“Zayn, wait up!” I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, into the sunlit path behind Zayn’s house. Zayn was running so fast and I knew he would win this race. He was always better at things like that. We’re fourteen, but we still enjoy messing around every once an da while and act like kids.

When I finally caught up to him, he was standing at the edge of his families property line, where the trees stopped and an open field started before us. “W-wow!” I breathed out, catching my breath. “This is awesome, Zayn.”

“You think?” Zayn looked back at me and I seemed a smile his way. He smiled back, urging me forward. “I found this place the other day. It’s kind of calming here.” Zayn’s hand fell from my shoulder and traveled down my back. I kept smiling, because he was right. That field behind his house was calming. 

Sometimes I would hear the Malik’s fighting next-door when my window was open in my bedroom. They were so loud sometimes and Zayn would sneak out just to get away from it all. I guess this was his place to go. “Are you okay?”

Zayn paused for a second, biting his lip. “No.” He finally said. “I’m not.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Zayn could always talk to me. I would always listen because he’s my best friend. Always has been. Always will be. “Zayn, you can tell me.” I urged him, grabbing both his shoulders and forcing him to face me. 

“I’m scared my parents won’t love me anymore.” Zayn muttered, face red. 

“What? No way. You mom and dad love you. Why wouldn’t they?” I patted Zayn’s shoulder, easing him into the conversation. 

“I-I think I-“ Zayn shook his head. “No, I can’t say.”

“Seriously, Zayn. I’m all ears.” I smiled even brighter just to make sure Zayn knew I had his back. “You can tell me anything.”

“I think I like guys.” Zayn blurted out. My smile faded and all the color drained from his face. “I mean-“

“So you’re gay?” I asked, almost understanding what he was talking about. 

“No.. I mean… Yeah. I don’t know Niall. I’ve never- I’ve never kissed a guy before.”

“But you’ve kissed Perrie. Didn’t you say you liked her?” I asked, trying to get things straight. Zayn shook his head, telling me ‘no.’ “How do you know you like guys if you haven’t even kissed a guy before?” I asked. I was only interested. I wasn’t against it or anything. My parents told me to be accepting, so that’s what I was doing. 

“I don’t know, Niall. I just keep thinking about it and then sometimes when I see Louis I-“ Oh. Louis. That’s who he likes. For some reason my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I was hurt about the news and when Zayn kept talking about his feelings, I realized that the same things he feels for Louis, I feel for him. “I just don’t know-“

“Why don’t you kiss me then?” I asked out of the blue. Zayn’s eyes widened. 

“W-what? No way. You’re like- my best friend. That’d be weird.” Zayn brushed it off, but his eyes locked on my lips. I just stood there silently and waited for him to make his decision. I was okay with whatever happened. I just wanted to help Zayn. “You’re serious?” I nodded. “Uhm- okay.” Zayn took a step forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Uh- okay. Here I go.”

His lips inched closer to mine. 

 I gasped, waking up in the Liam’s large car. My face was pressed to the glass of the window. I pulled away, feeling my skin stick slightly to the glassy surface. I rubbed my check and wiped my mouth from any residual drool that may have dripped from my mouth. I heard a clicking sound and then a flash blinded me. “Dammit, Harry!” I flailed my arms around and knocked Harry’s camera out of his hands. He was sitting in the far back of Liam’s SUV and managed to get a picture of me freshly woken up from a deep sleep. 

“That’s an expensive camera, Niall!” He whined, picking up his camera and inspecting it. 

“That’s what you get for taking pictures of me when I told you not to.” I huffed, crossing my arms over my shoulder. Everyone in the car laughed and I huddled deeper into my seat. That dream I had replayed memories of Zayn and I kissing for the first time. That was only four years ago and here we are still, sitting next to each other in a car heading off to the lake house. 

“Have a nice, nap?” Zayn spoke up next to me. I glanced over at him and blushed, nodding. I could feel my lips tingling from my dream. “We’re about to stop again soon, Liam said we need to get gas again.”

