Chapter 7

After a long 6 hours of class, we were finally free!

Zayn and I walked out of French class after the bell rang with about 2 hours’ worth of homework in most of our classes. We had write a short poem about any topic of our choice for English, a page of math problems to solve, a lab report to start for chemistry and we had to change a page from our favourite book into French. So far the day had been tiring and I couldn’t wait to get home and take a nap.

Then I remembered that I wouldn’t actually be going home until tonight so I knew I would be up all night doing homework. “Ugh” I said while me and Zayn were walking towards my locker where we were to meet Kylie after school from now on since she wasn’t in our French class – she had history.

“When did you turn into a caveman?” Zayn questioned as we arrived at our lockers.

I turned my lock, 37-5-13, and opened my locker to collect all the books I needed for home. “I didn’t” I said as I shut my locker door after fixing my hair and turned to glare at Zayn. “I just realized that I will not be going home until probably eight ‘o’clock tonight because my brother is working and I am going over to Carson’s house and all I really want to do is go home and climb between my bed sheets to take a nap”

Zayn shook his head with silent laughter. “I’m not going home right away either Lex. Remember, I’m going out for ice cream with Kylie and then we’ll probably just head to my house to do our homework before supper so stop complaining and get to it; Carson and Jax are probably waiting for you”

I did what any normal five year old would do and stuck my tongue out at him. “Yea yea. I’ll leave as soon as I say goodbye to Kylie” I said looking up and down the hallway. “Man, where is that girl I call my best friend?”

After a couple seconds, Zayn spoke up and said “There she is”, pointing towards the end of the hallway where I saw a girl who was indeed my best friend, running at full speed towards us.

When she approached us and slowed down, she said “Hey guys, sorry I’m running late. I had to run to my locker really quick after history – which got out late… god I hate that teacher.”

*ha* *ha*. I started chuckling at my best friend before saying, “Sorry Kylie, I have to jet before my brother and Carson come here and haul me out of school. Have fun at the ice cream shop”. I hugged my two best friends before sprinting towards the front entrance to Westview High which headed towards the parking lot.

When I got to the parking lot, I quickly spotted Carson’s truck at the edge of the parking lot and quickly walked over there.

“Where have you been? Actually never mind, we gotta go. My shift starts in 10 minutes and it’s a ten minute drive to the paint store. Get in” Jaxon said in a hurry before quickly jumping into the passenger seat of the truck and slamming the door shut.

“Well you heard Mr. Grumpypants” Carson said chuckled while nodded towards Jaxon in the truck. “We better hurry up because I can only go so much over the speed limit”

“Yeah let’s go” I said turning to jump into the back of the truck.

The ride to the paint store was uneventful. Carson was going 10km over the limit so that Jaxon wouldn’t be late for his shift, Jaxon was complaining about how slow I took leaving school amongst a bunch of other things, including that Carson wasn’t driving fast enough – which, I noticed, was starting to piss of Carson off a little bit as his hands were starting to clench the steering wheel making his knuckles turn white, all while I was relaxing in the backseat of the truck listening to the music on my I-phone.

After another couple minutes, we finally reached the paint store and right after Carson’s truck pulled up at the doors, Jaxon jumped out of the car and ran into the store. I giggled at him and jumped over the console and into the passenger seat. “Couldn’t get close enough to me hmmm?” Carson said, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“Psh. You wish” I replied whilst crossing my arms and leaning the side of my head against the window.

Carson just shook his head and muttered something under his breath that I didn’t quite understand and started up the engine of the truck before heading back home.

We were in the car for another twenty minutes before Carson pulled up his driveway and parked beside his mother’s car in their garage.

“Come on” Carson said while we were getting out of the car. “Tazmin is dying to see you again”.

“Well I sure hope so” I replied following him into the house through the garage door, “I love that kid”.

“And she loves you too”

Before I could reply, I heard soft footsteps running down the stairs and before I could blink I saw a cute little girl crash into my legs hugging them together. “LEXI!” Tazmin screamed while hugging my legs.

Tazmin looked adorable today; she had on a cute little blue dress with matching flats and her long blonde hair was done up in pig tails on each side of her head.

I bent down to her level, dropped my bag beside Carson’s and picked her up – spinning her in circles before resting her on my hip. “Hey Tazy” I said. I poked her nose and continued, “What did you do all day while your brother and I were at school?”

