Triple Dog Dare *A Zayn Malik Love Story*

Chapter 25

The song for this chapter is Secrets by OneRepublic(:



*Zayn's POV*

A small movement startled me awake the next morning. I opened my eyes to find Camille had practically attached herself to me. However, I was in no state to judge because I was just as guilty as she was. Her cheek rested contently on my chest and her arm surrounded my torso in a firm grip like she refused to let go of me. My arm was encircling her side in an obvious attempt to encourage her closer from earlier in the night during our peaceful slumber.

Camille and I had created an undeniable bond- a bond that I knew I didn't share with anyone else and was pretty damn sure she didn't have with anyone else either. In all honesty, there wasn't anyone I could think of that I would want to have that sort of connection with. Camille had given me a piece of herself last night and it was my responsibility to not let it go to waste.

I yawned and rubbed at my eyes. Neither of us were really morning people so if I had the chance to stay in this position forever, I probably would. In fact, I did lay in my current spot for a few minutes, reveling in the comfort of my bed and the presence of my beautiful girlfriend that I loved oh-so-much. I aimlessly glanced at the clock to my left and nearly choked on my own breath. The time read 9:32 and rehearsal with the boys commenced at 10:00. There was no way, even if I got up right now, that I could make it there on time. However, it was my job and surely I couldn't just skip it. I had to at least try to make it there on time.

My fingertips gently brushed Camille's light brown hair behind her ear. "Camille," I whispered, trying to effectively wake her up but quietly. Her finger twitched but she remained in her unconscious state. I nudged her lightly. "Camille, just wake up for one minute." She inhaled a deep breath and hummed in response. "I have to go right now. I have rehearsal today and I'm already going to be late."

She rolled onto her stomach and shoved her face into the pillow but kept her hold around me. "Why," she whined.

I smiled at her disapproval. "It's my job, remember?"

She groaned but released my waist to let me go. I kissed her hair and slowly removed myself from the space so as not to get dizzy from too-sudden movements. I was only up for a second before she spoke again.

"Come back," she moped. "It just got about one hundred degrees colder." I chuckled and tucked the blanket tighter around her. "It's not the same," she informed me, realizing what I'd attempted to do.

"Sorry," I apologized. She waved me off and I headed off to my bathroom to clean up. My routine felt off because I knew I was late and would have to definitely hurry through getting ready. I worked at top-speed brushing my teeth, running a comb through my hair, and dressing myself into clothes for the day. All the while, Camille snuggled into my sheets.

She looked quite cute actually. Her body was far too small in comparison to the king bed. Even with both of us occupying the space, we didn't stray too far from each other during the night leaving plenty of unused room.

I slipped my phone and wallet into my jacket pocket before I could leve and headed over to sit next to Camille on the bed. "Hey, I'm leaving right now, but I'm coming home afterwards. You can stay here if you want, I don't mind. I already know I'm going to get into some massive trouble from the boys for not being there on time, but they'll just have to deal with it for today, yeah?"

Her soft green eyes appeared from underneath her droopy eyelids as she looked at me. "Yeah," she said. "Have fun, okay?"

"Always," I assured. She forced a smile despite her apparent tiredness and dislike of having me leave. "I love you," I said and she actually smiled.

"I love you too." She motioned for a kiss and I pressed a long one to her cheek. Afterwards, her eyes closed and I took it as my chance to head out.



. . .



"Where have you been?!" Niall interrogated the second I made an appearance at the studio. The other three boys turned to look at me as well.

"Yeah! You didn't even text us or call us back!" Louis said. "Where were you?"

I took a seat across from them at one of the chairs set out on the smooth floor of the open studio. "I'm sorry guys. I got caught up at the house. I slept through my alarm." I pulled out my phone and turned it on to find that I did, indeed, have four text messages and two missed phone calls from them.

"What do you mean you got caught up, mate?" Niall asked. "You're never late. You're usually the first or second one here."

"Camille... spent the night last night and we both just slept in," I said carefully. They didn't need to know about the antics Camille and I were up to last night. It was only for her and I to know about; it was our little secret. Plus, I wasn't lying at all, I just wasn't telling the entire truth. "It's my mistake. It won't happen again."

Harry scoffed and my eyes darted to him. "Um, excuse me? Is there a problem with that? Or need I remind you how you've been late to rehearsal three times this year already and how this is my first time ever being late."

"No, it's just that..." He trailed off.

"What? It's just what?"

"Of COURSE Camille had something to do with it," Harry groaned and stood up from his chair, turning around to walk away. He'd been fairly quiet until now and my jaw tightened at his uncalled-for remark.

