Lyla POV
Louis walks me back into the room and shuts the door behind him. Before I could ask him what he was doing here he starts talking.
“He’s scared of what you do to him”
“What?”
“He’s scared of how you make him feel”
“Well tell him to join the damn club and then stop being such a baby about it”
Louis scoffed, holding back a chuckle, “I really do like you. I really do. You’re hilarious and I know that he means something to you.”
“Yeah, he does, which is apparently a big problem.”
“He’s never really done the love thing or the relationship thing really. Everything has been very casual for him.”
“I refuse to be casual Louis”
“I know you do, but Harry is terrified of genuine feelings. He always has been. I don’t even know how we managed to get so close to be honest. I think I was just the first person who continued to push him until he opened up.”
“It’s a weekend, I’m only here for a weekend, I don’t have time to break down walls. Hell, I don’t even have time to scale them.”
“He’s realized he’s messed up; he’ll make it work”
Then there’s a knock on the door and I open to see Liam. He gives me a soft smile and pulls me into a hug.
“You look like you needed a hug”
“I swear if you and Danielle weren’t perfect for each other and Harry wasn’t so fucking, Harry…you’d be my boyfriend I swear.”
“I would be honoured.”
“I’m guessing it’s time for sound check?” Louis pips in from behind me.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Liam says, grabbing my hand and pulling me into his side. Then Louis wraps his arm around my waist and we walk down the hall in a line straight to the elevator.
I hear the door to Niall’s room open, but I know he’s the only one in there, and I refuse to let him see my tear stained face.
Harry POV
“Hey Paul, actually, can I ask you a favor?”
“What’s up Harry?”
“Can you take Lyla in through a different direction than us, it would make sure she wasn’t seen by the paparazzi and the boys and I leaving the other side of the van will distract from her so we don’t have any more quarrels with the paparazzi.”
“That’s actually a good idea Harry. Come on, let’s take the stairs, we’ll get to the bottom at the same time as them.”
Which we do, and suddenly when the doors open my heart drops to my stomach. It’s not because she’s still red in the eyes and has tear stains on her cheek, it’s because the elevator door opens and I see how she really is.
“You fucking twat” she yells out, then realizes the door is open and slaps her hands over her mouth with her smile reaching her eyes. Then all of the guys look at her and she just busts out laughing again, getting out the elevator and looking like she’s surrounded by her 4 most favorite people in the world.
I can feel the scowl set in on my face as I watch Louis wrap his arm around her waist leading her through the lobby. Then to my surprise she stops in front of me. She offers me a smirk, yanking on one of my curls.
“You should stop scowling; it doesn’t go well with your face”
“I…what?” I reply, but she’s already walking away. I don’t understand, was that some sort of peace offering?
They all get in the van, Zayn and Niall in the back, cuddling into each other and then in the middle row Louis Liam, and Lyla. Liam has his arm protectively wrapped around Lyla’s shoulders as she leans into his chest. It’s completely platonic and I know that because Liam is head over heels in love with Danielle, but my chest still gets tight and I can feel my fists tighten.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and take it out.
Relax curly, don’t have a heart attack
Shut up lou
Don’t be an arse to me too, I think you’ve met your quota for the month.
Do you think I don’t already know that?
I know you do, but you’re still making an ass out of yourself by getting jealous over her leaning on Liam.
I can’t help it, I want to be with her.
You should have thought about that before, you tosser.
I have a plan, can you help me convince the other boys?
They’re not going to tell you no.
I look up at him and offer a smile and I look over and realize that Lyla is asleep on Liam’s chest and god I can’t think of anything better than plucking her out of that chair and cuddling her into me. I can’t stand the way that she just asks for affection without even trying, it’s like all the boys are tied to her.
In comparison to everyone else, she’ll probably finally realize that I’m shit and she’s better fawning over someone else.
You look like you’re having that heart attack or using your brain, both of which are a bit dangerous
Fuck off.
What’s wrong Harry?
I’m not important.
Are you serious? Is that what all of this has been about? Every last girl you’ve pushed away?
Well, I would assume that’s what it’s about, but I really just noticed it myself, so I can’t really say.
I look up at Louis to see him reading my text message; I see the grimace set on his face as he looks up at me. Finally, he puts his phone back in his pocket, unbuckles his seat belt and reaches over and pulls me in a hug. I take in a deep breath trying so hard not to cry because really, after everything that has happened today; my emotions are a bit out of it.