I walked towards the kitchen where I wasn’t surprised to find Carson eating a cold slice of pizza. I set Tazmin down on the island counter top before rolling my eyes at Carson and sitting down in front of Tazmin. “Well, today I went to daycare and my friend Amy and I were painting and this new kid came over and started painting with us and we all became best friends!” she said with such an enthusiastic voice for a four year old.

“Who is this new best friend of yours?” I asked her excitedly before reaching for a banana to eat.

"His name is Liam and we are gonna get married!” she said clapping excitedly.

Carson started choking on his pizza while I was laughing at Tazmin’s enthusiasm. “You better not be getting married Tazmin” Carson told her in a ‘protective-big-brother’ voice, which I found thoroughly amusing.

“But we are best friends and I love him” she replied with the cutest puppy dog face I had ever seen.

“Yes, you may love him but in a friendly way, not in the way that mommy loves daddy” Carson tried explaining it to her in a way she would understand.

“Okay” she said looking excited again before turning to me. “I’m going to go up to my room and colour. Do you want to come with me?”

I picked her up from the counter and put her on the ground before squatting down to her level. “You go ahead, I’ll be there in a few minutes” I said before gently pushing her out of the kitchen and standing up to face Carson. “She is so adorable” I gushed.

“Yea, she really is” he replied while shaking his head at me before finishing up his last bite of pizza. “But you know, adorable runs in the family” he continued, winking at me.

I rolled my eyes before telling him to get a life and running upstairs to join Tazmin to colour.

After an hour of colouring in her room, Tazmin and I heard the front door of the house open and close. Tazmin quickly jumped up and ran out of her room to greet her father who just returned home from work. I got up and dusted off my clothes before walking downstairs into the kitchen where the whole Roberts family was talking.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Roberts” I greeted nicely before taking the only empty stool at the counter.

“Oh hello dear, Carson didn’t tell me you were here” Mrs. Roberts greeted me with a hug before pulling back. “And how many time do we have to tell you to call us Lucy and Oliver?” she said with a slight smile.

I shook my head. “Sorry Lucy, I must have forgotten. And yes, my mom has a late shift and Jaxon’s working so here I am” I said pointing towards myself.

“Well, dinner will be ready soon. Why don’t you and Carson go wait in the living room for us to call you for supper?” she told us nodding towards the living room before turning around and stirring whatever was cooking on the stove.

“Sure” I answered, grabbing Carson’s hand and dragging him into the living room towards the couch.

I released his hand and plopped myself down onto the right side of the couch while grabbing the remote and turning it to a rerun of Spongebob Squarepants.

Carson sat down beside me and said, “Spongebob squarepants… really?”

I turned to glare at Carson before defending myself and saying, “Yes really. Spongebob is awesome… he lives in a pineapple under the sea”.

“You’re definitely the weirdest girl I have ever met” Carson said and turned his attention to the television while shaking his head back and forth.

“Mhm” I replied while turning back towards the television myself.

Once the episode was over and a commercial came on, Lucy called us to the table. Carson and I got up and headed to the table. When I stepped in the dining room, I saw a bowl of cheese mashed potatoes, a variety of vegetables and a loaf of bread on the dining table, along with a mouth-watering steak on each of the plates – except Tazmin’s of course – she had a quarter of one cut up in bite size pieces. I quickly sat down on the right side of the table and started eating.

Once dinner was over and I finished helping Mrs. Roberts with the dishes, I headed home start on my homework.

I hauled my heavy bag up to my room and dumped my various books and pencils from my bag onto my bed and started with my math homework.

About an hour later I was just finishing up my French assignment (having already finished my math and chemistry homework) when I heard the front door open and close along with heavy steps coming up the stairs. I looked up just as I heard a knock on my bedroom door, and knowing that it was Jaxon, I told him to come in. Jaxon opened the door and stuck his upper half into my room. “Hey, just checking to see if you were home”

“Yup. As you can see” I gestured to the work scattered over my bed, “I am definitely home. Anyways how was work?”

“Fine. Oh but Cass stopped by with her family since they needed some paint to redecorate their house with”

“Wait, Cassidy Parr? The new gorgeous girl in some of your classes?” I questioned.

“Yes” he answered sounding sceptical. “But how do you know she’s in some of my classes?”

