Louis’s POV
“Bye boys! We’ll be back in a few!” I hear Liam hollering from downstairs. I just roll over and smash my pillow on my face. God what time was it? I felt like I’d just gotten hit by a truck, it must’ve been the beer from last night. I roll over reluctantly looking at my clock. 11:48. Ugh. I slowly ease myself out of bed, careful not to give myself a head rush. Heading towards the bathroom I can hear the other lads starting to wake up. I take a quick shower to wake me up before going back to my room. I throw on my favorite Leed’s t-shirt and a pair of running shorts before going downstairs. I’m the first one down and it looks like Holly’s made us some pancakes. Yes! I grab a couple off the plate she left for us and stick them in the microwave. The microwave beeps, signaling that my pancakes are done. I sat down at the table with them when I hear someone bolting down the stairs. I turn around to see Niall making a beeline for the pancakes.
“Whoa, come down there Niall. The pancakes aren’t going anywhere.” I joke. He sticks his tongue out at me and then puts his pancakes in the microwave.
“I just didn’t want you guys to eat them all before I had one!” I glance around the room.
“Well don’t worry. Looks like you managed to beat everyone else down here.” I laugh, “So where do you think Liam and Holly went off to?” Niall looks at me surprised.
“Wait she stayed over last night? I don’t remember that.” He looks confused.
“Probably because you were drunk as shit last night. Yeah Liam didn’t want her driving home so she stayed here.”
“Oh well then I don’t know. Maybe they went shopping or something?” he suggests.
“I doubt it. It isn’t even noon yet!” Harry responds as he saunters down the stairs. “Morning lads, not to barge in on this conversation but why does it really matter?” He asks reaching for the pancakes.
“Well it doesn’t I suppose, I was just curious.” I say defensively.
“Hey, hey no need to get testy there Lou it was just a question.” The three of us sit at the table in silence, munching on pancakes. Suddenly my phone vibrates loudly against the table.
Hey I figured you’d be the first one up. Can you make sure the lads are all awake and dressed? (that goes for you harry). Holly’s friend is coming over. We should be home in 10.
“Who’s that?” Niall asks. Harry leans over reading the text.
“Hey… I am dressed!” he says indignantly. I laugh.
“I don’t think boxers are a sufficient outfit. You should at least put pants on.” Niall laughs along with me as Harry gets up from the table.
“Fine. Oh well good morning sunshine! Nice of you to join us.” He says passing Zayn on the stairs.
“What?” You can tell he’s still half asleep by the way his eyes are half closed.
“Oh nothing Harry’s just going to put some clothes on.”
“Well that’s new, what’s the occasion?” he says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Liam and Holly went to pick up one of her friends who is apparently coming over here in like five minutes.”
“Oh,” he says plopping into a chair. “Hey Niall, pass the pancakes? I’m starved.” Niall reluctantly gives up the plate of pancakes to Zayn.
“Oh don’t act so upset. You’ve already had like six of them.” He gives me a pouty face as he watches Zayn eat the last three pancakes.
“I’ll have Holly make me more when she gets back,” he smiles to himself.
“Yeah okay that’ll go over well,” I joke going into the living room and plopping on the couch with the television remote. I flick aimlessly through the channels until I hear the door opening and voices start to wander through the house.
“Bri, don’t worry so much, they’ll love you!” It was Holly, I guess talking to her friend Liam had told us they were bringing over. I clicked off the television and walked back to the kitchen where I heard everyone talking.
“Oh and this is Louis,” Liam introduced me as I walked in. I looked up and was smiling at this beautiful girl. She was a little shorter than I was, with slightly tanned skin, dark chocolate brown curls down to her shoulders, and eyes as blue as the sky on a clear morning.
“Hi,” I gestured my hand, “and you are?”
“Um Brianna. It’s nice to meet you.” She responded timidly. She started to wander off into the living room, obviously admiring our place. Holly flashed us all a smile and jogged after her.
“Lou you can pick your jaw off the floor now.” Harry joked punching me lightly on the arm.
“What?” I said defensively. I looked at the boys quizzically.
“As if we didn’t notice,” Niall said, “you like her. It’s totally obvious.” I could feel my cheeks getting warm.
“She’s beautiful, and shy which I think is hot.” I said matter of factly. The boys just shrugged. Niall, Zayn and Harry all started to leave. As I went to follow them I felt a hand on my shoulder. Liam was looking at me sternly.
