I waited, and waited, and waited. I obviously wasn't going to call and rush him, but he was taking a rather long time. An hour passed, and I came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to show up. I changed into pajamas and fell asleep, feeling rather down, especially after he broke his promise.

At school the next day, I searched the wave of students for his familiar face. When I found him, he treated me as a stranger. He was confused by my questions, and refused to answer. I caught up to Louis afterwards, who completely shunned me from his group of friends. But I think what was most surprising, was the fact that Harry was acting like a "bad boy", which only made all the girls swoon. He mouthed off to teachers and was sent to the principal's office at least three times that day. The whole day was a blur, and I felt like I didn't get the chance to talk to anyone or ask about anything...

I jolted awake at the sound of my alarm clock, ringing me out of what some would consider a nightmare. I shut it off, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and bringing myself back to reality.

"What a dream." I mumbled, shaking my head as I started off my morning.

Upon arriving at school, Louis must have noticed I looked a little distracted. He approached me with enough teases to last a year.

"Em! You look nervous... don't worry. Zayn is a normal person." he smirked.

"Aren't you just hilarious."

"I like to think so. You know what else I think? That you and Zayn will get married."

"Alright Lou..."

"Oh, here he comes! Why don't you go give him a hug, or a little peck on the cheek?" he started to laughed when I smacked his arm.

"Hello ladies!" Zayn smiled, walking up to us.

"Real cute." Lou smiled sarcastically, and I giggled.

"Don't tell me you're teasing Em again." he gave Lou a look, crossing his arms.

"I prefer to use the term 'relative suggesting'."

"Whatever you call it, just cut it out. You can be such a pest."

"He's telling the truth." I piped up, earning a chuckle from Zayn.

"Oh, so now we all gang up on Louis? I get it, I get it. I'll let you two have your time alone. Don't miss me too much." he made a grand exit, letting everyone know he was leaving the general area.

"I'm so sorry about him." Zayn shook his head.

"I think I should be the one apologizing. He just won't let it go."

"Where did he get that idea anyway? Does he just look at people and pair them up in his free time?"

"Probably... I bet he does." I laughed nervously. I couldn't let him find out I liked him!

"Whatever it is, I'm actually glad he pushed on this one. You're a nice person, and I think we'll have fun." he smiled, politely waiting for me to get the rest of my books before walking with me to my first class.

"What do you have planned?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Oh, I hate surprises." I groaned.

"Then this will be really fun." he smirked.

"Well, at least tell me what to wear. I would feel awkward if I showed up to a church service in jeans."

"You... you want to go to church?"

"I would prefer a bite to eat as far as dates go."

"Ok, good. Because I don't have church anywhere in the schedule. But jeans should be appropriate."

"Then you're doing fine." I giggled. When we got to the room, I waved bye to him and sat down in my seat next to Louis.

"You're a natural at flirting."

"Shut up."

Before he could get the last word, the bell rang, signalling class to begin.

~~

I found myself pacing my house when I was done getting ready, even though I still had 20 minutes before Zayn said he'd be here. I decided to call Louis, because even though the whole week was jokes for him, he was always there to calm me down if I was anxious.

"Em? Shouldn't you be on your date?"

"I have another twenty minutes. I'm really scared, Lou."

"Oh Em don't be scared, you'll have the time of your life."

"But what if I screw up? What if I make a bigger fool of myself? Zayn is so out of my league and he knows it. He'll laugh at me."

"Em, stop thinking like that. I've talked to Zayn about you more then you would probably guess, and he does really like you. He never told me that he was interested in you... but he definitely likes you and thinks you're wonderful. He's not out of your league, no one is, and he's looking forward to getting to know you better. Who knows, maybe he'll really start to fall for you."

"Don't be crazy, Lou. I can still barely imagine this happening, and I feel lightheaded. He's trying to surprise me, too. What the heck that doesn't help me at all. I don't know what to do."

"Just breathe, Em. Think of it as last week's double-date. Just a good time, nothing serious. You want to have a good time, and so does Zayn. It's just gonna be awkward if you let your nerves get in the way."

"You're right, you're right."

"I know I am. But my advice is no good if you don't follow through with it."

"Ok, I will. Thanks Lou."

A knock at the door multiplied my fear.

"Lou, he just knocked."

"Deep breaths, calm yourself. Have a good time."

"Thanks, see you later."

I hung up, and hurried over to the door. Taking a deep breath of reassurance, like Louis suggested, I opened the door to see Zayn, looking even better than usual. Keeping my composure, I smiled and greeted him.

"Shall we?" he lent an arm to escort me out. I took it graciously, somewhat shocked at how gentlemanly he was acting.

"Did you realize you're quite popular in your flat building?"

"How so?" I wondered.

"A guy saw me reading your address off a piece of paper, I told him where I was going and he knew just who you were. Helped direct me to your door."

"No kidding?" I asked, wondering how on earth someone in this building would know me."

We finished walking down the steps, and started towards Zayn's car when he called out to someone getting groceries out of their trunk.

"Thanks again, man!"

The man turned to him and smiled, waving to both Zayn and me in response.

"No problem. Hello Em."

"Hello Niall."

When we got in the car, Zayn asked about him.

"Long story. Probably better for another time."

We kept a casual conversation on the ride there, and we stopped at a decent restaurant. It wasn't too expensive, which I appreciated, and it wasn't the diner, which was good. When we were seated, we ordered our drinks. While I was scanning the menu, something hit me in the forehead.

"What the..." My eyes followed the object, seeing a straw wrapper float down to my lap. I looked up to see Zayn laughing at my confusion.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist."

