A/N: I'm honestly scared about what you guys will think about this chapter.
Here we go.
*Jessie's POV*
It is Saturday night. I sit on my bed and put my black flats on. Charlotte is in my bathroom fixing her makeup. We are going to a party. Georgia Rose's party. Charlotte was so excited when we were invited. I can understand why. I have no clue how we got invited.
She runs out of the bathroom. "Are you ready?" She says excitedly. She is always so happy for some reason. It is kind of funny.
"Yeah." I walk up to the mirror on the back of my door. Charlotte picked my outfit out for me. An aqua strapless peplum top and skintight black pants. Parties are not my favorite thing. Especially the ones where I know no one there. Which, in fact, are most of them.
Charlotte looks at me with pity. "Zayn is going to be there, you know," she says.
I grin. The only conceivable reason I am going with her. "Let's go."
She giggles. "I knew that would help."
We run down the stairs. My mom is in the living room watching some ridiculous soap opera. She cranes her neck around when she hears us. "Bye guys, have fun," she says cheerfully. I am so glad I do not have an overprotective mom. It is awesome to be able to go to a party without being questioned about everything. She trusts me. And I also think she is just happy I actually was invited to a party. She believes I have trouble making friends.
"Bye mom," Charlotte says to her. I roll my eyes. But I can honestly say that Charlotte is my sister. We spend so much time together, and she is at my home more than her own.
We take Charlotte's car to the party.
***********
*Zayn's POV*
I see Harry and Louis from across the room and negotiate through the crowds to reach them. A lot of people are here. Loud music plays so that everything else is hardly audible.
"Hey," I hear Harry say. He says something else that I cannot hear and points to something across the room.
I follow his finger to Georgia. I give him a reassuring nod after I spot her. He smirks at me, but the smile soon vanishes.
"Hey," I hear a lively voice come from behind me. Surprisingly, the voice came from Will.
"Hi," I respond blankly.
*Jessie's POV*
I cling to Charlotte as we walk into the enormous house. I feel that if I let go there is no way I will be able to find her again.
I hear someone call Charlotte from the left. We both flick our heads in that direction. Some girl comes up to Charlotte and gives her a hug, tearing her away from me. I stand awkwardly in front of them while they socialize. The house is full of people, none of which I know personally. Loud music forces everyone to stand close together to converse. Consequently, multiple groups form everywhere that contain people laughing and talking. Some people are dancing, some are making out in the corners. Almost everyone is holding a cup, and the ones moving around spill whatever liquid it is all over themselves and others. I am sure half of these people are drunk or are working on becoming it.
I spin around to grab Charlotte. And she is gone. And now I am alone. I decide to get a drink. I walk up to a table somewhere near the kitchen and grab a cup. A blonde boy is pouring himself some punch and looks over at me. He has deep blue eyes that literally make my jaw drop.
He focuses back on pouring his drink. "Did you want some?" He asks with an accent of some sort... Irish, I believe.
"Yes, please," I say. He pours some into my cup. "Thanks."
I stay at the table and sip the sweet drink which I conclude to be nonalcoholic.
"So what's your name?" He asks.
"Oh." I did not expect him to actually try to talk to me. "I'm Jessie."
"I'm Niall, from Ireland."
I grin. "I figured."
I can hear him let out a small laugh and I decide I do not want to end the conversation. "So why are you in Bradford?"
"I'm visiting some friends." He then goes off on the subject of how his parents met a couple at an airport and became best friends before he was born and they still visit all the time and he is leaving in a few weeks back to Ireland. Really boring story, but his accent keeps me awake.
We talk more for a while about myself and why I am here and and some other things. The conversation soon runs dry, though. After it gets silent, I start to look through the crowds of people. I finally spot Zayn and my heart skips a beat. I watch him talk to his friends maybe hoping he will turn around and see me.
"Who are you staring at?" I shift my sight to the now smug Niall. He stands with his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.
"You caught me," I say, but I do not answer. I sip eagerly at my drink.
"We are practically best friends now, you have to tell me."
I figure there is no harm in it, he knows as much people here as I do. I motion him closer and point to Zayn. He leans next to me.
"The tall one with the black hair."
He skims through the area I am pointing at until he sees the person that matches my description. His entire demeanor changes. He starts to laugh.
"Zayn?" He asks me.
"You know him?" I ask cautiously, begging God to not receive the explanation I am expecting.
"He is the friend I was telling you about," he says with such a happy air.
"Of course," I mumble. I bite my lip thinking of how to escape.
"Do you know him well?" His nosiness is starting to annoy me.
