Chapter Seventeen: Warm Bodies

Chapter Seventeen: Warm Bodies

Zayn drives up to meet me at the coffee shop. I try to make myself look as calm and collected as possible. Honestly, if any other Directioner were in my shoes I bet they wouldn't be able to handle this moment either. Hell, I didn't know how I could stand so still as Zayn turned the corner and stopped at the curb beside me. My heart skips a best as I wave to Jared and get in the car with Zayn. Zayn fucking Malik. This does not happen to an ordinary girl.

"So what are we going to watch?" I ask casually and pull on my seat belt. Good move Lilah. Casual.

Zayn pulls out into the street. His driving is completely reliable and a tad bit slow. "I was thinking about Warm Bodies," he says.

"Warm Bodies?! What the hell is Warm Bodies?" I ask. I don't think I remember ever hearing about that movie.

"That new zombie movie about how he turns all human again," Zayn says. He glances over his shoulder and pulls into the far left lane.

"Oh." I try to think about seeing any type of commercial for the movie but I come up blank. "I still don't know the movie." I frown.

Zayn just glances at me with a smile. "It'll be a good movie. Zombies for me and love and all that gooey stuff for you!" He starts laughing and I smack his arm.

"I'll have you know, I'm not that girly," I say smugly, lifting my chin high a bit. I'm actually very athletic and proud of all my achievements throughout my sport history.

Zayn glances at me with raised eyebrows. "Oh really?" The way he says it kind of makes me question his sanity. His voice is higher than normal and he stretches out the "ee" sound in really.

"Yeah..," I say confused. Zayn looks back at the road with a wide smile on his face. "Zayn...are you-" I cut off as he suddenly swerves the car, throwing me sideways, and I scream. My heart pounds in my chest.

Zayn steadies the car once again and howls with laughter. "Yeah, not a girl. Sure," he chuckles. "You shoulda saw your face!"

"I said I wasn't that girly! I didn't say I wasn't a girl! And I most definitely didn't say I was in the mood to die!" I exclaim, my hand on my chest. God, this guy was crazy!

"Oh chill out Lilah. It's not like I had plans on crashing. Just relax would you?" Zayn says with a sigh.

I sigh as well and sit back in my seat. I didn't want to ruin the experience. "Alright, but you owe me a hot dog," I mumble, only half joking.

