"So Tessa," Zayn said as he threw his crumbled up napkin onto his empty plate. "What do you want for your birthday?"
Tessa mentally groaned. The Boys all stopped laughing and talking to listen to her reply. She messed with her uneaten fries as she tried not to snap at him. She hated those kind of questions. She hated anything that had to do with her birthday.
"Nothing." She said looking up to the boys. "I want nothing. And I don't want everyone to make a big deal about it. It's just another day, why does it have to be a big thing?"
"Because its your birthday." Louis says. "It should be all about you."
"I don't want it to be about me." She said slowly so they all understood. She hated her birthday.
Her parents used to have a big day planed. Sometimes they didn't even have a 'party' it was just them. From the minute she woke up and her mom had a homemade cake with lit candles for her blow out to her bed time when her parents would let her sleep in their bed and they would watch her favorite movie, it was the best thing. She used to love it.
She'll never forget her 12th birthday, the first without her parents. She cried the whole day. Her uncle didn't know what to do. He tried his hardest to get her to stop. He tried to make it a fun day. He tried. After that birthday she begged him not to have another party for her. She thought she would just ruin it by crying, and she didn't want to see his expression when he couldn't get her to stop crying.
"I just don't like parties." She tried to explain.
"Okay so... So far we know you like to drive race cars, your a gamer, and you don't like parties. Tell us something else about yourself." Niall said. Tessa looked at him next to her, then to the other boys. They all waited with eager eyes to hear what she was going to say.
"Like what?" She ask, not knowing what to say.
"What's your favorite color?" Louis asks randomly. Tessa smiles, trying not to full on laugh at his randomness.
Niall can't help but smile when he finally sees her smile. His eyes run across her face. Her lips slightly turn up, making dimples form on her cheeks. They weren't just faint though, they were like Harry's kind of dimples, very noticeable.
"Um, neon green." She slightly chuckles and forwards her eyebrows at his random question.
"Green?" Harry asked. "I would have thought black, or red. Or even purple, but green?"
A slight blush forms on Tessa's checks as her smile disappears. How much can someone tell by only your favorite color? She wandered. She was beginning to think that they weren't believing her 'badass' act.
"What's your middle name?" Zayn asked. Tessa froze. Her middle name. Of all the boys it had to be Zayn who asked. She mentally chuckled at her irony. She looked at the boys then bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling but failed, her lip slipping out from between her teeth.
"Well?" Liam asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She bites her lip again as she stares at her fiddling hands.
"Hey, we're believe just about anything." Louis 'defends' them, making Tessa laugh a little.
"Uncle Simons name was actually Fernando but he got teased way too much when he was eight so he begged his mom to change it to Simon." She said in one breath. The boys stared at her in awe. That was the most she had spoken since they met, but that's not why they were shocked.
Fernando...
"Seriously?" Niall asked, gobsmacked.
"No, I'm just messing with ya. You guys really would believe everything." Tessa bursts out laughing. Niall starts laughing with her as the rest of the boys still stare, stunned.
"How the bloody hell did you come up with that so fast?" Louis asked, still shocked. The other boys continue laughing to themselves.
"I have no clue." Tessa chuckles.
"Wait so what's your middle name?" Niall asks, now serious again.
"Zane." She said simply. They all stared at her again. "You guys are scaring me again."
"Zayn? As in Z-a-y-n?" Louis asks. The boys chuckle at Zayn then look back to Tessa.
"No, Z-a-n-e. Tessa Zane Cowell." Tessa blushes.
"Woah." Zayn says, smiling at Tessa.
"This isn't another joke, is it?" Louis asks.
"Nope. Apparently Zane was my mums mothers name." Tessa says. She looks down to her plate at the mention of her mother.
Niall looks at the broken girl before him. He wants to ask about her parents. Oh does he want to ask. But Simon told them not to, so he doesn't. The same thought goes through the other boys minds.
Tessa looked up to the boys then past them to a table behind them. A little boy sat in a booth with his parents. Tessa thought about telling them about her parents, but she didn't. She had never had to tell anyone before. They either already knew or didn't care.