"We're friends."
"Oh." He sips his drink.
"Why?" I ask. I know that is what he is trying to make me ask, but I ask for myself.
"He told me about some amazing girl with bright green eyes. He sounded like he liked her a lot. But he kept bragging about how he kissed her, so it could not have been you, since you guys are just friends." He raises his eyebrows, definitely implying that he knows I am the girl.
I blush. "You knew it was me."
"He showed me a picture of you guys at the zoo."
When did Zayn take a picture of us?
"Why haven't you gone up to him yet?" I do not answer him. "You look amazing. What's the worst that could happen?"
Niall is right. Zayn is sweet. He would not do anything to make me more uncomfortable than I am now. When I think about it, I know that I would be more comfortable with him than without.
"I'll be here if anything bad happens," Niall says trying to persuade me.
I give him my cup and walk up to Zayn's group. I take a deep breath before I approach them. A couple of them stare at me as I get closer. I am regretting this. I turn to Niall, who motions me to move forward. I get closer and say hi to Zayn.
I feel like I must have something on my face. The entire group is staring at me in astonishment.
"Who's this?" One asks.
"Isn't this that girl you took out or something?"
I smile at Zayn. His friends know about me.
"I- I'm sorry, what's your name again?" Zayn asks.
My stomach drops. I can hardly make myself speak. "What?" I manage to whisper out.
"Her name was Jessie, right?" Someone says.
"Oh, right. We have an art project together," he says to his group. "Listen. If you want to talk about the project, can't it wait until school?" He does not even look at me. He moves his focus from one friend to another while talking.
I stare into his eyes praying he is kidding. He says nothing else to me, so I turn around and walk away. I hear some snickers from behind me and people's whispers.
I swallow hard as I feel a lump in my throat. My lips start to quiver. My eyes brim with tears. I walk faster now. I make it to the table where Niall is pouring himself another drink. He sees me and worry appears in his face.
The tears stream down my face probably destroying my make up. I really do not care. Niall grabs my hand and pulls me into another room. He sits me on a chair and asks me what happened. I shake my head until he stops asking me.
"I'll be right back," he says sternly. Niall rushes out of the room and I am alone again crying.
*Zayn's POV*
She runs away crying. What did I just do? I lose sight of her in the crowd and turn my attention on my friends.
"What was that all about?" Louis asks.
"It doesn't matter, she's gone," Will says. "Go find Georgia, Zayn."
I am about to explode. The anger and guilt I feel is enough for me to hit Will. I do not turn around. Harry, I think. Harry can help. I run through the house in search of him.
I search almost all of the house and find one of the most secluded rooms. In it, I see Harry kissing some girl. I call him, and he turns around very unsteadily. I see the girl. Georgia Rose.
"Zayn," he slurs. He stumbles over nothing and falls to the wall. I help him on to his feet. "Has you met Georgia? She is a lovely girl. Did you know her daddy is a dentist?"
No help at all. I drop Harry to the floor and rush out of the room. "Wait," he says. I hear some bangs from behind me and figure he fell down trying to stand up.
I walk down another hallway and run into someone. I try to go around him, but he stops me.
"Zayn, wait," he huffs.
I am about to shove the kid with the annoying accent into the wall. Wait... The accent. "Niall," I say in relief. "Have you seen the girl I told you about? Jessie?"
"She's crying. What did you say to her?" He hisses at me.
"I-," I sigh. "Fuck. Niall I need to talk to her. Where is she?"
"Let me talk to her first. She might not want to see you."
I clench my fists. What did I do to us? I broke us. I denied everything between us just because I was afraid of what my friends would think. I need to fix this. "Hurry."
He nods. Niall runs back down the hall and into a room. He shuts the door.
I pace in the hall until I hear the door opens. I turn around and rush to the person expecting it to be Niall. I abruptly stop when I see the crying girl standing in front of me. Her arms are crossed tightly around her chest. Her usually perfect green eyes are red and puffy, brimming with tears at the sight of me. Niall appears in the doorway of the room. I step toward Jessie. She spins around and runs. Niall stops her at the door. She turns toward me again. I get a glimmer of hope as she walks toward me, thinking she will want to talk. She steps up to me closer than normal. I smile a smile of relief, she wants to be near me again. But nope. She shoves me out of the way with all of her strength and runs past me.
I start to run after her, but Niall catches my shoulder. "Don't."
"What did she tell you?" I beg.
He looks away from me. "I asked her what happened and she told me what you did. I said that she should talk to you, but she said- she said she doesn't want to talk to you ever again."
