She's Not Afraid (One Direction) [Book One]

Chapter Seven

"There's one just there" Niall pointed out to the left, of course, he'd be the first one to see it. The driver stopped, letting all three of us out. We walked into the shop and got what we wanted. Niall and Liam grabbed a chocolate and I grabbed bubble gum flavoured ice cream. We sat down outside since we hadn't seen any fans around. Niall licked his one before turning to me.

"What does that taste like?" I looked at him with a blank expression on my face.

"Uh... It tastes like bubble gum?" Not knowing how else to explain the flavour. He gave me puppy dog eyes, as Liam started laughing. I sighed, holding it out for him to try. I waited for Niall to move closer, the moment he was close enough I brushed the ice cream on the tip of his nose causing him to quickly pull away, laughing as I wiped what was on his nose off with a napkin then leaning in to give Niall a peck on the cheek, which felt a bit weird to me. I felt Niall drag the chair closer to his before he dived in a took a lick of ice cream. As we took the last bite of our cones we heard faint screaming.

"I think that's our cue to leave" I sighed, knowing Liam was right. We all quickly got up and headed to the car before the fans could rush us. I sat in silence on the way back to where our bus was, it had been depressing being stuck on the bus or in hotels all the time. Next week would be better because Claire would be arriving and I had so much to tell her since we hadn't been skyping lately due to her having exams.

All three of us walked back onto the bus and I saw Louis glaring at me. I walked by, ignoring him completely as I went up to the back of the bus to where my laptop was, I had pretty much made the back of the bus my little area. I closed the door behind me and switched my laptop on. I went through my Twitter mentions, scrolling through some of the hate messages that I still got. As I started scrolling back to the top of the page noticed that I was being tagged in pictures from today. I looked at them and noticed they were from when we were all out at the tattoo parlour, I kept refreshing the page then I saw ones from when we got ice cream shop that looked like they'd been taken by someone inside. Niall opened the door and sticking his head into the room, I realized I must have called out to him subconsciously.

"What's wrong?" I spun my laptop around to him, showing him the photos from today, the next thing all the guys had piled into the room. I looked up at Louis who didn't look impressed.

"When we go out from now on we're to stay two feet away from Ember unless we're on stage, otherwise this is just going to get out of fucking control." I felt Louis send me daggers as he spoke, I guess we were back to him being a complete jerk again. The guys all looked at Louis as he walked off to the other end of the bus.

"Hey, Louis, does this mean can't we hug her or anything? I'm meant to be her 'boyfriend'" Niall called out as we all watched Louis stop in his tracks before turning around with arms folded over his chest, something that was extremely rare for Niall to do.

"I don't want to hear it, Niall, It's two feet and nothing closer." Louis stormed off the bus, probably heading into the venue for a sound check. I pulled myself up from my spot before slowly following everyone into the venue.

When we got in I picked up and fixed my in-ears then grabbed my microphone before walking out onto the stage for sound check. We had all decided and agreed on doing 'Little White Lies' for sound check. As the band started the music Louis came up right behind me, one of his arms slowly snaking around my waist so he could pull me closer to him and he pressed his body against my back. I felt him pull my right earpiece out, moving his head closer and singing his part.

Your hands touching me, they're touching me.
And your eyes keep saying things.
They say of what we do
When it's only me and you.
I can't concentrate.

I felt myself shiver. As Niall started singing I turned my head to look over my shoulder at Louis before stepping away from him and entirely out of his grip as the chorus started and turned to face him as I put everything I had into it.

If this room was burning
I wouldn't even notice
'Cause you've been taking up my mind
With your little white lies
Little white lies

I quickly turned back around and continued singing the chorus with the rest of the guys as I started feeling unusually warm. I grabbed the other earpiece out of my ear and walked off to get a cold bottle of water. What the hell had just happened? I managed to make it back to the stage just as the song had finished. Harry, Liam, Niall and Zayn turned towards Louis, arms crossed.

"What was that all about?" Liam called out in our direction before Harry started laughing, Louis raised his eyebrows and walked off stage before Harry yelled out.

"I know what that was all about and if we have to stay two feet away from her that should include you too during sound check." They all looked at Harry as I started walking up to them, feeling my cheeks start to warm up as I did.

"What went on?" Niall scratched his head, not entirely sure what had just happened during our sound check.

"It seems our friend Louis just got a little bit too excited, isn't that right Em?" Harry winked at me and started laughing more, blushing the more Harry laughed and as Liam, Niall and Zayn realised what had just happened, chuckling as they did. I just hoped that it wouldn't happen on stage tonight because deep down part of me knew I'd turn around and kiss him if he did. As I walked off stage I saw Louis leaning against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest. I looked him up and down.

"If you ever do that again I will seriously thump you one." Louis gave a cheeky smirk while I glared at him, making me even more frustrated with him.

"YOU'RE HOPELESS AND FRUSTRATING." I threw my hands up before walking off, listening to Louis mumble something to himself. I got to where I'd be to get changed for tonight's show and entered the room, slamming the door behind me.