Linley's pov
I stare down at my wrist, my jaw nearly hitting the floor. Immediately Zayn and I both pull our hands away, causing us both to shout in pain as the cold metal of the handcuffs dig into our skin.
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Is this some sort of sick joke? This isn't happening...
"Hey!" I scream after Franx, the man that runs this entire festival, absolutely fuming. Zayn starts shouting along with me as we pull one another by the wrist.
"Stop pulling!" I shout at Zayn as we try to fight our way through the incredibly amused crowd that has formed around us.
Zayn grumbles back several swear words directed towards me as we shove our way through the sea of people. But by the time we get through the concrete crowd, Franx is nowhere to be seen. My head feels like it's going to explode with all the excited chatter going on by the crowd and the awful human being attached to my left wrist.
"Go on people, there's nothing to see here!" I hear Sable shouting, waving her hands at the crowd of people as if they were a flock of birds in her way.
Andi helps her try to get rid of everyone as Harry rushes to our side. He gives me an incredibly unenthused glare as he stands by Zayn's side, obviously still a little sore over mine and Sable's little prank.
"Don't worry mate, we'll find someone who can fix this," He promises Zayn as if I were some sort of disease clinging on to him.
I can't help but to scoff and try to fold my arms, only to be yanked by an irritable Zayn. I let out a small whimper, but don't want to give him the satisfaction, so I turn my whimper into a groan of irritation, burning a hole in the side of his head with my glare.
As the crowd starts to evaporate, moving along with the persistence of Sable and Andi, I start searching for Franx, or for anyone that looks like they could help us, for that matter.
"God dammit," Sable spits as she hurries to my side, giving Zayn the dirtiest look I've ever seen her give anyone; and that's saying a lot, "We've got to perform tomorrow!" She shouts at me as if I were the one that handcuffed us together.
"Oh don't worry, I'm not spending more than two minutes with this attached to me. I'll gnaw off my own arm if I have to," Zayn butts into our conversation.
Just for that I give the handcuffs a sharp yank, causing him to yelp out in pain. I simply stare at him with a smug smirk, just wishing he'd hit me so I had an excuse to strangle him with these damned handcuffs.
"Excuse me, sir!" Harry shouts, waving his arms at a man who totes a tool box behind him, appearing to be some sort of mechanic, "Do you have anything that will cut through metal handcuffs? It's an emergency," He asks politely, laying the charm on thick.
The mechanic furrows his eyebrows in confusion to which Harry gestures back to Zayn and I. Zayn throws our joined hands in the air, making me wince. Unable to help myself, I stomp on his foot as hard as I can with my chunky boots.
Zayn throws a glare at me, looking so close to slamming me on the ground to try and knock the breath right out of my lungs.
"There's a reason kids aren't supposed to play with those things," The man smirks at us as he goes on his way, whistling an irritatingly cheery tune.
Harry throws his hands in the air with exasperation as he stomps back to our group. I can practically watch his precious plans for this week just flying out of the window now that this has happened.
"What the hell happened to the code of happiness here?" He snarls as he kicks the ground with aggression, blowing dust in the air for us to choke on.
"Nobody is going to help some pathetic pretty-boy asshole like the two of you," I remark, glaring at both Zayn and him.
"Oh jesus christ, here we go again!" Zayn shouts as he throws his head back with frustration, making me roll my eyes at how much of a drama queen he is; what else should I have expected?
Every little thing about him irritates me to no end; his voice, his tattoos, his clothes, his face; everything. He just stands around, thinking everything about him is magnificent. You can tell by the permanent pouted lips on his face. It's as if he's always waiting for someone to snap a picture of him.
And there's not an inch of me that feels guilty either. He looks at me with the same amount of disgust, as if every single feature of mine repulsed him. The only good thing about him is that we're both on the same page about our amount of hatred.
And I highly doubt that's ever going to change.
"You're such a hypocrite," Zayn snaps at me, tugging the handcuffs so I'm forced to look at him in the eyes, "You're the one performing here at this big festival. Yet you have the audacity to call me out for being a celebrity," He snarls, curling his upper lip with disgust and anger.
He starts to get my blood boiling once again, making me feel as if I were about to explode. I place my hands on his chest and give him a hard shove, making him stumble a few feet back before Harry holds his hands out to catch him.
"Except I've had to work for everything I have. You just had it handed to you on a silver platter just because you're attractive," I shout at him, letting him know that we are far from being similar. There's nothing alike about either of us.
I turn around, trying to walk away from Zayn, but I can hear his footsteps behind me as he's forced to follow me to avoid any more wrist injuries.
"You think I'm attractive, huh?" Zayn taunts, a fire behind his tone, letting me know he's only doing this to piss me off even more.
