A/N. wow, I can't believe this is chapter 20 already. That means the story is a little over half over (if my projections are accurate, that is). I want to thank everyone who has been reading/voting for this! It's so awesome and it actually means so much to me. This is the farthest I've ever gotten with a story and I honestly owe it to you guys for motivating me. Also I've posted the intro to my next story, but it's going to be changing. Same concept, just tweaking the beginning!
Thanks for reading this totally pointless note. Now to the chapter, things are starting to escalade :)
***
I thought about what Alexis had said while I lay in my bunk on the bus. My eyelids sagged heavily with sleep, but my mind wouldn't allow me to give in and let it take over. Though I wished it would because I was seriously sleep deprived.
Alexis had said I needed to make Louis even more jealous of Harry and I, to push him over the edge and make him confess his feelings for me. But it just didn't seem right, tangling Harry into this. He didn't deserve it, and I really wanted to keep the number of broken hearts to a minimum.
But when I stepped back from the situation and looked at it without an emotional bias, the love triangle thing worked really well. What better way to disprove Larry theories? But would I be able to put my attachment to them aside to make it work?
And was messing with a delicate friendship really fair? It was bad enough I was going to hurt them and make them hate me... But I could live with that. What I couldn't live with was completely ruining the special bond they seemed to share. Things were already so shaky with them - though I still had no idea why - I didn't want to do uncurable damage.
It was like I was at civil war with myself. Fighting between what my heart wanted and my brain wanted. I wanted to be a good person, I really did. I had no hopes of one day ending up in hell - but I was in far too deep to back out now.
***
"Stella... Stella, wake up," I heard as a hand shook my shoulder.
I tried to swat it away. "Go away, Louis, I muttered as I rolled over so my face was smashed into the pillow.
The voice chuckled. "It's Chase," he said, shaking me again. "Good to know who you were dreaming about, though. Now c'mon, get your lazy butt out of bed. We're here and we have to set up for the concert."
"Jesus, what time is it?" I couldn't even remember when I had fallen asleep, but it had to have been a while ago if we were here already. I definitely had to work on getting more sleep at night.
"Just nearing six o'clock. We had some car troubles... The bus got there three hours ago." Chase explained.
I rubbed at my eyes and tried to comb my fingers through my hair. "Six o'clock? That means... I slept for 7 hours?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "You were out like a light. We went out for lunch and everything while we waited for the mechanic."
"Did you at least pick me up something?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my empty stomach.
"Of course I did," he said with a grin. "You'll have to heat it up though. It's been a couple of hours...but let's go, okay? Phil and Lex are waiting for us!"
I raised my eyebrow at him while narrowing my eyes.
"What?" He said with a frown.
"Lex?"
A blush crept upon his cheeks but he rolled his eyes and muttered for me to come on already as he unhitched the door and jumped down out of the bus. I followed with a chuckle, grapping my new beanie off the counter and pulling it over my messy bed head as I went.
