*Jenan*
My heart was still beating fast as I stepped out of the office. I had acted all cold and arrogant, although they (coldness and arrogance) were never really a part of my personality. What was wrong with me?
The other boys had already entered the lift at the end of the corridor and I didn't find any space for me and my suitcase. Or the boy who was standing behind me. I swallowed hardly. Zayn.
When I looked up the first time and caught his eye, something happened. I don't know what it was but it bugs me. I hate it when people have any effects on me, and this Zayn-boy definitely had one. He had that catching aura around him where you can't decide whether he was someone to trust or someone to stay the hell away from. He seemed mysterious and there was just something about him. Standing there in front of the lift, I decided to avoid him. He was rather one not to be trusted and I didn't want to find out by experience.
The doors of the lift closed and we waited. I was really nervous, and couldn't stop tapping with my foot on the ground and throwing a look on my watch every 5 seconds. Now I know why I always prefer taking the stairs.
I could hear the boy behind me breathing, which made me more nervous and I kept praying to Allah that the lift might come quickly. That was one of the moments where you are waiting for something impatiently. In every normal situation the speed of its occurrence is just normal and you don't even take notice of it. But when you want it to happen badly then every second passes with the speed of a turtle which has just woken up from a deep sleep. In my mind there were a lot of turtles. A few of them were still asleep while the others were slowly making their way to the shore. I mentally encouraged them to move more quickly towards the water.
When it finally it came, I hurried inside with my suitcase and the black-haired boy followed me. I deleted every thought and image of a turtle or more from my mind, believing I was going insane. The silence in the lift was awkward. Were the walls really coming nearer?? My eyes nervously wandered around the lift and my hand reached under my scarf and opened the uppermost button of my blouse, taking care not to show off any parts of my neck.
"Is.. everything okay with you?" he asked in a low voice.
I looked at him but immediately turned away again. This boy didn't look British. Only the tattoos on his arms and his stunning accent showed me he actually was. Apart of that he was also very handsome. Even his voice was attractive, in a way. Playing with the straps of my bags I answered him with a week "No". I instantly felt bad for my thoughts. Who am I to decide who's from where? There was so much wrong with the thought that British = White. What was I thinking?
"Well.." he started but I interrupted him.
"Never mind, really. It will be okay." Maybe.
Before he could answer me, the lift opened and I almost jumped out of it. The other boys were standing in front of the door and as they saw us, they went outside. The black haired boy and me followed them out of the building. As soon as the doors closed behind us, I saw how every single boy took some big pairs of sunglasses out of their pockets. From Leesha I knew that they were Ray Bans. Weren't these kind of glasses kinda expensive?
The one with the curly hair turned to me and interrupted my reasoning. "Our flat is only a few steps away from here. Just follow us."
I nodded. How awkward. They looked stupid with those glasses on. The British weather today didn't ask for any.
The curly haired one, the one with the striped T-shirt and the blond boy started walking. The friendly-looking brunette one and the one with the loads of tattoos on his arms .. Zayn.. followed them. I sighed, took my luggage and followed 2 steps behind.
They were all talking with each other in a low voice and I felt excluded. Which is stupid but it made me remember that I was their "uninvited guest", nothing more or less.
**
When you walk behind, you have an excellent sight on the people walking in front of you, so it was very easy for me to run the rule over the boys. At the end I came to the conclusion that they were the most handsome lads I've seen so far. But that probably wasn't a difficult thing; at my school there weren't much of beautiful boys, but those five... damn.
Stop it, Jenan. I instructed myself. Keep a cool head, beauty shouldn't be important to you!
And it really wasn't. I was rather worrying about their personalities and how they were going to treat me. Will we all be able to get along well together? Or will I end up spending most of the time in my room, trying to avoid them? Various doubts and concerns were flying through my mind as we were walking down the road.
We walked for around 6 minutes when I started noticing some passersby staring at us. Was it because of their useless sunglasses, or because of me and my scarf? I felt too tired and exhausted to worry about that. My luggage was getting heavier and heavier, my clothes were a mess and the straps of my bags were cutting into my shoulder. I kept staring angrily at the pavement, as if it was at fault.
Suddenly, my suitcase was gone. I spun around quickly, seeing the black haired boy carrying it. Hadn't he been in front of me a few seconds ago?
"What are you doing?" I asked stupidly.
He walked on and I followed him. "I just couldn't bear seeing you like that."
"Like what?" I asked. Stop asking stupid questions, Jenan. "You can give me my luggage back, I can carry it." A boy carrying something for me.. something like that has never happened to me before. And it bugged me beyond belief.
He threw a quick look at me and then suddenly stopped. All of them stopped. I noticed that we were standing in front of a 6-floor building.
"There is no lift, so.. if you want to carry your luggage 4 floors upstairs..." Zayn said slowly, leaving the sentence unfinished and making me nervous with his gaze.
I blushed. "Well.. I really don't want to bother you with carrying my stuff. It's okay if.."
His sigh interrupted me. "Shut up and come." He said and followed the boys inside.
Shut up? Did he really now tell me to shut up?
My footsteps echoed through the whole building as I slowly walked upstairs. It felt as if this house was empty, no sounds except our footsteps. On the 4th floor, Curly took out some keys and opened door number 4. Aha, 4 and 4.. easy.
Four of the boys entered, leaving the door wide open. Only Zayn waited outside. "After you." he said to me.
I felt uncomfortable and entered, feeling him following me and locking the door. I looked around the flat, on my right I saw 3 couches arranged in an uncompleted square and a TV. Behind, there was a table for 6, and near there was an opened kitchen. On my left there were some stairs and right ahead there were two doors. Zayn introduced one of them as the second bathroom of the flat. I waited for him to tell me about the other room, but he was silent.
