Copyright ✘ One Direction [EDITING]

T W E N T Y - T H R E E

A/N: okaAAYYY SO i know its been a longGG time but i'm here now with a new update and am so happy i've returned to 100k reads! that is so exciting for me soooo thank you very much! don't forget to vote or comment if you're ready for this story to go back into full swing again ahhhh!!! xx :)

I made it to the door of the studio without tripping and falling on my face or embarrassing myself in anyway. I'd memorized the path there and it felt good to finally be back, for some strange reason.

I lifted my hand and rapped my knuckles against the door. This was it.

The door opened and I was met with a familiar face, familiar blonde hair, and a familiar smile. I grinned as he opened his arms for a hug and gladly took the opportunity.

"Carter!" he exclaimed, hugging me tightly. "Man, when I heard you were coming back I thought everyone was kidding." He released me, but kept his hands on my shoulders. "I thought you were gone for good."

"Yeah, well this time everything's legal," I chuckled. I looked around the studio that was so embedded in my memory; I thought about all the good times I'd had in there and felt myself visibly relax. "It's good to be back, anyway."

The already boys were already up and ready for my greeting. I let Louis give me another hug and said my hellos to Harry and Zayn. Everything was warm and friendly, just like before everything happened.

I pursed my lips in a tight line when Liam stood off to the side, a nervous hand rubbing the back of his neck. The tension in the room was slightly thick; the other four trying to make it not seem so awkward. It was as if everyone knew something I didn't.

"Hi," I said to him with a curt nod.

His face lit up, like he wasn't expecting even a mere greeting from me. "Hey," he responded. "Nice to see you again." He paused. "Been a while."

I hummed in response and sat down on one of the chairs, pulling my laptop out of my bag. "Anyway, we should be getting started. I only have a little bit of time here."

Louis nodded and sat beside me. Liam nearly took the seat on my other side but instead sat across. I proceeded to hook up my laptop to the studio equipment.

"When we had to, uh, try to write the last of our album last year, we found some new sounds that we liked but didn't think fit that album sound." He pulled out his phone and began tapping away, his face on the screen instead of looking at me. "We made a demo for it and everything."

"Yeah, hit me," I said.

Zayn tapped on the table. "It's called Ready to Run, but we thought it sounded too much like Through the Dark so we didn't put it on Midnight Memories."

The sound of the song started blaring through the speakers in the room. I paid close attention to the lyrics, studying the way their voices sounded and the guitar melody in the background.

"This is really good," I said. "Who wrote it?"

Liam raised his hand slowly. "I did."

"Well, it's good," I acknowledged. He smiled and went back to staying quiet.

"While we're on tour we'll develop it more with your help," Harry said. "We're going for an even better sound with this, so we want more songs with better lyrics and you'll really be the judge of that."

I typed on the keyboard of my laptop, writing down some possible lyric changes for the song. "If you're on tour I don't know how I'll be able to help much. It'll be a hassle emailing the songs back on forth with deadlines and all that."

"There's no need for email," Niall spoke. "You'll be right there with us."

I looked up. "You mean, on tour with you?"

"Well, yeah," said Zayn. "How else are we supposed to finish this thing?"

Louis patted my back. "Don't even worry about it. It'll be fun to hit the road with us. We'll all have a great time, just like last year."

I rubbed my temples but didn't respond.

.

.

.

After our time was up, I packed up my things and got ready to go. I said my goodbyes and made my way back to my car.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; we were productive as we threw our ideas out into the open, just like last time. The thing I really didn't want to do however was go on tour. I know that if my job requited it, it would have to be done, which meant that I had to change up my classes and everything. I just didn't think that it would be productive, but how else was everything supposed to get done, just like Zayn had said?

I took out my keys and pressed the button to unlock my car. I placed my bag onto the passenger seat and was just about to head over to the driver's side when I was stopped by a voice.

"Hey!" The person said. I cringed and turned around.

"Hello," I said back with a sigh. Liam was currently jogging up to my car.

He stopped in front of, slightly out of breath as if he was rushing to meet me before I left. "Hey," he repeated for what felt like the seventh time that day. "Thank God I caught you."

"Is there something you need?" I asked.

He stopped. "Um, no, not really. Just wanted to, uh – first day went great, huh?" His train of thought was all over the place.

"Pretty okay," I commented, not looking at him. "Well, see you."

"Wait!" He stopped me again and I held back a groan. "Thanks, okay? Thanks for taking the job offer after everything. I'm really glad because I set everything up, you know, and it feels really good that you're even willing to help us out again and-"

I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, a thank you? Thanks for getting me a job. Thanks for making it not under the table this time. Thanks for crushing me and doing this as a 'sorry' because you're Liam Payne."

"This isn't as a sorry," his eyes widened. "Well, okay maybe it is, but it's because I-" he hesitated, and I watched as he seemed to be having an internal fight with himself. "-It's because I care about you."

I stopped. The sun was illuminating his face and casted a glow across his features, his eyes shining with a look of guilt in them, his lips in a pout, the lips that I'd kissed the last time I'd had some respect for him. In his face I saw that what he was saying he really meant; he cared about me, but what was I supposed to do with that information? From what I knew, Liam cared about his job, and his car, and friends and family. So the fact that he cared about me should've been something I could brush off because yeah, we'd been close friends for a while but why did this one really strike something inside of me? It was like my heart began going a mile a minute at that second, like those four words were all it needed to make me want to take him back into my life again.

In those few seconds, I'd evaluated my whole entire life. I stared right into his eyes and gave him the slightest smile. "I care about you too, of course. I don't think I could ever not care."

Liam tucked one of the stray strands of my hair behind my ear and his hand found my cheek. "At times I'm afraid I do much more than care about you."

I let in a sharp intake of breath. This was not planned; I was supposed to come here, do some work, and leave, but this whole thing was out of the question. This wasn't supposed to happen. By then, I could my heart in my ears. I knew that Liam could feel the heat of my cheeks under his hands, but he didn't say a thing but look at me expectantly.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to feel, or what to say back. I needed time to think about this and now was not the time.

I grabbed his hand and slowly moved it away from my face. "I really do care about you," I said. "See you later, Liam." And with that, I got in my car.