A/N: Yo errbody! So let's consider this chapter my Christmas present to you since tomorrow is Christmas. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then HAVE A HAPPY WEDNESDAY, HERE IS YOUR WEDNESDAY PRESENT WOOP I need to stop drinking so much hot chocolate
~Grace xx
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~April~
“Harry! I need to stretch my legs!” Heather shouted to Harry from the middle seat of the car we had rented for our British adventures, in front of Louis and I.
We were heading to Chesire from London to go see Harry’s family since he hadn’t gotten to see them in person on his actual birthday. Luckily since Kris had already met them on skype she wasn’t completely nervous, but still a little anxious and jittery about meeting them in person.
The ten of us had been driving for about two hours when Heather started whining. It had lasted about five minutes before Liam pointed out that a little up the highway there was a large hotel with a park beside it, and what looked to be a river running next to it.
Seeing that the park was vacant, Harry parked and we all jumped out to stretch our legs and walk around for a bit. Kris and Harold went to look at a little stage for performers on the other side of the large park, Heather and Niall took off sprinting for a swing set, Liam and Erin started out on a walk around the red brick pathway, and Rikki, Zayn, Louis and I walked slowly by the water.
The sky was gray and cloudy, exactly my favorite kind of weather. the boys had been complaining about the dreary weather they always had in England, but it was my favorite weather all the time. It made the air smell like rain and there was a slight breeze, just enough to flutter the hair around my face. Everything look tinted grayish blue, a color I loved and that reminded me of my favorite place, Minnesota. It felt more like home than Kansas ever did.
The park wasn’t really for kids, although there were swings and some monkey bars near the entrance. But it was mostly made up of neatly cut grass with a thin red brick walkway that weaved in curls through it, with a larger, maybe fifteen foot wide sidewalk with a railing that bordered the river and had a little stone wall that went up to my hip and separated it from the rest of the park. It was shaped like a large square, surrounded on two sides by trees, one side by water, and the other showed the hotel a little farther down the road, but still looming in the foggy sky.
“This is lovely,” I murmured to Louis, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Wait.”
Rikki froze in front of us, grabbing Zayn’s wrist so he stopped with her. Louis and I almost bumped into them as she turned around and looked at us, “This is perfect.”
“Huh?” I asked.
“Stay here!” Rikki took off running back to the car, leaving us confused and worried. she returned a minute later carrying one of her special video cameras we used for making videos, and a big tripod.
“What is all this?” I asked.
“This is the perfect place to film a music video!” Rikki exclaimed excitedly, turning on her camera and setting up to tripod near the river railing so it had a clear view of the little wall with the park behind it.
“Uh, for what song?” I questioned doubtfully.
“I dunno,” She replied, focusing on her camera, “whatever song you want.”
“Hmm-”
“OOH!” Rikki shouted, looking up at me. “It should be a duet with Louis!”
She turned back to her work and I looked up at Louis behind me. His hair was ruffled by the wind and not shoved up in a quiff. It was down and sweeping across his face, just how I liked it; It looked more natural like that. He was dressed in a soft, navy blue, long sleeve shirt and jeans.
“Do you want to?” I asked softly.
“I’d love to sing with you,” He smiled widely back at me.
Just then the others returned, and asked what was going on. I explained to them what was happening but before I could even tell them what song I wanted to sing, Kris spoke up.
“Well you can’t wear sweats and a t shirt!” She exclaimed. “Is your suitcase in the car?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you bring that beautiful striped dress you got for your date with Louis?”
“Yes…”
“C’MON!” Kris grabbed me and shoved me down the walk to the car and yanked my purple suitcase from the back of the car. I was too tired to protest, even though I’d taken a nap in the car, when she dug through it for the dress and insisted I change into it and a pair of her black ballet flats, even though it was cold.
So I awkwardly got in the car and managed to pull it on, sad to discard my comfortable clothes. When I emerged Kris was handing me the shoes and straightening my dress out.
“She’s ready now!” My best friend shouted as we returned to the group, now with goosebumps on my arms.
As Rikki and Zayn discussed the framing of the video, I told Louis the song I wanted to sing and we quickly arranged what parts we would do.
“You look great, by the way,” He whispered to me as everyone calmed down and Rikki shouted for it to be quiet on set.
“Do you guys know what you’ll sing?” She asked us.