He moves over to my side of the care and pulls me into a hug, getting surprised looks from everyone, but Lyla. She just looks over at me with concern as she reaches over and pats my hand. It’s so soothing it almost makes me stop feeling in general, just to focus on that feeling and to hopefully memorize it, but then it’s gone and she’s curled back up into Liam’s side.
I lean into Louis and pray that I didn’t go ahead and fuck this up big time.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of trying not to stare at Lyla we get to the venue. Paul peeps in and gets Lyla’s attention.
“Love you’re coming with me. Harry had a brilliant idea to take you in a different side so you didn’t have to get attacked by the fans. The boys are going to go first and then I’m going to take you in, but you’re going to have to climb into the front seat and get out the driver’s door. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, thanks Harry for the suggestion.”
“Can I go with her?” Niall pipes in, getting an incredulous look from Paul and a glare from all the other boys.
“No, Niall, you think the fans won’t notice one of us missing? She’ll be right inside.” Liam replies, trying not to be condescending, but still getting a mock glare from Niall.
“Can’t hold my boyfriend’s hand, can’t go in the venue with my best friend, just throw me off a bridge why don’t ya?” He mutters out jumping out the car and heading towards the van. Everyone in the van is shocked staring at the door Niall just went out of, except for Lyla, who was laughing.
“Congrats Zayn. Gotta love how he just casually tossed that out there. Very blunt. I like that”
“I’m going to kill him”
“No you’re not, unless it’s with kisses, go get your man.” Lyla retorts, laughing so hard that she snorts which seems to bring everyone out of their trance.
“Holy Shit” Liam soughs out.
“You’re telling me” Louis says.
“You got them together didn’t you?”
“Yes, she did, even though she was putting up with your shit. Niall and I took it as a lesson we could learn from. We didn’t want to wait” Zayn says casually, kissing Lyla on the forehead and getting out the car.
Liam follows after and Louis does, tugging on my arm as he moves to the door.
“I’m sorry” I say solemnly, looking into her eyes. She overs me up a small smile.
“I know”
I finally get out the car, even more determined to convince the boys to help me out. We push through the crowd and of course her picture was already all over twitter so there were screams from everywhere asking who she was and where she was. There was also the same grabbing and screaming that normally happens when we push through a swarm of fans.
We finally get into the doors and get ushered to our dressing room. I suddenly realize that I have no idea where Paul is going to take Lyla, but I don’t want her to be in here when we all change clothes.
“You have that I’m thinking too hard look on your face harry”
“Shut up Lou”
“So what’s the plan?”
“I want to do this thing at sound check and I want to make sure she’s there, even if she’s not mixed in with the crowd of girls.”
Lyla
Paul has me in the back of the venue hanging out stalking my twitter and wondering how all these people figured out who I was so fast.
“@lylarawr why are you with the boys?”
“@lylarawr get the fuck away from my boyfriends?”
“@lylarawr I don’t care who she is, she looks like a troll”
“@lylarawr who wearz sweatpantz around oen direction? Are you fucking stupid?”
“@lylarawr looking forward to seeing you at sound check luv Xx”
I do a double take and see that the tweet is from Niall. Who also just alerted millions of insane fangirls that I was at the venue with them. I swear I could punch him sometimes.
“Hey the lads are getting food, you want to join before sound check?”
“Yeah sure”
We walk in circles around the Izod and I’m getting stared at by people who recognize Paul. I’m sure they’ll add to the drama on my twitter once the show is over. Then, almost as if someone was reading my mind, my phone vibrates with a notification from twitter.
“@lylarawr I hear your mom has cancer you selfish bitch. How can you be off enjoying yourself when your mom is dying?”
I freeze in my steps. Incapable of walking. I hadn’t heard from my mom and didn’t even check to see if she had gotten my letter. How the fuck? Why? I’m such a shit daughter. I don’t even remember collapsing and Paul picking me up, but in moments I have 5 boys wrapped around asking me what’s wrong.
“Lyla, babe, tell me what’s wrong” I hear Niall ask.
“Lyla, baby, tell us, please love, what can we do?” Zayn follows with.
“Check her phone, it had just vibrated before it happened” Paul says
“You didn’t send her anything did you Harry?” I hear Liam ask
“No of course not! Do you think I’d send her something to make her like this?”
“Lyla, darling, please talk to us.” Liam says, pulling me from the middle of the circles placing me down on the couch.