Embarrassment coats my cheeks as his words hit me, making me wonder where that comment came from anyway. There's nothing about Zayn Malik that I find appealing in any way. He's most certainly not my type. Everything about him repulses me.
So, in a knee-jerk reaction, I whip around and with my free hand - luckily my dominant hand - I form a fist and connect my knuckles with Zayn's nose.
It doesn't take longer than two seconds for him to go falling to the ground with a groan of pain. But I hadn't thought very much about my action beforehand and I go falling to the ground with him, stumbling over his long legs clad in his stupid ripped jeans.
"Hey!" Harry shouts as he dives to the ground, forcing himself inbetween Zayn and I. He turns to give me an extremely angry glare as he protects his friend.
I can still hear Zayn groaning in pain on the other side of Harry, which brings me quite a lot of satisfaction, actually.
"Why are you so awful?" Harry raises his voice at me, as he sits far too close to me.
"Because I'm forced to deal with the two of you!" I shout back, trying to put as much space as possible between the two idiots and I.
"Trust me, as soon as it's possible, we'll be far, far away from you," Harry snorts as he turns to make sure Zayn is okay.
Wanting nothing more than to just start beating up the both of them - knowing that I could more than likely take them both - I ball my fists at my side. My attention is pulled away from the two boys who are whispering to one another as I look up to see Sable talking on the phone with Andi standing at her side, trying to listen.
I don't know why it's me who's the one being punished in this situation. It was just as much Sable's idea as it was mine. It was merely a small prank; leave it to the diva boys to overreact to something so small.
There's nothing I want to do more than to just crawl right back to the drunk tent and get totally smashed until I completely forget who Zayn Malik is. What I wouldn't give to just turn back time and never agree to leave that place.
"Okay, thank you so much," Sable lets out a sigh before she hangs up on the phone, sharing a look full of relief with Andi.
They both hurry over to my side, casting an incredibly confused look in Zayn and Harry's direction, seeing the blood stained below Zayn's nose, but they don't spend much time worrying about him at all before they turn their attention to me.
"Nathan will be here later tonight after he gets done at the office," Sable tells me the best news I've heard all day.
Nathan Heisman has been our manager since the day we got signed. He's a newbie in this industry, but he's fantastic. He's the person that you go to when you need things done. He's absolutely terrifying, but we wouldn't be able to function without him.
Why I hadn't thought about calling Nathan before is past me. Whenever Sable and I get in any sort of trouble, he's always our first instinct to call. We would call him with news and for help before either of us would call our parents.
"Oh dear god, thank you!" I shout, letting my tense body relax with relief rushing against my body like an ocean wave.
But the moment I start to feel better about this temporary predicament I've gotten myself into, Harry gets to his feet and the two idiots force their attention upon me, ruining my good mood with a mere look in my direction.
"Okay, so here's the deal," Zayn gets to his knees, as he continues to try and clean up his bloody nose; with not much success.
"You're going to rip your arm off and leave me in peace so you can crawl back into the golden coated hole you crawled out of this morning?" I interrupt, looking at him with wide, innocent eyes, batting my eyelashes.
From the corner of my eye I can see Sable fighting back laughter, and receiving an incredibly dirty look from Harry in return. Andi rolls her eyes but I can see the glimmer of a small smile playing on the edges of her lips as well.
"Or are you just going to put me out of my misery and shoot me in the head now. Either of those sound lovely to me," I continue, sitting up to cross my legs.
"You are seriously the most irritating and annoying person I've ever met. Please shut up," Zayn closes his eyes to let out an incredibly agitated sigh.
It only makes a smile appear on my face to see him so absolutely annoyed. I'd do anything to piss him off. And judging from what I know about him so far, it doesn't seem like such a hard task to do. He's just as prissy and princess-like as I'd imagine him to be.
"But as I was saying, here's what's going to happen," Zayn sits up straighter, giving me a stern look, his dark eyes full of seriousness, "Just because you chose to be all immature and idiotic doesn't mean that our plans are going to be ruined. So it looks like you and your little friends are going to be coming with us for the rest of the night."
He lets the words slip from his mouth as if they were nothing. He obviously doesn't see the absolute impossibility with that. You couldn't pay me all the money in the world to go around and hang out with these two.
"Fuck no," I shrug, letting my response slip from my mouth just as easily.
"You're the one with all the funny games, so you're coming with us and doing what we want to do tonight; no complaints," He sticks to his idea, not budging in the slightest.
I glance over at Harry in complete disbelief. Did I really punch Zayn that hard that he thinks for even a second I'd be okay with this? I will rip my own arm from the socket and give it to Zayn before I go around 'chilling' with them and their snotty friends.