“Yeah. Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men,” I replied.
“Great. Now, get up on that little wall,” Rikki instructed us. Louis hopped up quickly and gave me a hand as I tried to control the swishing of my dress around me, not wanting it to fly up around my face even though the breeze was very light, “Kris will play the song and I want you to ballroom dance across the wall while singing along, but TRY NOT TO FALL! And if you do, lean towards the grass, not the bricks. Got it?”
Louis and I nodded. I glanced nervously down at the foot wide cement blocks below us, and how my feet barely fit on it when there were side by side.
“Don’t worry,” Louis murmured with the ghost of a smile, looking down at me with sparkling eyes as he wrapped an arm around my waist, “I’ve got you.”
Kris started playing the song on my phone and Louis kept an arm around my hips and brought his hand out with mine in it, in a waltz pose. Rikki’s camera was facing so it could see one side of our faces. We looked directly in each other’s eyes as the music floated to our ears, getting into the mood of the song before I started singing, with a nearly blank, but slightly worried facial expression, looking directly into the blue-green iris’ in front of me.
“I don’t like walking around this old and empty house,” I sang.
“So hold my hand I’ll walk with you my dear,” Louis replied, taking my hand with the one previously around my midsection and holding up our tangled fingers next to our faces.
“The stairs creak as you sleep, it’s keeping me awake.”
“It’s the house telling you to close your eyes.”
“Some days I can’t even trust myself,” I nearly whispered, averting my eyes from his and tipping my head to look down at the ground.
“It’s killing me to see you this way,” My boyfriend sang. I didn’t look at him but I could feel his sad stare at my face, knowing that there was something truthful behind those lyrics.
“Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our, bodies safe to shore,” We sang together, before jumping our eyes back to meet each other as the beginning music started again. Louis moved our hands back and stepped towards me. I backed up in reaction, and he carefully and gently danced up a little down the wall. Our footsteps were short but calculated, moving to the beat of the song before slowing down again.
“There’s an old voice in my head that’s holding me back,” Louis slowly dipped me as I sang and we stayed there for his part, never breaking eye contact.
“Well tell her that I miss our little talks.”
“Soon it will be over, and buried with our past.”
“We used to play outside when were young,” Louis pulled me back up and spun me around so I was facing where he had been. My hands flew to his chest to keep me steady and he wrapped his arms around me, “and full of life, and full of love.”
“Some days I don’t know if I am wrong or right,” I pulled away a little.
“Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear,” Louis sang, pulling me even closer than we were before so our noses almost touched.
“Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.
“Don’t listen to a word I say!” We belted out together, dancing back with a bit more movement. “The screams all sound the same! Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.”
As the music got louder, Louis spun me around with his finger, making sure I didn’t fall off by grabbing me back into a dance position, dipping me a bit, and continueing to ballroom dance us backwards, attempting another spin or two, with my dress flowing freely around my knees.
We froze in place, holding each other tightly together with somber expressions and heavy breaths, but still looking straight at each other, “You’re gone, gone, gone away, I watched you disappear. All that’s left is the ghost of you. Now we’re torn, torn, torn apart, there’s nothing we can do. Just let me go, we’ll meet again soon.” We started to move away from each other, hands still clutched in the space between us. “Now wait, wait, wait for me, please hang around. I’ll see you when I fall asleep!”
Louis quickly tugged me back against him at the ‘Hey!’. We continued to dance down the wall like we had, but with a little more spunk and movement, since we had grown so used to how our bodies fit together to stay on such a small surface. My hair was fluttering around my face and my dress was doing the same around my hips.
“Don’t listen to a word I say! The screams all sound the same! Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore. Don’t listen to a word I say! The screams all sound the same! Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.
“Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore. Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.”
We finished in the same position we had started in, Louis holding my waist and our hands out on the side away from the camera, staring hopefully into each others eyes. A moment after the music ended, our friends burst into cheers and applause.
“That was amazing!” Rikki yelled. A smile blossomed on my face, still looking at Louis, while beamed back at me with an earth-shattering grin.
We filmed it a couple more times a little farther up the walk so Rikki could cut it so it looked like we danced across the entire park. We were having a blast, but when the wind started to pick up, we stopped. Kris took me back to the car before everyone else while Rhee was packing up so I could change back into sweats.
Everyone piled back into the car with red noses from the cold and we set off for Harry’s house.