"Well.." I began, after realising he wasn't going to add something more. "Could you please remind me of their names?" my voice was low.
He grinned. "The boy at the fridge is Niall." I nodded.
"The two who are sitting on the couch are Harry and Louis. Harry is the one with the curls." I nodded again.
"And I am Liam!" I heard a voice on my left. The boy who had been walking beside Zayn on the street came down the stairs. He smiled widely.
"Well.." I said, feeling awkward to be smiled at by a boy.
"And I'm Zayn." Zayn said.
"Ummm.."
"Come, we'll show you your room." Liam interrupted me, turned to the stairs and went up again.
"I will take your bag, just follow Liam." Zayn said and grabbed my luggage. I did what he told me to do, taking every step carefully. The turtles came to my mind and I felt my own pace as theirs. Upstairs, there was a hall and 7 doors. Two on the right, two one the left, and ahead of me.
Liam pointed at the two doors on the right. "These are the rooms of Harry and Louis." He turned to the doors on the left. "And these two belong to Niall and me."
He paused, turned around facing the other 3 doors. "The door in the middle is yours. Left you'll find a toilet and on your right is Zayn's room. Alright?"
"Alright." I walked over to the room. My room. How silly. When I cautiously opened the door I couldn't believe my eyes. Astonished, I entered and Zayn put my luggage inside. "We will leave you alone now. If you need anything, we are downstairs."
"I think I just want to rest for a while." I lied, not wanting them to maybe expect me to join them downstairs later. He nodded and left the room.
When I heard their steps on the stairs getting quieter, I closed the door. My new room was bigger than my old one. There was a wide bed, a big wardrobe, a desk, a bedside locker, a balcony (wow!), two armchairs, a small table in front of them and.. I couldn't believe it.. two empty bookshelves!
Immediately I opened my suitcase, took out some comfortable trousers, a dark blue hoodie, a blue scarf and headed into the toilet. I took a shower, changed clothes, brushed my teeth and went out. There was a hamper in the hall, so I put my Jeans and the blouse in it. But instead of returning to my room, I ran down the stairs.
On the last step I paused. All of the boys were sitting on the couches, watching TV. I started trembling. Are you out of your mind?! What are you doing here downstairs?!, I asked myself. I just wanted to disappear again quickly, when Zayn and.. Louis looked up.
"Umm.." I said. Now, the rest of the boys looked up at me. "Well..I just wanted to know.. umm.. why are there two bookshelves in my room?" I stuttered. Immediately, I felt like slapping myself. What a dumb question. Great, Jenan, really great. They know you for like 1 hour and you already proved to them that you are a fool. Wonderful!
Niall snickered quietly and turned to the TV again. Zayn grinned and.. Harry? said: "Simon told us you love books. So we bought two shelves for your room." He shrugged his shoulders, as if it wasn't a big deal.
"You spent money for.. me?" I asked astonished. For a stranger?
"Simon said you might feel uncomfortable with us here, so we wanted to do you some good. That's all." It came from Liam.
"Wow. I ..am speechless." And I still couldn't believe it. I was no expert, but these boys were kinda weird. "Thank you." I added and I really meant it. I had taken all of my favourite books with me and some new ones (that's why my suitcase was so heavy) because I knew that the books would help me with my homesickness.
"Good night." I added shyly.
"Night." They answered in unison.
I almost ran back upstairs into my room and closed the door behind me. It took me a while to put my suitcase on the bed, but when I finally did I opened it and started unpacking. First I arranged my books in the shelves alphabetically, then I put my clothes on hangers and finally I took out the rest of the stuff I brought with me, and put them in the right places. I thought I had finished but my eyes fell on the laptop bag. I took the laptop out of it, put it on the desk and plugged it in. I was about to turn it on and send my friends a message but then I realised that I even didn't know if they had wifi here, so I used my mobile instead.
I arrived safely and finished unpacking my things. Love you :) :-*
I sent this message to both of my parents.
Heyyy, I am "at home" now ^^ the situation is kinda awkward.. but I'm in LONDON! *gasp* missing you (& tell Alia that I arrived safely, ok?)
This one was for Leesha, of course. Till now no messages from Kassatt, so I didn't feel like letting her now that I arrived. Wouldn't be surprised if she forgot that I went to London today.
Feeling tired and exhausted, I put on my pyjamas and took off my scarf. Unluckily there wasn't any key to lock the door, but the boys didn't seem that insensitive to think bumping into the room of a hijabi was a good idea and didn't end in screams and injuries.
As soon as I laid down on the comfortable bed, I received a message.
Finally! How are the boys?? Tell me all about them! & how's London??? I wanna know!
I smiled and replied:
Aha, so that's all you think about? :D
A few seconds after sending it, I fell asleep.
**
In my dream that night, I was in the flat. It was dark and I felt frightened and worried, wondering where the boys were. Slowly, I walked down the stairs and looked around, seeing no one in the room. The two doors came into my sight and I asked myself what secret was hidden behind the unknown one. I walked over there, noticing I was wearing only shorts and a tank top. I must have forgotten my scarf upstairs. Something in me told me to return to my room before anyone could see me but the curious part of me wanted to know what was behind the door. As soon as I reached it, I put my hand on the door handle and pushed it down. With a frightening screech, the door opened. I couldn't see anything from the dark and a feeling inside of me told me to close the door and go away as soon as possible. But before I could close the door again, I felt two strong hands on my back pushing me inside the room. I let out a shriek and turned around quickly, seeing the door being harshly closed in front of me. The last thing I heard was the sound of the key locking me inside the completely black room..