His Untold Story

3.Chapter Exploring

”What? They talked to you? What did they say?” Louise said totally hysterically. I knew that I could not change the subject now without her exploding and probably kicking my ass for keeping this from her; especially when it was about W.O.Y.

”They said I could hang out with them if I wanted to,” I said with a calm tone and a surprised gaze as I saw Louise staring at a new building, which was three blocks away from her favorite café called Café Random to where we were heading. She did not answer me and I didn’t know if I should ask her about the building she was staring at just to change the subject.

She stopped and turned to look at me with worry in her eyes; “Please don’t get involved with them Zayn?” She was trying to hide it, but she was obviously confused and upset at the same time about the whole W.O.Y situation.

 I wanted to do something to make her forget about it, because she was not herself; “Okay, let us just forget about W.O.Y and I promise you that I’ll be careful,” I said with a smile to cheer her up. We went inside the café, which had a huge sign saying it was karaoke day.

I love singing, which was one of my secret guilty pleasures. I never sang in front of an audience, because I was afraid of getting booed at. “Zayn I dare you to sing,” Louise said with an evil smile and continued; “Or we can talk about W.O.Y?” I could still feel she was irritated with our last conversation.

I looked seriously at Louise, who walked towards the table next to scene and gave me the I-know-what-you-are-going-to-choose look. “It feels like an ultimatum,” I said a little enjoyed and relieved she wasn’t as annoyed as I had feared. She laughed and announced; “It is!” I started getting nervous, but chose to sing, since talking about W.O.Y always gave Louise a temperament.

Louise was drinking her cafe latte that she had ordered. I signed up to sing, and I had 10 minutes to go before it was my turn. Meanwhile I could see Louise sitting at the table with her drink, while trying to figure out what W.O.Y was up to. I could read it off her thoughtful expression. I had never really understood her history with them and she was not interested in telling me, since every time I asked her she changed the subject.

I wanted her to forget about my conversation with W.O.Y, so I thought that singing may be the best thing to get it out of her mind. I was still a wreck of nerves as they introduced me on stage though. What a boy didn’t do to get a girl in a good mood. “Louise better be happy after this,” I said to myself, because I knew that people would laugh at me. Louise was totally surprised when she actually saw me walking onto the stage. I definitely got her attention when I requested to sing Let Me Love You by Mario. It was the only song that I could remember the lyrics to.

When I started singing I lost myself to the lyrics of the song and forgot about me actually standing in front of an audience - and that I was singing in front of Louise. I didn’t care if I was a bad singer or if I had no charisma. It was like a dream come true in some strange way.

After the song ended I returned to the surface of reality and that was when I saw everyone in the café clapping and whistling. Louise who was jumping up and down cheering and yelling my name; “Zayn, Zayn, Zayn!” and suddenly everyone in the café started to join her cheering. I went over to Louise and with disbelief announced; “they liked it!” Louise gave me a massive hug; “of course they did Zayn. You have a beautiful voice!” She continued with a high toned and questioning voice; “I didn’t know you could sing?”

 “Honestly neither did I,” I started laughing, but my knees were still shaking.

I followed Louise home, who was excited to tell her parents that I was a singer. I took the chance and asked her about the new building she had been staring at; “Louise, why were you staring at that building? You know the new one?” Suddenly Louise looked frightened; “You know it is not a new building, but it was renovated, because of a huge fire.”

 “What caused it?” I kept on asking her. “I don’t know!” she responded trying to sound innocent, but I had the feeling she knew something she was not supposed to know.

As I was walking home by myself I forgot about the building, as my thoughts returned to the topic of W.O.Y and that I lied to Louise. I hadn’t told her that I had actually gotten a good vibe from W.O.Y.  And maybe they wanted to give me a chance of becoming popular, which was my theory. I did not tell Louise that I was going to meet them after school, because I knew she would get hurt. But I was curious to know more about them and what they wanted from me. I thought that what she didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her.

I kept a low profile the following day of school, since I did not want Louise to get suspicious. I told her that my father would be back from Pakistan today and that I had to get home fast to welcome him back. I told her that he traveled to visit his family and to meet up with his old friends. This was my second lie in two days that I pulled on Louise. My father was not going to be back from Pakistan until next week. I was going to meet up with W.O.Y after school to be honest.

The W.O.Y boys had given me an address where I should come and meet them. It turned out to be a little apartment, which one of the members of the group owned. There was a man who opened the door after hearing me knock. He looked tired, because he had bags under his eyes. He was a man with one-day stubble and was obviously in the fifties. I asked about W.O.Y and he gave me a friendly smile and let me in, followed me to the living room. And then he suddenly went outside the apartment.

I was relieved when I saw an adult in the house with W.O.Y, but he left the apartment. I was starting to shake when I heard the boys coming from the kitchen with snacks. The house was nice with white walls and black leather sofa, a glass table, black curtains and a TV.

“Hey Zayn!” They all said at the same time with big smiles, and they started to place the snacks on the glass table. “What do you think about the place?” The tallest one with green eyes and black hair announced to start the conversation. “It is a cool place, but who owns it?” I questioned nervously. “Well if you are interested in what we are going to ask you… We will tell you everything you need to know about us,” he responded with a foxy smile. What were they going to ask me? And why had they brought me to this place?            

It came as a shock when the short one in the group with brown eyes and some kind of military haircut told me that I had potential of becoming a new member of their group. I finally had a chance of becoming popular and gain some respect from my fellow students. They literality asked me if I wanted to become a member. A member of the group Louise hated the most? Why did they choose me?

I was afraid of asking more questions, because they were waiting for me to respond. That was the reason why they showed me the place. They wanted me to see where they hung out, and they gave me some kind of feeling that I had no choice. “Yes, I would like to become a member,” I answered, because I wanted to give it a chance. “Good! Then meet up here again tomorrow, and we will give you more information,” the short one stated and let me out of the apartment.

These two days had been strange and I felt like it was a dream. Everything good was happening to me. I sang in front of an audience and now I had the chance of becoming popular. Everything was perfect right now. Nothing could ruin my two perfect days.

My phone started ringing. “Zayn, get home now!” My mother shouted panic in her voice over the phone. “Mom, what’s wrong?.. Mom?!. Mom?!”

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Thank you so much for reading. I'm sorry that it took so long with the 3.chapter

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