One Month.

6-Talk To Me

--Sydney's POV--

"Louis I don't know your middle name Tomlinson put it down!" I yelled, chasing Louis through a very crowded LA-X. Security was having a field day trying to catch us, but we were small and face so we easily outran them. He was waving my unlocked phone in the air like it didn't hold everything ever to be important to me.

"Sydney I don't know your middle name either Cress, I don't think I will!" He shouted back, cackling.

"You're such an asshole," I muttered to myself, deciding to not waste my breath shouting at him. Instead, I ran even faster, until my fingertips could just brush the back of his shirt. He noticed me, and tried to speed up, but tripped. Of course, at that moment, I had just grabbed hold of him, so I went down with him. I did manage to grab my phone though, locking it quickly, then trying to pull my leg out from under Louis.

"Not how I wanted the chase to go but good enough," he mumbled. "Do you like Niall?" He asked simply.

"Haven't we been over this?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. He stole my phone just to ask me that?

"A, that's not an answer, B, no, not really." I rolled my eyes.

"Why's it matter?"

"Still not an answer, so I'll give you an example. It matters because he definitely likes you and if you don't like him you need to stop playing around with him. It's like you're trying to break his heart." I frowned.

"I'm not playing around with him." I said slowly.

"Then what do you call letting him carry you around? What about pulling you onstage? Holding his hand everywhere? Falling asleep on him? He's completely obsessed, and you can't seem to see that you're leading him on. Unless you do like him in which case now you know he likes you so do something for god's sake," he said bluntly.

"I didn't even realize," I mumbled.

"I was worried about that. Look, Sydney, I like you, I think you're a fantastic girl and you'd probably be great for Niall, but if you don't like him, and can't keep it platonic, you probably need to leave." Louis said gently.

"I can't leave," I whispered, looking at my hands.

"Why not?" Louis asked, looking confused.

"Because I made a promise to Niall." His face twisted a little. "You don't know how I got here, and I suppose now you need to. I met Niall when I was trying to kill myself." I said bluntly. "I was about to jump off a building when he started talking to me, and did jump, but he caught me and pulled me back up. I made a deal with him, I promised that I wouldn't try to kill myself for a month while he tried to prove to me that life's not so bad. After that, I can leave, do my own thing, and he promised not to try to stop me. But I still have three weeks in our deal." Louis looked at me in horror and pity.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize-I was just trying to look out for him-he's like my little brother-" I waved him off.

"Don't worry about it, I would do the same thing for my friends. And I get your point, I just never realized what I was doing," I said simply.

"I'm still sorry, I must seem like an asshole now," he said, blushing a little.

"Of course not. You didn't know so I can't blame you. Friends?" I asked, holding my arms out for a hug.

"Always." He said, and hugged me lightly. "You know you can always talk to any of us if things get rough, right?" I smiled at him.

"Yeah, I know. You know that's a two way street, right? I know the fame can't be easy to handle nonstop," I said sympathetically.

"It's the price of doing what we love," he said, but grimaced. "Just once, though, I'd love to be able to walk down the street without security, and without fear of being mobbed." I nodded.

"It must be hard, too, as you can't be with Harry publicly." He nodded, then realized what he was doing and looked at me sharply.

"Wait, what? I'm with Eleanor," he said, but it was a lame attempt, as he'd already admitted it. I laughed loudly.

"I knew it!" I said, clapping. At that point, he just gave up all pretense of it being otherwise.

"Alright, what gave it up?" He asked.

"You looked murderous when I kissed Harry." I said simply, and grinned widely.

"Oh," he just said, and I playfully hit his arm.

"It didn't mean anything." I said, looking at him. "You know that, right?" He actually grinned at me.

"Oh I know. He apologized for that in several creative ways," he said, and I pushed him lightly.

"Mental images I do not need!" I proclaimed loudly, but smiled at him.

"C'mon, let's get back to our boyfriends." I almost nodded, then caught myself.

"I'm not dating Niall!" I insisted. He just smirked.

"Yet."