Zayn's p.o.v.

I'm not sure what happened with Bella and Jay when I left, but from the way she is angrily focussing on the road as I drive us home shows me that it wasn't a pleasant conversation.

"We had an argument over my dad" she breaks the silence and I look over to her.

"What about that piece of scum?" Even the mention of him makes my blood boil, the sicko that beat my angel, but what the hell could they have fallen out over that for?

"I was trying to say that you're not all bad, that you did save me from my own version of hell, but he just made out that there was nothing wrong with my situation and that it was simply 'daddy issues'." Her voice still holds some anger as my body seemed to tighten when her words sunk in.

Many emotions flood through me at once, adoration due to the fact that 20 minutes ago she found her boyfriend unconscious at the hand of me and yet still had hope that I am a good man. And then anger, when the rest of her sentence registered with my brain I nearly swerved the car in rage, how could anyone say such a thing, this girl went through hell and back and her only 'support' unit was a pathetic boy who justified the actions with the term 'daddy issues'. There's a coffin with his name on it I swea-

"Zayn." The sweet melody of her voice halted my frustration and I let out a needed breath.

"Yes Bella?" I briefly look at her, diverting my attention from the road.

"Do you think I was too harsh on him?" She can't be serious?

"No, anyone who thinks that way needs to remove themselves from your life, they're not worthy of you. Nobody is." I whisper the last part under my breath, meaning every word.

"Thanks Zayn, you're a good friend." The word churned my stomach, but I know that it won't be long until she sees me in a new light, and so that feeling soon faded.

It's a miracle that James seemed to fuck up their relationship before I even had the chance to meddle further myself, but thanks to this it means I can get him out of the picture so much faster, and mine and Bella's future is closer than I thought.

The rest of the car ride was silent, but it wasn't awkward, more peaceful than anything, and I could finally see things looking up.

Bella's p.o.v.

By the time we were home I was ready to just crash in bed, the day had been exhausting and it was barely the afternoon. I jumped out of the car and hastily made my way to the front door, hearing Zayn's quiet chuckle at my eagerness. As I walked inside I heard Luke and Micheal talking in the kitchen, and so decided to quickly join them as they seem to do a good job at cheering me up.

"Hey Bella, where have you guys been? You've been gone for ages." I opened my mouth to brush off their question but Zayn answered before I could.

"Bella found James after I beat him up, I apologised, then Jay was a prick to Bella, so I took her home; that's about it." I'm stunned by Zayn's ability to openly tell them what happened, but I guess they're his friends so it shouldn't be that weird.

They both looked at Zayn in shock, more towards the apology aspect and not the fact that he beat up Jay, and Zayn picked up on it.

"I know, I have told Bella that I won't be involved with her relationship from now on, as it is her decision and not mine." The boys look at him and then seem to have a moment of understanding, I guess it takes a while to process that Zayn could differ from being selfish for once?

"Wait, what did he say to you Bella?" Luke interjected the moment of awkward silence and turned to face me fully.

"It doesn't matter, she's feeling a bit tired so she's just gonna head off to bed, you two stay here, we need to have a talk." They both nodded in understanding and Zayn escorted me upstairs to his room.

"Hey, we've just got to go run some errands but we'll be back in around an hour, that okay?" He is acting strangely nice right now.

"Yeah, I'm just going to sleep for a bit so I'll be here when you're back." He smiled and left the room, leaving me with a million questions about the last few hours.

Zayn's p.o.v.

I walk back downstairs to confront a confused looking Luke and Micheal, I close the door behind me and sit on the barstool opposite them.

"So Bella found James" I started.

"I gathered, how the hell is she so calm, I thought she would be going ape shi-" I stop Luke with a wave of my hand, carrying on with the story.

"Yes I know, she was very mad. I turned up and she looked ready to take my head off, but I seemed to calm her down-"

"What's this about you apologising, how many years have I known you and I've never heard you say those words to anyone" Micheal rambled, looking about as confused as he did at the start of the conversation.

