Camera Shy (Louis Tomlinson) Book 5

Chapter 38

Lauren's POV

The next morning I’m awoken to my brother knocking on my door to tell me he was leaving. Apparently Paisley was flying in this weekend to visit for his birthday. I couldn’t help but ‘awww’ at it causing him to get embarrassed. He had always been shy about relationship stuff. After he called me a nerd once again and slipped out the front door, I walked out of my room to check the damage. There were one or two people passed out on couches and empty cups everywhere. I quietly started cleaning up when a voice behind me causes me to jump.

“You shouldn’t be cleaning up your own birthday party” Logan says, taking the garbage bag from my hand. I give him a grateful smile as I follow him over to the kitchen table, taking a seat as he makes himself at home in my apartment, frying up some eggs. He helps me clean up the place after we eat and hang out pretty much the whole day before he finally heads back to his own place.

A little over a month passes before I finally have the chance to fly out to England again. Louis was able to come once between that, when I’d officially introduced him to Peyton and Stephanie. This time it was a much more pleasant experience for everyone. Peyton got an autograph and a picture with a promise to get a follow from Harry when he’d got back to London. And sure enough, a day or so after Louis left, she let out a scream, causing me to run into her room with a knife thinking she was getting attacked, only to find her hovering over her computer crying over the follow. God my friends were insane.

When I arrive at the terminal, I let out a scream when I see the familiar mop of brown hair. I’d taken off class on Friday to have an extended weekend over Halloween with him. We were going home to meet his family for today, then tomorrow afternoon we’d be back in London for Halloween festivities.  Saying I was nervous was an understatement. I was about to pee myself, worrying about how his family would react. I’d tried my best to subtly get him to change his mind about the whole thing, but it had resulted in a fight in which I’d finally backed down and agreed to meet them. When we pull up to his house, I feel like I’m going to be sick. He takes my hand, giving it an encouraging squeeze before leading me up the front door.

“Boobear!” his mom exclaims as she opens the door, enveloping him into a hug. He lets out a laugh as the rest of the clan tries to squeeze through the door all at once to hug him also.  I couldn’t help but smile seeing how excited his sisters were to see him. Finally, they seem to realize I’m just standing there also and release Louis.

“Guys, this is Lauren,” he says, stepping over next to me and sliding a hand around my waist. Her mom gives me a polite smile and a quick hug, the twins give me a shy smile, introducing themselves, and his other sisters cross their arms and glare at me. I shrink slightly under their gaze and finally the older one turns on her heel, strutting off into the house, the younger following close behind. I glance up at Louis to see him watching their retreat with a frown. The twins take me into the house to show me their Halloween costumes. They were going as Thing 1 and Thing 2, which I thought was adorable. When it’s time for dinner, they lead me down to the dining room and I take a seat next to Louis.

“So how’s Eleanor?” the older one, Lottie I think, asked raising an eyebrow. So that was what this was about. She had really liked Eleanor and blamed me for the breakup. I’d expected as much from his family, yet to actually have it happen caused my stomach to twist. Fizzie, the other sister, seemed like she was just copying her big sister’s moves.  So maybe she didn’t hate me, but was just emulating her big sister.

“I don’t know, I haven’t talked to her in a while” Louis says curtly.

“I miss her” Daisy pouts.

“Me too” Phoebe chimes in.

“I think that’s enough of that,” his mom says hastily, glancing over at me. As dinner progresses, Lottie keeps making comments about Eleanor. Thankfully, Fizzie seems to warm up to me, giving me a couple hesitant smiles. Yet by the time we got ready for bed, I couldn’t help but feel exhausted. I’d spent the whole night trying to impress his family, yet I couldn’t help but feel like I’d fallen short. I wasn’t Eleanor and no matter how hard I tried to live up to the impossibly high standard she must have left, I felt like I was disappointing everyone. I didn’t sit properly, I didn’t hold my tea the right way, I didn’t say the right things. The twins seemed to like me, and Fizzie and his parents seemed to accept me, but I doubted I’d ever be as close with Lottie as Eleanor must have been. Or still was by the sound of it.