"...I'm sure it'll be fine." I hear a voice say as I close the door to my bedroom behind me. I overslept this morning, missing breakfast and lunch that now it was up to me to make my own food. However, just as I was walking down the stairs I notice Vincent and Harry standing by the door, a new unknown male joins them.
I had my book and the iPod Harry gave me in hand, the earphones wrapped around it as I intended on having a relaxing brunch. "And we can discuss any further questions you may have in my office." I hear Vincent's gravely voice say this time, turning around to show this unknown man the way to his office when he notices me walking down the stairs. "Ah, there she is."
I look between the three men. "What's going on?" I had an inclination this might be the new bodyguard. By the looks of Harry avoiding eye contact, I could tell he was still angry about last night.
"This is Santos, he's in charge of looking after you from now on." Vincent says as I stand in front of them. Santos was about Harry's height with a tan complexion, a buzzcut and a hidden compass tattoo on his forearm. He extends his hand out to me and it takes me a second to comprehend the situation before I shake his hand.
"I think this is all a waste of time if you ask me." I say, taking my hand back. "I don't need a bodyguard, never needed one in the first place." I say the last part with a bit of diss directed at Harry, something he glares at me for.
Vincent clears his throat and walks away. "This way, Santos."
Once Vincent is out of sight, Harry stops Santos. "A tip if you must," Harry says. "Don't let her interfere with your job." Harry's stare is like daggers my way as he leaves. I follow behind but only because he's on his way to the kitchen, a place that I was already going to in the first place.
"Looks like Vincent was quick to find your replacement." I mock, grabbing a pan from the cabinet and eggs and bacon from the fridge.
"I hired him." Harry corrects, serving himself a cup of coffee. Usual Harry behavior.
I hum at this. "In that case, I don't think he's going to be any good at his job then." I jab, adding three pieces of bacon to the skillet. "Maybe this one might actually manage to get me killed."
"Maybe."
The fact that I wasn't succeeding at getting under his skin left me unsatisfied and angry. "You know, I'm glad you're leaving." I turn this time, already annoyed by him. The bacon cracks behind me as I stare angrily at Harry. "You're a fucking coward."
"If you have any concerns, take it up with Vincent. He's the appropriate person to deal with childish theatrics." He was about to take a sip of his coffee but stops to speak again. "Or Santos. You're his problem now." As he says this, I grab the iPod from where I placed it on the counter and throw it carelessly on the table. It makes a loud noise but Harry doesn't seem phased as he continues his actions.
"I fucking hate you." I grit, storming out of the kitchen not caring that I left the skillet on the stove. Hopefully this whole place burns down to—my racing thoughts are stopped when I bump past someone, quickly realizing it was Giza.
"You wanna fucking watch where you're going?" She spits, looking at me with a scowl.
"Go fuck yourself." She was about to walk towards me when Harry appears behind her, grabbing her arm to stop her. He gives her a warning glare that she ignores as she walks past him and into the kitchen.
Harry glances at me but doesn't say anything as he walks back towards the kitchen.
—
"Hey, Tina." Niall says as he sees me walking outside and towards the group of them outside on the gazebo, sitting around the bonfire they started. The cold wind brushed my face as I made the walk past the pool to be able to reach the group. It was dark, the only light was the crackling fire in the middle. I catch Zayn's eye and he smiles at me, nodding me over to a spot beside him.
I sit close, his body emanating extra warmth and if it wasn't enough, he wraps an arm around me that I thank with a genuine smile. "What are you guys doing out here?" I ask, denying a beer that Louis offered me.
"We wanted to get to know the new guy but who knows where he ran off to." Liam says, tilting his head back to drink his beer.
"Harry's busy showing him the ropes, we told him to bring him back around when he was done." Louis adds. "But now that the sunflower of the bunch joined, why don't we play a game?" I roll my eyes. Louis and his games. I swear, all I've seen him do is mess around and play games. You'll never catch Louis not having a good time, and don't even get me started on Niall.
"Man, come on." Zayn finally speaks, groaning. "We're just trying to have a quiet night."
"Don't you sleep alone? You don't have enough quiet nights?" Niall jabs, hiding his smirk behind his bottle. Zayn flicks the beer cap at him.
"Valentina?" Louis looks at me expectantly. "Don't be a Debbie Downer."
