Misadventure

64

Harry's POV

"I'm not letting him go alone."

I was sticking to my guns on this one.

It was currently around 7:03 pm. Zayn and I were in the common room. It was just the two of us in here, most students likely in the dining hall by this time.

I was sat on the mini-sofa with my feet resting on the coffee table, anxiously shaking my leg. I kept pulling out my phone, looking at the time, and doing the math to see how long until the party.

57 minutes.

I swallowed, nervously.

Zayn was over at the counter on the back wall, fixing me dinner, insisting I at least eat something before the party. I watched as he tore open a cardboard box of dry pasta.

His movements were slow.

Deliberately slow.

I tilted my head, looking at him funny. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making you dinner." Zayn grinned, innocently batting his eyelashes. "Mate, I just told you that."

"That's not what I meant," I said.

He shrugged, and didn't say anything else for a while.

"Hey..." Yep. My suspicions were confirmed. "That burner isn't even on."

"Oops?" He tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't look at me without cracking a smile.

"You're stalling," I stated.

"Well, duh,"

"Zayn, this isn't funny. I need to leave in, like," I took a few quick, large strides to the table I was sitting at, grabbing my phone and checking the time. "53 minutes!"

"Dude, can you maybe chill? That's plenty of time to eat some pasta."

"Not if it's still raw," I bickered. "Besides. I'm not the one who needs to chill."

"Me?" He gasped, feigning being offended.

"Yes, you. You're the one who doesn't want to let me go to one stupid party."

"One stupid frat party." He furrowed his brows, staring off into space. It was the same face he always made whenever he painted; a look of immense concentration.

When he didn't say anything for awhile, I told him, "I don't need your permission."

He seemingly snapped out of his trance. He trained his attention back on me, nodding once. "You're right."

"I am?" The question slipped out automatically. I couldn't help it. He'd caught me by surprise.

"You don't need my permission," he said simply. "Just like I don't need your permission to go to the party."

I opened my mouth to object.

Before I could, Liam walked in.

"Party?" He looked back and forth between Zayn and I. He raised an eyebrow. "You're going to a party?"

"A frat party." Zayn smiled smugly, slinging an arm over my shoulder. "

Liam frowned. "What the hell? Why?"

"Harry's going to keep an eye on Louis," Zayn explained. "So I'm going to keep an eye on Harry."

"That's a terrible idea. Who's going to keep an eye on you?" Liam asked.

Zayn laughed. "Nobody needs to keep an eye on me."

"I disagree," Liam stated. "Those things can get pretty out of control. And I don't know any of the frat boys personally, but I've heard a lot of rumors. They're dicks, and dangerous to be around when they're drunk."