Luke knew she didn't have parents but he never cared enough to wonder why. Yet Tessa knew his story. He was an orphan, not like Tessa though. His parents actually gave him to an orphanage in London when he was in grade school. He was older so no one adopted him and when he was old enough the orphanage let him go. So here he is, in jail. Tessa wondered if that was where she would end up.
Tessa's thoughts were interrupted by Harry waving his hand in front of her face. "You in there?" He joked. Tessa smiled and shook her head.
"So tell us something else." Niall said, eager to learn more about her.
"Shouldn't we be going?" She asked, looking around the almost empty nandos. She was despertly trying to get out of teling them about herself.
"Yeah, it's getting late." Liam said looking at his watch.
...
Tessa sat in the back of her uncles SUV next to Zayn. For some reason Louis made her switch spots with him. Tessa really didn't care though. As the other boys talked and laughed Tessa and Zayn sat in silence.
Zayn decided to move over to get her attention. He slid into the middle of the seat and looked at her, waiting for her to speak. He grinned as she looks over at him.
"Can I help you?" She slightly chuckles, showing her white teeth in the dark car. Zayn grins wider.
"So you have a boyfriend." He states, as to get her to talk about him.
Tessa sighs, looking forward at the back of Louis head. "Yup." Zayn nods, not knowing what to say. He at least expected her to tell him his name.
"How is he?" Louis asks, smirking innocently.
"What do you mean?" Tessa asks, bashfully.
"You know, how is he? In bed." Harry finishes Louis question, smirking.
Tessa's cheeks heat up uncontrollably as she chuckles to hide her embarrassment, these boys. "Why would I answer that?"
"Cuz were friends." Louis pouts playfully. "Isn't that what friends do?"
Tessa thought about it, how would she know? If friends really did talk about that, that was weird. She thought. Wait, were they friends? She looked up to the three grinning boys that were paying attention to her then to Liam and Niall. She had spent one day with them, does that make them friends?
"So your telling me that if Zayn slept with someone he would tell you everything?" She asked, looking over to Zayn. He didn't look the least bit embarrassed about the question.
"Yeah." Louis said without hesitation. Tessa mentally face palmed. She had to find away out of this, they weren't letting her go.
"And Louis, you have a girlfriend?" She asked, desperately trying to change the topic to someone else.
"Yeah, El, she's beautiful." He grinned.
"And how is she?" Tessa switched the question around. Louis grinned.
"She's sensational... Especially with her mouth." Tessa's hand shot up to cover his mouth as she launched forward, laughing with embarrassment. Who says that?
"Okay okay! I got it. Now stop!" She begged as the boys all started laughing at her reaction. Louis licked her hand making her pull it away, looking at it disgusted then whipping it on his shirt.
"Why are you rubbing my boo bear?" Harry almost yelled. Tessa jumped back in her seat at the loud velum of his voice.
"Boo... Bear?" Tessa asked looking from Louis to Harry. Then she started laughing at the two hugging.
This was no ordinary boy band, she thought.
"Harry calls him boo bear for fun. Something about the fans thinking they're dating." Zayn explained, still right next to her.
"Oh." Tessa nods. "What about you?"
Zayn looks to Tessa. "What about me?"
"You have a girlfriend?" She asked curiously. Zayn grinned, thinking of his lovely girlfriend.
"If your going to ask how good she is, I'm not going to answer." He chuckles, embarrassed.
"Yeah, I just go around asking random guys how good their girlfriends are in bed." She joked, making Zayn laugh even more.
"Perrie and I are engaged actually." Zayn smiles.
"Wait really?" Tessa asks, surprised.
"Yeah, no need to sound surprised that I actually got a girl to marry me." He jokes. Tessa chuckles.
"No, I just didn't think you guys..." She stopped when she didn't know how to finish her sentence.
"Yeah, boy bands don't usually have the best reputations." Louis helps her. Tessa stayed quiet, not knowing what to say.
They pull into Simons drive way. Louis looks back to Tessa.
"Your watching a movie with us." He states and turns back around. Tessa would usually yell at anyone that told her what she was going to do but... Louis has a way about him that you just can't get mad at him. Tessa shook her head, chuckling to her self. These boys really did have a way about them that got you talking without even noticing.