The Pianist - One Direction

Chapter 18

We were at the airport in the middle of the night. I was full of thoughts, I was tired and scared of flying. We sat in a private room at the gate so there wouldn't be any screaming fans, which I was dearly thankful for. My head would not approve of screams at that time of the day.

When I was standing behind the corner at the arena the day before, someone walked towards me.

I had stood frozen behind the corner, trying to figure out their conversation, because I was totally certain of the fact that Zayn didn't like me in that way. I denied everything, every single thought in my head. I didn't want to smile and get all happy because of the thought that Zayn might like me. He didn't and I most certainly did not like him. Right? Yes. Maybe...

Suddenly I heard the steps towards me and I didn't have the time to hide or come up with a excuse for eavesdropping.

"Belle?" Niall asked after almost walking right at me, surprised that I was so close.

"Is Issy there?" Zayn asked with panic in his voice. Apparently I wasn't meant to hear their conversation. No big surprise, that. Niall met my eyes and raised one eyebrow in question. I shook my head and brought up my finger to my lips to show him to be quiet, to tell Zayn that I had not heard their conversation. Niall nodded slightly and turned back to Zayn who sat on the other side of the corner.

"No, I was just asking for her. I wondered where she went, but I'm sure she'll be back soon." He mumbled. It wasn't very convincing, but Zayn seemed to believe it.

"Oh, okay. You don't think she's anywhere near, do you? I don't think she should have heard what I just said." He asked Niall, his voice still a little bit unsure.

"No, I think she's in the cafeteria with Jared. Why can't she know?" Niall answered and I knew I should've walked away because Zayn could walk up to me any second but I wanted to hear what he said. Niall's hand behind his back tried showing me to walk away, but I didn't obey to his gestures. I just couldn't walk away. A part of me wanted to, but I couldn't.

"I just feel that she wouldn't be okay with me saying that I fancied her. I don't know, but after the weeks when she stopped talking to me and all that, I don't think it would be a good idea to change something in our friendship now that we got it back. I don't want her to look at me differently if she doesn't feel the same way, you know?" He explained.

Shit. Did he say that he fancied me? And why wasn't my reaction bad? Why wasn't I panicking, but blushing? Why did my stomach tickle? Stop it! This is bad! I told myself.

After having a huge inner conversation with myself as I walked away from them, I made up my mind.

Maybe he did like me, and maybe I got butterflies in my stomach when he said that, but he said clearly that he didn't want me to act differently. That he was okay with our friendship for now, and so was I. I wasn't going to act any differently even if I still didn't understand his mood-change earlier that day.

I wanted to let it go, stop thinking about it. It was hard acting normal when you couldn't think of something else. We were all tired as we waited to board our plane and the others thought my silence was due to my tiredness and not because my head exploded by overthinking.

Yet, as fast the memory from the day before came up in my mind, I had to fight with the corner of my mouth, demanding them to stay down and not smile like crazy.

"Attention, passengers. Flight 574 to Paris is boarding now. Have a pleasant flight and we hope to see you soon." A voice in the speakers said. I took my handbag from beside me and changed the song that was playing to "Survival" by Muse. Maybe that would make me wake up a little bit.