Rubber Ball

The sun is out again. The sky is blue, there is no cloud in sight. Almost everybody is outside because of the nice weather. Some students even have pulled their pencils and papers out and are drawing, something they rarely do during their break. Drawing and painting are things they usually only do during class and outside of school.

Christine would have liked some white clouds in the sky. She likes watching them when they have lunch outside and now she can’t. Now all she can do is listen to Niall and Louis talk while trying not to let her thoughts go back to Zayn and what happened the night before.

Despite her best efforts, the dark-haired boy’s words keep repeating in her head. “They don’t take too kindly to birds standing up to them. Now they’re going to come after you as well.”

She has tried to forget them, but instead, she finds herself trying to make sense of them. He had sounded genuinely worried like a really was afraid that the boys that attacked his girlfriend were going to come after her. Which doesn’t make sense, because they are his friends. If he doesn’t want them to attack her, he can just tell them so.

Unless, he wants to pull she same trick on her as he’s done with his girlfriend, Michelle. It does make sense if that’s the case. He wants her to be scared of his friends attacking so it won’t come as a surprise when they do. He then will swoop in to rescue her, like he did last night and he is going to expect her to fall in love with him.

If that’s the case, he’s got another thing coming. Christine won’t be as easily fooled like the other girls. He has chosen the wrong girl to try to play with.

“Christine, what do you think?” Louis suddenly asks, pulling Christine away from her thoughts.

“About what?” Christine asks, a smile on her face as she turns her head towards her friend. The dark blonde boy who’s sitting next to her looks back at her with a confused look in his eyes but a smile on his face.

“What were you thinking about, then?” Louis asks. “Was it one of the Beatles? I bet it was Paul. Most girls fancy Paul, don’t they?”

Louis teasing Christine about boys is nothing new, so it’s easy for her to laugh about it – even when it feels a bit forced this time because she had been thinking about a boy, just not Paul.

“What were you guys talking about?” Christine asks. Her eyes travel to Niall, who’s sitting next to Louis at the other side of the bench. The Irish boy’s blonde locks are a mess thanks to the wind and his blue eyes shine with joy the way they always do.

Christine thinks Niall is handsome, in a cute way. He’s the kind of guy a girl feels confused about if she wants to tuck him into bed or try to kiss. She herself isn’t into those kinds of guys, but she knows enough girls who are.

So, she can see why Louis may feel attracted to Niall and that thought scares her a little bit. The thought that Louis might be like that has haunted her ever since yesterday when she had admitted to herself that Zayn might be right.

Christine knows she has no right to be scared. It’s Louis who is risking being put in jail if someone catches him, not her. But trying reasoning with herself doesn’t take the fear she’s feeling away. She has always seen Louis as her straight best friend, someone she thought she knew everything about. But all of a sudden, this isn’t true anymore.

“Hey, why are you zoning out again?” Louis asks. He pokes Christine’s shoulder with one of his pointer fingers and grins at her. “Is Niall really that distracting? Wait, was it, Niall, you were thinking about before?” Maybe it’s because of her new realization or because Louis isn’t doing a good enough job to hide it, but Christine can clearly hear the jealousy in Louis’s voice.

“I was thinking about Zayn, not Niall,” tumbles out of the blonde’s mouth before she can stop herself.

A shadow passes over Louis’s face. He looks angry and it scares Christine a little bit. She has never seen Louis angry at her before. He’s been irritated or protective but never angry. And she doesn’t know how an angry Louis acts. If he decides to slap her, nobody will get angry at him for it.

“Why were you thinking about Zayn?” Louis asks her sharply as his eyes narrow. At the same time, Niall asks in a playful tone, “I’m I not good enough or something?”

“Not Zayn, precisely,” Christine quickly clarifies. Her palms begin to sweat as she looks at her friend with a small smile on her face in the hope it will pacify him. She really doesn’t like Louis being mad at her. “I was thinking about something he said.”

“And what’s that, then?” Louis wants to know.

Now, Christine could choose to tell Louis about what Zayn said about him or she could tell him about the warning he gave her. Both options have very unpleasant consequences. She’s going to have to choose which battle she’s ready to fight at the moment.

“A girl was being beaten in front of my house and when I went outside to rescue her, Zayn stepped in and saved her before I could.” Christine rattles on, not taking a single breath between her words. “When he knocked out all the guys, he told me I shouldn’t have tried to rescue the girl because they will come after me.”

“What were you thinking,” Louis yells, making Christine snap her head back at the volume of his voice. “You can’t just attack guys because they’re beating up a girl.”

