Then There Were Four

Chapter 9

My eyebrows shoot up. "A few hours?" I squeak, unable to catch my breath.

"Yeah, if that's... umm... okay with you," Zayn says.

"Can't you, like, call your security, or something?" I ask, stunned.

"Yeah, yeah... uhh, we could... we definitely could. But... umm... we'd get in quite a bit of trouble for running away," Harry mutters.

"Yeah, and what would be the fun in that?" Louis laughs, throwing his arms up.

I nod slowly, trying to comprehend everything that was going on. "Great. Great. Great... Great... just... great."

"I think we broke her," Niall states.

"No! No, I'm fine. I'm great. I just... uh..." I pause, trying to think of what to do. I look down at my nightgown. "I'm going to go have a shower. See, I wasn't expecting to do anything today. Especially nothing like... like this. So, I'm going to go and shower and try to, uh, clear my head. I'll be right back." I turn towards my bedroom, and then turn back towards them. "Uh... Don't break anything," I add hastily.

When I get to my room, I close the door behind me and put my ear against it.

"I agree with Niall, I really think we broke her." Harry.

"She's just stunned." Zayn. "Anyone would be. She's really nice, lads. And, anyway, what choice do we have?"

I lean back against the door for a moment, catching my breath, and then gather some clothes to take with me to the bathroom. I am not walking around in a towel with those five in the house.

***

Showers generally have an extremely calming effect on me. Dee always joked that it isn't healthy how tranquil and serene I became after a long shower.

Today, though, it didn't work too well. I was too frazzled to get much thinking done besides 'Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.'

As soon as I get out of the bathroom, fully clothed in black pants, a white top and a maroon jumper (no point in dressing up if they've already seen me in my pyjamas) with my wet hair in what I tried to make into a cute messy bun but just came out worse than if I'd just woken up, I realize that I will have to call Dee soon. I don't think I can do this without her.

When I walk back into the living room I am assailed by the wave of the unaccustomed smell of male deodorant.

"Kell-Kelly! You're back!" Louis cheers. "We were worried that you'd fainted or something. You took forever. Uh, no offence."

The boys are sitting on the sofas with highlights from a football match playing on TV.

"Just tried to clear my head," I reply, blushing.

"Did it work? Do you believe that we're really here?" Niall asks jokily.

Deep breath. "No, actually, it didn't really work," I shake my head.

"Well, we are really here. If that helps at all," Liam informs me.

"Yeah, it's still kind of... processing. So... is there anything you lads would like to do, in particular?" I ask them.

"I say we play a game!" Louis says, standing up.

"How about Truth or Dare?" Harry suggests.

In the nanosecond between Harry's question and my answer, my mind flashes through hundreds of horrible situations that always start off with Truth or Dare – all written in some or other fanfiction somewhere.