The Pianist - One Direction

Chapter 12

I had no idea about what to tell Zayn. I couldn't really ask him to talk in private and then tell him I was to coward to admit I liked him, even to myself. What if he just rolled his eyes with a "whatever" and left? Gosh, this was going to be awkward.

They came home two hours later. I knew, because I heard them running in the hallways. Liam and Harry came into my room and my bedroom.

"You saw the interview?" Liam asked me and sat down at the end of my bed.

"Yeah. You seemed a bit annoyed." I joked and laughed at him.

"A little? He might have been the worst interviewer we ever had. He didn't even care about what we said or when he crossed the line." Louis said and sat beside Liam.

We talked about the interview for a while and were later joined by Niall, Zayn, Harry and Dan. 

"Niall, is that my cookies?" I asked him angrily. The only time I had left my bed that morning was to go down and buy a box with cookies. Cookies that now were being eaten by Niall. He shrugged and kept eating. Zayn took two cookies from the box and threw one to me before he put the other one in his mouth. 

"At least you'll get to taste one." He said and looked away from me again. So he didn't completely ignore me, but he cared enough to give me a cookie. It's something! 

"Thank you." I said and ate it. 

"What have you been up to today?" Harry asked me and went to lay across my bed. Soon, all of them had squeezed together on my bed. 

''Why don't you go get Sandy and Josh too? I'm sure we can squeeze them in as well.'' I said, my voice filled with sarcasm. 

''Okay.'' Harry stood up but I dragged him down again.

''I was kidding, Styles.'' I said and laughed at him. He only shrugged and I answered his question.

''I've actually stayed in here for the whole day. I'm too lazy to move and this bed is way too comfortable.'' 

''Really, Belle? We'll have to do something! We have a few hours before we have to go to the arena.'' Dan said. 

"We could go shopping. I promised Harry we would buy a pair of new shoes to him!" I said.

"Yes, please! Then we'll get rid of the old ones." Liam said. Shopping it is!

+++++  

Paul drove all of us to a nice little shopping street in Manchester that wasn't too crowded. I was terrified by these fangirls. They were okay in the crowd on a safe distance, at the other side of Paul, Preston and the other huge bodyguards at a concert. Without that distance, you never knew what they would do to you. Both Paul and three other guys from security went with us, but watched us from a distance and were ready to run to us if something happened. I talked about the fans as if they were animals, but they actually could be that bad.

Nothing seemed to happen, to my big relieve. Being the only girl in a big group of guys wasn't easy when you were going shopping. They didn't understand the fun in going into a shop without buying anything, but only to look at different clothes.   

"Stop being so mean to me! Just let me pick one shop, that's all I'm asking for." I said and walked backwards in front of them to make them stop walking, but they didn't.   

"Last time you picked the shop, we ended up bored and almost caught by fans." Liam said, but they couldn't help smiling at my pouting face.  

"It's no fair! One time." I said and stopped walking. I was extremely determined and I never gave up on things like this. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to stare them down. Harry sighed and gave in first.  

"Guys, we should let her pick once." He said which made the rest of them groan.  

"Harry! Don't fall for that!" Dan said.

"I'm sorry, but nobody can stand her eyes! Not if she's doing the puppy-eye thing nor the staring thing!" He exclaimed and I laughed at them. I hugged Harry and kissed his cheek.

"This made Harry my favourite one!" I said and he smirked and kissed my cheek as well. Oh god, if someone would get a picture of this I was never going to hear the end of it! 

I made all of them go with me to a Victoria's Secret shop. I didn't actually care about stores with underwear and stuff like that, but they had really nice perfumes, and it was funny to see the boys' faces when they came in. Almost all of them looked awkward and embarrassed. Niall looked like he wanted to run away. Harry and Louis, on the other hand, looked like they had been here a hundred times already. 

"Belle! You need to look at these bras!" Louis shouted across the shop and made s few other costumers giggle. The guys had covered their faces, hair and other known features with shades, beanies and hoods so a big fan would probably recognise them if they looked for longer than a second (and maybe it was a little suspicious with one girl and eight guys walking into a shop filled with lingerie) but other than that, they were pretty safe. I blushed and shook my head for a no and kept walking through the shop towards the different fragrances.

After trying some of the perfumes on the little cards I noticed someone came standing close beside me. I looked up and saw Zayn reading on a pink bottle. I smiled fast at him and tried another fragrance on a piece of paper. 

"Try this one." I told him and raised the card for him to smell. He leaned down and tried it. The two seconds of Eye contact was enough to realise how stupid I had been the last weeks. Why would I try to hide my feelings because of fear? Only by looking into his eyes made me understand that I had nothing to be afraid of. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Zayn nodded and smiled to me.

"It's nice." He said, and kept reading on another bottle. I walked away from the fragrances, I wasn't planning on buying anything anyways, and I almost never bought anything I really needed. I always thought about how much I actually needed it and what I could buy for the money instead.

After making Harry and Louis understand that I wouldn't try on anything of what they suggested, we went out the shop. Only to be met by a huge crowd of screaming girls. Lovely. The noise was destroying my ears and I really could not understand how a human being could be so loud. Paul was soon by our side, grabbing Harry's left arm and Niall's right and pulled them towards a van that magically appeared in front of us. Harry pulled me with him, he understood just like all of us that the safety guard's first priority were the five guys who made One Direction. I looked behind me to be sure that everyone was coming with us, only to notice I couldn't find Zayn.

"Harry, where's Zayn?" I shouted above the girls' screaming, but it was impossible for him to hear. I shook of his arm from my shoulder and ran back. I felt like we were in some kind of action movie, with all the screams and girls attacking me. They really went too far this time! What the hell was wrong with these girls? They could go ahead nice and slowly and maybe get a picture or something with the boys. No, they had to run and jump and scream and drag and pull and... Gosh. 

I looked in the shop and saw Zayn hiding behind a shelf with underwear. How could he be so smart all the time? I sighed. He always knew what to do. I managed to get the security of the shop to let me in and went behind the same shelf as Zayn.

"I thought they got you! I panicked!" I screamed. Oups, I still used my loud voice since I was outside. I didn't realise I could speak normally now. Zayn chuckled a bit at me.

"You sound like they are zombies or brutal murderers or something." He said and laughed. I couldn't help but to laugh with him.

"But they are scary! Especially on a close distance." I mumbled.

"They are normal girls in a very happy mode" He said and shrugged. "Not wild animals trying to kill you." He still laughed at me. I punched his arm. I got my phone up and texted Niall.

Zayn and I are hiding inside the shop. Tell Paul to drive you guys back and come back to get us when everything's calmed down. xx

"They'll come back to get us later." I explained to Zayn, who now had slid down and sat on the floor. I sat in front of him. I realised what I was doing. I was being alone with Zayn - and talking to him - for the first time since my idiotic idea about avoiding him. I had to explain, but I had no idea how to.