Hate Love

“It’s time to get up Mel!” Kaylee ordered as she banged on my bedroom door. “We’re leaving in an hour!” I groaned, pushed off my duvet and pulled myself out of the bed. I stumbled into the hallway and into the bathroom. After showering and brushing my teeth, I made my way back to my room to get dressed. No thought was put into my choice of denim jean shorts and a blue v neck t-shirt. My black DC kicks were the first shoes I saw so I shoved my feet into them. My hair was in its natural curly state held back by a white headband. Ava and Erin were in the living room sitting on the off-white leather sofa. Ava wore denim capris and a purple graphic tee with black Yellow Box flip flops. Erin wore faded skinny jeans with a white long sleeve t-shirt and black Jordan shoes. Kaylee joined us in gray baggy sweats and an orange camisole with silver flip flops.
“I’ll drive,” I offered. “I need to stop by Starbucks,” we made our way to the garage and got in the black Range Rover.
“You’re addicted to that place,” Erin commented as I pulled out of the driveway. It was quicker to go through the drive through. Once the barista handed me the bag of six vanilla bean scones and two venti coffee cups, we headed to the studio. “Let’s go,” Erin sang ironically as we walked into the studio.
“Crazy crazy crazy until we see the sun,” we all sang along trying to find the right recording studio, “I know we only met but let’s pretend it’s love and never ever ever stop for anyone. Tonight let’s get some and live while we’re young.” We stopped right as we entered the room and found One Direction. My cheeks instantly grew hot. Our usual engineer, Mark Hanson, and our favorite platinum songwriter, Bryan Hatfield, were present as well in his typical black t-shirt and dusty jeans.
“There they are,” Mark greeted us with a relieved smile.
“Ladies,” Bryan hugged each of us. He produced our first single Hit Right Here (written solely by us) and wrote the title track which made it to number one in over ten countries. It’s needless to say that we always wanted to work with him again afterwards. “It’s so good to see you again. We were about to start without you.” As he talked I snuck over to the small black futon where Zayn sat. I handed him one of the coffee cups and he accepted it gratefully. Bryan was still talking, but Ava noticed me. She shot me a curious glance and I quickly put space between me and Zayn. When Ava was suspicious there wasn’t a way to throw her off.
“Do you have any ideas?” Bryan asked us.
“I know that we are interested in doing something upbeat,” Liam answered.
Louis nodded in agreement, “Yeah something catchy.”
“Melanie started an upbeat song some weeks ago that we could build on,” Kaylee offered. Suddenly all attention was on me.
“Do you have the song on you?” Bryan asked.
I blushed, “No, but it was mainly ‘Under the sun there’s no other place we wanna go.’ And that’s all I had.” I sang the short line confidently.
Harry nodded, “I think we can work with that.”
“That’s all I really got and it’s not even a full chorus,” I piped in.
Bryan shook his head, “It’s a good start, but we need to put it to music.” Erin went to the keyboard and began to play the first fun-going upbeat rhythm of notes that came to mind. Ava nodded and began to sing. Harry joined in adding his own line. Bryan nodded along picking up a guitar and strumming a few chords. Eventually were deep into the songwriting process. By noon we had a complete song ready to be recorded.
“Let’s take a lunch break,” Bryan suggested.
“I need food” Niall eagerly agreed. We all stood walking out of the studio. We had broken off in small groups conversing about everything.
“We’ll meet you at Hawksmoor,” Kaylee called to Liam, Harry and Niall.
I groaned, “I don’t want that.” I pouted like a kid knowing eventually I would get my way.
“Hey mates I’m going to meet Eleanor,” Louis informed his friends. They all nodded.
“I rather have Wagamama,” Zayn announced. I nodded in agreement.
“You rode with me mate,” Harry reminded him.
“Melanie we all took one car,” Ava pointed out. “Why don’t you and Zayn grab a taxi?” I looked back at Zayn, he shrugged. “Okay it’s settled. I’ll drive.” She walked to the driver’s side and started the car. I walked towards the road and whistled loudly while waving a hand. Eventually a taxi stopped.
“You’re good,” Zayn commented as we got in the backseat.
“I should have been born in a big city instead of Huntsville, Alabama.”
“Where to?” the taxi driver asked.
“Wagamama restaurant please,” Zayn answered. The driver nodded and pulled off. The restaurant was about twenty minutes away. When we got there Zayn opened the door like a gentleman. The hostess seated us quickly and handed us menus. I opened mine and began to scan for something appealing.
“Is it true that you wrote majority of the songs off of your first and second album?” Zayn asked me randomly.
“Yeah, it’s like my role in the group so to speak.” I answered still looking at the menu. Food took over half of my focus. I swear I was an obese woman in a past life.
“You also do the dancing,” he added. I nodded in reply. “Are you writing all of the songs for the album you’re working on now?”