I took the wrapper, wadded it up into a tiny ball, and aimed straight at his face before throwing. As luck would have it, he ducked, and it hit the elderly woman behind him. I gasped, cupping my hands over my mouth in fear. To our amusement, she didn't even notice, and the wrapper stuck in her curly head of hair.

"Nice shot." he chuckled, trying his best to keep his voice down.

The waitress returned, taking our orders. When she finished, Zayn stirred the straw in his drink and started telling me about the rest of our night.

"So, I was thinking that after this, maybe we could go for a walk. I know a nice place where it shouldn't be too crowded.

"That sounds nice." I smiled.

"Oh, look who's here!" a girly voice giggled, making her way over to our table. A couple girls I recognized from school said hello, although I don't know why.

"How are you two doing?" one asked, eyes obviously stuck on Zayn.

"Just... fine." he answered.

"Are you two here on a date?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Adorable. Well, nice seeing you guys here." she waved as she left, not acknowledging me once. Looking back on that group, I noticed one of them as the girl who was talking bad about me this week.

"They all make me sick." he gritted through his teeth, glaring after them.

"Why?"

"They think they're hot, and they're just all sluts. They're rude, and for some reason, they want me to notice them."

"Well doesn't everyone want you to notice them?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I just always thought you were that guy that all the girls go after."

"I seem to attract desperate girls like them, but not anyone I would be interested in... that's why I was really looking forward to taking you out." he smiled, forgetting about the girls.

"Really?" I couldn't stop a smile from appearing, knowing my cheeks turned pink.

"Yeah. You really have an amazing personality, I feel really honored to be your date tonight."

"Well I don't exactly have boys knocking down my door, so you can be my date whenever you want."

"Which is very surprising to me. I can't find anything wrong with you. You're kinda perfect."

"I'm far from perfect, really. If anyone's perfect, it's you."

"Me? Yeah right." he laughed a bit.

"You are! You're great at everything!"

"Not everything. I suck at more at things than being good at them"

"Name three."

"Well, I suck at French, and in football, I need to work on my passes, and apparently to Louis, I'm really slow at catching on to things."

I giggled at the last one, knowing exactly what Louis meant when he said that.

"What?"

"You are slow."

"Tell me what I'm slow at. Because I'm not getting it."

"I can't. Because then you'll know, then you will be perfect."

"No, I'll still suck at French and passing."

"You're slow at figuring things out."

"What kind of things?"

"If I told you, it would give it away!"

"How long will I have to beg until you tell me?"

"At least 12 minutes."

"If I guess, will you tell me?"

"I don't know."

"Is it about Louis? Or Harry? Or you? Or me? Or anyone?"

"It is indeed about something you mentioned."

"Wait, did I miss Louis' birthday?"

"Not quite..."

"Did Harry get a haircut and I didn't notice it?"

"No."

"Do you... have a crush on me?" he grinned a little, knowing he caught me.

"How did you know?"

"Lou's not good with secrets... and you blush a lot when I get close to you." his grin widened.

"Alright, you got me." I looked down, laughing with embarrassment.

"Don't be embarrassed, everybody gets crushes. You can't really control them."

"Yeah, but it's still embarrassing when the person finds out."

"Why's that?"

"Because the majority of the time, they don't feel the same way, and they treat you differently because of it."

"I would never treat you any differently because of a crush."

"That's why I like you, I suppose."

As if on que, our dinner came, and the subject smoothly transitioned into something less touchy. The food was great, and when we went on our walk, I couldn't have asked for a more understanding person. I noticed our conversations were very light and lovely, and I found out a lot about him. He was very relatable, and a good guy in general. It started to get dark, and as the path led into a forest, I hesitated before continuing on.

"It's ok, I won't let anything happen to you." he smiled, he held out his hand. I gladly accepted, cautiously walking into the mixture of trees.

"Scared of the dark?"

"No, more like being outside in the dark. Further away from home than usual."

"You know what I'm scared of?"

"What?"

"Horses." he chuckled.

"What? Horses?"

"Yeah. They're big and can trample people if they wanted to."

"Zayn, come on."

"I know, it's silly. I don't tell anyone that."

"Well, your secret is safe with me. Unlike Louis." I pouted, making him laugh.

We walked a bit further, then decided it was getting late. We got back to the car, and started the drive in silence.

"Zayn, I have a question."

"Yeah?"

"When did Lou tell you that I fancied you?"

"Remember that night we were all at the diner as a group, and Harry and Lou were teasing you about who you liked, but wouldn't tell me? Well, we all ended up staying at Lou's that night and we were just talking, and that came up, so he told me it was you. He made me promise not to tell you though."

"You've known for this long? And you didn't tease me once?"

"Well, I've joked about it, but not enough to be obvious. Plus, I told you I wouldn't treat you any differently for that kinda stuff."

"I had no idea that you knew. Here I am trying to play it cool so you don't find out."

"Don't try to play cool, I like you better when you're being normal."

"Same with you, although I haven't seen you play cool before."

"You don't want to, I sound like a boy version of those girls."

"Show me."

"OH MY GOSH!!! Like, Em, you are the coolest girl ever. You are seriously the best person ever, oh em gee, I love you so much."

"That was pathetic. You sounded just like a girl."

"Exactly. I try to stay normal."

Soon enough, we pulled back into the complex. He walked me to the door, continuing our conversation until we actually hit the door.

"Em, I really did have a great time tonight. Thanks for coming."

"I think I should be thanking you for coming."

"Well in that case, you're welcome, but the pleasure was all mine."

"Good night Zayn." I smiled, starting to unlock the door.

"Wait, one last thing."

"Yeah?"

"I do feel the same way." he mumbled, kissing my cheek before hurrying back down the steps. In complete shock, I turned the doorknob, walked in, and the second the door shut behind me, let out a sigh of contentment.

News to me.