"You two, stop interrupting me for once," They simultaneously nodded, sensing my annoyance. "I had to convince her somehow that I'm not this obsessed freak, or she would never trust me after this whole James situation." I paused, waiting for their response.

"Oh, so you made it look as if you would leave her be, but you really are still obsessed?" Micheal lets out a little smirk at the end of his sentence and I silence him, but don't correct him as everything he said was accurate.

"Yes, so I did have the plan of separating them in a more subtle manor, but it seems that he has already started that process, so my plan is more on the aggressive side, as now if anything seems off it will look more believable."

"So what do we do?" They both look up at me waiting for an answer, and I give them a grin.

"We go back to where he is now, just to pay him one last visit." Without a breath of hesitation they both stand up off their stool and head to the door.

"Wait," I halt their movements as I remember that Bella will be left alone if we all leave.

"One of you needs to stay with Bella, I don't want her here all alone, something might happen to her," my mind goes into overdrive when thinking of all the possibilities of her being hurt and nobody being here to help her-

"I'll do it" without a moment of hesitation Luke offers to stay, and although suspicion enters my mind at his eagerness I need to get this little boy out of the way as soon as possible so I don't let myself think too much about it.

"Fine, Micheal come with me." With that, Micheal and I set off back to where Callum and Ashton still were and walk in to see James moved from the floor to being leant up against the wall.

"We knew you'd be back, where's Bella and Luke?" I ignore their question and advance towards James' near unconscious body.

I crouch down to be at his level and grab him roughly by the collar, lifting him up to meet my eyes, "I know about yours and Bella's little spat, and I'd like to thank you for making this a hell of a lot easier for me." He tries to scramble away from me but his body is too limp to break free.

"I know we argued you prick, but stay away from her. You're feeding her your lies and she's believing them! You don't love her, you'll just use her until you get bore-" I don't let him finish his sentence before I slam his head onto the wall behind him, shaking at the way he was talking about my intentions for Bella.

"I'm going to say this once, and only once. You will leave town, I don't care where, and I don't care if you can't afford it. You don't talk to her, if she calls, you tell her to leave you alone, got it." As I spit each word my grip on him tightens.

"And why should I do what you say?" This cocky little shit.

"Like I said, this is your first and last warning, and if your don't comply, I have a cosy body bag that would fit you like a glove." His fear is evident as he gulps and shuffles back into the corner of the wall, wide eyed by my threat that he knows I will carry out.

I raise my eyebrow at him questionably and he nods his head frantically, agreeing to my request.

"You have until tonight, and if I hear a breath that you are still in town; well you know what will come of it." With that we all walk out of the building and get in the cars. Finally, I have her all to myself.

Bella's p.o.v.

I heard the door slam behind Zayn and the boys, suddenly not feeling as tired as I was before.

"Bella? Can I come in?" Have they not left yet?

"Yeah, sure," the door opens and Luke walks in, placing himself on the side of the bed.

"I thought you guys were leaving?" I turned to him and sat up in the bed, giving him more room to sit down.

"No, Zayn wanted my to stay, but him and Micheal have gone." I look at him in confusion why he couldn't go with them but don't ask, Zayn is known for his unorthodox methods.

"So, do you want to talk?" I try and not come off as rude, but I am wondering why he is in my room.

"Yeah, well I know that it must be hard to be around us lot, and so I thought that we could hang out and get to know each other a bit more, make you more comfortable around us", I felt grateful for his request as it was true, it had become a little awkward being the only girl in here, as well as not particularly knowing any of the guys that well.

"That sounds great!" He smiles at my response and plays with his lip ring, thinking of something to do.

"How about this, we play truth or dare, it should be fun, ease you into it instead of just giving you 50 questions to answer at once, and that way you can know more about me too." I nodded in agreement, gosh I'm not good at thinking of these things.

