Moments

It’s Zayn’s birthday today, and he demanded that we all get up and ready at eight o clock in the morning, as he wants to go paintballing. It’s been booked for a while now and the excitement never really hit me until now. I am absolutely buzzing for this, and I have made a deal with Harry that if his team wins I owe him a tenner and a dinner date, and if I win I get a tenner and to let Isabelle dress Harry up like a girl and post multiple pictures of it on Twitter. This is seriously the best bet I have ever made, and I am going to win no bother. We pick teams in the house and decide that Niall and Zayn will be in my team when Isabelle and Liam will be in Harry’s. Isabelle demanded to be in Harry’s team because she wanted to “pop a cap in my ass”.

‘Thanks honey. Nice to know that you love me thoroughly.’

Isabelle just winks cheekily to me and we all get our shoes and jackets on, making our way out of the house. We all take separate cars and Harry’s team pile into his Range Rover whilst my team all get into my Mini.

When we get there we find that it is outside. There are forts, trees, hay stacks and ruined cars lying around, and it is all enclosed in a net. It’s quite a nice day today so we are all going to be absolutely sweating. We all get out of the car and Harry’s team looks over to us, not speaking. Harry makes the “I’m watching you” sign and Isabelle politely gives us the middle finger, walking into the changing huts first.

The instructor throws overalls to us and we all pull them on. Isabelle looks strangely hot in hers, and I can’t help myself from staring. That is until she puts her helmet on and I can’t see her face any longer. She runs around the hut with an invisible gun pretending to shoot everyone whilst making “pew pew pew” noises, and everyone chuckles in unison. When she runs past me making her cute little noises I grab her unexpectedly and she gives a little yelp.

‘You’re going down,’ I hiss to her. She says nothing, but instead saunters closer to me, pressing her body against mines. She lifts her helmet from her head and sets it on the table, bringing her hand up to my face. She raises one eyebrow and smiles slyly, her lips only inches from my own.

‘In your dreams, Tomlinson,’ She whispers, sticking her tongue out and licking my nose with it. She backs away towards Harry, lifting her helmet and blowing me a kiss.

Damn.

When we are ready the instructor takes us out into the field and gives us our guns. We load them with different colours so we know who shot who, and my team is pink and Harry’s team is purple.

‘Masculine colours right there!’ Zayn laughs.

‘It’s alright,’ Isabelle says. ‘You guys are all gay anyway.’

‘I’m going to shoot you in the face.’ Niall says.

‘I’m going to kick you in the nuts.’ Isabelle winks, giving him a little shove.

‘Okay!’ The instructor says. ‘We’ll start off with a game of “get the flag.” See that flag in the middle of the field?’ He points to a red flag dancing in the wind. ‘Get that, and run back to your base without getting shot.’

‘Yeah buddy!’ Niall shouts. ‘We’re going to win this shit.’

‘In a parallel universe, Horan.’ Isabelle scoffs, pulling her helmet down. Everyone follows suit, pulling their own helmets down.

‘Ok…’ The instructor says. ‘Go find a place in the field.’

We all run to different spots and I run to the ruined jeep in the field to find that there’s already someone else there. I move closer to them to find that it is Isabelle, who is crouched down. I give her a shove and she falls over on to the grass, swearing.

‘Jesus Louis I was here first! Away you go!’ She whispers, shooing me.

‘Nope.’ I say, moving closer to her.

‘Fuck off!’ She points her gun at me threateningly and I back off. She would not hesitate in shooting me.

‘Bitch!’ I shout, laughing as I run somewhere else. Just as I reach my destination the guy shouts “GO!” and everyone starts running about. I lunge for the flag straight away whilst everyone else is hiding and feeling nervous, and I hear guns going like mad. Surprisingly none of them hit me and I make for the flag, grabbing for it. Suddenly there is someone on top of me and I find that it’s Harry. He clambers onto my back and I hear guns firing again. I lose my grip on the flag and laugh as Harry gets shot in the ass.

‘Fuck you Zayn!’ He shouts, running back to base again.

The games go on for about half an hour when Isabelle starts coughing again. I try to stay away from her as I know she gets pissy when I ask her if she’s okay. She’s such a stubborn thing, that girl. I just don’t get her. We start to play a free for all and we all take our places, replacing our paint with completely different colours so that we all know who everyone is. I take great care in taking note on which colour Isabelle is, because if she shoots me I’m definitely going to get her back for it later.

The game begins and everyone goes wild. There are screams and roars coming from the guys and myself as we run about the field, hiding behind trees and firing our guns at one another. I hot Harry several times and he freaks out, grabbing at his sore ass and so on… but I don’t see Isabelle. I don’t hear her coughing either and it worries me. I can’t exactly ask any of the guys where she is, though because they would probably fucking shoot me before I got the chance!

I carry on with the game wishing it would end soon. I need to find Isabelle, and fast.

