Liam’s POV
Lauren had finished the cover about an hour ago and Louis and Elodie still weren’t back yet. She must be doing a good job of keeping her occupied. It gave me the time to do what she’d asked though.
“Shit,” Lauren mutters in shock. There really was no other way to react to the story I’d just told. I’d started at the time she’d have noticed: with the ATV ride. I told her how I’d accidentally badgered her into telling me her terrible secret. I’d told her the story she told me. I didn’t tell her the things we’d talked about since then though. It felt too private. As if I’d been asked to tell her secret, but not the rest. I wanted to keep the things I’d learned about her to myself. “Oh my god,” she continues as it begins to settle in. “Oh my god!”
“Yea…” I say with a small nod.
“Has she talked to anybody? A therapist or something?”
“I don’t think so,” I say shaking my head no.
“God, that poor girl.” She’s got tears in her eyes now and I begin worrying that she’s going to start crying.
“Please. Don’t pressure her about it. Just treat her normally.” I’m almost begging as I ask it. The last thing Elodie would want is to be pitied.
“How am I supposed to do that?” she asks and I wince at the words. It’s exactly what Elodie was worried about.
“You just have to,” I insist. “Promise me,” I add. She gives a nod, wiping at her eyes with her pinkie. She breathes in a shaky breath, trying to calm herself down and I realize how close she’d been to crying. I hadn’t even realized she’d considered them friends.
“You’re a good person Liam,” she says and I give an awkward nod, not sure how I’m supposed to respond to a comment like that.
“I’m going to head back to the dressing room, yea?” I say, standing up and pointing over my shoulder to the door. “You alright here?” She nods her head and I head out the door. She’d come to this empty room in the venue to do the recording in peace and then I’d joined her to tell Elodie’s story. Inside the dressing room, Lou is doing Harry’s hair while Niall and Zayn play Fifa. I grab a donut from a table full of food and take a seat on the couch to watch their game. Maybe twenty minutes later, Lauren rejoins the group, looking like nothing had happened.
“Are they going to be back soon?” Paul asks when we get within an hour of the sound check.
“Yea…” I say uncertaintly, unsure when they’d be back.
“Ten minutes,” Lauren chimes in. “I just texted him.” Paul gives a nod and I let out a breath of relief. That might’ve been a smart thing to do. When they do come in I watch as Elodie’s eyes flick from Lauren to me, then back to Lauren as she checks to see her reaction. Lauren gives her a weak smile from where she was standing as Louis pulls her into a hug before she focuses her attention back on him.
“So how’d it go? You managed to keep him out for a long time,” I comment as she walks over and sits on the armrest of the couch next to me.
“Yea, he already knows. He started questioning what we were doing so I told him and we ditched the store for one of those old-fashioned arcades,” she answers with a shrug. I let out a laugh, glancing back over at the couple as Lauren covers Louis’ eyes as she sets him down in front of her computer.
“He’ll love it anyways,” I say and she gives a nod, but it doesn’t really seem like she’s paying attention anymore.
“You alright?” I ask. She hesitates for a moment before nodding.
“Just something Louis said before we went to the arcade. It’s nothing,” she says, standing up again. “I better go help Lou, it looks like she’s getting your clothes ready” she continues, standing up and moving away. I frown as I watch her, mentally telling myself to ask Louis what he’d said to her later. Speaking of Louis, I glance back over at the two to see him beaming, hugging Lauren tightly. The smile on her face tells just how happy she is. We get ready for the show as usual, racing around so we don’t run late. It’s not until after the meet and greet do I manage to corner Louis to ask what the whole Elodie thing had been about.
“I told her we’d go see Frozen,” he says with a shrug when I ask him what they’d talked about. “She wanted to see it, but Lauren does also so I suggested the four of us go.”
“What?” I ask in surprise. “Did she agree?”
“Yea,” he says with another shrug. I’m in shock. That sounded like a group date. Was that something she wanted? I thought she didn’t like dates? Or was that part of the character she’d built up also. And with me? I almost wish I hadn’t asked. It left me with more questions than answers. Luckily, when I get back to the dressing room, we’re too busy to talk about it. It looks like Lou had officially put Elodie back to work mending torn seams and patching a pair of Harry’s jeans. I couldn’t help but smile as I rushed around though, seeing Lux sitting on the ground beside her, pretending to sew the bottom of the jeans. As usual, when the show ends, Elodie isn’t waiting like Lauren does, yet it bothers me today. Why did she insist on going back to the bus instead of staying and waiting for us? I’m frustrated when I get back to the bus for no good reason.
“Hey,” she says, looking up from the book with a smile. “How was the show?”