“Okay.” I yawned. Zayn went back to playing his video game and I looked around the car. Liam and Louis were bouncing around to whatever was playing on the radio and Harry was still boohooing over his camera. Zayn didn’t once look up to Louis during the trip so far which I was grateful for. I don’t know where Zayn’s crush on him went, but I guess it disappeared when Louis started dating Eleanor and Zayn knew it was hopeless so he started dating Perrie. 

We stopped at the next gas station to take a break and fill up the car. I stepped out, stretching my legs. Harry followed behind me, inspecting his camera in the sunlight. “You and that camera, I swear.” I rolled my eyes at Harry. He held his camera tightly to him and glared at me. I swear I could hear him whispering to the thing. 

“You never know when a great photo can be captured.” Harry professed. I chuckled, snatching his camera away and snapping a few pictures of Harry. Behind him was Zayn, running his hand through his hair. God, he looked perfect. I took a few pictures of him until he looked my way and smiled. 

“Sorry.” I muttered, handing Harry back his camera. 

“It’s fine. It’s really nice out, yeah?” Zayn approached me. 

“Yeah, just like that day.” I spoke softly, but tightened my lips into a thin line when I realized that I had just said. “Sorry. I don’t know why I said that.” I shook my head, taking a step back. That dream was really getting to me. I silently wished that Zayn and I could go back to that and not be like the strangers we are now. 

“It’s cool.” Zayn spoke in a hushed tone. “I was thinking about it the other day.” He confessed. This was too good to be true. 

Zayn needed to kiss me to figure out that he liked boys, and I guess I needed that too to figure it out about myself. When our lips touched shortly that day four years ago, I realized that my feelings were real and that it was okay to feel that way because other people did too. That night, after the field, I told my mom that I thought I liked boys and she was okay with it. My dad wasn’t so sure about it and it caused some strife in my house, but my parents weren’t meant to be together anyways. The divorce was one of the better things that had happened. 

“Y-You were?” I asked, Zayn, needing confirmation again. Zayn nodded. 

“Long time ago, yeah?” He asked. I nodded and we left the conversation at that. He remembered what happened and how he felt, which is so much more than I could ask for. 

“Hey, let’s get going! We still have a little bit to go!” Liam called out once he was out of the small connivence store that was attached to the gas station. Louis was next to him, arms full of snacks an drinks. We all piled back into the car and settled in for the last few hours of our trip to the lake house. 

I was starting to remember some of the landmarks and highway signs that were on the way to the lake house. It had been a long time since I had last been there. Longer than it had been since I first kissed Zayn. I was surprised that I remembered so much from the long trip. We only have about and hour and a half to go when we hit a wall of traffic. Cars were lined up for what seemed like miles and there was no seeing where they ended. 

“We’re so close.” Louis whined in the front seat. He kicked his feet up onto the dashboard, popping a handful of chips into his mouth. 

“Is there anyway to get around this?” Liam asked, squirming in his seat to hopefully see around some of the cars in front of us. We were going at a slow crawl down the street, stopping for fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there. Overall, we weren’t covering much road. “Maybe a different route?” He asked. 

“I think we should just stay on the road and wait it out.” I spoke up. Harry agreed with me and so did Zayn, but with Louis and Liam in the front seat, they were in control of the car and the directions. After another agonizingly slow ten minutes of crawling down the highway, Louis poked his head out of the window and then came back inside with a wide grin on his face. 

“There’s an exit up there!” Louis beamed, pointing forward. “We can take that, get around this traffic and then get back on the highway.” I didn’t think it was such a great idea because there was nothing but long country roads from here on out until we got to the lake house. The highway was the fastest route and I just really wanted us to stick with it. 

“Sounds good.” Liam started to get over three lanes until he was in the right lane to get off the highway. The far lane moved a little faster than normal because other cars had the same idea as Liam and Louis to get off the highway. 