“Tell us what happened” Louis says.
“Oh fuck.” Niall screams in the background.
“What?”
“Someone accused her of not caring about her cancer stricken mother”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I hear Harry yell. Suddenly, I’m being lifted into another pair of arms and carried out of the room.
“Lyla, babe, darling, please don’t cry. I know, I was an asshole today and I’ve already made your day bad, but I swear, I swear you aren’t doing anything wrong by being here. Here’s your phone, call your mom. I’ll be back in the dressing room.” I hear Harry’s deep voice say. I can’t really see him because of the shitty mood lighting in the back of the stage. I really just want a hug.
“Harry, please don’t go.”
“Oh Ly…” he says right before I feel him pull me into his chest. I start crying harder because I’ve just wanted him to hold me like this all day, even after that little shit debacle that happened earlier.
“harry” I say, not recognizing my own voice because it’s so wrong from crying.
“Yes love?”
“I know I look like shit, but can you kiss me?”
“First of all you don’t look like shit.” Then he rubs my tears of my face kissing my forehead again. “Second, you never have to ask. Never” and then he smashes his lips on to mine. I needed this more than anything. I needed the strange connection I had to him to make me warm and side and uproot the unhappiness that these fans had planted. He lifts me up off of the box he sat me on and leans us against the wall, pushing closer to me, and holding me up by the legs.
“Well, no wonder none of the other lads could make you feel better, we never had a chance” I hear a very familiar Irish accent say.
“Shut it Niall” I reply, smiling.
“I got you to smile”
“I got her to moan”
“Harry shut up for fucks sake!” I yell, laughing again.
“I got you to laugh”
“You boys are ridiculous.”
“I’m ready for food”
“You’re always ready for food Nialler”
“Yeah, we can go get food” I say, but Harry grabs me by the wrist and looks me in the eye.
“call your mom first, I don’t want you to be regretting anything later.”
“Good call, thank you” I get on my tippy toes and give him a peck on the lips. Then I motion them away with my hands and call my mother.
Hello?
Hi mom, sorry I didn’t call until now. Did you get my note?
Yes, I just don’t understand how you would be the one to meet famous boys and get dragged around the country by them.
I don’t quite understand either
You sound like you’ve been crying.
What the hell mom? You’re too good.
I’ve known you since birth, I would hope that I know you better than most people.
Some of the fans got to me, found out you had cancer and accused me of not caring. You know I care right? If you need me home I would be on the first bus, plane, horse, whatever to get back to you.
Lyla, I know you care about me. You going out for a weekend to enjoy a once in a lifetime experience isn’t exactly the worst thing you could do. You could actually not care and I know that you care and a lot.I’m sorry I don’t tell you that you’re doing a great job and I love you. Now get off the phone and enjoy the hot boys you’re always talking about.
I love you mom. I really do.
I know sweetheart, I love you too.
I’ll be home soon.
Don’t get pregnant.
Um, erm, mom, geez, it’s not like that
It’s like that with somebody, I can already tell. Which one is it? Is it the Irish one? Because you talked about his accent the whole damn time.
Oh! God no! Um, no, mom, it’s not the Irish one.
Well, whichever one it is, he better watch it. Cancer or not I’ll kick his ass.
I love you so much mom.
I love you too babe. Call me when you can.
I hang up the phone and before I turn off the screen I hear Niall again, “So, you talked about my accent a lot yeah”
“Yeah, well, I’m American, and have you ever heard yourself talk? Also, do you make a habit out of ease dropping?”
“Well, since you’re my best friend and you live in America, I felt like I needed to skip ahead a few of the friendship levels and go straight to invasion of privacy.”
“Brill.”
“Let’s go eat” He says, and he grabs my hand as we walk into the dressing room. Everyone looks up and offers me the biggest smile. Louis even gets up from where he’s eating pizza just to come and give me a hug.
Then Lou, the stylist, bursts through the door. “Hey lads, Paul is on the phone with is family, but he said that the girls are going through the first part of VIP already. Get ready for sound check and the meet and greet”
“Alright” Liam replies, finishing off his piece of pizza before getting up and changing his clothes.
“Hey hey hey! Lady in the room!” Harry shouts, making me both blush and laugh obnoxiously.
“I’ve changed in front of 4 of the guys here already; I think I’ll be fine seeing you guys in your boxers”
“Seriously Harry, all the rest of them are taken. I don’t pine over what I can’t have. I’ll turn around and focus on the pizza. You ridiculous brat”
“hey!”
