{ON HOLD} Melt|Zauren

M.11

The day after my birthday, Normani invited is all to go midnight bowling. Camila was supposed to drive but Troy insisted he drives, and so Ally sat in the passenger seat and Camila and I sat in the backseat. "I have the biggest crush on Zayn," I said biting down on my bottom lip and gazing out the window at the brightly lit buildings.

"Make a move!" Camila said. "Harry and I kissed last night and I nearly melted into the pavement." I remember Camila telling me last night and she repeated the story several times. "I can't just make a move, Camz. He said he doesn't want to date and he's just going to think I'm even more of a stalker if I try to make a move, so I'm just going to refrain at all costs."

"Not true," Ally said from the front seat. "I made the move on Troy. Right honey?" Ally smiled.

"She sure did."

"By stalking him. I thought he was cute and I figured out that he eats lunch at the same time I went to the caf. and bam! I did the old dropping my orange on the ground in front of him, he picked it up, told me I was adorable and look at us now," Ally reached over and squeezed his cheek.

"Lovely story," I laughed. "But Zayn said he doesn't want to be in a relationship for a while because he's still trying to recover from his relationship with his psychotic ex girlfriend."

"She couldn't have been that psycho that he doesn't want to date," Troy said. I made a face and raised an eyebrow. Camila answered this for me. "She bashed his car in because she thought he was cheating on her."

"Yikes.." Troy gulped.

"While Lauren was in the car," Camila added. I got into details as to why I was in the car. "Okay.. maybe she's a little psychotic.." Troy changed his mind.

"I think you should persue it still Lauren. I haven't seen you this smitten with a guy.. ever. Not even your last boyfriend."

"I'm not going to push something that he doesn't want pushed," I said.

"He's into you. I saw the way he was looking at you yesterday while you weren't looking. I could almost see the twinkle in his eye," Camila said. "But maybe I'm seeing things... but maybe not," she acted like she zipped her mouth shut. I rolled my eyes and ruffled my fingers through my hair, continuing on with my staring out the window.

We got to the bowling alley and we were met by Dinah and Niall. "Hey ya'll," Ally greeted them and we hugged them.

"Where are the others?" Camila asked. Dinah pointed to the entrance door. I could see the strobe lights flashing and hear the muffled music.

"And don't you two ladies worry your little minds. Your guys are here," Dinah said with a wink and we followed her in. I nearly laughed. "Our guys?"

"Zayn and Harry. Don't act like you don't know," she said. Shit. I wish he was my guy, but him saying he didnt plan on being in a relationship for a while was constantly playing in my head.

After we got our rental shoes and the perfect bowling ball, we headed over to the two lanes and met up with the others. "Stalker. It's good to see ya," Zayn said when I sat down. I smiled a little and slipped out of my shoes. "Did you have a good birthday yesterday?" he asked. I nodded my head and pushed my hair to one side. "It was great, yeah. Better than I thought actually. I had fun."

"I had a nice time too," Zayn said glancing over at Liam who was typing in our names. "Well, I'd expect you to have a good time, you're big on mom thrown parties and and all," I teased. Zayn laughed at that and nodded his head. "This is correct."

Things went back to silence between Zayn and I. I was watching as Normani and Louis went against each other to bowl. The guys decided on doing boys vs. girls, but that wasn't fair because they had one more than us, so Dinah decided to bowl twice.

"You bowl a lot?" Zayn asked when it was Camila and Harry's turn. I shook my head. "Not since Camila had a bowling pizza party when we turned twelve," I informed him with a giggle. "I think I still have the mighty touch though." Zayn laughed and shook his head.

"We'll see about that. I just might have to purposely go easy on you," he said.

It was our turn eventually and I apparently did have the mighty touch. I got a strike as soon as I bowled and Zayn got a gutterball. I continued on the random lucky streak getting spares or anything more than Zayn except for the one time I got a gutter ball and he got a strike.

The girls ended up losing to the guys but if we're talking about the people we went up against, I completely annihilated Zayn. "You were no competition," I said handing in my bowling shoes.

"Yeah, yeah, talk it up." He placed his bowling shoes beside mine on the counter. "Did you ever think, maybe I let you win?"

"Oh yeah right," I said.

"It's something to think about," Zayn winked.

The man that owned the alley told us our total and as I went to hand him my debit card, Zayn pushed my hand aside, his credit card in hand. "I've got the tab," he said.

"No. That's totally fine. I'll pay for myself," I said.

"Consider it your added birthday gift," he said.

He's into you. Camila's words came back full force in my mind. I pushed them aside though and followed Zayn outside. The others were standing around waiting. "We're going to the diner." Normani pointed across the street. "You guys up for it?" I looked across at the Miami diner that I'd never even been to. "Sure," Zayn said. "I could use a meal after using all my energy on bowling."

We all crossed the street and headed into the surprisingly crowded diner. "Table for eleven," Harry said. The hostess stared at us like we were crazy. "Just give me a minute to put a table together for all of you and then I'll be right back," she gave us a fake smile and walked away.

Once we were all seated and ordered everyone seemed to be in seperate conversations. I was just hungry so I sat there in silence hoping the egg sandwich I ordered five minutes ago would waltz it's way over to the wooden table top before me.

"Zayn, don't look now but crazy ex girlfriend alert," Louis said in barely a whisper. Not only did Zayn look, but all eleven of us looked. Selena was standing there by the podium as the hostess gathered silverware and utensils for the group of four. Selena was laughing at something a friend was saying until her blonde friend nodded in the direction of us.

"Fuck. We've been caught," Louis cursed. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. The hostess walked the four to their table that was thankfully not near us and then Selena made her way to our table. "We can never quite escape you, can we?" Liam said to her. Selena gave him a forced smile and rolled her eyes.

"You lied to me," Selena said loudly.

"Lied to you? Lied to you about what?" Zayn asked confused. Selena then gestured toward me and had this fury in her eyes that I was unfortunate to witness the night she bashed in Zayn's car. "I didn't lie to you," he said. "Can we have a minute to talk outside before you make a big scene?" Zayn slid out of his chair and pulled Selena with hin outside.

"Well that was awkward.." Ally said.

"That's Selena for you," Louis said. "She's likely going to have some sort of pity fest and Zayn is going to feel bad."

Zayn and Selena were outside of the window and I couldn't hear them, only muffled. I watched their expressions though and I could see that they were arguing due to Selena flailing her arms and Zayn's facial expressions. Selena started to walk away but Zayn pulled her by the arm back to him, and I could see that their were tears in her eyes. She's likely going to have a pity fest. There was no talking on Zayn's end but I could see that Selena was still speaking. Zayn wrapped his arms around Selena in a hug. and Zayn is going to feel bad.

"That's how she sets the trap," Niall added in.