"You go first" I urge him and he chuckles at my hesitance to begin.

"Okay, truth or dare?" He says with a little smirk, as if warning me to avoid his dare.

"Truth," I say and he lets out a breath as if disappointed with my answer.

"Okay, what did you and James fight about?" I instantly divert my eyes to the quilt, awkwardly playing with the frays in it as I think of a way to bluntly phrase it.

"He basically said that the things that went on between my dad and I was just 'daddy issues', making it out like they were no big deal. I don't know, maybe it wasn't, maybe I'm over exaggerating everythin-"

"Bella," Luke stops my ranting and I take a breath, "you didn't over exaggerate one bit about what that monster did, okay." As he continued his voice became louder and his hands ball up the quilt beneath him. "You didn't deserve what he did to you, I can't believe that asshole said that, what is wron-" I grabbed him hands and removed them from his firm grip on the quilt, his knuckles returning back to their normal colour. He looked up at me in shock as I still held both his hands in mine, waiting for him to calm down, he took a deep breath and returned back to his carefree state.

"Your turn, truth or dare?" I say to distract him from that heated discussion.

"U-urm Dare." I look around trying to find inspiration for his dare and realise that I'm still clutching his hands, my face flushes and I let go of them, embarrassed that I'd held on for so long.

"U-ur, sorry, I didn't realise" I stutter to him, my cheeks flushed out as he chuckles in response.

"It's fine Bella," he tilts my chin up to meet his eyes and I don't look away, I never realised how blue his eyes were before.

"S-sorry," I say again, disconnecting our eye contact as guilt wells up inside me, Jay. I looking down at the quilt again, but look up when an idea springs to mind.

"Okay, so, I dare you to do your best impression of Zayn" I giggle while saying it, distracting myself with the imagination of Zayn's stern face on Luke.

"That's a good one, as long as you don't tell him I did this or he will have my head." I nod in response and eagerly wait for his impression of him.

Luke turns away and then turns back to me with a scrunched up face, his eyebrows lowered in frustration and his eyes narrow, "You're mine Isabella! Mine!" I begin an uncontrollable fit of laughter in which Luke joins moments later, falling back onto the bed as I look at Luke in amusement.

Maybe staying here won't be so bad anymore.

About an hour passes by of Luke and I playing truth or dare, my laughter was never halted and Luke seemed to be enjoying himself too.

"One more, one more, please!" I beg Luke, enjoying the game too much to stop.

"Fine, I pick dare," my mind wanders to pick something we haven't already done, smirking to myself when something comes to mind.

"I dare you to let me tickle you for a full 20 seconds" I laugh as Luke jokingly backs up, shaking his head.

"Hey, you're the one that chose dare." I remind him, and he sighs in defeat and hesitantly lays down on the bed.

I sit up and make my way to him, laughing as he is squirming already. I lift one leg over his body and get in a straddling position-

"W-what you doing Bella?" He asks nervously, and I look at him confused.

"I have to be on top of you to tickle you, or how will I reach?" I tilt my head to the side and he lets out a breath, relaxing his body as if to allow me to carry on.

I grab both of his arms and lift them up, struggling as he resits, "come on you've gotta relax or I won't be able to do it" I laugh.

"Okay, okay, but count down or something, you can't just spring it on me out of nowhere" I look at him oddly but count down none the less.

"Three," I move one hand from his wrist and hold them both in my left hand, "two," I move my right down him arm and towards his chest, his breathing begins to increase rapidly, "ONE!" I immediately begin to tickle his sides, laughing at him as I count to 20 in my head.

Before I make it to 15 Luke seemed to have enough and flipped me over, pinning my arms above my head just as I had done to him only seconds ago.

"Hey, that' not fair, a dares a dare." I pout jokingly.

"Well, I didn't appreciate that da-" before he could finish, the door slammed open and Luke scrambled off of me in an instant.

"What the fuck-"

"Zayn, it's not what it looks like"