Live While We're Young

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Zayn stood in front of the mirror, running his fingers through his hair and sighing. “Louis? Is my hair okay?”

“It’s fine. Stop. You’re being such a cliché right now,” Louis said, crunching on a carrot.

“Yeah, hurry up. We’re gonna be late. It takes 47 minutes to get there, in current traffic,” Niall stated matter-of-factly.

“47?!” said Liam incredulously. “It should take 20, 25 tops. Are you sure you google-mapped the right location?”

“Yeah, I copy/pasted the address Zayn sent me. Oh, and I factored in the Nando’s stop we’ll have to make.” Niall studied the print out of directions. Everyone else rolled their eyes.

“We. Are. Not. Stopping. At. Nandos. Do I make myself clear?” Zayn growled.

“Crystal,” Niall sighed. They all headed out to the limo, where Niall handed the directions to the driver. “I suppose I have to tell you to ignore this entire part. Someone is being a butthead,” he instructed pointedly as he clambered into the vehicle.

Liam looked back and rolled his eyes at Niall. “Stop being such a child.” He turned back around and Niall stuck his tongue out at the back of Liam’s head, which set off the others into fits of laughter.

Harry coughed, still laughing, then cleared his throat. “So, Zayn. What’s going on between you and Lottie? She still mad?”

“Well, yes...no, I guess. I...I don’t know,” he rubbed his face with his hands. “She said I was violent and possessive and all that shit and now I’m letting her use me to get back at her grandma and we’ve said how we feel but it doesn’t change anything and I’m in the doghouse, so to speak. I’m really confused. I messed this up.” Zayn sighed.

Harry clapped him on the back. “You’ll work it out. I know you will. The way she looked at you was different. She likes you. She’ll forgive you.”

“But she said she didn’t want to be another Cienna, you know, be owned by me. I have to change.” He emphasized the word like it was foreign to him.

“I know that when the time comes, you’ll do what you have to for Lottie. And not just because if you screw this up, me and Louis will hunt you down and kick your ass for losing the perfect girl. But it will be a contributing factor.” Harry reached behind Zayn’s bowed head and high-fived Louis, grinning. Zayn sat between the two with his head in his hands, elbows on his knees, rubbing his temples.

“I know I shouldn’t be this stressed, things are looking up, we talked it out, I get to be her pretend lover for the next couple weeks, but I feel like something really, really bad is about to happen. I just can’t shake the feeling.”

“While you’re up in psychic-land, can you tell me next week’s winning lotto numbers? If it isn’t too much trouble,” Louis joked. Harry smacked him on the chest.

“This is serious, Lou. Stop fooling around.”

“Again with the ‘no fooling around’ speech. I thought we agreed to see other people. I thought we weren’t exclusive!” Louis looked at Harry, who rolled his eyes.

“Not the time, Lou.”

“Guys, really.”

“Zayn, everything will be fine. Trust me.”

Ten minutes later, the driver pulled up to the gates of Lottie’s grandmother’s estate. The driver stuck his head out the window to talk to the guard through the speaker. He pulled his head back in and said, “Looks like we can’t get in. Some sort of accident.”

“Did you tell them who we were? That we’re here for dinner?” one of the boys asked.

“Dinner’s called off. Something happened to the girl, Charlotte, I think.”

Zayn hurriedly unbuckled and jumped out of the limo, his tie flapping in the wind as he hurdled over a low in the fence. A guard shouted in his wake, a few more chasing after him.

“Sir! Sir, you can’t go in there! You are trespassing!”

Zayn screeched to a halt and turned to face the breathless guards. “That’s my fiancée in there,” he stated solemnly and continued to run. The guards stopped in their tracks. The rest of the boys had persuaded a guard to let them up. They chased after Zayn.

Zayn passed an emergency medical vehicle and ran faster. He launched himself through the french doors into the living room, where he met paramedic after paramedic. He stood still for a second, and in that moment, the rest of the boys came crashing into him.

“What’s wrong with Lottie?”

“Is she okay?”

“Is she dead?” Louis smacked Harry for that one.

“Did she die of starvation?” Liam smacked Niall for his remark.

“Is there blood?” Louis asked with his hand over his eyes.

Zayn ignored the comments and pushed through a group of people standing around looking lost. He was searching for Lottie’s grandmother.

He grabbed one white-haired lady on the shoulder. She swiveled to face him.

“Where’s...the owner of this estate?” he stumbled, realizing he didn’t know Charlotte’s last name.

“Ms. Anderson? She’s in the kitchen, I believe. Who are you?” the lady asked, but Zayn ran off without answering.

“Ms. Anderson!” he yelled, fumbling through doorways in his hurry. He found her clutching the edge of the sink, staring out the window overlooking the garden. Zayn ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder. She slowly turned to face him.

“Who are you?” she spoke slowly and deliberately.

“That doesn’t matter. What’s happened to Lottie?”

 “You must be speaking of Charlotte. She’s dead,” she stated, without a hint of emotion.