"What's that suppose to mean, Harry?" I asked.

"Hm, let's see... how about the fact that she's involved in everything?" he snapped. His comment caught me off guard and it took me a moment to comprehend his words.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I defended. "I don't know why you've been being such a jerk. She's been nothing but nice to you, but you just keep making everything harder than it needs to be."

"Oh really?" he said sharply and turned around to face me. The three others sat in confusion and slight shock in their chairs, clearly taken aback by the sudden argument at hand. "So I can't have my opinion on a person?"

I ground my teeth in anger. He was indirectly calling out my girlfriend. He knew nothing. Camille was a saint for even putting up with his shit for this long, to be honest. I couldn't believe I had put up with him for this long too. He was being so irrational and inconsiderate of our relationship. She'd done nothing to him and for whatever reason, he couldn't accept her in my life. He refused to put my feelings about her into consideration. No. He was too self-centered to think like that. You would think that one of your best friends would be able to put their thoughts of a person aside for your sake, but I guess I was mistaken.

"You know what, no," I said. "Go ahead. Tell me your opinion of her. I'd love to hear this."

Liam cleared his throat. "Guys, you shou-"

I waved him off. "No. He's talking crap right now so let's see what else he has to say about my girlfriend."

"Well for starters, I think she's one of the fakest people I've met," he replied. I curled my hand into a fist. "She only wants you for your money and your fame and everything else you have to offer her. She's using you and you don't even realize it!"

That was the last straw. If I couldn't see her 'disloyalty' then what was it that happened last night? It wasn't just a useless "shag" or a "bang". It was love. Camille and I made love last night. He had no right to tell me what was true love and what wasn't. It wasn't his life, it was mine.

I stood up abruptly and lashed out suddenly on the chair. The noise resounded and then silence settled around the large room. I walked up to Harry so we were standing only inches apart. "You know NOTHING," I shouted at him, a vein in my neck protruding as I became increasingly angry. His stature was slightly taller than mine but it had yet to intimidate me.

Niall jumped up from his chair and pushed both of us backwards by our chests with his hands. "Both of you stop it right now," he demanded, but the both of us continued to glare penetratingly at each other. "We are a group. We are friends. We should not be fighting like this. Friends don't do this." He turned to Harry. "Keep your unnecessary comments to yourself," he scolded and then turned to me. "And you, stop provoking him." His finger pointed behind him to the chairs set up, disregarding mine which was lying a few feet away on it's side. "Both of you take a seat." Neither of us made a move to obey Niall's orders. "Now!" he said, his voice elevated considerably more than before.

Harry was first to comply and then myself. I retrieved my chair and set it up properly to sit on. The tension in the air was overwhelming and I felt like I could suffocate at any second, but this time Harry had gone too far. He was spilling false information and thinking too much about himself to even reason with the situation.

Niall spoke again. "Now, we have rehearsal until 4:00 today. If we're not all going to get along, just leave because we don't need any more stress than we already have from the tour about to start in less than two months. We are a family and if all we do is fight, then what's the point? Either drop the topic or leave now." Nobody moved from their spot; we all just sat with our eyes trained to the floor.

Everything was so uncomfortable right now but Niall was right. We had to get through this. All of these people were depending on us to do so well and all we really wanted to do was impress them in return. "Okay," he said. "Let's get started then."



. . .



*Camille's POV*

I laid in my spot in bed for a long time since Zayn wouldn't be home for a while. It was past eleven by now, but I felt like I had all the time in the world to lay here and think. I wished Zayn was still here because I felt kind of lonely, but I also wanted to be somewhat alone.

Was it weird to always have your mind reeling about one person you loved so dearly? Because it was a fairly recent thing for me. I'd never really dated much before dating Zayn and I surely hadn't even thought about going all the way with anybody else. The experience was incredible and nothing like I would have imagined; somewhat painful but fulfilling to the highest degree.

Speaking of... was I still... sore? I sat up and cringe at the feeling I received in my 'lower region' from the movement. I would definitely be able to survive the day, but it didn't mean I wasn't going to be a little uncomfortable.

I carefully made my way out of Zayn's bed and to his bathroom to clean myself up a bit. My hair was tangled and crazy so I brushed through the imperfections to relieve the knottiness. It wasn't necessary to shower because I'd gotten one last night... with Zayn. I blushed at the thought, but smiled to myself because I knew I secretly loved it.

Once I'd thrown on a pair of Zayn's baggy shorts to accompany his oversized t-shirt that was currently adorning my torso, I padded down the steps to their kitchen for food and chilled out for the whole rest of the day. I found a comfortable spot on the couch in front of the TV and watched episode after episode of Gossip Girl on Netflix to keep myself busy.

