Lacey

The moment I arrived at Skye’s and found out that the boys were here for dinner my stomach instantly dropped. I placed a smile on my face as my heart started to beat faster before I walked into the flat. I could see the boys on the couches but I ignored them and headed towards the girls who were sitting at the dining table.

I could feel Zayn’s eyes on me but I ignored him. I had woken up and snuck out of his flat this morning before he had even woke up, this time was the first time I had seen him since I slept with him and well I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. It wasn’t a habit of mine to go sleeping around with people who I was not in a relationship with at the time. But something about Zayn just made me want to be different, act however I wanted to. He gave me the freedom that my parents deprived me off.

Holding in the sigh I sat down in a chair at the dining table next to Tate.

“How did you feel this morning after last night?” Tate asked instantly. I glanced at her for a moment and saw her eyes practically light up.

“Just a massive headache,” I replied to her shrugging. She smiled widely before nodding in acceptance. I looked at her strangely.

Before long all the boys were called to the table for dinner. I groaned inwardly as Zayn took the seat next to me. Trying me best to ignore him I began to shovel food onto my plate. I spent the better part of the dinner successfully ignoring him as I continued to chat with Tate about her music.

“Hey, I actually have this charity concert coming up. And well do you think you would be interested in playing?” I asked her hopefully. She smiled at me.

“Of course! I will ask the others and get back to you but they will be okay with it.”

“Great! I’ll get the details ready and call your manager to set everything up.” I told her confidently.

“Are you going to ask us?” Zayn’s voice floated from the other side of me. Trying to act as normal as possible, I turned around to look at him. I tried to control my breathing as my brown eyes met his chocolate brown eyes. He was smiling at me innocently.

“Yes actually I was just about to.” I told him.

“The boys and I would love to do it,” Liam told me from across the table. Zayn turned to glare at his friend while I turned and smiled at him warmly.

“Thank you so much Liam,” I smiled largely at him. He smiled back happily, ignoring the glares he was getting from Zayn.

I glanced back down at my plate and almost jumped out of my chair when I felt Zayn’s hand brush against my thigh. I tried to keep on a casual face as I threw him a glare out of the corner of my eyes before casually placing my fork down and using my hand to push his away. I watched him smirk at his food before gently running his hand back up my thigh. I refrained from slapping it away. Instead I pushed it forcefully back to him and dug my nail in slightly. Enough to make him wince.

I stayed still for a moment until I was sure that Zayn wouldn’t try it again. Then I went back to eating my food.

Before long Harry was pulling out the wine, pouring us each a glass. I watched on seeming to be the only way confused other than Skye, to what was actually happening. Until Skye stated completely shocked that they had bought a house. I smiled widely at her, seeing how happy she was.

We all toasted them and drank some more before eating dessert. I watched how happy Skye was and felt a small feeling of resentment to her. She was living her dreams and I was stuck in an arranged marriage. Shaking my head, I tried to quickly get rid of the thoughts, it wasn’t Skye’s fault. No, it was my parents.

After dinner I walked into the kitchen to help Skye clean up.

“You’re a guest. You don’t have to help,” Skye said smiling at me as I began to put the plates away.

“I don’t mind,” I said smiling over at her. She smiled back largely and I knew the happiness she was feeling wasn’t because I was helping her out in the kitchen.

“You know I’ve never seen you this happy before,” I commented to her. She looked at me confused.

“When we first started hanging out, you were depressed a fair bit since Harry had just left. Then after a while you started to have more fun and I thought you were happy. But then I see you with Harry and I realised that you were nowhere near happy the whole time I knew you. You practically light up like a bloody Christmas tree whenever he’s around,” I told her. She blushed lightly.

“Saying he makes me happy isn’t enough. Doesn’t even cover exactly how Harry Styles makes me feel. He just, exactly that, makes me feel. He makes me feel so much and I can’t even describe what that’s like.” I laughed lightly at her making her blush more.

“I really wish you could have this Lace,” she said frowning at me. The happy moment instantly disappeared.

“Yeah, me too,” I whispered softly turning away from her. I wasn’t sure if she heard as she never replied but she placed a quick kiss on my cheek before going back to cleaning the kitchen.

I could hear my phone start to ring so I quickly walked out to my bag and glanced at the phone. It was Edmund. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion before stepping out onto the balcony to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Lacey, I just called to inform you that my father has agreed to donate a large sum of money to you charity concert.” Edmund said immediately through the phone, it took a couple of seconds for my brain to catch up.

“That’s great! Thank you so much,” I said happily into the phone.

“You’re welcome. My father and mother would like to have lunch with you. When is the most appropriate time?” I rolled my eyes at his formal voice.

“Uh Friday? I have classes every other day.” I told him.

“Friday it is. I will pick you up at 11:30, Goodbye.”

“Bye,” I said to the dial tone. Sighing I put my phone back into my bag and headed back inside.

“What are you doing Thursday?” Skye asked the moment I walked inside the door. I stared at her confused for a moment.

“I have class until lunch time,” I told her.

“Good, afterwards you’re going to help us start moving,” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Please,” she quickly added. I laughed and nodded at her.

I stayed at her place for a little longer before deciding it was time I headed home. Much to my annoyance Zayn offered to walk me down to my car. Knowing it would be too obvious if I flat out refused, I let Zayn lead me to the elevator.

“So what you’re just going to pretend that nothing happened?” Zayn asked me, stepping into the elevator and leaning against the wall, looking in my direction. I sighed and closed my eyes.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Wishing you away,” I mumbled. I heard him laugh.

“Does that usually work?” He asked me. I opened my eyes to stare at his smirking face.

“Never,” I responded.

“Look, you obviously enjoyed the other night. Don’t say you didn’t either. They weren’t screams of protest. So I’m just saying that maybe we could continue doing what we did the other night?” Zayn asked his eyes twinkling as we stepped out of the elevator and he cornered me against the car.

Anger instantly rose up inside of me. How dare he imply that?”

“What a fuck buddy?” I hissed at him angrily. He nodded at me obviously happy that he made me angry.

“Sorry, I’m engaged.” I told him. I watched in satisfaction as his eyes grew wide in shock. My turn to now smirk even though I wished that I could have used any other reason to shock Zayn Malik than stating that I was engaged. His eyes changed suddenly as he smirked at me.

“Obviously you’re not that in love with him.” He growled at me tugging on my hand and pulling me back to the building. I knew this was wrong. I knew I should pull my hand out of his, turn back to my car and leave.

But I couldn’t help but follow as I thought about the possibilities of what might happen. I couldn’t blame the alcohol this time. I was willingly following Zayn Malik up to his flat and into his bedroom. No questions asked.

I guess if I wanted an excuse I could say that I did it to hurt my parents, Edmund, everyone. But I knew I was doing this because Zayn made me feel wanted, made me feel like I was needed. I never had to act around him, I didn’t need to be perfect.

The moment I was pushed onto his bed his hands working hard to unbutton my shorts I couldn’t bring myself to regret the decision to do this. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that I was cheating. And I definitely couldn’t bring myself to turn Zayn Malik away.