The President's Daughter (Liam Payne) Book 6

Chapter 19

Elodie’s POV

I must have fallen asleep, curled up over the toilet. When I wake, I’m so stiff I actually can’t move. Everything hurt. I didn’t even understand how that was possible. How can you work so hard that you feel pain in your earlobes?

“Elodie?” a voice calls and I realize whomever it is, is probably the reason I woke in the first place.

“Ba-“ I try to say, but my mouth is too dry to even speak. “Bathroom,” I manage, trying again.

“Oh sweetie,” Lauren says. I can’t even look at her as she crouches down next to me. “Wow, you smell like a pig sty,” she adds and if it didn’t hurt, I’d crack a smile. At least she didn’t strictly pity me. “Lets see if we can get you into the bath. It’ll help with the muscles also.” One of the good parts about nice hotels was they actually had baths and not just showers. Lauren starts the water and goes to get me a bottle of water. It’s a struggle to undress myself, but I’m determined to do it. I’m not going to reduce myself to needing help to get into the bathtub. The water is hot as I sink in and it hurts, but in a good way. Lauren reappears with the water offering it to me.

“Why weren’t your boyfriend or Irish out there this morning?” I ask as she settles onto the toilet lid beside me, just outside the curtain.

“Ugh please. Can we not talk about Louis right now?” she asks in annoyance.

“Why what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Nothing new,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “He’s just being a dick.”

“Aren’t they always?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “But what happened this time?”

“Ok well first…” she gushes as if waiting for someone to ask her what was wrong. She launches into this long story of how he’d been super clingy lately and she just wanted a chance to breathe. I let her go on and on until the water starts getting cold and she finally trails off to silence.

“You know, I’m always up for hating on guys, but honestly I don’t see what the problem is here. You’re on tour with him. There are really not many places he could be that aren’t around you. If he wasn’t around on a regular basis, then he’d need to be actively avoiding you and that’s when you should probably be worried.”

“So you don’t think it’s annoying?” she asks doubtfully.

“Well of course it is. Guys are always annoying. But he’s doing it because he loves you. Right?”

“Yea, I suppose you’re right,” she says with a sigh. “I should probably go apologize for being a bitch then shouldn’t I?”

“Unless you want to wait until he begins apologizing without knowing what for.”

“As tempting as that is…” she chuckles. “I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.” She adds, standing up and exiting the bathroom. I hear the lock click shut and I heave myself out of the bath with a groan. As much as the bath might have relaxed my sore muscles, it wasn’t enough and it was more work than it should have been to get out of the bath. I grab some advil out of my bag to try to ease the pain before heading back to bed. By the time I wake up, the boys have already left for their gig. I briefly feel guilty that Liam had to do that after a double workout, but shrug it off. I’d never asked him to take my place. Still, I find myself hiding out in my room as the group gets back from their show. Even when Lou shows up to tell me the buses want to leave, I linger behind until I’m the last. The only thing that gets me moving is the fear that Paul might come to get me. He was the last person I wanted to see.

“Are you excited for New York?” Lou asks when I settle onto the couch. “You’re from there originally right?”

“Kind of. I didn’t live in the city, but I spent a good deal of time there and a couple of the boarding schools I went to were there. And so are all my friends.”