-Liam’s POV-

I hide behind the jagged bush waiting to fire at Niall, who’s arse is sticking out from behind a tree. I aim my gun, positioning myself perfectly for the fire. Oh my God this is going to be a good one, and it’s going to hurt so bad. I press down gently on the trigger, getting ready to take my shot, until I hear coughing and spluttering in the bushes behind me. I instantly drop my gun and snap my head around to look and see who it is. The cough sounds unfamiliar, but it’s obviously someone I know because there isn’t anyone else here apart from the instructor guy.

I grab my gun and crawl over to the bush, hoping that none of the guys see me and shoot me. I get lucky, as when I crawl to the bush I quickly pull myself behind it without anyone shooting me. However, I get the most unpleasant surprise I have ever had.

There is Isabelle, sitting slumped on the ground. She is absolutely covered in paint and her helmet is lying on the ground. Her hair is an absolute mess and her head is bowed so that I can’t see her face. She is absolutely coughing her guts up and every time she manages to get a breath she wheezes and her breath sounds ragged.

‘I… Isabelle?’

She snaps her head around, her eyes wide.

‘Oh! Liam! I’m so knackered by the way. Oh… if the instructor guy found out that I had my helmet off he would kill me.’ She weakly laughs, as if it was forced, and wipes her mouth. She wheezes a few times before I could answer.

‘Are… are you okay? I mean, you’re never ill. Should I get Louis?’

‘NO!’ She snaps. ‘Oh… I mean… no way ha-ha…’ She trails off. ‘He’s playing. Just leave him alone to have his fun. I’m fine, just really tired out.’

‘Okay well you better be.’

‘Liam! I can see you! Get your hands up!’ I hear Zayn shouting from across the field. Shit. I take another look to Isabelle and she nods, motioning for me to go, so I grab my fun and move out, firing at Zayn.

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realise that there’s something going on with Isabelle, and Louis better know it.

-Louis’ POV-

‘Fuck you Harry Styles!’ I shout, shrieking and laughing as our team win the next battle. Before, in the free for all I copped his ass about six times, and so far me and my team are winning in the bet. ‘You are so going to lose this, and you are so going to be dressed up like a girl and be down a tenner!’

‘In your dreams fat ass!’ He shouts back, waving his gun about. We’re having a break and Isabelle is back. She just said that she was hiding in the bushes because she was tired. She is absolutely covered in paint but she doesn’t beat Niall, who must be black and blue under that suit.

Surprisingly it begins to rain. The instructor lets us carry on though, as it is our last game and will only take ten minutes. It gets extremely muddy and dank, but it makes it even better. The final game is another free for all, but we need to get to the flag again and take it back to base without getting shot. We all pile out into the field and I keep a close eye on Isabelle, who is coughing and spluttering, bending over double. She lets her gun fall to the ground as she holds her stomach, coughing into the wet ground. Her hair falls from her helmet and it soaks through, dangling down and hiding her face. I notice her coughing and spitting onto the ground, and the spit is a peculiar colour.

Before I could shout over to see if she’s okay the guy shouts “GO!” and everyone starts running and shooting. Isabelle picks her gun up and swipes her wet hair back, running away from my view. I hear her screeches and laughs as people shoot at her, and moans when people get shot. Everything just turns into a blur, and I run about too, shooting people and trying to get the flag.

‘The winner of this game wins the full thing!’ The instructor guy shouts, and I instantly see Harry turning his game face on through that helmet. My face however, is definitely not game. I’m trying to find Isabelle again but she has gone, so I begin to check all of the bushes. I run into Liam, who is hiding behind a bit of wood and he looks to me.

‘Louis Isabelle doesn’t look so good.’ He says to me. ‘Is she okay?’

‘She’s had a bad temperature and cough for a while. I’m worried about her but she won’t tell me anything.’ I groan.

Suddenly coughing is heard again and Liam and I snap our heads to the right. ‘Let’s go get her.’ Liam says, and he starts shuffling along the ground. The plank of wood is massive so it would be difficult for anyone to know we were here.

Finally we reach the destination of the coughing, and I almost faint in shock.

There she is, lying on her side on the ground. Her mask and gun have been thrown to the side of her and she sounds like she’s sobbing. She coughs through moans and groans and she doesn’t even bother to cover her mouth she’s so weak.

‘Isabelle!’ I scream, turning her around.

‘Louis,’ she says, and I get the biggest fright of my life. I hear Liam gasping and yanking his helmet off, and I do the exact same.

I stand up abruptly and run out into the middle of the field. No-one shoots me as I have my helmet off. ‘GUYS! STOP! STOP!’ I scream. The instructor guy goes mental at me for taking my helmet off but I just ignore him. He’s a dick anyway.

‘What’s wrong?’ Niall shouts.

‘Isabelle… she’s coughing up blood.’

Notes