Camera Shy (Louis Tomlinson) Book 5

Chapter 36

Lauren's POV

“Ok so now we need to talk,” he says as the room service guy closes the door behind him, leaving us alone.

“About what?” I ask, not really paying attention as I begin to eat the plate of spaghetti.

“How bout that comment you made to me before the party the other night?” he asks, cocking an eyebrow, finally getting my attention.

“Oh. That.” I say, setting down the fork. “Yea, I don’t want people to know.” I say, praying it could be that simple.

“But why?”

“Because, if they do, then that’s so much more attention. Like I’ve seen what happened with Liam’s girlfriend or uh.. your ex. I don’t want that kind of attention. I don’t like being asked for an autograph or all that stuff. That’s your life, not mine.” He gives a nod, but his expression tells me something wrong still. “What?” I ask.

“Well you see… I might have mentioned I was seeing someone in an interview a couple days ago…” he trails off hesitantly.

“What” I say flatly.

“I was excited to come see you and I kind of spilled it… I didn’t say your name,” he adds weakly.

“Louis!” I exclaim the bubble of panic beginning to rise again.

“It hasn’t aired yet,” he says, as if that will make it all better.

“When” I ask tensely, clenching my teeth together to keep from yelling.

“The 18th” he says with a sigh.

“That’s 4 days!” I exclaim, my voice rising. “You’re going to be back in London and I’m going to have to deal with this by myself?” My heart was speeding up and I felt like I was beginning to hyperventilate.

“Shh calm down, deep breaths” he says soothingly, beginning to rub my back. “It won’t be so bad, I promise. You don’t have the twitter still so you won’t have to worry about hate. They have no way to contact you.”

“Besides the Youtube account” I say pointedly.

“Stop worrying so much” he says with a sigh. “What’s the worst they can do?’

“Are you kidding me? Even what they’re doing now sucks.” I say, pulling away from him angrily. “I don’t like the attention and you just keep pulling me right back in.”

“I think you’re over reacting,” he says with a frown.

“Well fine. How’s this for over reacting” I snap, standing up and walking into the bedroom, slamming the door after me. I hear him sigh and begin walking toward the door but I flip the lock. He shakes the door handle, trying to open it before realizing I’ve locked him out.

“Can’t we talk about this” he calls.

“Just leave me alone Louis. I don’t want to talk to you right now” I snap, grabbing my guitar case, opening it up. Of course I’d brought my guitar, I bring it almost everywhere. Louis sighs, rattling the door one last time before giving up and walking off. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself as I lightly strum the strings, relaxing the only way I knew how.

As the time passes, I’m vaguely aware of the sound of Louis moving around the hotel room and eventually leaving. My anger fades and I realize I might overreacted a touch. But at the same time, this wasn’t the life I wanted, and he hadn’t even talked to me about it before making it public. That’s the part that had angered me the most. Eventually, my growling stomach interrupts me. I never had finished my dinner and now my stomach was demanding food. I set my guitar down quietly, pausing a second at the door to listen for any sound, before unlocking it and slipping into the main room. I glance over at the table to see it’s been cleared and I head towards the mini fridge, praying he’d put it in there instead of throwing it out. I breathe a sigh of relief seeing the plate sitting in there and quickly throw it in the microwave for a couple minutes. I take it out when it dings, quickly digging in. I hear the door open and someone walk in. They pause in the middle of the room, before progressively getting louder as they move closer.