The Taj Mahal Hotel (One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9- A Flawed Birthday

Amina's POV

"Amina, will you be my girlfriend?"

The words lingered in my head and I couldn't quite make sense of this whole situation. Zayn. Zayn Malik out of all people was asking me out. Could this mean that he returned the feelings that I felt towards him? Whatever the reason was, I wasn't prepared to reject my longtime celebrity crush for the sake of anything. What's more? I didn't even have to make the move. I should make the most of it I thought. I think I may have pondered on about his simple question for too long because the hope that showed on his face when he asked me the question was overcome by a sheepish smile and a look of resentment.

"Yes Zayn, I will be your girlfriend." I finally made out. It sounded so cheesy, but I needed to make out the right words in my head. Now his face was full of mixed emotions as he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me into the air, twirling me around once before putting me down. "Yay!" He shouted in glee, as he did so.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked, blushing furiously and looking down at the ground so as to avoid the glares and looks of disapproval by fellow Indians around us.

"Yes, it was" he replied cheekily, bending down to give me a peck on my lips. Oh wow, that was unexpected I thought. "Now let's get moving before the others start to get worried about us" Zayn finished.

As if on cue, my phone beeped signaling I had a new text message. 'Amina! Where r u and Zayn? U guys alryt? We're waiting @ the entrance!" It read. I laughed and showed Zayn the text. "They already have gotten worried about us" I replied in amusement at the coincidence of his words and the text straight after.

"C'mon babe" he said abruptly, placing an arm around my waist as we continued to walk for the entrance to the mall. Wow, someone's definitely taking things fast, I thought to myself smirking. That's when it hit me; I stopped walking abruptly and so did Zayn. "Zayn. Should we really show PDA when our friends don't even know what happened just then? I mean, we're here for the shopping and we probably shouldn't sidetrack them about us yet. Let's do this later when they all know, yeah?" He hesitated for a moment, looking as though about to say something, but then closed his mouth, nodding in agreement with me.

The first voice I heard was Kay's as she speed walked over to Zayn and me. "You didn't even bother replying to my text?! What were you guys doing? We were all so worried." She stated flailing her arms around as she did so. I only laughed, "Come on, we've got shopping to do. Explanations later." I said, waving it off with my hand. She didn't look convinced though as she pounded me with more and more questions. Zayn probably felt a tad awkward standing there, so he gave my hand a small squeeze before walking over to join his best mate Niall. Dammit, I thought. Why did he have to leave?!

"What did you and Zayn do?" "Are you hurt?" "Why didn't you reply to my text?" I suddenly couldn't stand it any longer. I didn't know what was up with Kayla these past few days but it was definitely getting on my nerves.

"For the love of Jesus, nothing happened, alright?! Jeez, why are you always hounding me with questions? Do you not trust me anymore? What's been with you lately?!" At the moment I didn't care if I spoke a lie by saying nothing happened, because all I wanted to know at the time was what was up with Kayla these days. I seriously required an explanation.

"Do you really want to know what's wrong? It's you, Amina." I stopped at those words, unable to comprehend what she was getting at.

"Me? What do you mean it's me?" I asked, awaiting further explanation.

"Just lately our friendship hasn't been the same. We used to always find the time to talk to have our catch up sessions and now... I sometimes question if we're best friends anymo-" I cut her abruptly, before she could finish the sentence. "Don't say that! Of course we're still best friends! I always tell you everything when I think that the time is right! And you also know that you can count on me when things aren't going right for you! What are you on about?" I asked.