Playing With Fire || z.m

"Zayn just complimented me!"

ZAYN

“Congratulations, Zayn, mate!” Niall pats me on the back and I feel myself blushing.

“Thanks!”

“So tell me all about it, how did you pop the question?” We both slide into a booth in the small café and pick up a menu. We had a long day of press interviews ahead of us due to our new film coming out but luckily our manager had squeezed in an hour for a food stop before we start.

“Well, we were just…”

“Hello?” We both snap our heads round to look at Harry who is stood by the door, shouting into his phone. “Hello? Can you hear me?” He runs a hand through his hair looking panicked.

“What the hell is he doing?” Niall laughs.

“Ellie?” Harry suddenly shouts and pulls the phone away from his ear.

“Harry, what are you doing?” Niall calls across the café to him. He looks up at us, panic in his eyes.

“I was on the phone to Ellie and it just went dead.” He tries calling her again, but obviously with no luck as he tries again and again.

“Maybe her signal went?” I offer. Good old Harry, always being dramatic.

“No, I have a bad feeling about this.” He walks over to us. “Zayn, please can I try your phone?” I pick my iphone up off the table, type the pass code in and put it in his hand, sighing.

“I’m sure it’s just her signal, Harry. She’ll call you back in a bit.” I didn’t really want to talk about Ellie. I’d managed to push her to the back of my mind since our falling out and having Harry scream in my face about her was really hitting a nerve. I watch as he scrolls down my contact list, silently patting myself on the back for never taking any naked photos of her and deleting any texts from her. He presses her name and holds the phone to his ear.

“No, it’s the same message. It’s not even going to voicemail; it’s saying it can’t connect the call.” I shrug, taking my phone back off of him.

“I don’t know what to suggest, Harry.”

“I don’t like this, something’s happened.”

“Harry, mate,” Niall begins. “I’m sure Zayn is right, it’s just her signal. She’ll be fine! We have a long day ahead of us so just forget about it, yeah? Get some food and I’m sure she’ll call you back when she can.”

Harry slides into the booth next to Niall and we all quickly decide what to get, telling the pretty waitress our order and she scuttles off into the back.

“It’s nice to not be hassled by fans for once.” Niall mumbles as he takes a sip of coffee.

“It’s only because they don’t know where we are today. Anyway, just wait until Perrie and I announce our engagement! They’ll be following us everywhere trying to convince me otherwise.” I nervously chuckle.

“Think of all the hate Perrie will get on twitter again!” Niall gazes out the window as we all think about the horrible messages all the girls have received thanks to dating us.

I’m so happy with where my life is right now. I mean, there are little things I would change, like maybe tone down the fame a little, and stop anything hurtful said towards Perrie. Other than that everything is great at the moment.

Ellie’s face flickers in my mind but I quickly push it away thinking about Perrie instead.

“Hello, can I speak to Ellie Taylor, please?” I turn my head quickly to see Harry talking into his phone again. Does this boy ever give up? “Oh, okay, if you get hold of her can you get her to call me please? My name is Harry, she has my number. Thanks, Bye.” He ends the call and looks at me.

“Did you just Google her office number?” Niall laughs. Harry nods, still staring at me. Why is he staring at me like that? What does he know?

“She didn’t make it into work today and nobody can get hold of her.” He says quietly.

“Maybe she had a meeting. Remember she has meetings out of office.” I tell Harry as I take a sip from my coffee.

“Considering you don’t really like her, you know a heck of a lot about her.” Harry snaps. Shit. What the fuck does he know? I can’t bring my eyes up to meet his so instead I awkwardly stare into my mug.

“We’re neighbours, we’ve spoken. You know; small talk in the street.” I gabble nervously.

The waitress saves me at this point and I make a mental note to leave her a generous tip. She places our large plates of English fry-ups in front of us and leaves us to it.

“I’m going to rush back to her house.” Harry says after a good five minutes of silent eating.

“What?” Niall and I say and the same time.

“You lot can cover for me, right? In the first interview? I’m going to drive to Ellie’s to make sure she is okay.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Niall splutters with his mouth full of food, scrambled egg splattering onto the table in front of me, just missing my plate of food.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners, Horan?” I raise my voice slightly. “Harry stop being so dramatic, I’m sure she’s fine.” I take a deep breath, not quite believing I’m about to say this. “I’ll check in on her tonight when I get home if you like?”

“Really?” Harry pauses for a moment. “I said to Liam I would write with him tonight but I can rearrange, he will understand. Management really won’t let me miss an interview will they?”

“No way.” Niall and I say together again.

“Zayn, we’ve got to stop saying things together, we’ll give away our secret relationship.” Niall laughs.

“Two great minds think alike, Niall!” I smirk.

“Zayn just complimented me!” Niall suddenly shouts. “Harry, write down the words Zayn just said with a date and time, please, Zayn just complimented someone!”

“Fuck off Niall!” I chuck a cooked mushroom at him and it bounces off his forehead.

*

“What are you doing here?” Ellie asks bluntly as she holds her front door open.

“I’m only here because I promised Harry I would check on you.” I tell her.

“Why do I need to be checked up on?”

“Because he had a fucking panic attack that lasted the whole day because he couldn’t get hold of you.”

“My phone broke, that’s all.” She sighs. “Are we done? It’s just that it’s cold outside and you’re letting all the cold air into my house.”

“I’ll come in then.” I squeeze past her and go and plonk myself onto her sofa.

“That wasn’t what I was getting at.” She stands in the doorway of the lounge and looks at me. Her face is make-up free, her hair pulled into a top knot on top of her head and she’s wearing a tracksuit. I’ve never seen her like this.

“What’s happened, why are you wearing a tracksuit?”

“I’m just not feeling very well, that’s all.” She answers.

“Look, I’m sorry about the argument…” I begin.

“I hear congratulations are in order.” She interrupts. I look away from her. I should have walked away when she bitched about it being cold instead of coming in.

 A/N Thanks to everyone who is reading!! :) What do you think will happen next?