Second Chance - Chapter 10

THE THIRD DEGREE

ZAYN...

“So you and Louis...” I could not finish my sentence. I ran my hand through my hair frustrated, I took a deep breath and exhaled in a rush.

“Yes, Zayn. Louis and I did have sex. If that is what you are trying to say.” Holly said bluntly.

          

Sitting motionless, I seemed to be lost for words and the frustrated look written all over my face told her that I wanted to do something really, really violent. To Louis, preferably.

“No, Zayn!” She warned me sharply and gave me a dirty look.

          “What?” I said innocently.

       “You are not to rearrange his face, break his bones, throw him off a cliff or whatever it is you’re thinking of doing to him.” She looked me in the eyes trying to read the truth there.

          “I was not thinking of any of those things.” I denied.

          “Yes, you were.”

          “No, I wasn’t.”

          “Yes, you were.”

          “Okay, fine. I was but he totally deserved it.”

          “Oh, come on, Zayn. It wasn’t as if he forced me to do anything. It was only my virginity. It wasn’t like I was going to do anything interesting with it. Besides, it was bound to happen sooner or later as hot as Louis is. It was my choice. I wanted it and I enjoyed it.” She smiled with satisfaction.

          “Woah, babe! No! No! Way too much info. I really don’t need to hear that.” I cringed and covered both my ears with my hands. She just laughed aloud at my discomfort. I had heard much, much worse stories from the other lads but listening to Holly talking about ‘it’ made me blushed from the top of my perfectly quiff head to my little toe.

          Suddenly, I felt really guilty. I was supposed to take care of her but I was too preoccupied with our performance and my own thing to really notice what was going on with her. Somehow I had put her at the back seat to my own agenda. If anyone was to blame, it would be me.

          “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t take a good care of you.” I apologised to her.

          “What are you talking about?” She was a confused what I apologising for.

          “You know,” I shrugged. “This thing with you and Louis..”

          “Thing? You mean the fact that I lost my virginity to him?”

          “Could you please, stop saying that.” I did not know why it bothered me so much to hear her talk about it.

          “Get over it, Zayn. I lost it a long time ago. I am a big girl.” She stated.

          “I know, I know. I just...I just feel that I should taken better care of you.” I was feeling upset.

          “Like you taken care of Jason for me?” Holly raised her brows inquiringly. “What were you going to do? Have one of your ‘talk’ with Louis like you had with Jason?”

          “You know about that? Did Jason tell you?”

          “Yes, he did. He was worried about getting beaten up.”

          “Well, he kept his hands to himself, didn’t he?”

          “Even if he didn’t, I wasn’t interested in doing anything with Jason. That is why nothing happened between us. But I was very interested with Louis.”

          “Holly, please stop that. I still can’t wrap my minds around what you did with Louis. God! It’s unbelievable.”

          “No, you’re the one who needs to stop doing that. I am a healthy female and Louis is really HOT.” Holly was being annoying and trying to make me blush again.

          “I know that, princess but I can’t help feeling really guilty about it. I felt that it was my fault.”

“Don’t do this to yourself, sunshine. It was not anyone’s fault. I was my choice.” She took my hand in hers and held it tightly.

Suddenly, camera started flashing around us.

“The paps! We better go.” I stood up and pulled Holly up from her seat. She stood up gingerly and I put my arm around her waist.

“I’m going back to my hotel, Zayn. I have another book signing tomorrow.”

“I’ll send you back.” I said flatly.

“No, sunshine. Just get me a taxi and I’ll be fine. While you... you need to go back and have a good night rest. You must be tired.” She cupped my cheek and kissed the other one.

“But...” I started to protest.

“Sunshine, I’ll be fine.” Seeing the stubborn look on her face, I relented.

I got her a taxi and we said good night. The paps were still there and the camera flashes were still going off. Luckily, it was not long before I got into a taxi and I headed straight to the hotel.

Reaching my room at half to midnight, I found Louis was still up watching the television. As I walked in, he looked at me warily.

“Are we cool, bro?”

I fixed a stare at him for a few second before exhaling loudly. “Yeah, we’re cool. Holly managed to convince me not to kill you... yet.”

“Yeah, okay. I could live with that.”

I grabbed a change of clothes and did my usual nightly ritual in the toilet. I came out, freshly scrubbed and ready for bed but sleeping was the farthest thing from my mind. I sat on my bed facing Louis and demanded, “Tell me your side of the story.”

Louis, who was sitting Indian style on his bed with both his elbows on his knees, leaned back against the head board, switched off the television he was watching, closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.

“I thought we’re going to skip that.”

“Not a chance, man.” I said shaking my head.

He opened his eyes and looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Everything. From the beginning till the end and why do you feel you need to hide it from me?”

“Seriously?” Louis was incredulous. “Zayn, do you know how you act around her? You are like a guard dog. A guard dog ready to bite anyone who’s going to pet her.”

“That’s because she’s not for petting.”

Louis dismissed that with the flick of his hand. “You know what I mean.”

Zayn shrugged. “She deserved to be treated right.”

“You think I don’t know that? God! I was absolutely crazy about her. I would have done anything for her. But in the end, it wasn’t me who left.”

“What happened to you guys?”

“I’m not quite sure. I thought that everything was going fine. We were happy. And I really thought the feeling was mutual but...” Louis shrugged. “She proved me wrong.”

“That’s the curious thing about that. I have never heard of the guy she left you for.” I saw Louis winced over the last part of my sentence. “But come to think of it, I didn’t even know about you and Holly.”

“I have to apologise for that. We meant to tell you but... obviously we didn’t get the chance to do so because she already left.”

“Were you in love with her?”

“In love? Zayn, I worshipped the ground that girl walked on. I would have given her everything. She said she cared for me and I thought she really did too. I never knew she had somebody else.”

Hurt was splashed all over Louis’ face. I did not know what to say because that did not sound like Holly at all. She did tell me that she loved Louis. So, what went wrong? They were in love and suddenly she left with some other guy. There was more to the story than she was telling me.

“Did you have a fight?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t think so. Like I said, everything was going fine. Before she just up and left, we met a couple of times. She did not say anything. She was a bit distracted but she was her usual cheerful loving self.” Louis replied thoughtfully.

“Did you know, you were her first?” I asked him candidly. The reddish tint spread across his face and he could not meet my inquiring eyes. Louis Tomlinson was embarrassed!

“Um... yeah.” Louis was still avoiding my gaze.

“You were gentle with her?” He had better be or I’ll wring his neck.

“Heck! What kind of question is that?” Louis was incredulous.

“A reasonable one.”

Louis shook his head disbelievingly. “Don’t worry I knew what I was doing. I made sure she enj... Jeez, why am I talking about this to you?”

“Because Holly is not any random girl.” I stated flatly.

“You are three years too late, mate.” Louis was pointing out the obvious.

“I know. And who’s fault is that?” He held both his hands up to signal that he accepted the blame I was heaping on his head.

Louis suddenly leaned forward and looked me straight in the eyes. “Did you find out about the guy she left with?”

“She told me that she was still with him but they no longer live under one roof. As a matter of fact, the guy is here in New York.” I said remembering the conversation I had with Holly.

Louis chewed on his lower lip thinking deeply. I made up my mind that I was going to find out about this mysterious guy. I would meet him. Face to face. Soon.