Crooked

she was pretty hot, after all. [chapter eleven]

“C’mon Cassie, as if you haven’t heard this song,” Angie told me as I grabbed one of her speakers and put it to my ear. It was Angie’s idea to teach me the ways of One Direction, to know their songs and at least learn the words of each chorus. There were about fifteen songs they had produced on their album so far, and we had only listened to What Makes You Beautiful. It was easily my favourite due to its catchy beat, but also because it was the only song I knew.

“What song are you up to now?” Harry asked curiously, taking a seat next to me in Angie’s apartment. She had invited us in while her roommates were out of town for the weekend, which was convenient because Angie had told us they were major fans of the boys. I didn’t think I could handle screaming fan-girls at this moment, which was why I was secretly glad they weren’t here. Plus it meant I could spend more alone time with Angie, or at least some form of time with her that I could get.

“We’ve only been through one song,” she informed him, a smile playing on her lips. After about ten minutes of squealing in the bathroom that the rest of us pretended not to hear, she came out and told the boys that “she was very happy to meet them” and hoped she wasn’t being too awkward about the situation. Harry and Zayn straight away hastened to assure her it was fine, and I couldn’t help but exchange a look of knowing with Liam, who too noticed the interested look in both of their eyes at Angie.

She was pretty hot, after all.

Angie definitely liked the attention, but like me, she preferred to play around with what she had before making a decision. If anyone else had said they wanted to mess with Zayn and Harry, the maternal instinct would have come out and protected those boys like no other, but because of the comments they said about Angie before, I was quite happy to let Angie play

with them for a bit.

I also wanted to see the great Harry Styles get rejected. It didn’t sound like it happened often, and I wanted to see it firsthand. In other words, I was extremely glad that Angie was able to get time off to join the tour with us.

“What song?” Zayn piped up, resting his hand on Angie’s waist as he came to sit down next to her. I saw her raise her eyebrows but didn’t say anything, instead ignoring his moves and replying to him.

“What Makes You Beautiful.” I loved it when she made short responses. They were the kind that told boys to quite simply, fuck off, but for some reason those stupid boys came back for more.

“I wrote my bit of the song I sing,” Zayn bragged, widening his smile that revealed a perfect set of white, straight teeth.

“Cool,” I interjected. “Can we get back to this learning shit now?”

“Feisty,” Harry smirked. “No wonder Lou is so into you.”

A short silence fell over us, and before I had the chance to glare deeply into Harry’s eyes, Angie let out a squeal that scared the three of us.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her. She didn’t reply, instead she grabbed my hand and led me to my room where Liam, Niall and Louis were busy looking at a photo collage on her wall. It showed pictures of her in England, but a lot of them had pictures of us two when we were in high school to now.

“Out,” she ordered the boys, and obediently they got up and walked out, but not before Louis whispered “feisty” in my ear. Well, I see where Harry got that word from.

As soon as Angie closed the door, she grabbed my shoulders. “What did Harry mean by Louis liking you?”

I shrugged my shoulders from underneath her grasp and sighed. “Louis has this wild fantasy that I’m just going to drop in his arms or something. He’s good looking, I’ll give him that but I’m not interested in him.”

To my surprise, Angie let out a huge sigh of relief and sat down on her bed behind me. “Thank God.”

“Why?” I asked blankly, not realising why until my eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Do you like Louis?”

“What?” Angie shook her head. “No! God no. Don’t get me wrong, he’s handsome and all but not my type at all.”

“So would you say Harry’s your type then?” I said cheekily, taking a seat down next to her. “Or Zayn?”

She slapped my thigh and looked at me seriously. “Cass, be serious for a second. Did you not see anyone else staring at you?”

“Like who?” I frowned, but there was only one name that my heart kind of wanted to hear but my brain was telling me NO! NO! NO!

“Niall.” I swear to God my heart stopped beating at that moment, but quickly I internally slapped myself and it continued. No, no no. I shouldn’t be feeling this way. Not towards guy like Niall, anyways. Even though he really was quite handsome, with those gorgeous blue eyes I could stare at forever …

“No,” I spoke out loud. “I mean, no. Not into him. Not at all.”

“Really?” Angie said this in a way that of course meant “you are so into him, don’t even try to deny it”.

I nodded. “Niall’s cute and all, but he has those crooked teeth that remind me of that evil bitch back home.”

“So because she has teeth like the Bitch you don’t like Niall?” Angie knew who I was talking about. “Does that mean if he didn’t have teeth like that you’d be into him?”

At once my cheeks flamed, and I had this sudden fascination with Angie’s red carpet. It was quite a nice carpet, so soft against the balls of my feet.

“I know that look,” Angie taunted. “You think he’s sexy, don’t you?”

My head shot up immediately. “I never said that!”

“But you were you thinking it.”

“I was not!”

“Were too!”

“Was not!”

“Hey, guys?” Someone knocked on the door and we suddenly stopped our conversation, the both of us fearful that the guys had heard it.

“Yeah?" Angie called out bravely.

Niall opened the door and stuck his head in. “We uh, gotta be heading out to our hotel soon, so Angie if you want to come…”

“As tempting as it is, I’m going to have to pass,” Angie told us. “I have a paper due on Monday.”

He nodded and didn’t glance towards me at all, as though I didn’t even exist. I frowned; had I done something wrong?

Quickly, I gave Angie a hug and promised to meet up with her soon -- alone, so we could discuss the boys in further detail which I knew she wanted to know. With that, the boys and I left and I couldn’t help but notice the way that Niall continued to not acknowledge my presence, even when I had accidentally bumped into him as a result of Louis bumping into me. Niall was usually so nice to me, what had changed?

There was only one explanation I could think of: he simply wasn’t interested in me anymore.

The thought hit me like a tidal wave, and I was surprised at myself by how much this realisation had hurt. I mean, I knew Niall and the other boys had definitely begun to grow on me, but had I grown on them? Did Niall really like me or was I just kidding myself?

I needed a distraction and fast. Fortunately for me, it came by the name of Angela Walters, my best friend.

Thank the heavens she was coming onto the tour with me.

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Sorry I took so long to update this, I've been busy with schoolwork lately and such. Luckily I go on holiday tomorrow for two weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to update more often!

Thank you guys so much for all your lovely comments/voting! Also, if you guys have or know of some good 1D stories comment below!