Baby Boom || Liam Payne <Complete>

Chapter 25: Stuck With You? I Don't Mind...

"Ugh! Christmas shopping! There's such a long list, and I have such a big group of people..." I said to Ken on the phone. I'm in my usual position when I'm at work. My feet up on my desk with my bum sat in my swirly chair.

"Well, you're not the only one girl. I've got my 3 sisters, Josh, my parents, you, and plus we have that Christmas party coming up so I'll have to buy 1 present to donate it for the dice game." I threw my head back and groaned again.

"I forgot about the party! Should I go?" I ask.

"Um, duh. If I have to go, you have to go." He said in a sassy tone.

"But no one's going to want to go with me! I don't have anyone to take..." I trail after a certain someone pops up into my head.

"Take Liam."

Damn it, I was afraid he'd say that name.

"Uh huh, yeah I don't know..." I said nervously.

"Why not?"

"Well, Sophia had left him and he's been a little deep in the dumps lately."

"Maybe bringing him will put some Christmas spirit into his day?" Ken suggested.

"Maybe. I haven't talked to him since the night we kissed. I don't even know why he did it? Maybe he just did it because he felt bad for me. I can't believe I told him I still liked him. I made a complete and utter fool of myself. You should have seen me Kenny, I just stood there like an idiot-" He cut me off of my rambling.

"Why haven't you talked to him?"

"Well, besides yesterday, the boys have been a little busy." I lie.

"You were just with him 2 days ago. How has he been busy?!" I sigh.

"Alright, alright. You caught me. I haven't talked to him because I feel he needs space. He just got left behind by a girl he had honest feelings towards." I explain. "And I'm also doing this for me. What if I just end up being the rebound?" I counter.

"True." He says. He ponders for a while before he continues to talk. "But I think that you should take the risk. I know you've been broken so many times Jess. I get that, but I honestly think that if you start by making the first move then maybe that will also help Liam to start steering back into the right path. That path being him going back to his old ways. Also, he could think and sort out his feelings about you. It's a win, win situation. If he gets back on track, he'll return to the way he used to and be happy again. That's all you really want, I know you. If the boy really thinks and doesn't let his fatherly side come into play with his real feelings towards you, then he'll realize that he does like you." He takes a breath after finishing his freaking novel of advice.

"Um, ok?" I say. "I'll think about this, then I'll get back to you. One of my appointments will be coming soon."

"Ok. Just call me if you need to talk about anything else."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Owl." We laugh and say our final goodbyes before hanging up the work phones.

I pull out my own phone, noticing the vibration, and look at it only to find Eleanor calling me. I accept and press the phone to my ears only to notice my baby's voice coming through the line.

"Mumma Jessy..." I hear. Then a bunch of baby words and noises that are incomprehensible. I laugh and start talking to him.

"Is this my Jakey? How's my baby boy?" I talk in an annoying high pitched voice. He squeals, obviously excited I responded and then I hear him try to talk before the line crackles a bit and I hear Eleanor and Perrie's voices in the background.

Since, I no longer could be staying at home, I had to go in to work and I was stressed about Jakob. Perrie and Eleanor, being the nice girls they are, volunteered to look after Jake while I was gone for a few hours.

"Jessie?" I heard Perrie say.

"Hey Perrie! Sounds like you guys are having fun?" I laugh.

"Yeah," She breathes. "I'm pretty sure my future mother skills will be off the charts because of the experience I'll have with Jakob over here. Now, you have one smart boy on your hands. Did you know that? He basically called you right now."

"Oh really? How so?"

"I don't know how he opened the contacts but when he did I think he saw your picture I.D and pressed it. He's been playing games on Zayn's iPad all day too. So he's nifty with electronics." She laughs.

"How are you guys doing? There's no problems with him right? Is he behaving?" I ask eagerly. If he's not being good then I don't know how to discipline him.

"No. He's being a good little boy, aren't you Jake." I hear his squeal and El's laughter in the background.

"I'm glad you guys are doing alright. Is it just you guys in the apartment or are the boys there with you?"

"No, it's just us. Though, Zayn and Louis joined half and hour ago since they claimed they wanted to spend "quality time" with "their girls." But honestly I think it was just a way to get us to let them in. Their idea of "quality time" is basically stealing Jakob from us and manuvering him to look like either a Jedi or something while recording it." I was laughing hysterically by this point.

"That's golden!" I exclaim. "Where are the others?"

"Niall and Harry went to the mall. I think they said something about getting Jakob some more clothes?" She said.

