Guarded

||eight||

"Jeremy, you're such an idiot," Michaela snaps.

"What did I do?" Jeremy whines.

"Nothing. That's the problem." Michaela rolls her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Jeremy pleads.

Michaela closes her eyes and puts a hand to her head. "Do you know what Saturday is?"

"What? What's Saturday?" Jeremy turns to ask me.

Niall and I are watching this occur from the opposite side of the table. I try to refrain from laughing by taking a large sip from my Coke. Emme, Marie, Liam, Harry, and Louis are having their own conversation somewhere farther down the table. Zayn joined us at the table, but is keeping to himself and scribbling his notebook.

"It's the annual Disney dance," Niall whispers to me. "Jeremy obviously forgot and hasn't asked Michaela yet."

"Oh my gosh," Jeremy blurts out. "It's your mom's birthday, isn't it?!"

Michaela has the look of 'So done' or maybe 'Kill me now' or it could be 'How do I like this imbecile?' But it very well could be all of the above.

"My mom's birthday was two months ago," she mumbles.

"Psst," Niall leans over towards Jeremy. "It's the Disney dance, dude."

Jeremy's eyes widen. "Michaela, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot."

"Yeah, well, you know now." Michaela looks at him, expecting an invitation to the dance. Jeremy just stares at her blankly.

I turn to Niall and look at him expectantly, kind of wanting him to ask me to the dance. But he just continues eating his lunch.

I don't know why this bugs me, so I just kind of push the feeling aside. Maybe Niall isn't one for dances? I don't know. I've never actually been to a school dance before, so I don't know if I like them either.

-

"Afternoon, Zayn," I say when I walk into biology.

"Afternoon, Cassidy," he replies. "Um, Cassidy? Do you have a date to the dance on Saturday?"

I shake my head 'no.' But why would it matter to Zayn if I had a date or not? He likes someone else.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Disney dance with me?" He asks nervously.

Should I? I mean, it is already Thursday and Niall hasn't asked me, so maybe he just doesn't want to go.

"Sure," I say with a smile. "Is there something special I should wear?"

"Just dress up like your favorite Disney character or princess," Zayn replies.

"So, what are you doing this Saturday?" Niall asks as I take my seat next to him.

"Going to the dance," I say smugly. Niall's face turns a light shade of red.

"With who?"

"With Zayn."

"Why?"

"Because he asked me."

"I don't like you hanging out with Zayn."

"I don't care."

Niall's bright blue eyes look into mine. "Cassie, I know how he is with girls. He's not good for you."

But Zayn is so nice and sweet and smart. He couldn't be bad. I mean, he has a couple tattoos and his piercing, but I don't think he's some sort of bad boy.