Chapter 49

I truly am sorry for the wait. I only have two more exams now but they're in a couple of weeks. Thank you for being patient. Lots of love x

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4 weeks later

Zayn POV

“ZAYN!” I hear a loud and familiar voice shout from across the airport. Quickly turning my head I spot Perrie standing there, wearing an adorable beanie hat and some blue jeans with a cropped top. I haven’t seen her in 3 weeks while we’ve been in America touring and it’s really hard to even find the time to skype each other.

She comes running over to me as I pull my suitcase behind me. “Baby!” I say as she wraps her arms tightly around me. “I’ve missed you,” I say as I kiss her repeatedly.

“I’ve got so much to tell you,” she says as she takes one of my bags and Ben, my bodyguard, leads the way to the car.

“Were there any paparazzi when you came in?” Ben turns to ask Perrie.

“No, I didn’t see any. I don’t think there will be if the other boys are coming back tomorrow,” Perrie tells him and we continue to walk out of the airport. There isn’t any paparazzi or fans which is really bizarre. The boys are coming back tomorrow and spending an extra day in LA but I was ready to come home.

“So what did I miss?” I ask as we slip into the car and put our seatbelts on. I make sure I don’t leave a seat in between me and Perrie so I can put my arm around her.

“Well, obviously the Niall and Katherine thing ended,” she says and I nod, “well Kath is really angry at me because Niall told her that we set them up so he could get over me.”

“Why would he tell her?” I ask, confused as to why he would have obviously known that that would annoy Katherine.

“I think he got a bit of verbal diarrhea and was struggling to call it off so just said the first thing that came to his head. I’m not angry with him, it would’ve come out at some stage but Katherine isn’t talking to me and I didn’t think she’d react like this.”

“Well when did she last speak to you?” I ask, becoming concerned. Katherine was Perrie’s best friend and had been her friend since they were younger. She knows Perrie better than me and the Little Mix girls do. Katherine probably knows Perrie better than her own mum.

“She texted me about two days after you left saying ‘never thought my best friend would use me like this. Niall told me everything’,” Perrie says and she looks genuinely upset when retelling the story. “I’ve kept calling her and texting her but she hasn’t acknowledged me,” Perrie says, she isn’t feeling sorry for herself but she rests her head on my shoulder for comfort.

“That was almost 3 weeks ago. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“You were busy touring and stuff and I didn’t want to fill our rare conversations with my problems. You don’t need to be worrying about me anyway,” she says and lifts her head up to sit upright and look at me properly. “I saw some stuff on twitter. Are you okay?”

To be honest, I’m not fine. Just before we went to America I took Perrie to see my family in Bradford to celebrate Eid. I posted some Eid related tweets and the abuse hasn’t stopped since then. I’ve been called a terrorist and had all kinds of hate because of my religion. One blogger called me a ‘pimp for islam’ and this just made more and more people hate on me. They targeted my family as well, and Perrie for just celebrating Eid with me and my family.

“I’m fine. It got to me at the beginning but now I’m just ignoring it. I’m sorry that they said stuff to you,” I tell her. I am sorry. She didn’t deserve the hate for me being a muslim.

“Don’t be stupid, Zayn. I hardly got anywhere near as much hate as you. I was scared though. I worried about you.”

I pull her in so she is resting on my shoulder again. I know she’ll always worry so there’s not point in me telling her not too. At the moment I do really need her because while we record the rest of the album I need to stay in London so she’s the only family I’ve got. I know she needs me too because, even though she pretends she’s fine, Katherine not talking to her must have a big impact on her.

-

“I want to talk to Katherine,” I tell Perrie as I recline in the sofa, having finally arrived home.

“What? I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Perrie says as she brings me a mug of hot chocolate.

“I’ll talk to her infront of you. If I step out of line you can stop me. I just want to talk to her,” I say but Perrie still looks unconvinced. “I promise I’ll be nice.”

“Ok. Give me your phone,” Perrie says and I pass her my mobile. She dials in Katherine’s number, knowing it off by heart, and passes the phone back to me.

Katherine should pick up. She doesn’t have my number so she won’t know it’s me.

“Hello?” I hear at the other end of the phone line.

“Katherine, don’t hang up. It’s Zayn,” I say quickly.

