Pulling into the gravel driveway, I couldn't help but smile seeing my home. Louis stopped the car and took both of his hands of the wheel, touching my shoulder gently and smiling at me. I smiled back as we stepped out of the car and I felt the cold Doncaster air hit me, sending goose bumps down my bare arms. However, the warmth came back when Louis met me at the doorstep of my childhood home and wrapped his left arm around my waist. I rang the doorbell and we waited to be greeted.
The door was lined with decorative orange lights, as my mother always did for Halloween. A small pumpkin sat a few feet away from us and I smiled, noticing how she still carved it with a smiling face because when I was young, the regular jack-o-lantern faces scared me. Little did I know that was the least of my fears at the time. But never mind that, I'm not afraid anymore. I've given the fear back and it is no longer a part of me. I am, as I have always aspired to be, free.
My head pokes back up when I hear the door open and before me stands my mother with a ridiculous grin spread across her face. She giggles at the sight of us both, probably very happy with Louis' placement of his arm, and steps toward us onto the porch. Next thing I know she flings her arm around us and I am put in the middle of the three-person group hug. I'm not much of a hugger, but I missed my mom, so I smile and hug her back. Finally we pull apart and I notice that she is all ready for tonight in her orange and black outfit, a tacky candy corn necklace strung around her neck. My mom always loved Halloween the most of all the holidays, most likely because it was the least stressful for her. Of course that love of October 31st spread to me and even I had learned to love when she wore that tacky piece of jewelry. Especially now at twenty, I got a chance to feel like a kid again.
The voices of screaming little girls were heard in the background and I struggled to see them, but I knew Louis' sisters were here as well. That thought was confirmed when Daisy and Phoebe came running to the door, smiling up at us in their beautiful princess costumes. "Louis! Emma!" they shouted and hugged our waists as we each bent down and gave them a proper hug at their level. "What beautiful princesses you both are!" Louis complimented and they both played with their dresses while giggling, which in turn made both of us giggle as well. "Here, everyone come inside before we all freeze." my mother opened up the door wider and Louis and I stood back up, chasing the twins back inside the house where they seemed to be heading for the kitchen.
There we found Jay, Lottie, and Fizzy. Jay was cooking something on the stove, but immediately stopped when she saw her son walk in. Lottie, dressed as Dorothy, and Fizzy, dressed as a Greek Goddess, stopped helping each other with their hair and smiled at the two of us while running over to give us a hug. The two teased me for quite some time about 'this' finally happening, meaning Louis and I. I think there might have even been a bet in place, but I was really trying to tune them out. As they started arguing over who was right and who was wrong, I slyly escaped from their side and joined Jay and my mum on the other side of the room. "Hi Jay!" I smiled at her as she hugged me. She then moved over to Louis and hugged him tightly, as my mother had done with me earlier. "So did you two have a fun time?" Jay asked and we smiled at each other, nodding our heads. "Good. But it's great to have you home." my mum smiled and Jay agreed with her.
"So we are taking Phoebe and Daisy out tonight, but Lottie and Daisy are going to a big party in Sheffield, right girls?" Jay turned to the two who were back preparing themselves for tonight. 'Yeah, it's through Young Life, I'm surprised you haven't already heard about it, Emma." Lottie answered and I suddenly felt left out. While I had been gone, Lottie and Fizzy had been doing the same things I did when I was at home and in high school and while I could have been a leader for their group, I was off sight-seeing with their brother. I had missed Young Life and home in general, and now, I was feeling the bad side effects I had never thought of when I agreed to join Louis on the tour.
"Oh you two should go with the girls!" Jay added, looking at us hopefully and probably wanting us to keep an eye on the girls for her. "I don't know mum I mean we don't have costumes or anything and I'm sure they have to leave soon." Louis trailed off, winking at his sisters. "Oh no! Louis, you guys have to go! It'll be fun! We can find something for you to wear, don't worry. We'll go start looking now." Fizzy spoke as she followed Lottie upstairs, most likely on their way to raid my closet.
"Well hopefully they don't cause you too much trouble. Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll all have fun. Why don't you see if any of your friends would want to come?" my mum asked and I shrugged my shoulders in Louis direction as he thought about the idea. I began to search through my phone but was interrupted with Lottie yelling at me to come upstairs. I put my phone back in my pocket and trudged up the stairs, toward the room I had missed so much.
