The Story of Us // L.S

Three.

Songs for this chapter are:

-fallingforyou // The 1975

-Wrapped Around Your Finger // 5 Seconds of Summer

-Cry Baby // Melanie Martinez

*

"He came back like he promised the next morning." 

"Were you in love with him already?" I chewed on my bottom lip in thought. Was I in love with him already? Did I know from that early stage that I was in trouble because he was the only person on the planet with enough hold over my heart to destroy me? 

Yes.

"No." 

Isobel pouted. "So it wasn't love at first sight?" I licked my lips slowly trying not to ruin her vision of love. "I don't really know Belle. Everything happened so quickly I could have loved him straight away, or I could have not, either way the story ends the same." Her eyes shifted sadly to the ground and I felt like I had tainted her only knowledge of true love. She thought Louis and I were the perfect couple, in love from the start and I suppose it was true. I suppose as soon as I met him it felt like I was complete and had found a part of me I didn't even know I had been missing, but after everything that happened, I had to push all the good things away. Everything was replaced by something bad. 

"Sorry to disappoint you." My voice was gentle and she looked up from the carpet. "I'm not disappointed. Just how do you know when you are in love with someone then?" Her small eyebrows were knitted together as though she was concentrating really hard. I reached over and pulled her from the floor and onto my lap, peppering kisses down the side of her neck as she giggled. "You are never allowed to know, I'm the only man for you, you hear?!" She was shrieking with laughter and kicking her little legs about, but stopped and pulled herself closer to me, wrapping her tiny arms around me. 

"So you went on your first date?"

 "Ah yes." My voice remained gentle as she rested her head against my shoulder. "He came back the next morning as he promised, and I really thought he wasn't going to show up, so for some reason I didn't even bother to get ready. When I answered the door in my PJs his face was a picture. Your dad had a way with words and could be quite sharp, especially if he didn't get his own way. Something I learnt the hard way that morning. He stomped into my flat and picked out my outfit for me and I just had to get dressed. To answer your question I don't think I was in love with him yet but I was infatuated with him and found him endearing. There is no-one else in the world I would let into my house just to boss me around. 

Once I was suitably dressed he drove me to a part of town I had never been to before. The fair was in town and I didn't even know, he thought it would be fun to just play games and have fun. We went on loads of rides together, dodgems, teacups the lot. Then he won me a giant teddybear and we ate on a bench watching the sunset. It was so cliché but perfect. I still have the bear, it's Mr. Snuggles." 

"I've never been to the fair." Her small voice echoed against my chest and I couldn't find the words to tell her that we hadn't been because of Louis. I hadn't set foot in a fair since and I didn't intend to start. I couldn't bare the pain that came with the memories. 

"I know sweetheart. One day." 

"What happened after your first date?"

"You know what Belle, I think it's dinner time." 

"No, please no you've never spoken about him before don't stop now!" She sprang up from me and looked at me with pleading eyes. "I meant I need to start cooking, I can carry on talking can't I?" She nodded frantically and jumped up, beckoning me to follow her in to the kitchen.

And here I was thinking I could get out of sharing anything else. She really was like him. Demanding and persuasive.