The More I Try (An One Direction Fan Fiction)

Guardian Angel (Chapter Fourteen)

Four familiar faces went across the screen fist- Harry, Louis, Niall and then Liam. They were all a year or two younger, and sang in front of a panel of judges.

All of them sang like absolute angel's in Thalia's opinion.

All of them got yeses from the judges, and went through the to next round.

Then Zayn's younger face came onto the stage. He looked so nervous, and Thalia didn't realize she was holding her breath as he started singing.

The song was as beautiful as his voice, and for some reason was so much more real sounding than any of the songs on One Direction's album. It hadn't been unwillingly auto-tuned to fit expectations.

He got three yeses, and soon enough Thalia was laughing for no reason she could guess. The laugh sounded relieved, and Thalia felt suddenly after like cheering and crying out of joy.

Next it showed clips of different rounds all the boys went through separately, and Thalia felt as if her emotions were building through every time they sung and all of things they went through.

The only scene that really stuck out in her head though was Zayn hiding in the boot camp round. He couldn't dance, he said as he hid around back. Not being able to sit and watch Thalia started pacing, pausing and watching carefully as Simon Cowell came to talk to Zayn.

Thalia only remembered him from American Idol, and turned pale as she expected him to start scolding him- saying he was rubbish and completely worthless like she had remembered him saying frequently.

But he didn't- he only built Zayn up enough to go try again. 

And he made it through. Thalia felt on edge every time Zayn went through possibly being eliminated, and the dancing thing really made her nervous.

She imagined teaching him to dance, and really hoped she get a chance to later on. Frowning, she thought about how easily she could fall or make a fool of herself- and scratched that idea.

Thalia felt as if she was on an emotional rollarcoaster that just wouldn't stop. She felt like tearing out her own hair over these boys, while being on the verge of tears. It confused her so much.

Tears did gather in her eyes as all of the boys were eliminated from the competition. They all looked as if they were about to cry, and some of them actually broke down in tears. 

It broke Thalia's heart.

But soon enough they were being gathered up and shipped onto a stage together- and Thalia smiled, knowing what was going to happen.

"So we're putting you through as groups." One of the judges explained after building anxiety- being cut off by the excited screams that filled the room.

Watching the boys jump around and hug each other made Thalia feel like jumping around and screaming herself. In the end she did, though her screams were muffled through her hand.

"Thalia? What the hell are you doing?'

Freezing and dropping her hand to her side, Thalia slowly turned to where her door knob was being turned around from the outside.

"Were you screaming? And is there more screaming coming from the TV? And why do you have the door locked- what are you doing? Ja-"

"No Brenda. Just, no." Thalia answered calmly, moving across her room after pausing the tv. Jerking the door open fast enough for her sister to tumble into her- her sister moved back as if Thalia was diseased.

"You're such a loser, just wait until Jill hears about this-"

"What?" Thalia interjected, ignoring how averagely rude Brenda was sounding; playing with her hair like a stereotypical Valley girl.

"Haven't you heard? Of course you haven't you frigging hermit. Jill and me are like besties now. Kennedy was being a total-"

"You know, why don't you just go share with Jill. I'm sure she'll be able to help you out better than I would."

"No shit Sherlock."

With that Brenda flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted off to her room- which was blaring some inappropriate rap music. Her butt stuck out and shook as she walked, and she looked so oblivious as Thalia slowly went back into her room.

Slumping back into her chair Thalia could do nothing but stare at the ceiling for a couple minutes.

Arden had been right.

It was like real friends had become endangered animals to Thalia. Endangered animals that were being hunted and sold off in pieces.

Glancing upwards with glassy eyes Thalia took a long look at where she had paused the tv.

It was a beautiful coincidence; Zayn Malik giving a small smile to the camera in the paused scene.

But at that moment Thalia noticed just how far out of his league Thalia really was from Zayn. Before he was just a hundred miles ahead of her- Thalia thinking he was just an average little league, practising out of their garage type band.

But he was a professional singer. And he was famous as far as the X-Factor could take him. Honestly Thalia didn't even know the extent of how known he was, as she hadn't even watched to see if they had won yet.

She was such a loser, that one person everyone hated and never wanted to be with. They all had to have a reason to why, but Thalia was just to blind to see it. Zayn would probably see it.

 She became more nervous over ultimately interacting at all with Zayn.

What would someone like him want to do with someone like her?

She had a tiny bit of hope that they could have this picture perfect romance, where he would've care what they had said about her and would want to protect her more than him and his own reputation.

He'd change from Thalia's untouchable Angel to her guardian Angel.

Or maybe he'd be just another one of her tormentors. He could be an Angel, a Devil or someone that just doesn't care.

Thalia was hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Sighing as she successfully managed to make herself feel depressed- Thalia trudged across the room to turn her light off, not bothering to turn off the TV as she flopped into bed and fell asleep on top of the covers.

The light from the TV sent a soft glow across her features, all of which looked so calm and peaceful she slept.

On the TV, the soft and gently smiling Zayn watched over her the whole night.