I bit at my thumbnail as an intense scene of Chuck and Blair on the rooftop of a building came on. Blair was convincing Chuck not to jump off when my phone rang and scared me out of my skin. I quickly paused the show and checked my phone. It was an unknown number calling, but I didn't want to risk missing a potentially important phone call, so I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I need to speak with Camille Cadwell?" a chillingly familiar voice asked. It was Carter.

"Yeah," I replied simply and rubbed at my temples, a headache already beginning to form just from talking to him. "This is she."

"It's great to hear from you," he said just to make my skin crawl. "Lucky for you, I'm here to tell you I've made my decision."

My mouth dropped and I tugged the phone closer to my ear to hear the official verdict from the one man that held the key to my future.



. . .



*Zayn's POV*

"Are you alright, Man?" I turned around to see Niall walking up to me as I took a sip from my water bottle and wiped the sweat from my forehead.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know, you just kind of snapped at Harry earlier..." he said carefully, unsure of how I would react.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said with a final shake of my head. "Just a little disagreement."

"It seemed like a little more than that."

"It's fine, honestly," I assured him with a half smile.

"Okay." He patted my shoulder and started walking away. "See you tomorrow then."

I lifted my hand in a small wave. "See you tomorrow." My mind wandered to Camille and I checked my watch which read 4:08. I packed up my stuff and headed out of the studio, waving to Liam and Louis on my way outside.

Rehearsal in general was sort of awkward. Nobody really talked much. We all just took orders from our managers and kept to ourselves most of the time. Usually rehearsal was fun and we all got along, but today, everything just wasn't right and I honestly couldn't wait to get home.

Harry got into his car before I got into mine so I practically followed him home from there. We hadn't spoken another word to each other since the fight and I wasn't planning on trying again soon. He'd taken it a step too far and his irritability had gotten out of control.

I watched as he pulled into our driveway and walked up to the front door, not even acknowledging me pulling in right behind him. He closed the front door behind him, too. I rolled my eyes. He was so immature.

I locked my car and followed him in afterwards. I found Camille sitting on the sofa in what seemed to be confusion. "What's wrong?" I asked straight off.

"What happened with Harry? He seemed like he hated me even more than before when he walked in here," she told me. "I said 'hi' and he looked like he was about to kill me."

I huffed. "Just ignore him. He's been a pain in the arse all day today."

She sat up a little straighter and paused her show. "What happened?" she enquired.

I walked over to the chair to the left of her and kicked off my shoes. "Eh, we had a bit of a falling out," I said, completely weakening the state of the situation to her.

"Oh," she said. She waited another moment before speaking again. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head. "It's not that important. I don't want to get you involved." It's the truth at least. I mean, the fight was about her, but she could do without the details and specifics.

"Okay, just thought I'd ask."

I glanced to the paused show on the television. "What are you watching?" I wondered, not recognizing the people on the screen.

"Gossip Girl," she smiled.

I rolled my eyes and sunk further into the chair. "You're obsessed, Camille. You need to stop watching this."

"Never," she giggled. I smiled, but closed my eyes. My head ached slightly from rehearsal. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.

I waved her off. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?" I replied seriously.

She squinted. "What do you mea- oh, wait. That. Yeah, um. I'm fine," she said awkwardly. Her cheeks heated and she pulled her blanket tighter around herself.

"Well good," I concluded. She nodded and contently turned her show back on. I watched it with her for a bit and thought it was pretty cute, I guess. It was definitely something I could see Camille liking.

When the episode went off, she didn't move for the remote or anything, she just stared blankly at the TV. "Is something wrong," I asked curiously.

"Well, kinda."

"What is it? What's wrong?" I urged sitting up a bit in the chair. She bit at the inside of her cheek, an obvious implication that she was nervous. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," I assured.

"I got a call from Carter today," she said and looked to me unsurely.

"Wait, for what? Did he make his decision already?" I asked quietly, my heart rate already picking up considerably.

She nodded. "Yeah."

Oh God. Oh God. This was the moment of truth. We'd both been waiting to see what the final outcome would be. The only difference now was that she already knew the answer and I didn't.

"What did he say?" I insisted.

"I need you to tell me something first."

"What is it?

"I need to hear you say you love me," she requested and I was caught slightly off guard.

"I love you, you know I do."

"I know you do," she said. "I just wanted to hear you say it again."

"Camille, what did he say?" My voice failed me at the end but I barely noticed as she revealed the answer.

"I got the job."



A/N: Important chapter. Let us know what you guys think. We love you guys ~Mia and Carly