Dammit. I run both my hands through my hair. I fall against the wall and slide to the ground. "Is that all she said?" Not like anything else she said can help.
"Yeah," he exhales.
Charlotte. That is Jessie's best friend. She is all that can help me now.
*Jessie's POV*
I run into the kitchen where I see plenty of alcohol. Do I like drinking? I will find out now. I grab a bunch of random shit and walk upstairs and into an empty room.
***********************************
I wake up staring at the ceiling. Where am I? Last thing I remember was opening a beer bottle. Oh crap, I got drunk. I feel around me to figure out what I am laying on. My bed... How did I get here? I sit up and I immediately experience a pounding headache. I grab my phone off the nightstand to get some answers as to what happened last night.
6 new messages
2 new voicemails
From Zayn
8:00 am
Hey, when you get this please call me. I need to talk to you
From Zayn
9:12 am
I'm so sorry, Jessie. Please talk to me
From Zayn
9:42 am
Where are youuu
From Zayn
10:23 am
Can I come over to talk?
From Charlotte
10:27 am
Hey. How are you feeling?
From Unknown
11:07 am
It's Niall. Are you okay?
Well that did not help. All I got from it is a reminder of what I have been trying to forget. And that people wake up way too early on Sundays. And Niall somehow got my number. Not that I care, Niall is cool. My head kills me until I cannot take it. I go downstairs to find some drugs.
Isaac is downstairs at the kitchen table. I search through a cabinet until I find some ibuprofen. "What did you do last night?" He says as he takes in my bad shape.
"I don't know" is all I can say truthfully.
Charlotte walks into the house without knocking. I pull her upstairs so she can explain what went on yesterday.
"Zayn came up to me and asked where you were. I said I didn't know. Then some blonde boy named Niall told me that he needed me to talk to you. So we split up and searched the whole house for you and I found you in a bedroom drunk. Niall and I took you to the front door and you saw Zayn and started yelling at him about how you hate him. Then Niall and I took you home."
Not a huge surprise. "Did you give Niall my number?"
"Yeah, I thought he could help check up on you and stuff."
I sigh.
"How are you, anyways?" She asks sincerely.
"I'm okay." Lies. I am dead. I have been murdered.
"Jessie, I know you."
"I just thought we might've had something, that's all. But I guess it was all in my head." How could it have been in my head? All he did for me. Was he just being friendly because he felt sorry for me because my dad died? But what he told Niall... And how he talked to me and smiled at me and kissed me... Even if it was something, there is no way I could forgive him. He obviously cared about his standings in school more than me. And I cannot be with a jerk like that.
"You don't want to talk to him?" Charlotte asks.
"I don't know." He left me four messages and two voicemails. I should talk him, but I cannot forgive him. Ever.
I ask Charlotte to leave, not because she is pissing me off or anything, but I need to sort some things out by myself.
When she is gone, I lock myself in my room and pull out my phone. I listen to the two voicemails. They make me speechless. In the first one, all Zayn says is to call him back because we need to talk. But in the second one, he apologizes many times, explains why he did what he did, and begs me to call him or text him or go to his house to talk. Something. He says he meant everything that had happened before the party.
I do not know what to do.
To Niall:
I'm okay... Can you come over? I need to talk to someone.
*****************
"He knows I'm here, you know," Niall tells me.
We sit on the couch in the living room.
"I thought so." I look at the carpet, run my hands over the couch, press buttons on the remote. Zayn has been in this exact position with me. Comforting me, like Niall now is. And now he is gone. "Everyone keeps saying I should talk to him."
He does not answer, but he squirms. He wants me to talk to Zayn. I can tell.
"Do you think he meant all he said to you?" I ask.
"Definitely. All he ever talked about was you. He probably mentioned your eyes at least turdy-seven times."
I frown at news that would usually make me grin. "I just want to forget it all. I want to forget Zayn."
"Are you sure about that?" Niall raises his voice.
"Yes," I whisper. It hurts me to say it. But I cannot try to forgive him. All I would think about is how easily he could leave me again. How I could feel this way again.
"Okay," he says. I know he is disappointed. Zayn and him are like best friends. We talk for about a half an hour, and then Niall says he has to leave. I watch him from the door until he gets into his car and drives off.
My art project is due tomorrow. We have to present it. I have one more day of having to be friends with Zayn. Then I can forget him forever.
Notey note:
If you enjoy my story, go thank @ZAYNuhhh, who made me write it, by spamming hers. Then she'll have to update! (She neeeevveeerrr updates and it's pissing me off... I'm talking to you, Zeina.)
See ya real soon chilluns.