It was the first day of my new job, and I thought it was going to be a breeze. I mean, putting clothes in order, how hard could it be? Possibly the hardest thing I had to do.

“Okay, Nora, remember; Niall wears the red polo shirt and khaki pants, Louis wears the black and white striped shirt and red skinny jeans, Liam wears the flannel shirt and khaki’s, Harry wears the blazer, white tee-shirt, and khaki pants, the lighter ones like Liam’s, and Zayn wears the letterman jacket, white under tee, and khaki’s the same shade as Liam and Harry. Get all that?” One of the two ladies backstage informed me as she went through the first act of the show. I nodded and tried to remember the sizes they had told me earlier.

The women continued to run through the boys’ outfit changes as we made our way to the dressing room. I was arranging the pieces of clothing in my head when we walked into the changing room, where the clothes were on the racks. “Are they already put in place?” I asked and looked at the arrangement of the clothes.

“Not even close.” Mary, the younger of the two, laughed and leaned against the door frame. “We’ll be back to check on you before the show starts.” She promised. “Come on Lena.” Lena quickly followed Mary out of the dressing room, shutting the door behind her.

“Awesome. I’ll be doing this by myself.” I sighed and began to rearrange the clothes in the order that looked correct.

“How’s it going?” I heard Zayn walk in the dressing room and sit down on one of the makeup chairs.

“Good?” I looked over at him for some sign that I was doing my job right. Zayn lifted his eyebrows and walked over.

“Niall wears the polo shirts, and Liam wears the flannel.” Zayn quickly rearranged my work and smiled at me. “You’ll learn, I swear.” He promised and looked around the room. “Where’s Lena and Mary?” I shrugged and watched as he switched a few pants around.

“They went somewhere.” I flopped down on a chair as he rearranged a few shoes.

“There, all done.” He smiled at me.

“Thanks.” I sighed and debated on taking of picture of the clothes in order to use as a reference.

“You’ll get the hang of it, love.” Zayn sat next to me and casually draped his arm around me before I pushed his arm off. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I pulled out my phone and walked over to the clothes to snap a few pictures.

“Seriously, Nora.”

“Seriously, Zayn, nothing’s wrong.” So what? I told a little white lie. Everyone does it in their lifetime.

“Nora-“

“I have to take this.” I interrupted as my best friend, Ellie, called. “Hey!”

“Hey, are you busy?”

“Not at all.” I backed out of the room and quickly walked away from the room.

“How is it hanging out with international pop sensation ‘One Direction’?”

“Awful.” I groaned and found a chair to sit in. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and it’s just putting clothes in the correct order!”

“Awe, I’m sure it’ll get better!” Ellie said enthusiastically. “How’s Mr. Malik?” Ellie knew everything that went down with Zayn right before junior year, so she was about as mad as I was when I realized that I agreed to go all around the world with Zayn and his friends.

“He seems to think that there was never a falling out between us, like he can just come back into my life and be my best friend again.” Ellie cleared her throat. “Best guy friend.” I smiled.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I laughed and she sighed. “I’m sorry, Nora, but what else did you expect? For Zayn to just offer you a job and continue to ignore you? In all honesty, he probably wants to be closer to you.”

“Great.” I rolled my eyes.

“Who knows, maybe he feels bad for what he did to you. Maybe he’s in love with you.”

“I doubt it.” I laughed in mockery. “Be serious, Ellie. This is Zayn Malik, the boy who kisses girls and ignores their existence the very next day. There’s no way he’s in love with me.”

“You never know.” Ellie said in a sing-song voice.

“Elizabeth, I have a boyfriend.” I rolled my eyes and started to walk around the arena.

“Maybe for now, but maybe Mr. Malik will steal your heart.”

“Okay, you were just pissed at him two minutes ago.”

“Oh, I still hate him, but I was just stating a fact.”

“An opinion.”

“Nora?” I heard Zayn say from around the corner.

“Gotta go, Ellie.” I hung up and tried to look completely innocent. “Hey, Zayn.” I smiled up at him.

“What the hell was that all about?” He asked, looking kind of pissed. “Why did you just run out like that?”

“I had an important call to take.” I shrugged and put my phone back in my pocket. “My best friend called.”

“I thought I was your best friend.” Zayn smirked.

“Was being the key word.” I rolled my eyes and stood up.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Nora? You ignored me in secondary school!”

“Excuse you?! I didn’t do a damn thing wrong. You kissed me then were a complete jackass the next day! I tried making conversation with you for weeks and you didn’t say two sentences to me!”

“That was because-!” Zayn cut off his sentence.

“Because what?” I crossed my arms and waited for his answer.

“Just forget it.” Zayn scoffed and walked off.

“Jesus Christ, Zayn! Can’t you just freaking speak your mind?!” I yelled, but it was too late, he had already turned the corner leaving me even more pissed off. I hated being a girl, because anger easily turned to tears… just like at that very moment.

“Nora?” I looked and Zayn had returned. I quickly wiped my face and walked off. “Nora! Come back! Listen, I’m sorry, okay?!” I continued to walk away when Zayn grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face him. “I’m sorry I was such an ass in secondary school to you.”