I laugh and nod. "Fine, jackass." I retort. "What game?"
Louis and Niall both discuss it for a while before Louis speaks again. "Twenty-one questions." Of course.
"But none of that bullshit of what someone's favorite color is, I can guarantee you none of us give a fuck." Niall adds. "Since you're the only girl in the group, you go first."
I groan. I never know what to ask. I ponder for a second, trying to come up with anything, anything at all. Finally, I settle on the first thing that comes to mind. "I don't know, longest relationship?" I ask, earning a groan from everyone around.
Zayn laughs beside me. "Don't ask shit like that, Tina." Louis flicks the label sticker of his beer that he had been working on at me. "Question: when was the last time you had sex?" Louis asks, looking around, Zayn clears his throat beside me and I wish to sink into the ground.
"A year ago." Liam says.
"Two nights ago." Niall says.
"Liam, we need to get you laid a fucking sap. That's horrendous mate." Louis snickers.
"I'm just shocked at Niall having sex two nights ago." I say, bringing it to the groups attention, Niall grins.
"Yeah, who the fuck are you having sex with?" Zayn mocks, taking a swig of his beer.
"I don't fuck and tell." Niall places a hand over his heart before he speaks again. "If you had to choose between going naked or having everyone hear your thoughts, what would you choose?"
"Naked." Is the answer everyone blurts out at the same time, including me. I can't have everyone hearing my thoughts, especially with half the shit that comes to my mind.
"Okay, I got one." I say, finally thinking of a good question. "What's the first thing you would do if you woke up as the opposite sex?" I earn a wave of laughter and claps from them.
"See myself naked. I wouldn't even question it." Louis says almost immediately.
"Why limit yourself to just one naked female body? Women's bathroom!" Niall shoves Louis.
"Yeah, I don't think there's naked women in the women's bathroom." Liam says with a laugh.
"Well we wouldn't really know, would we?"
I turn to Zayn who now has a cigarette in his lips. "You?" I say.
He looks at me and chuckles. "I'm not answering that."
"We all know Zayn would just stare at himself all day." Louis smirks. "Wouldn't you, you little vain bitch?"
"You know me so well." Zayn remarks, giving Louis the finger. I laugh at this, looking back to see Harry walking towards us with Santos besides him.
"Oh great." I mutter under my breath, Zayn hears me and follows my gaze. His arm around me remains, in fact he pulls me closer to him and I let him as they reach us.
"Take a seat, anywhere you'd like mate." Liam says to Santos, given as Harry has his back to the pillar of the gazebo. He lights a cigarette and rests back, catching my eyes momentarily before looking away.
"Santos you've just join at the right time, we're playing twenty-one questions so ask away." Louis says as Santos sits on the bench in front of him. From the corner of my eye, I see Giza join us and stands next to Harry, taking the cigarette Harry had in his mouth and brings it up to her lips.
"Who do you like the least in this room and why?" Starting strong I see.
"Styles." Niall, Louis and Liam say in unison, however this doesn't seem to affect Harry as he continues whatever conversation he's having with Giza.
Santos turns to Zayn and I. "What about you two?"
My answer would definitely be the two twins pretending to ignore us right now, but I choose not to pay them any mind. I turn to Zayn and Zayn turns to me. "Zayn." I say with a scrunch of my nose.
"Yeah, I was about to say Valentina. One hundred percent." Zayn removes his arm and shoves me gently which made me laugh and hold onto his arm, he chuckles and when I look up Harry is looking at us.
"Harry, Giza." Niall calls out to them. "Your turn to ask."
"I'm good." Harry shakes his head, taking the cigarette from Giza who comes forward, blowing smoke out of her mouth and takes the empty bench in front of Zayn and I.
"I have a question for Zayn!" Giza grins, leaning forward. "Would you rather kill your mother or your father?" As soon as she asks, I remember what Harry once said to Zayn.
"You sure sound very limited for someone who sent people to kill his own father."
Zayn glares back at her while everyone else looks at Zayn and Giza stares back at him with a pleased expression.
"I got one for you," I say, grabbing everyone's attention. "Have you ever gotten fucked in a damp rat infested basement? Or are you just a whore?" My question made both Louis and Niall snicker, Giza to smirk and Harry to watch.
"That's cute of you Zayn, letting this teenager defend you. You can't do it yourself?" Giza looks at Zayn, completely ignoring me.
