all friends - a one direction story

26

*Zayn's POV*

It had been a long taxi ride to the nightclub that we'd wanted to go to with Saffron and Niall's dreadful harmonising to the eighties dance songs on the radio.
To everyone's surprise, we'd managed to get into the nightclub despite all odds. It looked like we wouldn't when a drunk Saffron attempted to carry an even drunker Niall on her back into the club, but the bouncer seemed to be extremely laidback, and had allowed us in while chuckling.
Nevertheless, we were in the nightclub, and the music was pumping and the lights were flashing.
The majority of people inside were also dressed in costumes, and it was amusing to see some of them.

We all dispersed once inside. I ended up stood beside Harry at the bar, the pair of us eager to get drinks.

"You alright?" Harry checked with me.
I nodded. "Yeah, yeah."

The bartender eventually reached us and Harry immediately ordered, "eight vodka shots, please."

The bartender poured them rapidly before sliding them on a tray over to us.
Harry thanked him before pushing four of them to me. "Here."
"Cheers," I clinked a small shot glass with Harry's and we both grinned, before downing four shots each.

As soon as we'd gulped them, Louis grabbed us both hyperactively around our shoulders. "Let's dance! Come on!" With that, he pulled us off to the dance floor that was swimming with people.

We found the rest of our group in a corner of the club.
Eve and Liam danced opposite each other with an amusing lack of coordination.
Saffron and Niall were both visibly drunk, swinging themselves around on the pole on a platform in the corner of the dance floor.

And in front of us were Ruby and Lana, dancing beside each other.
I stood frozen on the spot, unable to take my eyes off of Ruby. The red dress she wore looked amazing and the way she danced in the middle of the dance floor like no one was watching made me melt. I was in awe as I watched her.

She turned and noticed me staring at her and a beautiful, sincere smile came to her lips.
She gestured for me to come over with a single finger and I couldn't help but oblige.

We immediately starting dancing together.
My moves were as uncoordinated as Liam's were, but I didn't care. I couldn't even slightly focus on anything else beside the way her body moved against me, her back pressed against my front.

And it was in that moment when I realised something huge: I was in love with this girl, and everything about her.
Flashes of emotions and thoughts rushed over to me.
I didn't like relationships. I didn't want a relationship. I hadn't planned on falling in love with someone. I didn't want to be in love with someone.
And she definitely didn't want to be in a relationship with me, or so she said. She'd made it clear on many occasions that this was a no-strings-attached situation that we had going, and that she would never want that to change.
But I didn't want that anymore.

She spun around and put her arms around my neck as she continued to move her hips against me. She must've noticed my distressed expression and she cocked her head and asked, "are you okay?"
And I wasn't, for many reasons, all of which boiled down to that I had unexpectedly fell in love with the girl I wasn't supposed to.
"I can't do this anymore," I shook my head, before quickly walking away from her and ducking into the men's toilets.

I rushed to the sinks and splashed my face with water, sighing as I did so.

Only about thirty seconds after I'd came into the toilets, Niall emerged in the doorway.
"You alright, mate?" He raised an eyebrow, noticing my dripping face.

I sighed, grabbing a paper towel from beside the sink and dabbing my face with it. "I think I'm in love with her."
"Shit," Niall mumbled, coming to stand beside me at the sink.