Love Again (A Zayn Malik Story)

Chapter 7

Warning: Mild language

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I woke up constrained in a cocoon of bed sheets. I was still wearing my sweatshirt and PJ-shorts from last night.

Last night…

Memories flooded my mind. I remembered every word that came from Zayn’s mouth—which weren’t that many, but coming from him, it seemed like a freaking book. I could smell his scent on the cuffs of my sweatshirt. I put the material to my nose and deeply inhaled.

I managed to unwrap myself and swung my legs over the side of the bed, sitting up with difficulty. I looked at the clock and it said ’11:14am’. What day was it today? Tuesday. That meant I had five days left with the boys. Maybe Darcy and I could go out today and buy them each farewell gifts. I looked over at her sleeping form. I wondered how her and Niall’s talk when last night.

I decided to let Darcy sleep and went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. Louis was the only one up.

“Why are you always up so early?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just always been a morning person.” He took a sip of orange juice—from the carton.

“If that’s your idea of payback, your ideas suck,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, feigning innocence. His eyes lit up, and I knew he got an idea.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We should wake Harry up,” he said with a wink.

I smiled. “What’s the plan?”

:~:~:~:~:~:~:

A half an hour later, Darcy, Niall, Liam, Zayn, Louis, and I sat in the kitchen, anxiously waiting for the time to hit noon. We had all the clocks perfectly set at the same time.

Louis started the count-down. “10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . .”

I joined in, “6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .”

Ear-splitting alarms rang throughout the house. Like planned, I ran upstairs and turned on the strategically placed smoke machine. Smoke flowed underneath the door of Harry and Louis’ bedroom.

“Fire!” Niall’s Irish voice exclaimed loudly, enough to be heard throughout the entire house.

“Oh my God!” I heard Harry yell, a strangling scream coming after. He ran out of his room a few seconds later. Completely naked.

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed like he’d just done, covering my eyes with my hands. I could barely hear myself over all the alarms. The boys ran around turning them all off.

“What the heck is going on?” Harry demanded.

I didn’t dare remove my hand from my eyes. “Go put clothes on!” I shrieked.

I could almost hear his glare. “Fine! But when I get back out here, you guys owe me an apology!”

I heard his door shut, and I let my hands down. I turned around to see Louis, Niall, and Liam at the bottom of the stairs, clutching their stomaches and writhing on the floor, howling with laughter.

“Dude! That—totally—backfired on you!” Louis gasped out between laughs.

I glared at him. “Hey! You’re the one who suggested it!”

“And you’re the one who came up with half of the plan!” he retorted, bursting into another bout of laughter.

“I didn’t know that he’d be naked!” I defended, heat rising to my face. I put my hands to my cheeks just to make fire wasn’t radiating from them.