Ripped {One Direction FanFic}

Chapter 12

Louis's POV

The awkward silence that followed the laughter was rivaled by no other. It was so tense, you could cut it with a knife. How could a room's mood go from carefree to awkward, so quickly?

I was thinking about how bad of an idea this was, and how I shouldn't of even called her back, that this was so awkward, and how I was so stupid to be doing this...

But then Penelope busted out laughing again and the tension melted like butter on a hot summer day.

All the other boys started to laugh again. I don't remember having them laugh so much in such a short period of time, with a stranger.

"It's the American in me." She gasped, in between laughs.

I relaxed a bit at her cracking jokes, that meant she didn't mind that the other guys were laughing at her stupid question.

Pretty soon, we all realized that we were laughing at nothing and our hysteria died down.

Maybe it was the Texas heat.

Suddenly, I got an idea.

"Er, well, um, the boys and I were wondering if you wanted to come to the concert tomorrow night, maybe, since you know, you missed the one you had tickets for because of the crash..?" I said almost all in one breath. The end trailed off almost as if I was asknig if the crash had actually happened. I don't know why I was being this unsure of myself. It's so unlike me.

I had lied though.

Not completely, but still. The boys weren't wondering, or even considering that idea.

They didn't even know her. Liam and I were the only people in the car when it crashed.

They knew about the crash, but they didn't knwo who the "mystery fan" in the car with us was, or all the details of what had happened.

So I had taken it upon myself to be in charge of dealing with this whole situation. I had been the one who had 'desperately' needed a snow cone... and insisted that Liam come with me. I didn't want to be all by myself, what fun would that be? So we decided to take a seperate car, since the other guys just wanted to get back to the hotel and sleep, before the signing. I blamed my craving on the Texas summer heat.

I'm not proud of that, if I hadn't decided to be such a little princess and demand a snow cone, this whole situation could have been avoided. But, deep down inside, I was kind of glad that it did happen because that meant I got to meet Penelope.

Her eyes widened at the thought. I tried to read her expression, but she was the most confusing person I knew, so I epically failed. I think she looked eager, but also kind of flustered.

I internally smirked at the fact that I made her flustered. Then, I cringed not understanding why that made me feel so justified. Probably because I got frazzled on the inside when she was around too. I was glad I wasn't alone in that feeling.

She nodded, short and quick. "I'd love too!" Her voice was like music to my ears, it rang through my head, and a wide grin spread across my face. My heart beat a little bit faster at the thought of her being at the concert.

"I'm Zayn." Zayn said, stating the obvious, as he walked up to Penelope and shook her hand. Her cheeks flourished with color, again, and I felt a strong emotion ping in my chest.

"I'm Niall!" Niall added, sounding as excited as ever. His stomach growled, punctuating his sentence. We all busted into hysterics again. I was amazed by how easy the atmosphere was. Only moments ago, the air was thick with a sticky silence. Now we were all laughing like old friends.

I'm Harry, nice to meet you love." Harry smiled a dimpled grin. Being his charming self, as always.

"Liam, as you already know." Nodding, Liam added.

"I prefer the name 'SASSMASTA' but Louis works fine, I mean, it's quite a mouthful to say, at the least."

The room was filled with laughter again. I swear this much laughing is proably bad for your health. Paul called out, "5 minutes, boys."

"I'm Penelope, by the way." She said, speaking more to the other guys, instead of me and Liam. I forgot, they hadn't been formally introduced.

'That's a beautiful name." Zayn said. What the? Since when was Zayn the flirty type? He was usually shy and reserved until he knew that someone realy well. I'm pretty sure that was flirting..

Maybe he was just being nice.

*~*

Zayn's POV

Penelope was gorgeous. Her eyes were hazel, more brown but sometimes a tint of green, and huge. Her hair looked blonde, or light brown depending on how the light hit it. I sighed internally. Her face was flushed a light pink. She still seemed a little on edge, but more relaxed, even if just a bit.

"I'm Penelope, by the way." Her voice was unique, maybe it was just the Southern accent, but it had a slight lilt to it, that would only come from living in the deep south of America your whole life.

"That's a beautiful name." I said. And it was. It reminded me of a princess, maybe, it didn't seem like a country name.

"May I call you Penny?" Louis asked. His voice had a slight flirtatious tint to it. Louis has a girlfriend, I told myself, thinking that I had imagined it.

"That sounds perfect" She replied, mimicking his flirty tinge in her voice.

Then I realized that I hadn't imagined it, she was flirting wtih him.

And for some reason this bothered me. I don't really know why, it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. He had a girlfriend, for Pete's sake!

There was something about her though, that just had a magnetic pull to it, that I'd never felt before. It was addictive, a rush of heat pulsed through me as she turned her gaze to me.

I didn't blame Louis for flirting with her.

Shit, she probably caught me staring. She blushed again, gosh, she does that a lot.

Just then, Paul walked in. "It's time to go back and sign now, boys." He said, barely awknoledging Penelope. We all nodded. I was tired. The sooner it was done, the better.

Louis walked over to Penny's side of the room,

"May I have your phone so I can put my number in? Then I can get your address and mail you the tickets."

"Urm, sure, that's fine." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone. She turned a shade of scarlet as we took in her "I heart One Direction" phone case. All the guys kind of chuckled underneath our breaths. It got awkward again for a moment.

Then Louis broke the silence by returning her phone. "There you go. I texted myself so that I'll have your number too."

Paul was standing there, scrutinizing their whole encounter with a curious gaze. "Okay, lads, lets go." He ushered us out of the rooms and I sighed again.

We took out seats at the table, and I thought about what Penelope was doing right then. Was she screaming and "fangirling" as our fans called it, or was she completely cool about this whole situation? I thought about her and Louis flirting. I thought about her eyes. And her hair.

She was on my mind more than she should be.

We were strangers. Could I have such fervent feelings for someone who I barely knew? I promised myself that I wasn't going to think of Penny that way. So I set my mind on signing.

I wasn't going to think of her like that. No way. Nuh uh. Not gonna happen..