Regardless of being caught, Natalia didn’t really care what happened. When she got home, her dad was waiting to give her a huge lecture, but when did she ever listen to those? Growing up, she used to hate her dad’s lectures. But now, she learned to completely ignore them and this time was no different. She sat there in her living room for a good twenty minutes just zoning out. She did catch a few things but they weren’t important. They were mostly about how privileged she was and how much they couldn’t trust her anymore and blah, blah, blah. She honestly didn’t care and didn't have the time to care. As soon as she was allowed to go, she ran to her room and locked the door, only to be annoyed by a knock.
“What?” she snapped as she threw open the door, not caring if she showed her annoyance.
“Give me your phone. You didn’t expect no punishment, did you?” her mom stood in the doorframe.
Natalia almost handed her phone to her mom, almost. But then she remembered that she had given Zayn her number and he could text her anytime.
“I can’t! What if it’s an emergency or something?” Natalia said, innocently.
Her mom gave her the death glare. “You’re not going out of the house for a while. What emergency could happen?”
“What if something happens at home?”
“We’d be here.”
“What if you guys aren’t home?”
“Then your brother can come.”
“What if he can’t?”
“We have a house phone.”
“What if I can’t reach it?”
“You can go next door to you cousin’s house and get help.”
“What if she’s not home?”
“NATALIA!” her mom shouted, losing her patience completely. “Okay. Give me your iPod. You don’t need that unless it’s a music emergency.”
Natalia pretended to be sad as she handed over her iPod but she honestly wasn’t. On the inside, she was dancing. She had won.
She shut the door behind her mom and plugged her phone into it’s charger since it died on the way to her house. She opened up her text message. The first one was from Isa that said, “Oh my gosh I completely forgot my iPod has a texting app. Yesssss. Phone taken away, but my parents don’t know I can still text >:D let me know if yours is taken. lol who am I kidding it’s gone already you’ll probably read this in a few months when you get it back. love you boo xx”
Natalia smiled as she replied, “haa, we got our punishments backward! I have no iPod, but still phone. I completely win this time. Im tired text me tomorrow:) good night :) x”.
She checked her next one from Gaby, “Oh my goodness, Nati, what did you guys get yourselves into!? I’ll walk over tomorrow and you have to tell me everything that Isa didn’t okay? Love you :)” Nati replied, “you have NOO idea. Hope I’m allowed to have visitors hahahah going to sleep night! :) x”
She went back to her inbox and saw a text from an unknown number. She opened it and her heart shot out of her chest. She jumped off her bed, wiggled her butt, jumped back on and screamed into her pillow. Zayn texted her.
The text message read, “Hey Natalia! It’s Zayn. :) Hope you got home okay and I didn’t get you into too much trouble for being late. Thanks for helping me tonight. :) x”
Natalia closed her eyes and then opened her eyes again. How was this real? She laughed into her pillow, she was so extremely giddy now. She stood up and looked in the mirror. She was looking at someone that had spent a few hours from Zayn Malik, gotten a text from him, and was now trying to think of a reply. This was the best night ever. She threw herself onto her bed, sat up, got comfortable and thought of her reply.
“Heyy! :) I just got home, I’m not in trouble. It was no problem honestly, I had a good time. :) xx”. She pressed send and rolled around in her bed. If her friends saw her, they would accuse her of fangirling, but she didn’t mind. She kept rolling around in happiness until she fell off. She hit the floor and just kept laughing at herself. Hopefully he’d text her back this week. He was so busy it probably would take a few days. Should she have waited a day or two before replying? Great. What if she seemed desperate? She looked at her text. She put two x’s at the end of it. Should she have put one. Just when she was starting to question everything, her phone buzzed. Her heart was racing. She opened her text messages and saw the text she got from … Isa. Yay. It read, “alrighty love, hope you have a good night bye .xx”
Nati didn’t bother replying as her phone buzzed with another text. She quickly opened it and saw Zayn’s number. She pinched herself on the arm. It was real. It was all real. She started crying years of happiness. This was usually the type of thing to happen in her dreams not in real life. She opened the text which read, “I’m glad you had a good time, I did too! ;) was your friend mad that we made her wait? x x”
Why was everything so amazing right now? She had to hold herself back from screaming again. He put a winky face. Was he flirting with her!? No. He couldn’t be. That was just too dreamy to be reality. She text him back, “Actually my mom ended up picking me up. She was kinda annoyed but it’s all good! :) how mad was Paul and the other boys? x”
She faced up on her bed with her arms at her side snow angel style. She set her phone down next to her and turned off her lights. Yawning loudly so that her parents would think she went to sleep, she got in bed and just held her phone on top of her chest. Almost immediately her phone buzzed with another text from Zayn. “They were pretty pissed but I guess it was worth it ;) we’re kinda bored because we’re staying in this town for another three weeks and we don’t really know what to do. Do you have any suggestions ? x x”
She cracked her fingers before pressing reply, “There are a lot of theme parks around :) you could go to Sea World or Wet n’ Wild or something like that? xx” She sent it and then kissed her phone screen. He put another winky face. Oh my goodness. Another flacking winky face. Her smile seemed to be permanently etched into her face. It was so lucky that she met Zayn. It could have been any of the boys. Louis, Harry, Niall or Liam. But it had been Zayn. It was just too perfect.
Buzz. Natalia opened the new text.
“That’s a good idea! :) we’re thinking about going to one on Friday actually. would you want to come with us or something? X x”
She died. She had to have died. This was heaven. Zayn Malik was inviting her somewhere. This was too much for her. She set down her phone for a minute and shook her head. She looked at the ceiling and whispered, “thank you.”
She replied, “that sounds like a lot of fun! I would love to go with you guys. :) thanks for inviting me! x”
Natalia bit her lip to prevent another oncoming scream. She had to go with him. She didn’t care what her parents had to say. She was going. It was final.
She opened another text from Zayn, “alright love, sounds like a plan! :) I’ll text you tomorrow morning okay? I have to go, good night! Sleep well :) x x”
Oh my gosh, Natalia thought. He called me love. What is air. He’s texting me tomorrow. Omg omg omg.
“Good night! Hope you sleep well too! :) byeeee. xx”. Natalia sent her last text message before turning her phone off and putting it under her pillow. She had to get some sleep.
As she closed her eyes, she began to drift off into a heavy sleep. She smiled briefly to herself before falling into unconsciousness.