I shrugged, “So far we’ve written quite a bit of songs for it as a group.” Zayn nodded and looked at the menu. We ordered our food and chatted until it arrived. The conversation slowed down when we started eating, but it was still existent. At some point we forgot about the food and were emerged in the conversation.
Zayn laughed, “You did not.”
I nodded eagerly, “I did and I was so embarrass. I think Demi is still weird out by me to this day.”
He shook his head, “You are a strange person.”
I shrugged lightly, “It is my best talent, besides rolling my hips on stage and in front of cameras.”
“Oh yes I know you can do that.” Zayn winked. I slapped his arm playfully with an appalled face. “What? I can’t help it if you decide to share your talent every chance you get.”
I squinted my eyes, “I do not. Kaylee does most of the choreography, besides our choreographer Dee, so blame her.” I propped my chin on my hand.
Zayn leaned forward, “I’m not complaining.” He lowered his voice nearly seductively.
“If I didn’t know better Malik I would say you were flirting with me.” I leaned forward as well.
“Maybe,” he leaned closer. Our faces were inches apart. I went to close the space and felt him smile when our lips touched. The moment was interrupted by my cell phone ringing.
“Ugh,” I groaned as I pulled back to check it.
“We should head back to the studio,” Zayn stood from the table. I followed behind. He paid for both of our plates although I tried to pay for my own (by try I mean I jumped in front of him card at the ready but he was much quicker). When we got back to the studio Bryan decided we were ready to start recording. As he was breaking down the verses and who would be singing with whom, Zayn’s phone rang. He excused himself and disappeared.
“Probably Perrie,” Louis commented. “Ever since they got back together they’ve been more inseparable than before.” I felt my face go red although his voice had a light joking tone.
“They broke up?” Erin asked in pure surprise. She hadn’t seen the fight like I had. I began to wonder if any of the girls had seen it.
Harry nodded, “At the party, but they were back together the very next day.”
“So they never broke up,” Kaylee assumed.
“No, Zayn came back from lunch and Perrie called. They talked it out and got back together.” Liam explained. I was heated. My breathing had spiked. How dare he kiss me when he has a girlfriend?
“Mel are you okay?” Ava asked. She was the only one to notice my change in mood.
I came back to reality, “Yeah.” My brain needed to be focus. We had a job to do.
“Okay as I was saying. Harry and Ava will do verse one. Erin and Liam will pair up for verse two. Louis does verse three. Kaylee and Niall for verse four. Zayn and Melanie will do the bridge. Everyone will sing the chorus.” Bryan ruled. We all nodded. “Harry, do you want to go in first?” Harry nodded and headed into the booth. As he put on the large headphones Zayn walked back in. He sat beside me, but I turned my back to him.
“Hey, Kaylee, when are we supposed to go back to the States?” I asked completely ignoring his existence.
Kaylee turned to me, “I’m not sure. Tanya said that…” she went into her spill. A conversation had been successfully started. Zayn tried to get my attention. He subtly played with my hair and drew circles with his fingers on my back. I ignored all of it.
~~*~~
“Okay that’s a wrap for today,” Bryan announced after nine o’clock that night. “We can continue same time tomorrow.” Quickly I stood and left. Zayn jogged to catch up with me. He grabbed my arm to stop me. He released me and acted casually when everyone passed by.
“Be out in two seconds,” I called to the girls. They nodded emerged in conversation. “What?” I snapped at Zayn.
He took a step back, “I only wanted to see why you ignored me.”
I folded my arms, “Do you make it a habit to have sex with girls you don’t know after a temporary break up and then kiss that same girl after you get back together with your girlfriend?”
Zayn shoved his hands in his pockets, “I was going to tell you.” He attempted to defend himself.
“But you didn’t. Instead you kissed me and I had to find out from other people.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I stopped him. “It doesn’t matter Zayn. We’re just friends who have known each other for about five days.” I walked off not giving him the opportunity to say anything else.
“What was that about?” Ava asked as I got in the car.
“The song,” I lied. She shrugged as we drove home. I just needed to wash Zayn’s lips off of my mouth. This day had started off good and was ending badly. On the way I stopped the car telling the girls to go to the house without me. I looked at the entrance of the skate park and smiled. There was booth with skateboards for sale and I bought one without a second thought. As a kid I used to skateboard all of the time. It would help me clear my head. So I spent hours at the nearly deserted park riding ramps and trying to tap into my old skills without hurting myself. It was night time when the flashes caught my attention. I surveyed my surroundings, but whoever it was had hid out of my sight. I grabbed the board and headed back to the street. Retrieving a taxi didn’t take too long. I gave the address and slumped down in my seat. Having everyone’s attention was not appealing right now.

Notes

I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. Enjoy and please give feedback.