Chapter 4 ― Mila

As soon as I opened my eyes I regretted drinking so much the night before. My head throbbed and everything seemed so bright it hurt. I groaned and rolled on my bed trying to get even more under the covers, but soon I felt someone taking a seat next to me. “Take these. You’ll feel better.”

That was my best friend’s voice and I smiled mentally —because externally I could only groan— as I pulled my head out of the sheets to see her. Moni was smiling and holding a mug with what I hoped was hot black tea. “On the nightstand you have some aspirins and water. Drink it all before the tea, you need to rehydrate if you wanna get better from that hangover,” she reminded me and I nodded ever so slowly. Every movement made everything so damn painful.

“Thanks,” I mumbled trying to sit straight on my bed. She helped me knowing that I was a complete failure as human being when I woke up from a night clubbing. For that and so many other reasons it was why I loved her so much. She knew me better than no one else and she was always taking care of me. We had each other and I was totally okay with that. “What time is it?” I asked swallowing the two white pills and drinking all the water in the glass.

“Past noon. I’m gonna prepare lunch and you can come with me to the kitchen so you can tell me everything. When I picked you up at the club you were really moody. Something wrong?” The brunette inquired handing me the mug with English Breakfast Tea. The best thing to wake up.

I remembered the night before and why I was moody. It was all Zayn’s fault and his big egotistical being. I wasn’t a piece in his game, if he wanted someone to help him to forget about Alex, he could find that someone as far away from me as possible. Yeah, he could be funny and I didn’t have a bad time with him at the club, but he needed to learn that he wasn’t the centre of the universe. I truly hated those people whose egos were bigger than the whole Solar System.

“Zayn is an arsehole. That’s what happened. I was trying to be nice and giving him an advice and he just took me like I was something to be used. No! I’m not!” I complained too loud and my head almost killed me as revenge.

Moni furrowed her brow and looked at me for a few seconds. “And why would that be?”

“He’s head over heels for Alex and I just told him he had to get over her, but he just assumed that I was there to help him out. Me? Like I was going to be his rebound or whatever. I don’t care if he’s famous or the most desired man on Earth, I’m not a toy,” I lectured holding my mug closely to me and then taking a sip of my dear drink.

“Famous? Wait, am I missing something important here?” Moni really looked confused and for a second I allowed myself to chuckled. Sure thing, I regretted it.

“Yeah, he’s from this band you also like, One Direction,” I explained offhandedly.

“I can be his rebound. I don’t care. He’s hot!” I laughed and I really hated my friend for making me laugh when I was with such a horrible hangover.

“I agree on that point. He’s hot, but he’s not worth it. He’s a dick.”

She grinned mischievously and waggled her eyebrows. “I’m very tolerant, I can deal with that.”

“Stop it! You make me laugh and I can’t do that! I have a hangover!” I recriminated her after I chuckled again. She just smiled and I shook my head slowly trying to avoid more pain. That was why I had to avoid drinking rum, it always gave me the worst hangovers ever. I didn’t know why I decided to go with that the night before. Again, it was Zayn’s fault.

+ + + + +

“Alex is calling you. Should I tell her that you’re extremely busy making my cupcakes?” Moni asked me from her seat in the middle of our not-so-small kitchen. I was concentrated, really concentrated on making these cupcakes. Those damn things always needed so much work, but they were worth it.

“Tell her I’ll call her back,” I replied, my eyes focused on stirring the mix and counting.

I heard her taking my phone and soon her voice was clear and polite. “Mila’s phone, her lovely yet incredibly amazing best friend is talking. May I help you?” I chuckled at her silly games and tried no to pay too much attention to what she was saying. “She is busy in this very moment. She has her hands in a very and serious task, but she can call you back or I can deliver your message, miss Alex.” If Alex just knew I was making cupcakes. Moni made it sound like I was in a secret mission for the Queen.

The mix was ready and I needed to put it in the moulds, meanwhile Moni kept listening to whatever Alex was telling her. “Oh, she would love to go! She hasn’t stopped talking about him.” And then I froze. What was Moni doing?! I turned around and saw her evil grin as she stood up and walked very calmly out of the kitchen.

“Móniren Davis. What. Are. You. Doing?” I asked, teeth gritted and holding the spoon too tight.

“I know, it gets annoying after a while. It’s clear he made a big impression on her.” That little piece of shit! She was lying shamelessly just for the sake of making me suffer. “Sure, she’ll be there like in an hour or so. As I told you, she’s busy right now.” I was going to kill her. I didn’t know where I was supposed to go, but there was no way in hell I was going to be in the same room as Zayn again. I rather jump from the window right now. “You can bet on that, girl!” She added chuckling and with a terrible American accent. “You too, dear. And don’t worry, she’ll be there.”

I could guess she hung up because soon she was in the kitchen again, holding the fucking phone and that damn contented smile on her face, the same face I was going to destroy. “What did you do, Moni?” I asked, still holding the spoon, ready to attack. I totally forgot about the mix and the cupcakes. If they got ruined, it was going to be Moni’s fault.

“Oh, nothing, I just agreed for you to go to Alex’s house to enjoy this lovely afternoon. I believe they will make a BBQ. They will watch a game, so I just assumed you’d love to go,” she replied offhandedly waving her hand like fanning herself.

“Zayn is gonna be there, Moni. Do you want me to kill someone today?” I demanded, really pissed off, and watching her acting like it wasn’t the big deal only made my blood boil even more.

“The more reason to go. You can’t hate him! Plus, it’s true that you’ve talked about him the whole day. I just thought it would be good for you two to agree to a truce, you know?” She looked at me intently and I bit my lips. Yeah, maybe it was true that I kept talking about Zayn the whole day, but I didn’t say positive things. Well, not too many. After all, the boy wasn’t that terrible, he was just too self-centred. “Now focus on those cupcakes ‘cos after that, I’m taking you to Alex’s house, so you can drink but please, avoid rum.”

