broken strings. ➳ payne. [slow updates]

Chapter Eight. - A Friend Amongst Strangers.

“Does Liam know about this?” Louis finally asked, not tearing his gaze away from the sight in front of him.

“Yes. We found it together one day after school when we were about seven or eight years old. It’s where we always met at night. We would come out here and just sit in silence while enjoying everything that surrounded us.” I reminisced.

“He was lucky to have you as a best friend. You know he misses you right? He literally doesn’t shut up about you.” Louis started off sincere, then ended with annoyance.

“If he didn’t shut up about me then he would have remembered to fucking text me when he left. But he didn’t, so that’s that really.” I said, wishing to end that topic quickly.

“Okay, talking about Liam and your friendship is a touchy subject right now. Got it. What else should I avoid asking about? Oooh, what about that guy we saw you with last night?” Louis asked, raising his eyebrows a couple times with his last question.

“He’s just my boyfriend Lou. We’ve been together for about two years. Almost three now that I’m thinking about it.” I said, while walking away from our entrance.

“Wow. That’s a long time to be with someone. Do you think you guys will get married and have kids? Generally relationships that last longer than three years have a higher marriage rate.” Louis said, walking quickly so he was next to me.

“I – um. I don’t know Lou. I know - I know how I feel about him, but I still question how he feels about me.” I stammered out, spilling the truth with the rest of the words that tumbled out.

“Why’s that?” Louis asked. He sounded generally interested, and not like he was prying. It still didn’t stop my next statement though.

“Because I do.” I seethed out. I wanted to slap myself in the face for how I responded, but it was another touchy subject that I wasn’t ready to tell him.

“Another subject under the touchy column. Okay. Um, let’s start with something simple. What’s your favorite movie?” He asked, seeming unphased by how I responded.

I laughed at how easy it was for him to go to something serious to simple.

“Well if we are excluding Disney movies from that list, then it’s A Walk to Remember.” I replied, my mood lifting with his.

“Excluding Disney movies? Do they come before everything else?” He asked confused.

“Well yeah. And Disney Princesses are above all other Disney movies. But I do have my favorites for those categories too.” I replied, laughing at myself for sounding so stupid.

“Let’s have it then.” He replied, interested in my complicated list of favorite movies.

“Well, my favorite Disney Princess is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. It may have something to do with the fact that we share the same name, I’m not sure though. My favorite song is ‘Kiss The Girl’ from The Little Mermaid. But my favorite storyline is Beauty and The Beast because it shows that anyone is worthy of love, even if they look mean. My favorite non-Disney Princess movie is Lilo and Stitch. But Peter Pan and The Aristocats are a very close second.” I explained to Louis.

After a few seconds of silence, I looked up at him. I tried to suppress the smile that tried to work its way onto my face as I saw his face contorted with confusion.

“What?” I asked, looking back at my feet stepping on the fallen leaves.

“That is honestly the most complicated thing I have ever heard for such a simple question.” He responded.