"I believe she asked you a question." Zayn retorts, taking a drink of his beer. "Are you a whore or not?"
"It's a stupid question really, we all know the answer to that." I add with a laugh. I turn to Santo's. "Since you're new here, the answer to that is yes, that's kind of her only purpose here." I turn back to Giza. "The house whore." Almost as quick as I say this, she launches towards me and this time Harry isn't quick enough to stop her.
She pushes me back by my shoulders, my back immediately hits the floor and her fist collided with my cheek once before I push her off, clawing at her face. My hands grab fistfuls of her hair and in a quick motion, I bang her head against the floor a few times before arms wrap around my waist and pull me off of her.
By the smell of the cologne, I can tell it's Harry. "Get the fuck off of me!" Giza snarls, pushing Liam and Santo's away from offering their help. She stands up and storms off, leaving us all behind.
"Let go of me!" I demand, pushing Harry off. Once he lets go, I walk towards Zayn who immediately inspects my face. My ears were ringing, my vision was blurry with rage almost like that time at the club. Everything seemed blurred but I could hear Harry raising his voice at Santo's and the guys just as Zayn helps me walk off towards the house.
Just as quickly as we left, we were already in my bedroom. Zayn presses a cotton ball of alcohol to my cheekbone and I flinch, dragging me out of my thoughts. Usually I was the one who cleaned Harry's wounds and now Zayn's doing it for me.
"That stings." I complain. "Is it bad?"
"Well you just got punched in the face, that's gonna leave a mark." Zayn sure knows all about that, I thought as I look all around his face. He had scars, majority on his jaw and cheekbones. But then he also had light freckles that you can only notice if you were this close.
I notice Zayn stop his actions and sigh. My eyebrows furrow. "What's wrong?" I ask, seeing as how he dropped his gaze.
"Nothing, it's just..." Zayn trails off, avoiding eye contact with me. I search his face, pressing on for more of what he wanted to say. This time he looks up. "This is the second time it comes up. And honestly, I was hoping it never would again." I know he's referring to what Giza said. "You have to know, I couldn't bare to have you think of me as someone who would just murder their father."
My hands go to his on his lap as I look him in the eyes. "You don't have to tell me something you're not comfortable with."
"It's for my peace of mind. Clearly, you already know what I did." He says. "But you don't know why I did it." My fingers caress his hand in an attempt to calm him down from the light shaking.
"I was in a dark place at the time, living in the bad part of Bradford. My father was a junkie. My mother took up two jobs in order to support my younger sisters. I was always in and out of the house, I hated seeing my mom struggle but I helped with what I could and it surely didn't help that my father would beat them and take their money for his own selfish reasons." Zayn shakes his head as he recalls his memories.
"I guess I got sick of seeing that, of seeing the man who was supposed to love and protect his family, turn on them as if they were nothing. As if they weren't his own flesh and blood. So I looked for a way out. I admit, it wasn't the best decision then but it sure felt like the only alternative. It was either them or him. I tried doing it myself, but no matter how many times I held that gun to his head while he was passed out from whatever drug he had in him, I just couldn't seem to pull the trigger. So I paid a gang member to do it. I had him follow him to the bar he frequented for his breakfast of vodka and scotch that lead on to lunch, up until his dinner of crack and meth in the back alley."
Zayn's gaze focuses on nothing in particular on the floor, almost like if he was detaching himself from the conversation. "He shot him. Just there. Like nothing."
"...I couldn't face my family after that. How could I live under the same roof, knowing I killed the man responsible for our existence? So I ran away. I came to America to start over but of course, I had no money and nowhere to stay. I got involved with some shitty people throughout my teens and eventually, I landed here."
I bite the inside of my cheek as I make Zayn look at me. "It's all over now, I understand why you did what you did. It was noble of you, sacrificing your freedom in exchange for your family's safety. I want you to know that nothing you could ever do could make me judge you or see you as any less than what you are. Thank you for telling me this and for trusting me enough." Without another word, Zayn brings me towards him in a hug.
I loved Zayn and I was thankful that he considered me as a safe space enough to tell me this. But this only reminded me how completely different we were. He hired someone to kill in order to protect the ones he loves, I killed someone for selfish reasons.
I rid my head of those thoughts because in this moment, all that mattered was that Zayn trusted me.