“You know it’s true”
“You have been acting a wee bit like a tosser mate”
“Shut up Louis.”
Paul comes and knocks, I’m asumming off the phone with his family.
“Hey Ly”
“Oh, not you too, that’s my nickname for her”
“Shut up Harry” everyone in the room says at once cause a loud guffaw to come out of every single person present, including the accused.
“You ready to head out to sound check? We have a special boxed area for you wehre no one can see you.”
“Thanks a ton Paul.”
I get up after wipe my hands one last time before vacating the room. Paul walks me out to the stage and I take in the huge setup a little flabbergasted by how big the entire venue is and how the boys just get up there without a problem.
“They’ll be on very fast alright?”
“Thanks Paul”
“Not a problem, by the way, I know you didn’t ask, but Harry has never looked at a fan or a girl in general the same way he looks at you”
I feel the blush rising and I dip my head down to stair and my suddenly interesting lap.
“Thanks” I mumble quietly making him laugh and walk away. I hear the rest of the girls walk in, they’re so excited. There is of course the girls screaming and crying that I just want to stop, but I have like my own little fortress to watch the boys from, so I’m not going to ruin that. My phone vibrates again.
“@lylarawr love you babe Xx”
“@lylarawr literally the best fan eva xx”
“@lylarawr there’s not a girl I love more well, other than my mum, sisters, and Eleanor”
“@lylarawr no words. I’m bad with them. Hope you enjoy xx”
“@lylarawr thank you for everything. With every fall, you dust yourself off and get back up again. I know good things are coming your way.
I laugh at the sap that is Niall, Liam, Louis, Harry, and Zayn. Then the room is filled with deafening screams and I look up to see the boys on stage.
“Well, I don’t know how many of you have been to one of our sound checks before, but we’re doing things a little bit differently today.” I hear Liam start out. I’m just as confused as the rest of the girls who I can see are talking to each other trying to figure something out.
“We have a secret to share and you have to promise not to spill it” Zayn follows with confusing me even more.
“You see, the lads and I have fell in love with this amazing girl. She’s become one of my best friends along with the guus up here.” Niall replies and then it starts to dawn on me that they’re going to do something for me.
“are you fucking kidding me?” I yell out, maybe a little too loud, but no girls seem to know where it came from so it’s fine.
“Hush your mouth now, little lady” Louis yells back making me collapse back into my chair in a fit of giggles.
“it turns out that one of us fell for her a little bit harder than the others.” Harry says and suddenly everything isn’t so funny anymore. I look up at the stage and make eye contact with him, he rewards me with a beautiful smile and I can barely stop myself from running on stage and kissing him.
“You know when you find someone and you can’t image what it would be like to never get a chance to be with them? How you kow, that if you never make it happen you’ll regret it for the rest of your life? Well I had one of those moments today and I was hoping that you guys might be able to connect with that feeling and enjoy a song the lads and I prepared, for all the girls who just show up one night and change your world, this is thinking of you by Katy Perry.”
Comparisons are easily done
Once you've had a taste of perfection
Like an apple hanging from a tree
I picked the ripest one
I still got the seed
You said move on
Where do I go
I guess second best
Is all I will know
Cause when I'm with her
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into your eyes
You're like an Indian summer
In the middle of winter
Like a hard candy
With a surprise center
How do I get better
Once I've had the best
You said there's
Tons of fish in the water
So the waters I will test
She kissed my lips
I taste your mouth
She pulled me in
I was disgusted with myself
Cause when I'm with her
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into...
You're the best
And yes I do regret
How I could let myself
Let you go
Now the lesson's learned
I touched it I was burned
Oh I think you should know
Cause when I'm with her
I am thinking of you
Thinking of you
What you would do if
You were the one
Who was spending the night
Oh I wish that I
Was looking into your eyes
Looking into your eyes
Looking into your eyes
Oh won't you walk through
And bust in the door
And take me away
Oh no more mistakes
Cause in your eyes I'd like to stay...
I sit there staring at the stage once he’s finished, breathless, speechless, and what feels like boneless.
-AN
In the sidebar is male version of the song. I hope this suffices. I'm sorry it's been taking me so long to update. I have really had no inspiration. Sometimes I don't even know if people are reading. The more support I get the faster I write, of course I'm not going to MAKE you vote, that's absurd. However, it is appreciated as I try and get some sort of writing schedule together.