“If you go for her,” he said, “treat her the way a girl should be treated okay? She’s been in a bad situation. She’s gonna need time to cope.” He patted my shoulder and followed the others into the other room. I stood there for a minute thinking.
Why wouldn’t I treat her right? What kind of “bad” situation had she been in?
Brianna’s POV
I’m not really positive where I was going; I kind of just aimlessly wandered around their house.
“What exactly are you doing?” I hear Holly ask from behind me. I stare out their huge picture window not bothering to look at her.
“I dunno really. Just… looking.” I feel her shoulder brush up against mine. I turn and see her staring out the window as well. “You’re really lucky you know. I’m actually jealous of you.” I stare at my feet, fighting back the tears I can feel forming. I can see her look at me with a twisted expression out of the corner of my eye.
“Bri, there will be a guy out there who will treat you the way you deserve, if not better. You just haven’t found him yet. You can’t let Matt ruin you anymore, that’s why you guys have broken up. You just gotta go out and be you now. Have fun with your life.” She pulls me into a big bear hug. And I do it.
I just let myself go.
Louis’s POV
Not like I’m creeping or anything, but I decided to follow Brianna and Holly, you know, just to see what they were up to. The two of them end up in front of our picture window in the living room. I hang back in the doorway so I don’t intrude on them.
“You’re really lucky you know. I’m actually jealous of you.” Brianna says to Holly. I can hear in here voice that she’s on the verge of tears. Holly looks up kind of shocked.
“Bri, there will be a guy out there who will treat you right, if not better. You just haven’t found him yet. You can’t let Matt keep ruining your life now that you’re broken up. You just gotta go out and be you, have fun with your life.” She wraps Brianna in a hug as she starts to cry into Holly’s shoulder. I turn from the room and walk back to the kitchen.
So she’s just got out of a bad relationship. That must be what Liam was saying earlier when he told me, “She’s been in a bad situation.” I think to myself. And he must have been a real dick to her if Liam told me to “treat her the way she deserves.” I’m sitting there when I hear movement from the living room. Holly and a puffy-eyed Brianna walk in.
“Hey what’s up?” I ask trying to make conversation. Holly glares at me and makes a cutting motion across her neck as if to say, cut it out… now. Brianna just stares at the floor.
“Hey Hol, can I just go crash in your room?” she asks.
“Sure babe. It’s the third one on the right once you get to the top of the stairs.” Holly turns back to the tea she’s making as Brianna trudges upstairs. Once I hear Holly’s door close and I’m almost positive Brianna is out of hearing range I turn to Holly.
“Please can you explain what happened? Liam just gave a brief and cliffhanger kind of description.” I feel like I’m begging. I really just want to know her better, but she doesn’t seem like one to talk as of right now. Holly sits down next to me. She looks defeated and absolutely drained.
“I’m not really sure if it’s my place to tell you Lou…”
“Well you told Liam!” I retort.
“He’s my boyfriend you idiot. And he needed some kind of explanation as to where we were going and why this morning, plus you know what an awful liar I am.” She sips at her tea. I run my hand through my hair thinking of how to get her to tell me.
“Hol, I want to get to know her okay, if you know what I mean. But she doesn’t seem in the right kind of mood, I guess you could say, to talk with anyone but you.” She lets out a huge sigh.
“Oh alright, but you better keep quiet about it okay?” I nod leaning forward with my chin in my hands ready to listen. “So basically, Brianna just broke up with her, now ex, boyfriend last week. His name is Matt and he forced her to have sex with him… a lot. Almost like he was raping her, and if she didn’t do it, he’d hurt her. She used to come to school with black eyes and bruises a lot, but she would just make up an excuse like ‘oh I was just being a klutz and fell down the stairs’ or something like that. She finally told me about it oh about a little longer than a month ago. That was when I told her she needed to get away, from him, from her family, from everything for a while. That’s why she was at camp last month and then finally had the guts to break up with him.” She stopped, staring blankly into her tea.
“What can I do?” I ask.
“Well if you like her, I suppose you could take her out. But Louis I’m telling you now, she’s really hurt. You’re going to have to wait and get to know her before you do anything. She’s not just some one night stand either. She’s my best friend and if you hurt her, I will come after you.” The hardness of her stare told me she wasn’t joking around. I placed my hand on top of hers.
“Hey I know that. And I promise I won’t hurt her.”