The President's Daughter (Liam Payne) Book 6

Chapter 21

“Hey, slow down,” I hear the security guy call, but I ignore him as I push past some of the fans that had actually followed us into the store. He catches up before I actually get outside, resuming his job of clearing a path through everyone. It was a lot easier without Mr Responsibility in the group. The girls here really didn’t care about me which I was more than fine with. My eyes widen as the car gets to the Macy’s. If I thought the crowd outside the last store was large, it was nothing compared to this. It seemed like the entire city’s population of teenage girls was gathered out front. There even were police and rails around to help keep them at bay. The security guy talks with the police and after a couple minutes we’re let in. It’s easy to find them. Just follow the noise and crowd of girls. The couple had about 5 feet space between them and the crowd following them everywhere as security helps keep them away.

“Will you just move,” I mutter, shoving past some girls as I try to get to the two.

“Hey,” one of their security says, attempting to keep me from the two before he recognizes who I am.

“Elodie,” Lauren calls, the relief obvious in her voice as I pass the guards.  Shorty looks at me in surprise as I grab onto his girlfriend’s wrist.

“We’re leaving.” I say firmly.

“Wait, there’s not enough security.” he protests worriedly.

“There is if you take my place with the princess and prince bonehead.”  Shorty winces, but after a look at his girlfriend’s stressed face, he nods his agreement. I resume tugging on Lauren’s arm to get her moving again as the two of us plus the security guy who’d been there with them head away from Shorty. I knew the further we got from him, the less attention there’d be. Sure, some girls might want a picture with Shorty’s girlfriend, but if they thought they had the opportunity to meet Shorty himself, they wouldn’t care about us.

“C’mon let’s go,” I say, hoping we can get out of here before Shorty leaves. If he was gone, then his fans might get it in their head to come find us. Lauren freezes though when we get to the front doors and I look back to see her wide-eyed and pale, staring out at the crowd.

“I-I can’t. I can’t go out there,” she says, her voice trembling.

“Yes you can. Just ignore them. C’mon. The car is literallly 15 feet away. Just grow some balls and do it,” I say doing my best to encourage her. It gets her to crack a small smile and she takes a shuddering breath before letting me pull her out the doors.

“Twenty one,” she breathes as she gets into the car.

“What?” I ask, confused as to the random number.

“It’s a trick Louis told me. Niall’s claustrophobic and it’s a trick he uses to get through large crowds like that. You just focus on counting the steps until the car or the door or whatever. Louis thought it’d work for me.”

“And does it?” I ask.

“Sort of..” she admits. “It mostly just makes me not look as constipated in the photos that people get,”

“Where to?” the driver interrupts. I glance over at Lauren who just shrugs.

“I don’t care. I’m pretty much shopped out.” I nod my agreement, but there was one place I still needed to go so I give the directions to my favorite art supplies store.

“So you’re into art huh?” she asks when we finally get to the store and walk in.

“Yup,” I say simply.

“That’s cool. Is that why Zayn and you get along so well?” she questions as I look at a new set of Conté sticks.