One More Spoon of Cough Syrup [Zayn Malik FanFiction]

Chapter 10

 "I'm finding my way back to sanity again, though I don't really know what I'm going to do when I get there." 'Breathing' by Lifehouse

Without much difficulty, I zipped up my suitcase and lifted it up as I descended the stairs. Just under halfway, I felt the weight of it decrease and realized that someone was trying to take it from my hands.

"Can't have you lugging this down the stairs," Harry winked. In his attempt to pick the suitcase up, he almost dropped it.

I caught it before it could fall and smirked. "I think I got it," I smirked. "But thanks anyway," I added as Harry blushed a deep crimson.

The boys were scattered around the room, Liam on the recliner, Niall and Louis on the sofa, Harry stretched across the other one and Zayn on the floor, leaning against Harry's seat.

I stood in the doorway. "Are you guys homeless, or something?" I asked rhetorically. "Go home!"

 "She's feisty, isn't she?" Louis grinned.

I scowled at him.

"Look, if you're coming with us, we need to get to know you better," Liam reasoned.

"Besides," Harry piped up, "being with the same people almost every waking hour of your life makes you cranky."

"Louis almost bit my finger off because I kept shoving pencils in my mouth," Niall pitched, sounding as though this behaviour was the norm.

I turned my head to Zayn. "Should I ask him why he was shoving pencils in his mouth?"

"Travelling around, the ime zones ... They do stuff to your head," Zayn replied, looking dead serious.

"Perfect," I muttered. "I'm going to the other side of the world with the definition of mentally challenged."

"Oi!" Louis protested, while the others smirked as though they agreed with me.

"I think that a game of twenty questions is in order," Louis announced, as soon as we joined him and the rest, in an over-the-top formal manner. "Seeing as you'll be spending the next few months with us."

"OK, first question - why do you guys say twenty when Lana apparently got asked over fifty?" I asked. 

"How about 'Depending On How Interesting The Person Is Decides the Number Of Questions'?" Louis suggested, sarcastically.

"We'll be here for days - you'll find that I'm God-damn amazing."

Twenty Questions with One Direction turned out to have the same effects as taking crack. Each personality shone brightly and were established within minutes. Liam was the normal one - the guy you'd trust to push you if you were ever in a wheelchair. Harry was the youngest but had the most mature sense of humor which Niall (though older than him) didn't understand much of. Niall, I already knew was innocent and appeared as a the five year old who would find everything hilarious. Zayn was quiet but just as crazy. Louis was on a whole other level of his own. He was loud, hyperactive and possible seriously insane. He was unmistakeably funny, but I was worried that spending too long with him would cause me to get too irritated with him. But I figured that if a laid-back guy like Liam could put up with him, I could.

"Scariest thing that's ever happened to you?" Harry asked, carrying on from before Louis interrupted.

"OK, well, I think it was from year eleven," then, I remembered. "Yeah, I was taking my psychology GCSE paper and I was right next to the window -" my smile grew bigger at the memory. "And I hear this thump against the window and I see this bird - with its wings spread out - like stuck to the window and I almost screamed, it was the freakiest thing ever!"

"How was it stuck to the window?" Zayn qustioned, laughing along with the other boys.

"Someone pulled this prank - not a great one - they spread PVA glue all over all the windows," I explained. "The only thing that stopped me from freaking out was that I remembered I'd be disqualified from the test if I did."

"Which brings me to my next question!" Liam announced. "What was the best prank you've ever pulled?"

I grinned, cocking an eyebrow. "You really wanna know?" I challenged. 

You could've heard a pin drop in the room - all five boys leaned forward a little, wide eyed and nodded, like children...well, they acted like children already.

"Well, I was in year thirteen and it was my last day in school," I began. "So, I got two fully grown pigs at lunchtime from my friend's uncle and labelled one of them '1' and the other  '3'.  No one- not even my friends - knew what I was going to do. Basically I released the pigs and they just rampaged all over the school - you could've heard the screams twenty blocks away -" At this point the boys and I were laughing so hard, tears were streaming down our faces - "my chemistry teacher ran out of the science building yelling that it was karma and everything! After like two or three hours, they captured the pigs, but they all thought that there was another one, because I'd labelled them '1' and '3'; everyone found out it was me but  the teachers let it slide...by giving me a detention - but if I was in year ten or something, they would've suspended me."

"You are seriously a legend," Zayn stated.

"I try," I joked. "It's just this feeling you get once everyone starts laughing...or screaming. It's a pretty good feeling."

"Yeah, Lou has never had that feeling in his life before," Niall muttered.

"I will cut you," Louis said bluntly, but with a load of attitude.

Around a couple hours later - at about five - the boys decided that it was time to go home, as they hadn't finished packing - even though we were leaving in two days. I didn't criticize them - normally, I would've packed the night before, but I didn't want to give off the wrong impression. I was quick to learn that I shouldn't have done that, as the lads were just like me...well,  not Liam and Zayn, they're more organized.

I went back upstairs after they left, remembering that I hadn't packed my bag. Passport, over-ear headphones (I preferred those for planes as they block out the sounds of the engines), phone would go in later, charger, converstion plug...laptop? Laptop...I wondered if Niall would bring his - wait, course he would, he'd want to keep it for himself to talk to Lana all day. I decided to leave the laptop, hoping Niall would let me see Lana with him.

I heard my phone's tone go off, signalling that I had recieved a text; the number was unknown, however my curiosity got the better of me.

It was Zayn asking if I'd be alright by myself for the night. The origianl plan was that I'd be picked up from here at half five in the morning. I replied saying that I'd be fine, which at first he doubted but I managed to convince him. I wondered whether he was always this protective.