When I got up there, I found the too holding up a black dress, analyzing it while facing a mirror on the wall opposite from the door. "Yes?" I asked and they both whipped around. I found them to be holding something I hadn't seen it years. It was a black dress, decorated with gold and silver accents. It belonged to my grandmother and was given to me when I was six. I walked forward slowly and silently, reaching out to touch the silky thin fabric. "You'll be Daisy. We even found this headband in the box." I looked over and found Lottie holding a matching vintage headband decorated in gold and silver jewels.
"Alright, well, go help Louis find a costume and I'll get dressed. Meet you outside in say fifteen minutes, alright?" I asked and they both nodded. Once out of my room, I closed the door and plugged my phone into my iHome where immediately the voice of Lana Del Ray sounded. Instead of getting ready like I was supposed to, I jumped onto my comfy bed and rested my head on the cold fluffy pillow. No doubt I was tired, but in that moment I was simply enjoying the comfort of my childhood bedroom I had missed so much. Not that rooming with Marlee for four months wasn't fun at all... it was just... different.
After two songs of resting, I realized I probably had to get ready. I slipped the dress on which was much more uncomfortable than it looked. Next I put on a little makeup to hide the dark bags under my eyes. And finally, I let my hair fall naturally, reaching just above my middle, and set the headband atop of it. Satisfied with my attempt at the great Daisy of one of my favorite books, I slipped on my black shoes and hurried downstairs. My mother waited there, eating some candy that I assumed she was planning to give to kids later tonight. "Oh Emma, is that your grandmother's? It's beautiful. You look just like her, you know." she spoke quickly with a lollipop in her mouth, making it a bit hard to understand. I blushed a bit and slowly nodded, reaching for a piece of candy myself. I checked the time on the microwave and realized I should probably be going outside now. I threw the candy wrapper in the trash and headed towards the front door, my mother following closely behind with her Canon camera. What is this, prom?
I opened the door and saw the Tomlinson family across the way, taking their own version of prom pictures. I laughed when I saw his costume, but continued to walk towards the large family gathered out in front of their home. Once the twins came running, I knew my cover was blown and I looked up to see everyone looking at me. "Emma you look wonderful! Come over here and we'll take some pictures of you all." Jay shouted and both me and my mother hurried across the street and to the Tomlinson's.
"Never really enjoyed reading this book in high school." Louis spoke as his hat covered his eyes and nose so all I could see were his lips. "Really? I quite enjoyed it." I answered, focusing on something other than his pink lips that seemed to be calling my name. "Of course you did. You liked everything in school." he rolled his eyes and I scoffed. "I did not! I most certainly hated calculus, buddy." I poked his side with my elbow and he laughed loudly.
"Oh whatever. You were good at everything anyway. But never mind that, are you ready to party with the one and only Jay Gatsby, love?" he poked his head in, his hat now falling off his head. He caught it below our faces and held it instead of putting it back on as he waited for my answer. I shrugged my shoulders and played with a strand of my hair. "I guess." "Why you- get over here!" he reached after me as I walked away, pretending to be uninterested. Of course, once he grabbed me, I erupted into a fit of laughter.
Our mums took some great pictures of all of us together, then with just the girls, then just the Tomlinsons, and then finally just Louis and I. The pictures looked good and it was nice for once to get to publish them ourselves, if we ever did choose to do so. For now, we liked the idea of keeping them private. Perhaps tomorrow we could share them with the fans. Finally the four of us got into Louis car and waved as we pulled out of the driveway, watching the mums take the girls down the street for their first trick-or-treat of the evening.
"Oh and I guess Niall and Marlee are in Sheffield seeing her parents, so they said they'd swing by the party tonight." Louis said as we got on the freeway and I turned on the radio, searching for the right station. Of course, by the time I found one of my favorite songs playing, we had arrived at the party. I turned the damn thing off and I sensed everyone in the car silently laughing at me, but I didn't bother. They would have had the same problem. I just really hate the radio.
The party was being held in a large abandoned warehouse, which definitely added to the cool Halloween atmosphere. The people that manned the entrance were dressed as skeletons and glowed in the dark, making their movements seem really cool. When we were in high school, Young Life had cool Halloween parties but definitely nothing like this one.
