Ladies First (Zayn Malik) Book 4

Chapter 12

“Dibs on the big room” I shout as the cars pull up to the X Factor Mansion.

“Hey not fair! There’s 5 of us!” Ben shouts as he races after me up to the house.

“But we’re girls, we have more stuff” Carmen says, pushing past him to catch up with me.

“Sorry” Hannah says with an impish smile, as she follows Carmen past. She’d begun warming up more to the boys, letting her guard down. The three of us quickly open doors to find the biggest one before the boys.

“Girls” I call dropping my bag onto a bed, a triumphant smile on my face as I look around the room. It was one with a connecting bathroom so we wouldn’t have to share with anyone else. They both rush in, their faces splitting into smiles as they see the room.

“I can’t believe we’re here!” Carmen shrieks throwing an arm around Hannah and me, pulling us into a group hug.

“Can you keep it down? We can hear you through the walls” a voice jokes and I turn to the door to see Josh standing there.

“Oh no! You’re our neighbors?” I tease as Nathan appears in the doorway behind Josh.

“You know you love it” Nathan says with a smirk.

“Of course I do. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to your face every morning” I say squeezing his cheek like a little child. He laughs, swatting my hand from his face and shaking his head with a laugh. “Now get lost you guys, we need to unpack” They head back to their room and I can hear their muffled laughter through the wall.

“So rehearsals start tomorrow so what’s the plan for today?” Carmen asks, flopping down on the bed.

“Can it involve food? I’m hungry” Hannah says, rubbing her stomach.

“What if we go to the mall? We can get lunch at the food court then go shopping” I say with a smile.

“Yes!” Carmen says, her face alighting. I call a taxi and when it gets to the house the three of us hop in and ask the driver to take us to the nearest mall since we had no idea where it was. We stop by the food court and grab some lunch before beginning wandering the mall.

“Ohh come on, in here!” I squeal, grabbing Carmen’s arm and pulling her into the music store as she grabs Hannah’s dragging her along also. I’d always loved music stores. Even though I’d never been able to afford anything, just seeing all the albums would make me happy. I always saved whatever I made from work to get new albums. I pick a random place to start searching. Back at home, Haley and I would look through a bunch of random sections and try to find the funniest album covers. I can’t hold back the bark of laughter that hits me when I flip to the next album. I quickly snap a picture.

@MusicJunkyEm: Hey @Haleybob. How about this one? Bears a striking resemblance to @NextGeneration, doesn’t it? http:xmnjhcv…

I grin, flicking through some of my mentions while I wait a moment to see if Haley responds. I was shocked as I start getting tons of replies to the picture I’d tweeted her, a lot of them asking for a follow or retweet. With a grin, I start following and retweeting as many of them as I can. The fact that they were so excited to get my attention was insane. The least I could do is make them happy. As I start following and retweeting, more and more asks start flooding in.

“Yes!” Carmen shouts, pulling me out of the following trance. I look over to see her grab a cd from the stacks.

“What is it?” I ask, pocketing my phone again.

“It’s Cher Lloyd’s cd! It finally came to America!” she says excitedly, flipping it around so I can see it.

“Cher Lloyd…” I say, my brow furrowing as I try to remember why that name sounded familiar.