Sable wears a look identical to mine, knowing that means her night is absolutely ruined as well. Toting around with the boys from One Direction are literally so far down on the list of things we'd consider doing here at this festival.
"I'm not going to be stuck with you for all of tonight, that's for sure," I shake my head, trying to convince myself that I won't have to go with these two to whatever lame things they had planned for tonight.
"Okay, then you find somebody to separate us," Zayn snaps back, his irritation level starting to rise once again.
I can tell he was trying his hardest to stay calm and collected, trying to be the one in charge out of the two of us, but he's failing miserably. I love that I have this power to get him so riled up. It lets me know that I'm completely in charge.
"We're on it," Sable grabs Andi's hand and stomps away, not being able to handle this situation any more.
Andi flashes me a sympathetic smile, obviously feeling guilty that I'm stuck in this situation that is ultimately her fault. But I know her too well and know that she finds this all incredibly exciting; she gets to spend even more time with the idiots that she's in love with.
I'm going to kill her for this...
I stare at Sable and Andi with my jaw wide open, not believing that they're actually leaving me all alone with these two to fend for myself. I'm going to end up in prison for murder in the next few minutes.
"I don't know about you, but I need a drink," Zayn runs his fingers through his hair as he turns to look at Harry, talking as if I weren't even here.
He gets to his feet, ready to trek on into the drunk tent - which does sound heavenly right about now, but I'm not going to agree with Zayn over anything - standing above me in an irritating manner.
My stubbornness comes out - as it often does - as Zayn waits for me to stand up as well. I simply keep a frown on my face as I stay seated on the dirty gravel road, not budging an inch. Zayn tugs on the handcuffs to get my attention, but it's no use.
I'm not moving from this spot. I refuse to go anywhere with him. I'm going to sit right here until Sable finds someone that has something that can separate us. I'll sleep right here if I have to.
"Let's go," Zayn lowers his voice, trying to sound more intimidating.
"I'm not moving," I shrug, looking up at him with a stubborn expression, letting him know that he can't tell me what to do.
Harry lets out a groan and runs his fingers through his hair, looking more stressed than necessary. He shoots a glance to Zayn, waiting for him to control me as if I were his dog. I grit my teeth as I give him a glare, wanting to punch him in the face as well.
"We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way," Zayn stands directly in front of me to glare down at me.
Not even glancing up at him, I let out a snort. He's not my dad; he's not my friend. He can't make me do anything.
"Fine, if you're going to be difficult," Zayn grumbles.
He bends down in front of me, sticking his stupid face right in mine, making me crinkle my nose in disgust. Then - completely taking me by surprise - he reaches out and grabs me, practically throwing me over his shoulder. He does it with ease, taking my small frame to his advantage.
Immediately I start kicking and screaming. My fists pound against his back as he drapes me over his shoulder as if it were nothing.
"Put me down, you asshole!" I shout, trying - but failing unfortunately - to kick him in the face.
I struggle to get off of his back at the same time I try to pull my shirt dress down, feeling my entire ass exposed for all to see.
"Nice panties," Zayn laughs, causing me to send another punch right to his back. I can hear Harry snickering from beside him, making my blood boil even more.
"Somebody help me!" I desperately try to scream, hoping that somebody will mistake Zayn as a rapist and come to my rescue.
But people passing by just watch us as if we were some form of entertainment, smiles plastered on their faces. They obviously recognize both Zayn and I and don't take me very seriously. I give them all death glares as I wriggle in Zayn's tight grip, making it incredibly hard for him to walk the few feet to the drunk tent.
"I hate you!" I shout at Zayn, still continuing to aim my clunky boots for his precious little face.
"Don't worry love," Zayn says in his low, rumbling British accent, "The feel is mutual."
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AN:
it's a bit short, but this was the best place to end it, i thought. i have to be honest though, i find these fight scenes incredibly fun to write. i don't write them very often, so i'm having fun with it.
i found it absolutely hilarious that most of you guys hate linley. she is a spitfire, not likable at all. but i'm curious to see if that'll change. (it may or it may not.) but that is her on the side; ellie goulding <3 <3 <3 <3
i'm going to start dedicating chapters to people who leave me really nice comments and stuff like that, because i realize that it's silly of me not to show you all my appreciation.
so this chapter is dedicated to @AlexandraJoy bc she's my complete idol and she's so lovely <3 check her out if you haven't already!
my schedule now that school has started is really, really hectic, so updates on this story are going to be a bit scattered, but i'll try my hardest to stay on top of the game.
keep the comments coming, folks! i love reading each and every one of them and they really give me the push to stay up late writing. feel free to let any and all thoughts loose in the comments section. they are appreciated!
love always
-perksofbeingaweirdo
{ps. you should all follow my instagram @moniquescheidler !}