We parked the car on the side of the street and got out slowly. Louis attempted to hide his face with his hat, which actually looked really sexy, but I tried to forget that as we were at a Christian party with high school and middle school kids. Not that I would do anything anyway, but you know what I mean. The guys dressed as skeletons opened a black curtain and led us into the almost pitch black building. Music blasted and strobe lights flashed, those being the only source of light besides the glow sticks that were scattered everywhere. The two girls ran off, probably going to look for their friends, while leaving Louis and I awkwardly standing alone away from the fun. Louis then took out his phone and found a text waiting from Niall. "There's over there." he pointed straight in front of us and grabbed my hand, pulling me softly towards them. Of course they were standing by all the food and drinks! I greeted the two, smiling while reaching for a handful of candy from one of the bowls. Niall was dressed in a batman outfit, of which I figured was Liam's given his strange obsession with the superhero. Marlee was a cute little witch and although their costumes didn't match, they definitely looked adorable together.
We spent a lot of the night just hanging out, talking about what we would do on our few days off. Marlee had much to say about their wedding, including the fact that Louis would be a groomsmen and I would actually be a bridesmaid as well. She probably only said that because she wanted to have Louis and I walk down the isle together, but I went with the fact that I was one of her best friends just to make myself feel better.
A voice boomed over the loud music and all four of us walked towards the large group of people dancing in front of the DJ's table. The DJ, who was obviously a Young Life leader, was explaining a game. It was a very simple game and I was sure I had played it in high school at some sort of Young Life gathering. Everyone spread out into one large giant circle and two people, the Young Life leaders running the party, stood in the middle.
A country song came on, different than the previous music that had been playing, but the two went along with it and started square dancing with each other. The point of the game was to figure out a dance with someone else as the music changed genres. Once the country song ended, the two split up and each grabbed a new partner from the crowd. The male just so happened to grab Fizzy and they danced for the minute long Latin song, managing a bit of a salsa. The song changed again and Fizzy looked around for a male to dance with. Finally she came running over to Louis and before he could run away, she pulled him in and they began dancing to some disco song.
Before I knew it, everyone but me from our small group had been picked and was dancing. I seriously feel like the kids who get picked last in kickball. Why in the world has Louis not picked me yet? I'm watching him now with Marlee and I can't help but want to just pull them apart. Suddenly the song changes to a more well known pop song and I watch as everyone scrambles around to find a new partner. I keep an eye on Louis and notice that once again, he skips past me. But odd enough, I do find a partner: Niall. And the two of us have fun dancing to Blurred Lines, which I soon found out we both hate more than any other song.
The song was cut short, just like all of the other ones, and I actually was sad that I couldn't dance with Niall anymore. Of course, now it was my turn to find myself a new partner. I looked along the outer circle for someone wanting to dance as L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole came on the speakers. I found a younger boy, probably a little younger than Fizzy, standing alone and I began to head over to him. I was just about to grab his hand when someone grabbed mine and there was Louis, holding onto my hand tightly as he swung us around. "Finally, I was starting to think you'd forgot about me." I said, annoyed with him.
"Oh no, my dear. I just had to wait for the perfect song. Now this, this is the perfect song. What do you say about making it our song?" he smiled and pressed our foreheads together as we spun around, most likely dancing terribly. But I'm sure everyone else was doing the same. "Ha! Our song? What are you, a Nicholas Sparks book? You know, Lou, I had a little more faith in you that you'd keep this relationship from going all cheesy." I rolled my eyes and he laughed at me, neither of us speaking another word for the rest of the song. All at once the song ended and we were each off dancing with someone else. But once the game was over, he came back to me. I never had to worry about Louis because I always knew he would come back.
The party ended at the responsible hour of eleven. We said goodbye to Niall and Marlee, wishing them a good few days off. Niall had informed us that they had just told Marlee's parents of the engagement and they couldn't be happier, so that was definitely good. After they left, we found Lottie and Fizzy and led them out of the party and to the car.
Once we got inside and Louis started the engine he turned to me and smiled. "Here, plug in your phone and save us from another half hour of switching through stations." he handed me a chord and I rolled my eyes as I plugged the phone into his car and searched youtube for a song. "Oh and I'm the cheesy one?" Louis scoffed as the first verse of Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton ended. I shrugged my shoulders and he focused back to driving.