Zayn turns towards me and smiles wider. "Deal."

~~~~~~~

After about two hours, the movie is over and Zayn and I are walking back towards his car in a parking lot. Zayn has his hood pulled over his head and a pair of sunglasses on. I wonder how hard it would be to always have to hide your identity in public or risk having to deal with exposure all the time. I don't think it would be something that I could handle really well.

We reach the car and my mind starts replaying the entire movie again. It's that brilliant.

"That movie was completely perfect! Oh my god! I never thought I'd say this, but damn! That was one fine zombie! Like, did you see how sexy he was in that red jacket?!" My mind is still processing the greatness that is Warm Bodies. It was just so...perfect.

Zayn unlocks his car and we climb in. My phone reads 5:23. Hmmm, I'm late for something... Oh well! I put the phone back in my pocket and close the door ready to talk about Warm Bodies with Zayn.

"Those Boneys were terrifying," Zayn says as he starts the car. "I thought that one Boney was going to kill R for sure!"

"Oh my god I know! Jare would have flipped out about how freaking gorgeous R was though. Lena would have loved the Romeo and Juliet parallelism. Did you see the parallel?" I ask, my excitement practically bursting out of my body. I turn towards Zayn and sit with my legs underneath me as he drives.

"Hell yeah! I noticed especially at the balcony scene when she was like 'R! R!' And I just kept thinking that this was exactly like Romeo and Juliet," Zayn says. He takes off the sunglasses and puts them in the cup holder between us. He pulls down the hood as well and runs a quick hand through his hair.

"I thought that too!" I squeal and flutter my hands everywhere from excitement. "I don't remember what Juliet says exactly, but I think it goes something like, 'Romeo, Romeo. Where art thou'... something something something," I give up and just laugh about it instead. I mean who would remember something like that?!

Zayn drives steadily but softly he says, "'Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo. Deny thy father and refuse thou name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I shall no longer be. Capulet.'"

I sit stunned and staring at Zayn. Did he?! He didn't. He couldn't. Oh god he did. He just quoted Romeo and Juliet.

"What?" He glances over at me and notices my mouth hanging open and my eyes wide.

I shake my head and sit in the chair normally, my feet on the floor and my body facing forward. I stare at the road ahead of me shocked. "Nothing," I say.

Zayn laughs quietly and reaches over to lightly punch my arm. "I've read and scene Romeo and Juliet countless times Lilah. Calm down and stop acting like I'm some kind of robot."

I hear what he says but I'm kind of focusing on the fact that he lightly punched my arm. Last time I checked that little notion was kind of like a friend zone action. I frown. I shouldn't let my head get so wrapped up with thoughts of dating any of the boys. I've just got to keep my head on straight and think about the movie. The movie is the most important thing right now.

"OH and when her dad almost shot R in the head. I thought he was going to die then. That movie was-"

"MOVIE!" I gasp and pull my phone out of my pocket. The time on it reads 5:32. "Shit!" I groan and hang my head backwards.

Zayn looks at me with wide brown eyes, his face kind of resembling shock. I must have freaked him out a bit. "What's wrong?" He asks.

I stare at the passing green light that we head under. "We're late," I mumble.

"Really? That's what made you freak out suddenly?! I thought I ran a red light or something like a cop following behind us."

"You don't understand. You're going to wish it was something that simple," I say and shut my eyes. My head hurts and I will the pain to just go away. I slide the window down a bit hoping the fresh air will help calm me down.

"Look Lilah, I'm pretty sure that it'll be fine. The boys don't care about a couple minutes being late. I mean, sure Liam might be a little mad, but that's normal. He's the responsible one." Zayn tries to reason with me.

Up ahead I can see the little distant figures of the apartments that One Direction is staying in.

"I wasn't talking about Liam, Zayn," I say and sigh. "Jared is going to have a hissy fit that we are late. He takes schedules very seriously," I tell Zayn.

Zayn looks at me with raised eyebrows. "Well, I have a feeling that Jared will have a hard time actually being mad at me. I mean, come on, we've both seen how he reacts when it comes to One Direction."

I laugh and shake my head. Zayn does not know Jared like I do. Last time Lena and I showed up late for a date with him at a coffee shop, we had to pay for his drink, muffin, and on-the-go drink that he swore he had to have. He also gave us a ten minute detention time of silent treatment. Jared does it to annoy the hell out of us, but it works. We are no longer late to anything.

I give Zayn a small smirk as he pulls into the parking lot. "Well, then you can explain to him why we're late."

Zayn grins wider as he parks the car. He leans in towards me and my heart stops momentarily. "Deal," Zayn breathes out and I just want to reach across and pull his face to mine. God, when was our kiss going to happen?!

But instead I just smile and say, "deal." Zayn has no idea what we're about to walk into.

**Thomas' POV**

If I wanted to sit in awkward places I would probably choose to do it in a coffee shop and without any clothes on. I wouldn't, however, choose to sit in a room full of guys. Especially not with One Direction.

Zayn and Lilah are late to our audition meeting that we had set up in order to talk about our approach towards auditions. We will be having them at seven tonight and according to the clock on the wall across from me, seven o'clock is in about an hour. We have slighly more than an hour to get the auditions sorted before we actually head towards the theater and do them. I already talked to the drama department and sent out campus-wide emails to those who want to audition.

