Don't Let Go || Liam Payne

9: Never Grow Up

“How was your daaate?” Aria sang out as soon as I walked through the door. I couldn’t stop smiling as I rethought it.

“It wasn’t a date. We were just hanging out.”

“It was a date,” she assured. Gosh. When did she get so sassy?

“Shouldn’t you be resting or something?” I asked, trying to switch the subject.

“That’s all I ever do. I think I can spare some time to hear about your little love fest.”

“Aria.”

“Jessie.” I gave her a look. “You hung out with freaking Liam Payne! You have to tell me about it!” she begged. I laughed.

“Okay, I will. Just calm down.”

She smiled. “I’m waiting.” I rolled my eyes.

“It was a lot of fun,” I stated simply. She clearly was not satisfied.

“What did you guys do?”

“We ordered Chinese food. And we built a fort.”

“That’s it?”

“We had Nerf guns too. And we watched the stars.”

“That’s all you did?”

“Well, we talked for a lot of the time too.”

“I don’t understand love,” she said, exasperated as she leaned her head back and shut her eyes. I laughed.

“Liam and I aren’t in love,” I corrected her. “We’re friends.”

“Uh huh. Sure you are.”

“You are too much,” I told her, shaking my head. “You can ask him yourself if you’d like.”

“That’s okay. I don’t need to. I can tell just by the way that you’re still smiling that you’re not just friends,” she said with a smirk. I buried my face with my hands and brought my knees to my chest as she laughed from my reaction.

“I’m not still smiling!” I protested, even though I totally was.

“Lying never helps the situation,” she told me.

“Yeah, well in this case it does. It keeps my little sister from pestering me about my love life.”

“So you admit it’s a love life?” she caught with a grin.

“I am done talking about this topic,” I stated. It’s impossible to win an argument against her.

“Good morning,” my mother said as she entered. She was holding Ella’s hand, but she dropped it to hug Aria. Aria kissed Ella on the head.

“Good morning Mom. No class today?”

“No, not with this storm. There’s at least a good three inches of snow out there already.”

“Did Dad head into work today?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m sure he’ll be home late. There’s no way to make it home quickly with this weather.”

I sighed. “You should invite Liam,” Aria persuaded with a wink. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

“I doubt any of the boys would want to trek out in the snow,” I told her.

“Oh trust me,” she assured. “If you invite Liam, he’ll be here.”

“Fine,” I muttered. What hurt could it do? If he says no, he says no. Besides I sort of wanted to see him, not that I would ever admit that to Aria.

I pulled up his contact and hovered my thumb over the call button. I quit hesitating and pressed down, stepping into the hall as Aria gave me looks. I simply ignored her. It only took one ring for him to pick up.

“Hey,” he chirped. “What’s up?”

“Hey Liam. I’m at the hospital with Aria and she wanted me to invite you over here. It’s okay if you can’t come because of the snow and everythi-“

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” he told me. I smiled.

“Really? It’s snowing pretty badly out there.”

“I don’t care. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay,” I said, not about to argue. “See you soon.”

I hung up and walked back into the room. “You’re doing it again,” Aria said to me.

“Doing what?”

“Smiling,” she smirked. I tried to wipe the grin off my face. “It’s okay. You’re allowed to be happy. I won’t be offended.” She smiled sweetly, leaving me speechless.

“You should probably get some sleep sweetie. You’ve been up for a while and you don’t want to be tired when Liam stops by,” my mother said, covering Aria with blankets. She nestled closer to her covers and shut her eyes.

I gazed down at my little sister, already so grown up. How could it feel like her life just began the other day, yet it’s so close to the end already? It was too much to think of what life will be like in a few weeks when my family is narrowed down to four.

Ella walked over to me and jumped up on my lap, looking at Aria as she did so. I hugged my baby sister close. “Don’t grow up,” I told her.

“I won’t,” she guaranteed, smiling with that adorable face of hers looking up at me. I smiled back.

“Good.”

AUTHORS NOTE
I don't love this chapter and IM REALLY SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG I HAD A REALLY BUSY WEEK BUT THANKS FOR BEING SO PATIENT I LOVE YOU SO MUCH<3 I'm on break now so I have plenty of time to write! The next chapter will be up in a few days (: Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think! I love you for waiting<3 yall are awesome. thanks again! Byee xx