“She told me” I said while shrugging my shoulders while my brother nodded his head. “So, did you talk to her?”

“Yea, we were just talking about school and stuff after she had picked out a colour for her room and the rest of her family was still looking. They asked me if I wanted to help paint their house with them this weekend, so that’s where I will be”

“So you’re already in good with her family” I teased him. “But seriously, do you actually like her or something” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No. I mean, I like her as a friend, but she’s my only friend that’s a girl, so, I don’t know, and anyways she’s not even interested if I did like her like that. Anyways, I’ll let you go to finish your homework and get some sleep. Goodnight Lex”.

“Goodnight Jaxon” I replied before my door shut and I turned back to finish my English poem before falling asleep just past ten.

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(Kylie’s POV)

We had just left the school grounds and were walking towards the ice cream parlour down when I tripped on something on the sidewalk. I braced myself for contact with the ground but it didn’t come, instead I was about a foot off the ground in Zayn’s arm. I ducked my head and tried to hide my blush from being obvious when Zayn put me back on my feet.

“Klutz” he said shaking his head while we continued walking.

“I am not a klutz” I proclaimed. “I just didn’t see what I tripped on and I ended up falling”

“Yea, falling for my good looks” Zayn replied chuckling to himself.

I hit his arm playfully and tried to play off his comment as something funny. “Yeah, sure I was”. We both started laughing.

We were about a street away from the ice cream shop now when suddenly Zayn put his arm around my shoulder. I tried to hide my blush again so my feelings wouldn’t be obvious and I looked up at him from the corner of my eye. He just looked casual, so I guess the gesture was only friendly. Of course it was friendly dummy, he would never see me like that I thought, but none the less, I kept walking alongside him with his arm around my shoulder.

When we arrived at the ice cream parlour, the bell above the door rang as Zayn opened it and we were hit with the delicious smell of many flavours of ice cream.

We walked up to the front counter and looked at the various ice cream flavours before it was our turn in line and the sweet elderly lady who owned the shop asked us what we wanted. “I’ll have the strawberry shortcake upside down ice cream in a bowl with graham crackers, Oreos, chocolate sauce and sprinkles please” I ordered.

“What about you dear, what would you like?” she asked Zayn.

Zayn overlooked the ice cream again and answered, “Can I have a mint chocolate chip banana sundae with chocolate sauce and sprinkles, along with a large vanilla shake with two straws”

I looked over at Zayn questioningly with my eyebrow raised and he just shook his head so I just let it pass again.

“Is that two separate orders, or are you two together?” the elderly lady asked us.

Before I could say it was two separate orders, Zayn cut in. “I’m paying so put all three things on the same bill”.

I looked at Zayn again. He knew I had money, so why was he paying for my ice cream?

We got our orders on a tray, so after Zayn paid, we set off to our normal booth in the back, each of us sliding in on a different side.

I took a bite of my ice cream and moaned at the taste it was so good. Before I took another bite, I put my spoon down and looked at Zayn. “Why did you pay for my ice cream? And why did you order a shake for us to share? If you were going to order me a shake, you could have just gotten us two small.”

“One, don’t worry about it. I paid because I am a gentleman and the man always pays. Two, it’s less money to order a large then two smalls, and we’ve shared a drink before and it was never a problem” he answered with a shrug before returning his attention to his ice cream.

“Yes, but the guy only pays when it’s a date – we aren’t on a date, and I understand your other reasoning for the drink” I said waving my hand quickly at the drink.

“Kylie, I wanted to pay so I paid” he shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, just eat up then we can get out of here and head to my house for dinner”.

“Wait, what?” I said confused.

“I thought since your mom’s working you tonight you could just come to mine for dinner with Alenna and probably Zach, since he basically lives at our house, while my parents are also out”.

“Oh, sure, okay” I said trying to hide yet another blush so I just decided to eat the rest of my ice cream.

The rest of the night was fun once we got back to Zayn’s house. We played the Wii against his sister and her boyfriend, ordered Chinese takeout for supper and finished our homework.

When I went home and crawled into my bed I couldn’t help but wish Zayn liked me the way I liked him. I had a lot of fun today, and I wish we could do that more often – on a legitimate date.

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I hope you all enjoyed this chapter with a little insight ito Zayn and Kylie's relationship. Vote/comment/share and the next chapter should be up tomorrow :)