We arrived back in Doncaster and after much discussion, decided to drop the girls off at home and park the car in my driveway so Louis could hang out at my place for a little bit. It being 11:30, my mother was already asleep up in her room, meaning we had the whole house to ourselves. Two bowls half full of candy were left out on the counter, as well as a few empty wrappers. Way to dispose of the evidence, Mum.
"So what do you want to do?" I asked Louis, setting my arms down on the granite countertops of the kitchen. "Want to watch a scary movie?" he asked and I nodded, grabbing the bowls of candy and following him into our living room where the TV was. Louis began looking through our Netflix account and found some random horror flick I had never heard of, but agreed to anyway. "Before we start, do you have any ice cream?" Louis asked and I nodded while raising an eyebrow, unsure of exactly why he wanted ice cream when we had so much candy. We got up from the couch and once again ended up in the kitchen, where Louis pulled out a single tub of ice cream, some fudge, caramel, and sprinkles from the fridge. He locked eyes with me and I smirked, running back to the living room and grabbing the two bowls of candy and quickly bringing them back to the kitchen as Louis got the bowls.
"Miss Emma Scott: Are you ready to master the art of the 'Everything But the Kitchen Sink' Sundae?" Louis spoke in an announcer voice and pretended to hold a microphone up to his mouth. I nodded, trying to control my laughter but failing horribly. "Alright then, ready, set, go!" he yelled and we both got to work on our sundaes. I piled up the single scoop of vanilla ice cream with fudge, caramel, probably about twenty pieces of candy, and sprinkles. Louis' looked almost identical to mine, but a little more messy. I heard a strange sound beside me and looked up to see Louis squirting whipped cream into his mouth. He stopped it and began to swallow it, which was totally disgusting to watch. I turned away and cringed, making Louis laugh. "I'm sorry, do you want some too?" he spoke and before I could even shake my head, I felt the cold substance on my face.
"Oh my God Louis!" I was in between yelling at him and laughing at us both; our faces were covered in whipped cream. I shh'ed him as a reminder that my mother was still sleeping and he slowly quieted down. Eventually, he gave me a paper towel and I was able to wipe off the sticky treat. "This looks disgusting." he spoke and I saw him looking down at the ice cream sundaes on the counter. "Yeah but that's the fun in it! Come on let's go watch the movie!" I grabbed my bowl and ran back to the couch in the living room, Louis following behind.
Halfway through the movie, I set my empty bowl down and crossed my arms over my stomach, trying to hide how huge it looked. "You alright?" I asked, noticing Louis looked a little awkward sitting a few inches away from me. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. You like the movie?" he gestured to the screen. "Eh, it's kind of lame. But most horror movies are." I shrugged. "You aren't scared? Damn." he cursed under his breath and I stared at him quizzically.
"Huh?" I asked when he finally noticed me staring at him. "Oh, ha, um, I was just hoping that you'd get scared and yeah, maybe like.. yeah." he couldn't even finish his sentence he was so embarrassed. I held in my laughter out of respect for his cuteness and simply smiled at him. "Here, I'll pretend. Just for you." I sat back and focused back on the movie. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Louis now looking at me, very confused.
The killer came back on the screen and was headed after the annoying girl who screamed too much, as all horror stories followed. When he reached her and she let out the horrendous scream, I gasped and jumped into Louis lap, burying my face into his chest. Louis hesitated to touch me at first, but slowly began to rub my back soothingly. I sighed and ended my act, but did not let go of Louis.
"You're cute, you know." I spoke as the movie ended, my head still against his chest. "So are you, you beautiful little fool."
Oh Lou, 'wasn't much of a fan of Gatsby' my ass.
(A/N: Okay this was a seriously fun chapter to write. I just love how much I got to incorporate The Great Gatsby into it. That novel is utterly fantastic and the movie, although not as good as the book, it good as well. Plus, Louis would make a fine Jay Gatsby, don't you agree? Anyways, this update did take forever, so hopefully you haven't lost any interest in this story. I haven't lost interest in writing it, so I will continue to write and write and write as much as I can. Problem is, in two weeks, my harder term of the year starts. I may not have much time to update, but I will try my best to get something done. Hopefully you will forgive me. So on that note, I pray that you all are having a good start to fall. Fall is my favorite season so I'm definitely looking forward to it. Then Christmas comes! I'm already getting in the spririt with my Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby playlist. Old music is seriously the best, FYI. Best wishes, old sports! Remember to vote, comment, and share the story with your friends. (: xoxo -Katie)