I rolled my eyes and breathed deep. I could do it. It couldn’t be that hard. I could be in the same room as Zayn and not kill him, or talk to him. It was a fairly big house, there were going to be more people, I could talk to them and forget the black-haired boy was going to be there as well. Yes, I could do it, and maybe Moni was right, we could agree to a truce.

I got back to my task and finished with the cupcakes. For some reason, I was getting nervous and anxious. Silly me, I didn’t have a reason to get nervous, it was just a BBQ with a very infuriating boy and other friends. Well, just Alex was my friend and I could guess that Niall was getting into that category —I really liked that boy, he made Alex so happy and he was so sweet and cute.

After the cupcakes were done, I picked a few —because I made so many as Moni really loved my cupcakes— and put them to go. My friend took the keys of my car and took me to Alex house. We had to call her to ask for directions, as I’d never been there before. During the ride I got even more anxious and Moni noticed.

“C’mon, relax, Mila. It’s gonna be fine, you won’t end up in jail,” she reassured me glancing at me for a second.

“I’m not sure. But I guess as long as you’re not there, everyone will be safe,” I mused with a little smile.

“Thank you,” she replied honestly. Yeah, we both could be pretty violent sometimes, but I could be aggressive only verbally while Moni was the muscles in our relationship. I knew that if I told her that Zayn was doing me wrong, she would pick a fight with him in my name. “But seriously, try to clear things up with him. He can’t be that bad.”

“You will give your opinion when you meet him. Till then, you believe me. He’s terrible.”

“But you always overreact. That’s our thing!” we both laughed at that because it was true, we lived out of hyperboles.

“No, but this time is real. He’s awful! You’ll see!” Because the least I could do was to introduce my best friend.

We finally got to Alex’s house and after we knocked at her door, a black-haired and gorgeous girl opened it. She had a beautiful smile and amazing blue eyes. “Hi there, you must be Mila, Alex’s friend. I’m Belle,” she introduced herself and Moni and I smiled.

“Yes, I’m Mila and this is my friend Moni. Nice to meet you,” I said in my nicer tone.

“You staying, too?” She asked and it seemed like she would be delighted with my friend’s presence.

“Oh, I can’t. I have to write an essay, but thanks for asking,” Moni replied with one of her own smile. “Though I’d love to meet this famous Alex. Mila talks about her a lot.”

“So does Alex! I don’t understand why we didn’t meet before.” I liked Belle, she was nice and had this honest vibe that made you feel comfortable around her. “Please, come in.”

Belle led us into the house. It wasn’t big but it wasn’t small either. Comfortable and so homey, with the right amount of furniture and a very feminine decoration, though you could see Alex’s hand somewhere, like that vintage collection poster of Captain America on the wall of the stairs. We walked to the living room were six boys were sitting and chilling out. There were three other girls but I just knew Alex. When she saw me she stood up and came to greet me. I noticed that since she and Niall got together, she was way more affective with people. “Thanks for coming, Mila!” She told me and the boy with black hair turned around, his eyes meeting mine.

“I didn’t have an option. This is Moni, who set me up for this,” I told her and Alex just laughed as she shook Moni’s hand.

“I’ve heard loads of you. Let me introduce you to the rest.” We approached to the rest and Alex started to introduce one by one. “Well, this lovely from here is Niall, my boyfriend. Mila, you already know Zayn here.” Both boys nodded and smiled, but Zayn’s eyes were on me all the time and I started to get nervous and self-confident. “Right here you have Dan, Belle’s boyfriend. This one is Louis, and she’s Eleanor, his girlfriend, but he also has a relationship with Harry, the curly here. Polygamy is allowed nowadays, you know?” Moni laughed and so did I. “And here you have Liam and Danielle. Phebs went out, but you’ll meet her soon.”

We said hello to everyone and I saw that Moni was grinning like stupid. Yeah, she liked One Direction and it probably felt really weird for her to meet them. I felt weird myself, not sure of what to do next. Alex treated them so normally, like there were any other boys in the world and not the super mega ultra famous popstars they actually were. They seemed nice and all of them were incredible hot. Not fair.

“Stupid essay,” Moni whispered and I laughed knowing so well that she would rather stay with us and these boys. I didn’t blame her, if it wasn’t for Zayn, I would be delighted to be here.

“How are you?” Zayn asked me and I tensed. I wanted to ignore him, to pretend he wasn’t there, but I didn’t want to seem rude in front of all these people.

“Still with a bit of hangover, but I’m okay. Thank you,” I replied coldly and I felt my friend’s stare on me.

Zayn didn’t try to ask anything else, understanding that I was still mad at him and I didn’t want to make a little chat with him. Moni stayed with us, talking to each other and fangirling a bit, but soon she had to go, but, obviously, before leaving she had to make something to embarrass me.

“He’s not that bad. Always so exaggerated, but I still love you,” she hugged me as I stood there with my eyes wide open. “Bye, everybody! It was nice to meet you. Now I’ll go home and fangirl over the fact I met you, then I’ll write my damn essay. I better get an A,” she mused as she walked away, most of the people there were laughing, but I was dead serious and so was Zayn.

“Who isn’t that bad?” He asked and suddenly all eyes were on me. Damn you, Moni.

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This chapter is dedicated to my lovely Cami who always leaves a beautiful comment. Shout out for @Ccamiibori

BTW, the official name for Mila and Zayn couple is #Zila!

Make sure to read my other story: RADIO INTERVIEW!

Bel, xx!