Secret Sister » 1D

Chapter 18

Chapter 18


"How's your wrist, Harry?" I asked, the morning after the concert.

"Eh, could be better," he said with a shrug.

I smiled. "Well, duh," I agreed. "You shouldn't have tried to be helpful! The dudes or whoever would've figured something out sooner or later!"

"Blah blah blah," Harry said, turning his head from side to side. "I've heard it all before. 'Harry, it's all your fault!'. 'Harry, you should be so ashamed!'. 'Harry, you're such a--"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I interrupted. "You're not going to pull the shame card on me. Nuh uh, this is all your fault."

"If you ask me," Niall piped up, poking his head in. "You both should shut up about it." We made faces back at him. We knew each other so well.

We had come straight back to the hotel after the concert. Obviously some girls had noticed Harry's broken wrist, but we weren't exactly in the mood for questions. Somehow we managed to make it back here safe and sound.

Liam was still kind of mad at me, and he's obviously worried. I wasn't sure if he was worried about fans finding me or Mum and Dad finding out and murdering us both. Probably both.

"Where's Liam?" I asked Louis when he came in. He shrugged. "I dunno," he replied. "Maybe in his room."

At the moment, we were all in my hotel room. I settled back uncertainly. "Alright," I said, a little nervously. Sometimes I worried that Liam would worry himself to death. Because seriously, there wasn't much for him to worry about.

As I got comfortable on the small couch, my shoulder pressed against Harry's. Like I said, it's a small couch, and he had plenty of room on his side, but of course he wouldn't move.

"Scoot over," I grouched as I tried to make room for my shoulder. It was hard for me to get comfortable when half my body was levitated.

Harry smirked back at me. "I don't think I will," he said.

"Then I'll make you," I said and I sat up so I could shove him over. Gosh, he's either really heavy or really strong, or I was just a weak person. I pushed and shoved and pushed again, but he wouldn't budge. He only laughed at me.

"Fine," I huffed. "I'll just use you as a cushion." I got up and sat on him, making sure to lean back so that my hair was in his face. "Do I win now?" I asked, a little haughtily.

Instead of answering, all he said was, "Your hair is soft." I swear I heard him inhale deeply. "And it smells good."

I blushed crimson and pushed myself away from him. Harry smirked at me again. Louis glared at us. I frowned. Don't tell me he's on Liam's side now.

Speaking of Liam, he walked into the room right then. He stared at me and Harry. "Delilah!" he snapped, surprising me. "Get off of Harry right now!"

I didn't, instead I settled back more. "No, I think I'm good," I smirked.

He glared at me. "Can I talk to Harry alone?" he asked.

Louis and Niall immediately retreated, but I stayed put. "What you can say to Harry you can say in front of me," I said.

"Yeah," Harry agreed confidently.

"Fine," Liam scowled. He turned to me. "Has it ever occurred to you, Lily, that I care for you?" he asked.

I barked out a laugh. "How could it not!" I exclaimed. "You're always trying to protect me."

"This is one of those times," Liam said, taking a seat in the spare chair next to the couch. Harry glared at him suspiciously.

For some reason I thought it a good idea I got off his lap. I sat on the floor. Liam visibly relaxed. What?

"I know I can't protect you from the world," he continued. "But I want to for as long as possible. And that includes you staying away from boys."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you getting at here?" I asked.

"I know," Harry spoke up sourly. "He doesn't want you 'falling in love' with anybody." He mangled his words together when saying "falling in love" since he couldn't make quotation marks with his fingers.

I tried staring at both of them at the same time. It was hard. "That's right," Liam sighed, glancing up at the ceiling, like he couldn't even look at me. "I don't want anything happening to you, Delilah. I want you to live this perfect life. Now I know that probably won't happen, but while I'm here, it's going to stay that way."

I stared at him this time. "Are you joking?" I gasped. Both boys shook their heads. "Liam, that's crazy," I scoffed. "Mum's right, a girl needs to know what a broken heart is."

He stared back at me. "How do you--" he started to ask but I cut him off.

"Yes, yes, I eavesdropped on you guys," I said carelessly. "I heard everything you said. I already knew I was going on tour."

Liam glared at me with such ferocity I was almost afraid that his eyes would burn out of his head. "I can't--" He interrupted himself with a sigh. "Actually, I can," he muttered.

"I understand why you're so protective, Liam," I said in an equally quiet voice. "But it's time I start living my own life, and if that means falling in love, so be it."

I stood up to walk away, but I decided to add one last thing. "And it's definitely not going to be a boy from One Direction," I added. "So you don't have to worry about that."

I heard Harry applauding as I walked away and Liam telling him to shut up.



*~*~*~*



There was a knock on my hotel room door, but I didn't answer it. If it was Liam, he would have come right in because of the room key. That means the knocker must be one of the boys, a maid, or (in Liam's deranged mind) a kidnapper.

"Delilah?" a voice called.

"Um, she's not here at the moment," I cried in falsetto. "Only the maid."

"Nice try, Lily. Can I come in?"

"No, you might be a kidnapper." I leaned against the door and heard a voice sigh.

"I'm not a kidnapper," the mystery boy said. "If I were, how would I know your name?"

"You could have kidnapped one of the other boys, and made them confess."

"That's true. If I were a kidnapper, I would probably kidnap Niall, because he's horrible under pressure."

That's when I knew who it was on the other side of this door. I opened it, and Louis gladly came inside. "How's it going?" he asked cheerfully.

"Bad," I sighed.

"I'm not even going to ask why. We all could hear you."

"You could?" I asked, looking up and wincing.

Louis nodded. "But that's alright because Liam had already given us the whole 'stay away from my sister' speech," he said. "Remember that time when we were arguing over Nando's and Liam told us to come with him?" I nodded.

"Well, that's when he gave us the speech. It was kind of annoying, but understandable. I don't want my sisters anywhere near Harry either. He's mine."

I cracked a small smile. But then I frowned. "Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, then quickly elaborated. "You said Harry, but not the others." I froze. "Do you--"

"No, no!" Louis cried hastily. "I was just saying. Liam was particularly careful with Harry and Zayn. You can probably guess why."

I nodded again. They had great personalities along with good looks. You would have to be crazy not to like them.... That came out weird.

"I hope you understand why Liam is acting this way," Louis added, leaning against the wall.

"No, not really," I admitted.

"He's very protective--"

"No shit."

Louis chuckled. "As I was saying," he persisted. "Liam's a very protective and careful person. He treats everyone like they matter, and of course they do. And that includes making sure certain people don't meet any bumps in the road on their way of life."

I raised my eyebrows. Where was all this deep shit coming from? I had no idea Louis was capable of feelings like this. I randomly remembered him screaming for ten seconds straight because Aiden had "surprised" him. Yep, definitely did not see this coming.

"See what I'm getting at here?" Louis asked, interrupting my random thoughts about him. I almost blushed. That came out wrong too.

"Yeah," I sighed. "But I'm a rebel at heart. I'm going to try and make him mad on purpose. Purposely disobey him."

Louis grinned. "That's what I do best," he said. "So if you ever need any help, I'm always here." I didn't like the way he said that.