"And Liam?" I ask. I was scared of what the answer might be. But, I'm hoping for the best. And hopefully, Perrie's answer is along the lines of, "He's great!" or "He went with Niall and Harry!". But most importantly, all I want to here is possibly a," He's out of his room and smiling!" But to no avail, I get a horrid response. She sighs and I already know that there's no hope.

"He's still in his room. We stopped by his apartment earlier and his curtains were drawn, clothes all around the apartment, and he barely ate the English breakfast we cooked him." I breathe out a stressful sigh.

"Perrie, how long will you guys be willing to watch Jakob for me?"

"For as long as you need! I was actually wondering if you would be willing to let him stay with Zayn and I for the night? We had actually wanted to go to Milkshake City with him, maybe?" I can hear the eagerness and hopefulness behind her excitement.

"Of course. Just please keep him away from the paps. I don't want to be in a hospital again anytime soon Perrie. I think I''ve had enough of them." I laugh. SHe laughs along with me and assures me we won't be going to be at any hospital anytime in the future. We end our conversation and I put my full attention on my 3:30 appointment that just walked into my office.

30 minutes more. I can do this.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

I knock on his door. Even from out here I can smell how dirty and unclean his apartment has to be since the last time I was here 2 days ago.

A muffled, "Come in." sounds from behind the door.

I cautiously open it and take in the scary sight. Perrie wasn't kidding when she described Liam's apartment to me over the phone.

Clothes everywhere. A terrible stench, probably not only coming from the dirty clothes that are littered everywhere but also the culprit himself, filled my nose. I look towards the kitchen and find the unfinished breakfast from this morning. I trudge up to his refrigerator and open it. Only to find it empty.

"Niall, if you're here to raid my kitchen, there's nothing there." An uninterested, uncaring voice said that came from what looked like the back room down the hall. I walk towards the room where Liam's voice had come from and noticed that all the pictures of him and Sophia were either broken, meaning glass shattered everywhere, or what looked like they had been half burned.

My heart broke for him. This isn't the Liam I know. The Liam I know is calm and collected. He knows how to get through situations and he isn't this messy. He's responsible and takes great care of himself. He wouldn't just leave himself to waste away over a girl that probably planned this from the start.

I come up to my destination and walk a little into the right through the open door. I could see Liam on his phone. His hair in the usual small air force quiff, although it's greatly disheveled. His chin looks as if he had taken part in No Shave November with it's growing self. He really needs to shave. He's laying down in his bed. Comforter pulled halfway to his waist as he sits upright against the headboard of his king bed. Light brown spots stain his white undershirt and I could visibly see how prominent his muscles are whenever he taps on his iPhone. He hasn't even acknowledged my presence, still thinking I'm his band mate.

"What happened to you Liam?" I breathe in a disbelieving manner and gaze at him wide eyed. He seems startled by my attendance and snaps his head to me, forgetting the device in his hands, in a surprised way.

"Jessie, I didn't expect you to be here."

Gee, I feel so welcomed.

"Neither did I." I say truthfully. "Liam why are you like this?" I ask softly. He sighs.

"I don't know."

"That's not an answer." I push carefully.

"I know it's not but I don't have anything better to give you." He says with a defeated sigh and scoots over a little bit on his bed. He pats next to him and asks me to sit. I do as told and sit down on the edge of the bed. A foot or so away from Liam.

"Zayn told me."

"Told you what?" I played dumb.

"Told me about Tyler." He answers simply. My heart dropped slightly but lifted when his helpless doe-eyed expression seizes my attention.

"How did you take it afterwards? How did you heal so quickly?" He asked desperately, searching for his way out of this deep dark Hell whole he's stuck in, and he thinks his only release is to torture himself for it.

"I told myself that there's plenty more fish in the sea." I said quietly, trying to lighten his dreary mood. To my satisfaction, he gives me a throaty laugh.

"It was about a day or 2 after it had happened that I was in my room, curtains drawn and room a mess, much like this actually-" I motion around us and laugh a bit, Liam joining."-that I decided to see the light again. When I looked out the window, I saw these 2 little kids playing outside next door. I watched as they played together. It was like they were inseparable. They held hands the whole time and the little boy would give her hugs and occasionally a kiss the cheek. That was when I realized that I didn't need someone that didn't need me. Eventually, someone will want me for me and not for what I have. They'll look at me and smile when I smile. Laugh when I laugh. Cry when I cry. Feel what I feel because it will affect them the exact same way it affects me. Share the same memories with them cause they'll be there right by my side when they're made. And seeing those kids just brought some sense into me. I had even thought that maybe my knight in shining armor wasn't gonna pop out like Tyler did. I figured out that my knight could be right in front of me and I probably wouldn't notice it." I finish. Liam is looking at me with the biggest eyes and they're even glossed over a bit. A tear happens to slip from his left one and I slowly reach my hand up to his cheek. I caress it before I wipe the tear away.