“Whatever, Zayn.” I rolled my eyes and continued to walk away.

~*~

Zayn’s POV

“I don’t know what to do, Liam. She’s still pissed at me for not talking to her 11th and 12th year. I mean, I don’t blame her. I did kiss her and not talk to her for two years… what should I do?”

“Apologize.” Liam made it sound so simple!

“But I tried that! She didn’t listen!”

“Show her that you’re sorry. Don’t just tell her.” I sighed and tried to focus back on the football game playing on BBC. How was I going to show Nora I was sorry? She has a boyfriend, so I couldn’t just flat out kiss her. Or do anything romantic really. Long story short: I was screwed. There was no way I could show her I was sorry without trying to win her over. That’s when the light bulb in my head went off. Bingo! I’ll sing to her! Not alone or course, it’d have to be on stage where she couldn’t slap me. Well, she could, but it’d be hard to… Now when would the perfect moment be?

“Hey, guys. Can I come in?” I looked over at Nora as she poked her head in the door. Niall nodded and scooted over, making room for her on the couch. “So, your clothes are in order for tonight thanks to Zayn’s help. So you’re all ready to go.” Nora said as she sat down next to Niall.

“Awesome. Thanks, Nora.” Louis smiled and turned his attention back to the television as Doncaster scored the winning point. “Yes! Doncaster wins!” Louis jumped up and did a victory punch in the air. “Pay up, blondie!” Lou held out his hand as Niall handed him five pounds. Nora let out a chuckle and leaned against the back of the couch before she pulled out her phone and began to play a game on it.

“Are you ever going to speak to me again?” Nora continued to ignore me as she swiped her finger across the screen of her phone. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” She leaned over to Niall to show him something that they both found hilarious. “Well, this will be a very long tour for you, I suppose.” Nora rolled her eyes and continued playing on her phone. “What would you do if I jumped across this table and kissed you?”

“Kick your ass just like I did in ninth grade when I thought you were stalking me.” She replied shortly and shrugged.

“You got beat up by a girl!” Harry and Liam tried to hold back their laughter.

“No I didn’t!” I said, turning three shades of red.

“Technically he didn’t, but it was close enough. Don’t let him fool you.” Nora laughed and put her phone away. “He was following me home from school the third day of freshman year and I turned around and kicked his groin. He was practically crawling to get away from me after that.”

“Yeah, and that’s when we became best friends.” I smiled slyly at her. Nora rolled her eyes and her ears turned red.

“Zayn don’t…” I heard Liam’s voice warning me.

“Why aren’t you two friends anymore?” Niall asked, completely oblivious to Liam’s warning.

“Because I made a big mistake.” I shrugged. “And now I’ve realized that ignoring her was something I should have never done.” Nora got up and left the room.

“What part of ‘Zayn don’t’ do you not understand?” Liam said, hitting his palm to his forehead.

“I’m getting to the showing her I’m sorry part. It’s just going to take a while.” I shrugged and pulled my phone out.

“Who are you calling?” Liam asked as I put my phone up to my ear.

“The flower shop. Part one of my apology.” I smiled at him widely and asked for a dozen roses to be sent to Nora tonight.

~*~

Nora’s POV

“Seriously, Ellie, I just got the most beautiful dozen roses I’ve seen in my entire life.” I smiled and noticed the little card in the center. “I guess Jake misses me more than I thought he did.”

“That’s so cute! Is there a card? What does it say?” I could almost see the anticipation on Ellie’s face through the phone.

“It says: ‘Nora, please know that I truly am sorry’. Oh God, they’re from Zayn.” I groaned and tossed the card on the table. “He’s not giving up on apologizing to me!”

“Come on… give the guy a break, Nora! He’s obviously trying here.” My phone beeped to indicate a call waiting.

“Hold on, Jake’s beeping in.” I switched the call over. “Hey, babe.” I smiled and grabbed a bottle of water before plopping down in a chair. “What’s up?”

“I miss you!” Jake pouted on the other line.

“I’ve only been gone a day.” I laughed and took a drink of my water.

“I know, but when I went over to your house to talk to you about my day, I completely forgot you had left! I was so sad I almost cried.”

“I’m not that important.” I giggled and felt myself turning red.

“You are to me.” He laughed and sighed. “I am definitely coming to see you on this tour before it’s over. I think I can get some tickets for a show next week if I can get a few days off.”

“You’re the best!” I smiled and pulled my knees up to my chest. “When you come to see me, we can hang out all day and we can go to dinner before the concert, or after… depending on when I finish getting the clothes arranged. I can’t wait to see you.” I smiled and hugged my knees.

“I miss you loads, Nora.”

“I miss you too, Jake.”

“Nora! Can you help us?” I heard Harry call from the dressing room.

“Duty calls.” I sighed. “I love you. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“I love you, too. Stay safe!” I hung up with him and Ellie and ran into the dressing room to help the boys change.

Notes

Second chapter! Hope you guys are liking it so far! Lots of love!
Xx
Katie