“So, you’re saying I should have just let them beat her up?” Christine fires back. She would have never thought she would yell at her best friend but she would have never thought she would be so angry at him, neither.

“No, but you should have warned your father or called the police, not try to fight the boys yourself.” Louis shakes his head as his blue eyes cloud over with something Christine can’t quite place. “You could have been really badly hurt. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad Zayn was there to stop you from doing anything stupid.”

“Thank you, Louis. That’s an awfully nice thing of you to say,” the voice of Zayn suddenly says from behind the three friends.

Three heads turn around towards the dark boy standing with both hands in the pockets of his leather pants. His quiff is as high as ever and the blue bruise on his left cheek make his cheekbones stand out even more than usual. He has a cigarette between his pink lips, the lower one is red with a painful looking gash.

Christine’s face immediately flushes a different shade of the same color. The boy standing in front of her is a boy liked by almost every girl and has slept with almost all of them, and he is now most likely interested in her now. She may be disgusted by how he tricks women into sleeping with him, but she can’t help but feel a little bit flattered he might have now put his mind to seducing her.

“You don’t mind if I borrow your bird, do you?” Zayn asks as his lips curl into a smile. He takes the fag out of his mouth and blows out the smoke, making his face disappear for a few seconds.

“As a matter of fact, Christine and I were just talking. And just so you know she isn’t my bird.” The last part Louis adds in a softer voice.

Christine doesn’t understand why Zayn is still under the illusion that she and Louis are more than friends. She told him they weren’t. And wasn’t he the one that claimed Louis was gay?

“Well, it’ll only take one minute,” Zayn says with a shrug of his shoulders. “You can continue talking about me when we’re finished.”

A blush crawls onto Louis’s cheeks at the other boy’s mocking tone. Christine can see Niall looking at Zayn with narrowed eyes. His hand trembles slightly as he moves it in Louis’s direction but then he stops himself and lays his hand back down on his thigh.

“It’s alright,” Christine tells Louis. She lays a hand on her friend’s shoulder to let him know she means it. “I’ll just go talk with Zayn. I’ll be right back.”

“Just stay in our eyesight,” Louis tells Christine as she stands up from the bench. “I don’t want any funny business.”

“And you’re saying you’re not her boyfriend,” Zayn snickers. “You’re overly protective of her.”
“Of course I am, she’s my friend,” Louis shoots back.

“Whatever. Come on Christine, no sense in wasting time.” Zayn gestures the blonde girl to follow him while walking away.

Christine follows him until they’re standing under a tree were Louis can still see them. Zayn smiles at Christine but it doesn’t really reach his eyes. He takes another drag from his cigarette before he starts to talk.

Suddenly, Christine really wants a fag.

“I assume you told them about last night, then?” he asks, his eyes slightly downcast. It makes Christine wonder how much he has heard of her conversation with Louis.

“Yeah, but I didn’t go into detail. I just told them I tried to save a girl from being beaten up but you did it before I could.”

“And, did Louis agree you were being stupid? Trying to rescue the girl I mean?”

“Yes, he did. He said I should have warned my dad or the police,” Christine answers, her voice harsh with irritation. Zayn might be handsome, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be angry with him. “Is this why you wanted to talk to me, to ask if Louis thinks the same about my apparently stupid actions as you do?”

“No, that’s not why,” Zayn says with a shake of his head. A takes a deep breath as he continues. “I just wanted to apologize for snapping at you the way I did. I shouldn’t have.”

Zayn’s apology comes as a surprise. Not that she had any idea what he wanted to talk to her about, but never in a million years would she had thought he would say sorry for yelling at her.

“It’s just that I don’t like girls getting hurt. When a girl willingly puts herself in the path of danger, I tend to flip out. I’m sorry.”

Suddenly, Christine realizes this probably part of his plan. He wants her to think he really means well, that it would really upset him if she got hurt so she won’t be surprised when he comes to her rescue when his friends attack her.

Anger rises up inside of her, making her blood boil. She has the urge to spit in Zayn’s face or slap it. Knowing, doing so might get her into trouble, she decides she’s going to walk away.
“Well, thank you for your apology. If that’s all…”

Without waiting for Zayn’s reply, Christine turns around and walks away.

Louis and Niall are waiting for her on the bench. Both of them are watching Christine as she walks towards them.

When she has reached the bench, Christine sits down with a huff. She still has an angry scowl on her face.

“You know, you really should stay away from Zayn. You know he’s bad news.”

Christine turns her angry face at her friend but Louis doesn’t seem fazed. His voice doesn’t even waver as he adds, “I’m going to tell Harry about Zayn if you won’t listen to me.”

Christine can’t tell if it’s an empty threat or not.

Notes