the state of the boys might be because of my horrible singing. Niall stopped too, and a silence spread around the car. Paul threw a look into the rear view mirror but didn't speak, and the boys were still staring at me in a strange way. Except Niall.
"Hey, why did you stop?" he asked me and put his guitar down again.
I could feel my cheeks getting warmer. "Uh.." was all I could get out of my throat.
"That was.." Liam trailed off.
"..rubbish, I know." See? This happens when you try to sing solo for the first time infront of people.
"Are you kidding me?" Liam's mouth dropped a little open. "Your voice is awesome."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, he's right!" Harry interfered. "I knew you could sing, but this now was really good."
"She's talented, mates." Niall shrugged. "Obviously." I still couldn't put the pieces together.. so my singing wasn't rubbish? I was talented? Oh. I had to admit it; the thought of being good at singing didn't bother me..
"Let's sing something together." I asked shyly and was glad when Liam started singing One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful. Soon, the car was filled with an enthusiastic atmosphere and I loudly chanted the song with them.
"This is strange," I murmured, breathless as we finished singing. "but you sound just like One Direction themselves." The more I thought about my notice, the more a strange feeling was formed inside of me. And their reaction made it even worse: they first looked at each other in silence and then Harry said "We get told that a lot." With a cheeky grin on his face. A grin which I didn't trust. But before I could get any more worried, the car's speed slowed down and stopped. A look outside the window told me we've arrived and my worries came back again, singing aside. Zayn opened the door, got out of the car and held the it opened for me as I struggled in climbing out.
"Don't worry." He whispered, with a smile on his face. "They'll love you."
"How do you know?" I asked while I tried to arrange my clothes.
"I happen to know." He said mischievously. "And now stop fiddling about with your clothes and go inside! Or do you want to be late on the very first day?"
He was right. I should go.
**
Childcare.
Wasn't this a great idea for me? I mean, I love children and I can understand them quite well. My new job was about to stay with the kids in the hospital, read stories to them, take care of them, comfort them if they feel homesick..etc.
Matilda, the ward sister, opened the door to the recreation room of the kids for me. 10 little pairs of eyes were staring at me as I stepped into the wide, lightened room.
"Hello youngsters." Matilda's voice filled the room which had suddenly become silent when we opened the door. "This is our new employee, Miss Jenan Tareq. Welcome her in our hospital!"
"Can I see your hair? Pleaaase!!" Tommy's eyes were opened up widely and I grinned at his pout.
"Next time, Tommy, ok?" I replied to him for the almost 100th time.
"No, I want to see it NOW! Pleeeeeaase!" he took hold of my arm and kept shaking it a little.
"Yes, please." Now Lillian interfered. "We only want to take a short look at it!"
I sighed deeply, looking from 9-year-old Lillian to 6-year-old Tommy. "Okaayy.."
"YAY!" they screamed as I lifted my headscarf a little to push my hands underneath it, trying to release the bun. I felt the weight of my thick and heavy braid falling onto my back, when Tommy had already grabbed it.
"Ohhh." He muttered and I snickered. Now, some of the other kids ran over to me and started playing with my hair.
"You have beautiful hair." A low voice reached me. I looked up and saw a young girl in a wheelchair who hasn't interacted a lot with me the past hours. I guessed her to be 11 or 12 years old, she had light green eyes, and a few freckles on her cheeks. "It's nice to meet you again."
"Meet me again?" I asked her in confusion.
The girl laughed. "Yes, you were here before, remember? With Zayn Malik and Liam Payne." Ahh, of course. How could I forget? That was after wandering around the city clueless about my destination.
"What's your name, love?" I asked her and then gave Max, who tried to bite into my braid, a stern look.
"I'm Lucy."
"Hello, Lucy." I replied with a huge smile on my face. "It's nice to m—ouch! TOMMY!"
Lucy chuckled quietly whilst watching me having a short 'tug-of-war' with Tommy with my braid in the role of the rope. A knock on the door made us both stop, and I quickly untwisted my hair out of his small hands to hastily hide it under my scarf.
"Yes?" I then asked loudly, and the kids around me became completely silent. The door slowly opened and the person behind it appeared.
"Zayn?" I asked, astonished. "What are you doing here?"
Zayn, who was about to close the door behind him, looked inward. "Should I leave again?" he asked me with a cheeky smile around his lips.
"Was just wondering, doofus." I replied and rolled my eyes. He chuckled, closed the door completely behind him and approached. The kids around me started to chatter and play again.
"Hey, Lu." Zayn said whilst taking a seat on the floor beside me.
"Hello, Zayn." Lucy replied shyly and I kept looking back and forth between the two.
"I've been passing by the hospital from time to time to see her." Zayn explained. "She's my little friend." Lucy grinned and they high-fived each other.
"Really? Wow." I muttered.
Zayn leaned a little closer. "She knows all my secrets." He whispered to me and then winked at Lucy. I raised one of my eyebrows, "Hmmm, lucky I'm working here now 2 days a week." I teased him and he just laughed.
"Well, actually I'm not here to get teased by you, I just wanted to take you home."
"Oh," I murmured as I threw a look onto the clock on the wall. "It's already time to go?"
"Ya." Zayn said, getting up from the floor. He then stretched out his right hand towards me to help me get up. My heartbeat increased and I just looked up at him in silence. It took him only a few seconds to realise his mistake as he then murmured: "Oh, I'm.. I'm sorry, Jenan." his hand disappeared behind his neck.
"It's okay, nothing happened." I replied whilst standing up. I smiled at him. "Let's go."
**
After farewelling the kids and de-registering me at the reception, Zayn opened the door of the van for me. I got in, placed my bag beside me and looked up.
"Oh my God." Was all I could whisper and the next thing I could feel were her arms squeezing me in a tight hug.
I couldn't believe she was here.
Leesha.
______________
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