“Alright, my GPS says to take this road until Tree Crest Lane.” Louis acted as second in command with his phone in his hand, telling Liam which way to go. I watched as the other cars that had gotten off the highway with us, pulled down other roads until we were the only ones left. Our day of driving was turning into night when we finally made it to Tree Crest Lane. Louis opened his mouth to say what the next direction was, but cursed out instead. “Shit.”

“What happened?” Zayn spoke up, setting down his game. 

“I lost the signal on my phone.” Louis smacked his phone as if that would bring back the signal. “Come on, you stupid thing.” He grumbled. 

“Hey, now. Which way am I going?” Liam asked, his voice getting higher in pitch. We were at a fork in the road, both ways looking exactly the same. We idled at the stop sign until a car pulled up behind us, light glaring in our mirrors. “Come on, Louis. I need to know left or right.” Liam pushed. 

“I-I think it said right, no left.” Louis hit his phone again, but there still wasn’t a signal. The car behind us honked it horn, but we didn’t know which way to go.  The car behind us honked again. “Just go left.” Louis snapped. “We can turn around if we need to.” Liam did what Louis told him and we were heading down the dark road. Trees lined both sides and we passed a few signs, one being a hotel sign that said ‘vacancy,’ the ‘no’ part hanging loosely from the hinge it was attached to. 

We didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the highway, so it was time to turn around. “Told you we should have stayed on the highway.” I mumbled. Zayn chuckled next to me, obviously hearing me. I blushed and stretched my legs out as far as it was possible in the cramped seats of Liam’s SUV. Liam pulled to the side of the road and shut the van off quickly. 

“Why’d we stop?” Harry asked, popping up from the back seat. He had been sleeping for the most part. Thank god. I didn’t think I could handle Harry taking more pictures. 

“I gotta piss.” Liam huffed, getting out of the car and walking over to the tree line. We ended up all getting out of the SUV and taking a leak. My bladder was fuller than I thought. I sighed and zipped up my pants. I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned to see Zayn quickly looking away, zipping up his own pants. I inwardly sighed because I wished Zayn would just admit his feelings to himself. I obviously liked him, so much that it hurt sometimes to see him with other people, but he was always lying to himself. He needed to give in to his feelings or else they would eat him alive. 

We all piled back into the car to turn back down the road and find a different route to the lake house. Liam turned the keys in the ignition and the car clicked, lights flickering, and then went dead. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Liam punched his steering wheel. The horn didn’t even beep. “It was fine a minute ago!” He tried again with the keys, but the car did the same thing, clicked a few times and then went dead. “Ugh! Louis, tell me you have your signal back?” Louis pulled his phone out and frowned, shaking his head. “Anyone else? Signal?”

I check my phone. Nothing. Zayn’s screen lit up, but he frowned and then Harry did the same thing. Liam was checking his phone and then shot his first into the air. “Yeah! Two bars!” He cheered, pushing a few buttons and then pressing his phone to his ear. It was dead silent in the car as we listened for the call tone. It went once, then twice, then nothing. “Dammit.” Liam cursed. “Lost the signal.” 

Great, just great. We were stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, in a dead car with no signal to call for help. Awesome. If only we had stayed on the highway like I had said, this wouldn’t have happened.

“What now?” Zayn asked, leaning forward, resting his elbow on Louis seat. 

“There was that hotel sign about a mile back.” Liam gripped the steering wheel hard and then relaxed. 

“Maybe they have a phone we can use to call someone to help us out.” Harry leaned over Zayn and I’s seats, fiddling his thumbs together. “We should bring our bags with us just in case we can’t get someone to come out tonight.”

“That’s a good idea.” Zayn backed up my friend. “How about it, guys? It’s the best chance we’ve got.” He shrugged, Louis nodded, so did Liam. It was Harry’s idea so he was in. I had a bad feeling about it, but I saw no other way to deal with our current situation other than sleeping in the car at night, which wasn’t ideal. 

“Niall?”

“Sure, why not.”

A/N: I'm in love with writing this story. Please vote and comment!

Much Love

Jachxx