I knew you were trouble

Chapter 5 - Hitch-hiking

I tried to ignore Zayn for the rest of the day, which was admittedly hard. He always seemed to know which subject I had without even following me. Everytime I came into a classroom, he already sat in the back of the room, grinning at me stupidly. It really bugged me.

After my last class, history, I stopped by my locker. Lennon wandered up and leaned against the locker next to mine.Unfortunately we don't have every class together this year. "You won't believe what Josi McGillies just told me," she said. I wasn't really insterested in school gossip, but I looked at her curiously. "She knows someone whos brother knows Zayn for a while." I raised my eyebrows. "And ?" She was quiet for a second. "Well...Josies friends brother is in a gang. She said Zayn was there too. Or maybe still is ..." We started walking toward the entrance hall together.

"And you believe that?" I asked. "Yeah I mean why not? After what we know about him so far..." I stopped right there. "Lennon we know nothing about him! Can we just leave it like that!?" Lennon widened her eyes. "Slow down cat woman!" "I'm sorry Lens" she smiled and we continued walking. "Its fine." she said. "But you can't tell me you don't think about him." "Lennon!" I admonished her. "Sorry."

We walked around the corner as the crowd seemed to thin a little. I spotted Niall and Harry leaning up against a locker, talking seriously. I hesitated for a moment and planned to drag Lennon right past without stopping but she spotted them. "Hey Niall...Harry!" she called. I blushed. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked under my breath, as both of them stopped talking and looked at us. "Maybe you don't want to know more about Malik. But I want." she answered. "Hey boys what are you talking about ?" she asked sweetly while walking over to them. I froze for a moment and was about to follow her, but the uncomfortable feeling of being near those idiots, led me in the opposite direction.

"I gotta go Lennon.Bye, call me later...maybe." I yelled. She put her hand up and waved without even looking at me. Wow thank you.

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I decided to walk home and not taking the bus. I wasn't in the mood to talk to someone about how my first day was, because I would have enough of that at dinner later.I jumped when I heard a car horn. I quickened my steps in panic when someone pulled up next to me and I heard how the passenger window was rolled down. Not once in my entire high school career had someone honked for me. I awaited a stupid pickup line or someone asking me for the way. Instead of that I heard a familiar laughter. 

"Can I take you home?" he asked. Well, that was close to a pickup line. I just kept walking. "Leighton" he said pleadingly. I stopped and leaned down to look at him across the car, but didn't answer. "Hi" Zayn said. "Hello" I mumbled. "Still mad?" he asked, smirking. If he could just stop that.

"No I wasn't even mad." "Sure" he said mocking. "Please let me drive you home." I shook my head. "No need to." "But I want to." I stared at him for a moment. "Fine." I sighed and opened the door. "Don't you have something better to do than driving people home?" I snapped as soon as I buckled up. His car smelt different.I expected the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke,but it was pretty neutral. He chuckled but caught himself quickly. "So where do you live?" I looked out of the window when I gave him my adress and he started the engine. I dugged my nails in the black leather seats.

We drove in silence and stood at the same crossroad, where I stood with my father this morning when I started to feel witless. He drove me home and I acted like I was too fine to talk to him.It was just a question of politeness. So I asked him the question I didn't want to be asked. 

"How was your first day?" I bit my lip, that sounded so stupid.I corrected myself before he could answer. "How do you like the new school?" "Well its okay. At least better than my last one." "Where was your last school?" I sounded much too curious for the fact that I don't want to know anything about him. "Why do you ask ?" he looked straight out of the windshield. "Why don't you answer?" I studied his face from the side when the corner of his mouth pulled up into a crooked smile. I felt caught and also stared out of the windshield immediately, embarrassed.

"Because that belongs to my past",suddenly his voice took on a completely different tone, deeper,embittered, "and my past should stay in the past." I swallowed hard. "I'm sorry I didn't-" "No Leighton its okay. You couldn't know." And there was it AGAIN. That shiver I felt in the dark storage room and in english class when he was so close to me. It ran down my spine and I started to feel uncomfortable.Pleased I noticed we were almost there.

He stopped the car and I got out. I leaned down again before I closed the door. "Uh thank you for the ride." he nodded. "No problem it was my pleasure." I gave him a hint of a smile. "So I guess we'll see eachother tomorrow." he said and I looked down to my feet. "I doubt it!" with those words I turned away and tried to get to the porch without stumbling.Once again I felt his gaze in my back, watching every shaky step I took. When I reached the stairway, I turned back to look at him. He took his eye off the upper floor and looked at me. "I'm sure we'll see each other Leighton!" he called, "and if you try to avoid me, I'll come and get you!" He winked and drove off. I stood there speechless. What was that ? I'll come and get you ? He was just joking, I told myself and for the hundredth time today I wasn't sure if I'm lying to myself.

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I walked through the front door when I heard a noise out of the kitchen. Dad was still in school and Jacob at work. I started to breathe heavily and sneaked to the door. I let the front door wide open in case it was some thief with a weapon so I could run outside immediately and also because the bang of the door would startle him or her. Carefully I peeked around the corner and a huge breath I didn't know I'd been holding escaped from my lungs. It was just my brother. I closed the door and slipped out of my ballerinas. I walked into the kitchen like I just arrived and acted surprised when I saw Jake. "Hey Leigh!" he said loosely, as if it would be normal that he is at home. He walked past me,with a cup in one hand and punched against my shoulder with the other one. I followed him to the living room. When he sat down on the couch and looked at me I lifted my hands.

"Jake?" "What?" "Why are you at home already?Have you skipped work!?" he rolled his eyes. It must be annoying to have me as a little sister. But I'm just worried. He used to skip a lot of classes back in high school. Sometimes I just sit there and look at him, questioning how he got through high school.

 "Slow down cat woman!" second time I heard this today. "They discharged me earlier today." he said grabbing the newspaper. "Why?" I asked. I could hardly believe him. "Well do you know Greg?" I nodded. "Someone stole his car, while he was working overtime, so the boss allowed us to leave earlier." I frowned. "Of corse..." "No really! We made some flyers with license plate and all that and distributed them in the city and gave them to nearly every used car dealer, in case the thief will sell it to someone.Oh by the way ..." he stood up and disappeared in the kitchen for a moment. When he came back he held a small stack of paper in his hands. "Would you mind distributing them in your school ?" I groaned. "Can't you give them to Dad!?" "That man is too busy." Annoyed I grabbed the flyers. "Why are you so thrilled to find that car ?" a devious grin spread across his face. "Greg gives out a reward." That was so typical. If you tell him to do the dishes he would never do it, but if you say you pay him for that, he can finsih it within minutes. I shook my head and walked upstairs.

I wish I could skip school at least as long as Zayn Malik would be there. It was just a matter of time until he will be kicked out of school, if he continues with his behaviour. I went inside my room and flopped onto the bed. Thats it. I shouldn't think about him. I really wanted to get up and start my homework but my eyelids felt so heavy and were being pulled shut. So I decided to take a nap. I walked over to my wardrobe and slipped into sweatpants and my brothers football shirt which was way too big for me, but it was comfortable. I glanced to my desk and took a short look at the flyers my brorther gave me. I didn't pay much attention on the text, but on the pictures. A black Bentley, not a new one, the shine of the paint faded a bit.A scratch on the passenger side. Dark leather. I fell on my bed backwards. I've seen this car somewhere.I slowly pulled my blanket up to my shoulders and closed my eyes. A picture appeared in the dark of my closed eyelids. Zayn... I drifted off into the dreamworld. 

Zayn drove a black Bentley today...