I hope a lot of females come to try out for the role. I honestly don't want Lilah getting the lead love interest. I mean sure, it would be great publicity for her and I think her career could really pick up from there, but I just didn't want to have to watch her act and kiss one of the boys. I don't know exactly why, but I just didn't want to deal with that.

Harry gets up from the sofa he was sitting on and starts pacing the room. He has a cup of tea in his hands that he made for everyone as we waited. Mine is currently sitting on the table getting cold. I've never been that big of a fan for tea.

"Harry, sit down and finish your tea. Why are you pacing?" Louis asks.

I've gotten really good with their names since I've had to sit with them for a couple hours already. It's not that hard as well since no female ever shuts up about them.

"I'm tired of sitting. Think of it as some exercise. I'm not pacing. I'm exercising," Harry says with a sip of his tea.

"Exercising. Inside. Of an apartment," Liam, who's sitting in his own chair closest to me, says slowly. "Harry, who exercises that way?"

Harry shoots him a glare and tosses his curls. "I do."

"Well take a seat, you're making my head hurt," Niall says around a bite of snickers.

So far I've witnessed Niall eat a couple of different snacks and two burgers. I don't see where he puts it all since he looks like he never gains weight. But then again, I've also seen Jared eat almost two packages of Oreo cookies in the past hour. Niall and Jared are actually very similar. Except Jared is gay and I don't think Niall is.

Harry sits on the white couch again and drapes his legs across both Louis and Niall's laps. "Well, I'm bored," Harry breathes out and sips his tea.

"Same," I say. This whole waiting process was getting annoying. Where the hell was she?! What was she doing with Zayn?!

"Well they were heading out to watch a movie. Most movies are like two hours long," Jared says, his chin in his hands. He finally put his oreos down. The box is in his lap though and I highly doubt I'll be able to get one from him.

"What movie?" I ask trying to keep some kind of conversation going. It's really awkward when everyone just sits and stares at one another in silence.

"Zayn was talking about Warm Bodies," Niall says.

"Lilah isn't that big on zombies though," Jared tells them as he examines his fingers.

 "Yeah, last time she watched one of those zombie movies where they had to kill all of them to survive she couldn't sleep for a week. Acting with her that week was practically the worst ever. I had never seen her so jumpy before. I had to walk her home every night because she was afraid of the dark," I laugh at the memory.

Jared looks over at me with a small smile on his face. He stares at me like he remembers what I'm talking about. "Oh I remember that week! Lilah wouldn't shut up about you at all. I thought she would talk me to death this one night where she couldn't sleep so she called me."

"Really?! She always mentioned not being able to sleep so she'd just call people and talk. When she called me it was mostly just listening to each other breathe. Every time I asked her if she were asleep yet, she'd say no and ask me to just stay on the phone with her. I didn't understand it, but then I figured Lilah was a weird chick anyways. It was how she was," I say.

"That's true. Lilah has always been kind of weird. Hasn't she?"

"Hasn't she what?"

We all turn in the direction of the voice and see Zayn and Lilah. I notice happily that they aren't holding hands or even standing beside each other. Lilah's green eyes flick over the room and only glances in my direction. I wonder if she caught on with the whole Lena thing at the coffee shop...

"Nothing, we were talking about high school theater stuff," Jared says.

Niall gets up and offers his chair. "Thank god you're finally here. I'm starving and need dinner. Let's get this thing over with," he says and rubs his stomach.

"You've been eating like this entire time!" I exclaim. How did this guy stay so damn skinny if he eats like this?!

Every single person in the room suddenly looks at me. Seven pairs of eyes just staring at me. It doesn't help that the boys know all about each other and Lilah and Jared are giant fans. They have this upper hand on me and I can't help but say things that are stupid sometimes.

"Niall has no limit to his food consumption."

"You haven't seen him eat anything yet."

"It's better when you take him to a buffet, that's when he goes crazy."

"Oh god him and potatoes!"

"Jared!"

"What?! Come on-"

"Stop eating all those oreos, those will make-"

"No stomach aches or anything."

"It's pretty great."

"AND-"

"Oh god! Stop talking all at once!" I yell over the voices that overlap each other so much that I lose track of who's saying what. My head pounds with an incoming headache. How did these people ever understand whatever the other person is saying!? They all talk at the same damn time!

The instantaneous talking stops finally and everyone takes a seat. I prop my feet up on the table and breathe out calmly. I could use silence now.

"Now that we're all calm and here, I think that we can start discussing auditions and our approach," Liam says professionally.

What did I hear about him a while back? He's the responsible one? I think that's Liam...I'm not 100% sure.

"Actually, before we start the business, I just want to ask a couple questions," Jared cuts in and turns towards Lilah and Zayn.

Lilah turns towards Zayn and mouths, "I told you," to him before sitting back in the chair and getting comfortable. Even I know what's coming up for the both of them. It's the good old disappointment talk from Jared about how tardy they are. I've had plenty of experience with Jared and his issue on time management.

I sit back in my chair as well and get comfortable. Knowing Jared this could take a couple minutes. I plan on enjoying every last second of it.

Jared clears his throat and gets up, putting his oreos on the table. The boys all look at him with amusement. They're about to witness something most people do.

The Jared Rant.