“If you’re trying to get me to speak to Perrie, don’t waste your time. I’ll hang up if this is some kind of trick.”

“It’s not,” I say, and Perrie signals to me to put the phone on speaker so I do. “I want to explain. Perrie’s not making me. I just want to.”

“Ok. What?”

“Obviously you know now that Niall had a crush on Perrie,” I say before she interrupts me.

“Well, more than a crush,” she interjects.

“Yes, more than a crush. I was trying to find someone for him so that he’d fall out of love with Perrie. You came to mind because you’re so much like Perrie and you’re someone we know. I wouldn’t want to set Niall up with someone who I didn’t think would treat him well. And I knew you would.”

“What’s your point, Zayn? You used me.”

“I genuinely thought you and Niall would be good together. Both me and Perrie thought that. We honestly didn’t mean to use you or hurt you. You can be angry at me all you want but please don’t ignore Perrie. I was the one desperate for Niall to get over Perrie, not her. It’s not her fault so please just talk to her.”

“But Zayn, she was my best friend,” I see Perrie’s face fall as Katherine says ‘was’. “She didn’t think to mention that Niall was in love with her and that I was just to get his mind off her. I don’t care what her intentions were or whether she thought we’d make a cute couple. My best friend used me and I honestly hate her for that.”

I turn the phone off speaker. I can’t bear to see Perrie getting upset and it makes my blood boil.

“Stop Katherine. She’s been an amazing friend to you and you know that. She thought Niall would make you happy and you would make Niall happy, so that’s why she set you up with him. You’re completely over reacting. If you want to be angry at someone you can be angry at me. You’re upsetting her and that’s completely unjustified. You know she doesn’t deserve this.”

“What so just because she is some famous pop star with pop star friends and some pop star boyfriend I should let her walk all over me. She’s always thought she was better than me and now, just because she’s dating you, she thinks she can use me,” Katherine says, “All the boys have always liked her better but I don’t need some pity thing where she gives me one of the boys she has lead on when she gets bored of their affection.”

“Oh shut up. You know she’s a great friend. You know she has your back. She wasn’t bored of Niall, she wanted him to be happy and she wanted you to be happy. We set you up because you’re not dissimilar to Perrie and you’re someone we trust. I’m sorry if you felt used, Perrie’s sorry if you felt used, but you can’t ignore her forever. She needs you and you know that you need her,” I say and before she can reply, I say, “Bye Katherine.” And I hang up the phone.

I put my phone back in my pocket, not knowing what to say to Perrie as she sat there looking upset. I can tell that she can’t say anything either.

“Come here,” I say and open my arms for her to snuggle into me. “She’ll call back. She’ll forgive you eventually.”

“You don’t know that,” Perrie says, starting to cry into my grey t-shirt.

“Well, if she doesn’t, she’s an idiot,” I say and stroke her hair out of her face.

I bring her face up to face me and lightly brush the tears from her eyes as a smile finally starts to emerge on her face.

“There was actually something, um, that I kind of wanted to ask you,” I say nervously, pausing for thought.

“You better not be proposing,” she says and I scoff.

“No. Now are you gonna let me finish?” I ask. Perrie joking about the situation has eased my mind a bit, so I can continue, “Well, I’m moving out of this house and I was wondering if you’d help me find a new one.”

“Yeh, that’s fine,” Perrie says but seems slightly dejected, maybe I had built it up to much. “Why are you moving?” she asks.

“Well, for security reasons and also, I want a bigger house so maybe you could move in with me,” I say, a hopeful smile spreading across my face as I wait for her answer.

“Oh right,” she says rather half-heartedly.

“Is that a no?” I ask, worried by her lack of enthusiasm. This would be a major step forward in our relationship. A step I thought she wanted.

Perrie shook her head slowly and then looked up to see me disappointed face. “I’m joking you fool. Of course I’ll move in with you,” she says and I put my hands on her face, pushing my lips slowly against hers.

I’ve never felt so relieved and so happy. “I love you,” I tell her as I break away from the kiss.

“I know,” she says, “I love you too.”

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Hope you enjoyed it. It's not my best but I hope it was alright :)

As always, your votes and comments mean a lot.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll carry this fic on for. If I do end it, I'll start another, but as I say... who knows

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