Zayn
The days seemed to get shorter as the countdown began for our tour. Usually, I'd be as excited about it as Niall was - he wouldn't shut up about how close we were to leaving. The only thing that ever really made me homesick was my family, wishing I could see them a lot more than I get to. But now I was thinking about Joelle and how much we had bonded over the last few weeks. But is 'bonded' even the right word to describe what happened between the two of us? Whenever I was on the verge of asking her out 'officially', she would start acting distant. As if she could sense the question, and she clammed up.
"So why haven't you made it official yet?"
"Jeez, Harry, do you just read my thoughts or what?"
"Nope, but you've been texting her for the past twenty minutes and you've been completely lost in thought." Harry pointed out and sure enough, my fingers were clutching onto my iPhone tightly as I stared at the screen. I looked up at him and he had that little smirk, the smirk he only had when he knows he was right. The most annoying thing on the planet is Harry Styles when he knows he was right.
"I dunno, she's supposed to be here soon." I shrugged, trying my best to seem nonchalant about it. I was a boy, I wasn't supposed to try this hard to get a girlfriend - especially being in this band. I could go out on the street and get any girl out there to date me, but for some strange reason, my heart was set on this girl who was adamant against it.
"You haven't told any of us about her. Is it the girl from the club? You can talk to me, you know." Harry crashed onto the couch next to me.
Harry was brilliant and he was like a brother, I could trust him with anything, I just never did. I always liked being my own person with no one knowing my thoughts. I was required to talk with my job, but I never went off on tangents about my life to other people. Even the other boys would be surprised by some of the things I've kept from them.
"I just want to give up on her, because it's a lot of work and I don't even know if it'll be worth it." I ran a hand through my hair. "But I just can't let her go."
"Have you asked her?"
"No. She's so afraid of falling in love. I want to know so much more about her, but we haven't even asked each other any serious questions yet. She knows nothing about my life, my family, my past." I shrugged again.
"Listen mate, I know you probably don't want advice, but just ask her. Then you'll know if it's worth pursuing. If she says yes, then yeah! You can test the waters together. If she says no, you can just give up and walk away knowing that you tried. If she says no and you just can't let her go, then you go after her like a real man." Harry had a very serious expression on his face as he talked to me and it was a rare sight. Usually he joked about everything, wouldn't take anything seriously and would annoy everyone. But when it came to girls, the guy was raised right. No matter how much he regretted dating certain people, if he ever saw them, he'd give them a hug and tell them that they looked as lovely as ever. The other four of us never questioned why he was the heartthrob, it all made perfect sense. If I was a teenage girl, I'd probably fall in love with his prince charming act as well.
"Yeah, mebbe."
~
She stepped into the room as if she knew exactly what she was doing, except that I could see past her confident demeanor and could see the nerves that had probably creeped up on her. She didn't know I could see her from where I was at, but I didn't want to get up and attract attention to her yet. Joelle's eyes scanned the room, probably thinking about every single person there and what their story was. Not once did she seemed to get bored, instead she watched as though she was watching TV.
"Who's that? She's cute," Niall commented from his position next to me. He must have felt my shoulders tighten as he turned to me with a smile. "No worries, man, I got Natalia. So who's the cutey you got your eyes on? What's her name? Huh?"
His complete lack of maturity made my lips crack into a smile. There was no one like Niall to make you laugh, especially since he was quite like a dog. Hyper, loves treats, and doesn't hesitate to jump into your lap and lick you. "I'll bring her over if you sit and stay there."
Immediately, he was still and he winked (horribly) at me. "Deal."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him as I got up and started towards Joelle. She noticed me soon and gave me a small smile, "I didn't realize you needed such a large area to rehearse."
It was quite big, it was basically an empty warehouse where the music echoed off the wall and we had enough room to spread out. The only people currently there were the five of us, our choreographer, and a few people from the Modest! Management team. I took her hand, a brave move, and went towards the area where I had just left Niall. The blonde was already on his feet, grinning like a madman as he shoved his hand out to shake hers.
"You look familiar… Zayn, how do I know her?" Niall turned to me with wrinkled eyebrows.
"She did the interview a while back at the radio station, yeah?" I prompted his memory and his eyes lit up immediately.
He ditched the handshake and hugged her full on. "Hi! It's like we're old friends, isn't it?"
Joelle pursed her lips together and I could see that she was trying hard not to laugh, instead she nodded at him. I didn't want to mention to Niall that he didn't even know her name, not that it would really matter to him. "Don't scare her off, Niall."
"I'm not scaring you, am I? I'm not scary." Niall grinned, and I'm sure his eyes were twinkling.
"Not at all," Joelle agreed, though her lips were still trying to tug into a smile. Niall gave her a thumb's up and then just walked away. The kid was strange, half the time we had no idea what he was doing. Sometimes he would just start laughing out of nowhere, and we'd have to figure out what happened on our own.
Why Natalia, a well-known model, ever agreed to go on a date with him would forever be questionable. She was actually pretty normal, which was even more weird. They had a great relationship, though. Niall would come in and tell us about four million stories about how she spilled something on herself, and he would just think it was the funniest thing in the world.
"I think I like him," Joelle finally let her lips win the battle.
"Not as much as you like me, yeah?" I retorted with a smirk, and after I said it, I hoped she wouldn't shut down completely.
Instead, she kept eye contact and the smile disappeared. "Well…."
"Hey!"
"Kidding. He'd be a good friend."
That's when I realized that it could be my moment. I might not get another shot at this for who knows how long, and she hadn't curled up when I mentioned a type of 'attraction'. I needed to stop thinking and just ask her already, but I could no longer form words. I reminded myself of Harry's advice - worst thing that could happen was that she would say no and I'd have to figure out what was important to me.
God, when had I become such a girl? Caring about feelings?
"Zayn? You okay there?" It was Joelle's turn to smirk, as she attempted to get me back onto planet earth. Her green eyes were bright, and they were magnetic.
I didn't let myself think any longer, instead I kind of just blurted out in a very informal way, "Be my girlfriend?"