all friends - a one direction story

9

*Ruby's POV*

"I'm liking doing this," I smirked as I zipped my black jeans back up.

Zayn and I were crammed in the disabled toilet of the college together, both panting.
"No strings attached," I noted as I continued, "it's the best way."

Zayn wrapped his hands around my throat firmly and pushed me against the wall, causing me to smile. "No arguments here."

I buttoned up the top buttons of his sheet while he released his hold on me, so that I was able to hand him the sweatshirt he'd been wearing, that had been thrown on the floor.
"Here. Come on. We're ten minutes late for meeting everyone in the canteen."

He immediately pulled me back in, firmly holding the back of my head and tangling his hand in my hair as he kissed me, before whispering, "they can wait."

I pulled back with a teasing smile. "Well, I can't. I'm hungry. Let's go."

Zayn and I exited the disabled toilet unsubtly and walked to the canteen, finding the table where our friends were sat and placing ourselves down at the ends of the table.

"Have you two been shagging in college?" Harry asked, accusingly.
Zayn and I both chuckled, and I replied, "maybe."
"Absolute fucking rabbits." Louis commented, and the rest of the group laughed along.

"Anyway, we were talking before you got here," Saffron started, "and Niall said it was his birthday on Saturday. We should do something, right?"

She was staring at me directly with a hinting look of eagerness in her eye as if to say 'I want to do something for his birthday. Help me!'
It was obvious that she hadn't given up on pursuing the crush she'd developed on him.

"Uh, yeah, definitely," I backed her up, grabbing a chicken goujon out of Eve's bowl, causing her to roll her eyes.

"So, does anyone have a free house?" Saffron looked around.

"I do." I proposed. "My mum is going glamping with her boyfriend and their friends, so my house is completely free."
"Great, that's sorted then!" Saffron beamed.

"Wow, thanks, Ruby," Niall smiled, appreciatively.
"Well, this is exciting," Lana smiled, as she spooned her chicken curry into her mouth.
"Yeah, it is," Liam added, too obviously focused on looking at Eve to be eating his food.
I smirked.

***

I yawned in our afternoon English lesson.
We'd been put in a seating plan to 'help our attention', and Liam was sat to my right.
Eve was directly behind him, with the pain-in-the-ass girl Megan behind me, beside Eve.

I couldn't help but smirk every single time that Liam craned his head around to catch a glance of Eve.
As he was looking for a fourth time in thirty minutes, I ripped off a piece of paper from my notebook in front of me and scribbled:

Lover boy can't stop looking at you. Maybe he wants us to swap seats??

Before he could see what I'd written, I folded the piece of paper into a scruffy paper aeroplane and glided it threw the air so that it landed on Eve's table.
She opened it, rolled her eyes and shook her head, and then gave me a small smile before pushing it to the side of her desk.

"Excuse me, you," Megan hissed, spit frothing from her mouth as she spoke. "Can you not throw paper at our desk?"
"Yeah, alright," I sarcastically shrugged, before turning and ripping out another page, screwing it tightly into a ball and launching it at her.

Eve wasn't even scolding me this time, she was putting a significant amount of effort in to holding her laughter in.

"Miss!" Megan screeched. "Ruby threw a paper ball at me! Look, look!" She paraded it in the air.
The overweight, irate teacher that we had taking us for English spun around and scowled at me. "Ruby, we do not throw stuff in lessons. I'd like you to leave my class and only return next week if you plan on being significantly more mature."

"Are you -" I was ready to get argumentative.
"Go. Now." The teacher demanded, and I shrugged, giggling to myself as I gathered my stuff and shoving it into my bag.
"It was worth it," I commented, earning another scowl from the teacher.

As I walked to the door, I spun around to wink at Zayn, who was smirking.

I walked to the other side of the corridor, into the girls' toilets and dumped my bag on the sink, pulling out my make-up powder and dabbing it onto my cheeks and the tip of my nose.
Only forty seconds passed before the door swung open.

"Hey," I grinned at Zayn as I turned around. "You get kicked out too?"

"No. I told her I didn't feel all that well, so needed to come to the bathroom." He took a step towards me and I took an identically sized step towards him, completely closing the gap between us.
"Clever," I stated in a hushed tone.
We immediately grabbed at each other, kissing and tangling our hands in each other's hair, and stumbling backwards into one of the cubicles before shutting and locking the door behind us as we giggled.

Zayn began unbuttoning my jeans and I began unbuttoning his shirt, but the sound of the door opening to the bathroom immediately caused us to pause.
I grinned but his eyes widened as he smirked, clearly knowing that he shouldn't be in the girls' bathroom. As I tried hard to stifle my giggle, he placed his fingers to my lips in attempt to quieten me.

"Oh my god. Are you two really having sex in the girls' toilets?" Eve's voice came from outside the cubicle and Zayn and I both untensed. I let my giggle out and he opened the door. "Do you two not have any standards?"

"No," I answered, buttoning my jeans back up. "You know that about me."

Zayn gently pushed past both of us. "Anyway, I'm going to promptly get out of the girls' toilets before anyone else sees," he explained before quickly ducking out, leaving Eve and I stood opposite each other.

She walked to the mirror and I followed her, leaning against the door while she brushed her hair.
"I can't believe you threw a paper ball at Megan," she couldn't help but grin.
"Funny." I smiled.
"You're such a little shit," she shook her head.

I shrugged. "It was probably good for Liam that I got kicked out. His neck will hurt less without having to crane it around me to look at you. Has he moved into my seat to make it easier?"

"He's not staring that much!" She defensively insisted.
"Eve, I don't think I've looked at Liam once yet when he hasn't been looking at you." I told her. "I think he's obsessed."
"Well..." She trailed off, continuing to brush her hair.

"Are you interested?" I wondered.
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. I'm not sure."
"You don't sound very interested," I pointed out, pulling my eyeliner from my bag and topping up the line on my waterline.

She sighed. "He's what I've always wanted in a first boyfriend. He's attractive, and he's sensible, and he's clever and easy to be around, I just -"
"Look, if the spark isn't there then it isn't there. Don't force it just because you feel like it should be there," I advised.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," she nodded, "I just can't understand why it's not."

I shrugged. "Maybe when you fall in love with someone, it may not be as textbook as you want it to be. It may even be a little unconventional. Stop trying to plan your entire life, Eve."
And then I opened the door that exited back into the corridor and ushered her out, "come on."