“Fine,” I grunt, heading directly towards the shower rather than lingering back to talk. When I get out, I’m well aware of her watching me as I move around the bus, making myself a plate of food and a cuppa.
“You ok?” she asks as I pull out my phone as a distraction, standing up at the counter to eat instead of sitting on the couches with everyone else.
“Yea,” I mutter again, shoveling the last of the food into my mouth before dumping the plate into the sink and heading to the beds. Only a couple minutes after I get into my bed, brooding over nothing, does the door open and I see her standing in the doorway.
“I got you ice cream,” she says, sitting down at the foot of my bed.
“What?”
“Well you’re PMS’ing so I got you ice cream. Always works for me,” she says with a shrug, eating a bite before offering me the bowl. I accept it, warily watching her. This wasn’t like her to bring me things. I look down at the bowl with a frown, picking up the spoon.
“I umm I can’t use this,” I say, preparing myself for a sarcastic remark.
“Why?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t use spoons” I say. She doesn’t say anything, waiting a moment, probably to see if I’m joking, before she gets up and leaves the room, reappearing a few seconds later with a fork and offering it to me. I take it without a word and take a bite of the ice cream. She just sits there, watching me as I eat, as if she’s trying to read me.
“Thanks,” I answer gruffly when I finish. She takes the bowl back from me, sitting there a moment longer with it resting on her lap.
“Why are you being a dick all of a sudden?” she asks bluntly.
“I’m not,” I respond.
“Yes you are,” she insists firmly.
“Well maybe you should go then,” I bite back, bracing myself for some scathing response. There isn’t one though and I quickly realize that was a dumb thing to say. She looks hurt as she stands up and I instinctively reach out to grab her wrist and pull her back.
“Fucking shit,” she shouts as her head comes in contact with the siding of the bunk above mine.
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” I rush to say as she presses a hand to the side of her head.
“What the hell?”
“Hang on,” I say, jumping out of the bunk and heading into the main room to get some ice. The others are watching curiously, but I ignore them as I grab a bag of ice and head back to the bedroom. When I come back. I find her sitting on the edge of my bed again and I quickly sit down beside her and carefully press the ice to her head. Her hand covers mine as she moves the ice to the spot of the injury “I am sorry,” I repeat.
“Yea… whatever.” she answers crossly and that only makes me feel worse. She’d come in here to try and make me feel better and all I’d done is injure her and upset her. I don’t say anything for a moment, trying to figure out what I could do to make her feel better.
“Want to hit me?” I weakly ask. She smirks but thankfully shakes her head no. She lays back on my bed and all I do is watch as she looks around before grabbing my computer.
“Whatcha doing?” I ask, watching as she lets the ice rest on her head and using both hands to begin typing something.
“Deleting your songs,” she deadpans. My eyes widen and my heart lurches as I grab for the laptop. She starts laughing and shifts it away from me. “I’m kidding,” she says and I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Even still, I shift to her side, resting on an elbow so I can see what she’s doing. “But seriously, where do you keep them? I want to see.” I hesitate, not sure if I should show them to her since she’d been the inspiration for a few. “C’mon, you saw my sketches,” she adds when she notices my hesitance. I let out a reluctant sigh, pointing out the folder on the desktop. The first one she clicks on is Through the Dark. “This is the one you were working on right?” she asks and all I can do is nod. The lyrics pop up and she begins reading them. It’s not long before she starts glancing up at me. She doesn’t say anything though, just looking up at me for half a second before returning to reading.
“It’s about me isn’t it?” she finally asks. She does her best to keep her voice normal, but there’s still a small tremor in it. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t looking for it.
“We don’t have to record it if you don’t want us to,” I say softly.
“No,” she says shaking her head and shutting the laptop. “You should, it’s good.” She hands the laptop back to me and I put it back on the shelf. When I turn back, she’s turned on her side away from me, the ice pinned between her head and her pillow. I’m not sure what to do since I was between the wall and her. My hands hover over her waist unsure if it would be ok to touch her since it looked like she was sleeping here. She must have seen my hand out of the corner of her eye because she resolves the situation by taking my hand in hers and pulling it until both mine and hers were resting on the bed in front of her.
“Can we just stay here like this? For a minute?” she asks quietly. Well I guess that settles that.
“Yea, sure,” I whisper back. I rest my head in the crook of her neck, cautiously at first to see if she objects, but closing my eyes after a moment of no response.
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Now's where everyone goes awww.... lol. Funny story, I wrote about Elodie hurting her head, then the next day I get a call from my friend asking me to come over because she hit her head and the doctor wanted someone to watch her for 24 hours to make sure she's ok. I'm psychic.
So what do you all think? Let me know in the comments!
Dedication goes to niallerssofthair. I've seen it multiple times and each time I've ended up crying for that beginning. It's impossible not to!