"Stop crying. It's not a good look for you." He gives me a lazy grin before closing his eyes and get caught up in the moment.

I stand up quietly and bring Liam back to reality. I stalk over to his closet and pull out the only clean items in there, a black t-shirt and blue jeans. I grab boxers from his drawer, which Liam blushes at, and throw them at him. He stares at me, confused.

"Get in the shower. You're going Christmas shopping with me." I simply state and walk out of his room to go clean up around the house.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"How you doing?" I half ask half laugh as I look at Liam.

"Um, I'd be doing great if I could see..." We laugh and I help with the bags.

After finally getting Liam out of his apartment, I took him to the shopping outlets so we could start Christmas shopping. I had been giving him all th bags to hold, and since there were quite a few, they started stacking up quickly due to no one being out in this type of weather. Liam couldn't see because they were blocking his view. So now, he held half and I held half weighing both of us down.

"Here, lets go take these back to the car, yeah?" I asked. Liam agreed and we started our 15 minute walk through the outlets. We hauled everything into the back of Liam's Cadillac and figured we should get something to eat.

"Let's take the elevator up to th second level and eat at Olive Garden." Liam suggested. I followed behind him as he led me into the glass elevator.

"Is Olive Garden your favorite or something?" I ask while laughing a bit. The doors close and it's just us.

"Noooo." He says looking around and dragging out the 'o'. I laugh but stop when the elevator comes to an abrupt stop in the middle our ascent to the top floor of the food court.

I jolt forward and towards the glass wall of the elevator. I let out a small squeal and wait for the impact of my head against the wall but it never comes. Instead strong, muscular arms encase my waist and pull me towards them. My back hits a solid chest and they hold me close. Liam slowly slides to the floor, bringing me with him. He rocks me back and forth noticing my startled figure and coaxes me to calm down.

"You can open your eyes now. The elevator's just stuck. You're ok." I open one eye and slowly look behind me. Liam smiles sloppily and turns me around to face him effortlessly. My legs rest on either side of him as he hugs me. I take in his smell and smile.

"Thanks. I'm pretty sure I'd be through that wall if it wasn't for you." I say, looking up at him.

"Wouldn't want anything happening to you now would we?" He says in humor, but a bit of sincerity laced into it. I smile and notice Liam look from my eyes to my mouth. Switching gazes.

I smirk and lean in more while Liam closes his eyes. His lips near mine and as they were about to meet, I lean to the left and press the emergency button that's directly behind him. Liam's lips pass my ear and he snaps his eyes open in all amusement. I scoot back while biting my lip to keep from laughing.

"Was there something else you had in mind Mr. Payne?" I ask innocently, holding back laughter.

"Are you teasing me Ms. Collins?" He asks incredulously.

"Indeed I am, sir." We continue to bicker back and forth for what seems like ages, and indeed it is.

We have been stuck in the elevator for about an hour and a half. Since the elevator is outside, the rain pelts at it's walls, putting my mind in a calming state as I close my eyes. Liam's still on the opposite end of the elevator and stares at me. I can feel the intensity of it through my closed eyes, burning into my skin. But in a good way. After a while Liam sighs. I open my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I ask concerned.

"Um, the um-" He stutters. "The mechanic is taking so long." He says looking away.

"I know that's not what you wanted to say Liam." I say mock sternly. He looks at me with those big, beautiful eyes again and sighs for what seems like the millionth time.

"Do you think we could have a shot Jess? Would you give me a chance? I know you've been unfortunate when it came to finding someone, but I'd love if you gave me an opportunity to change your view on finding love now." He says with such sincere determination and gentleness, I get chills.

I think about this for a while and pull my sweater closer around me. I smirk after a while and say my final answer.

"Maybe Liam.... just maybe."

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Yay!!!! Chappy 25 guys!!! Hope you enjoy it!!! PLease comment and vote!!! With a big red juicy cherry on top??!!!..... with whipped cream..... and nuts....

Yeah, ok. I'm weird I know that. But um yeah, comment and vote please!! Thxs guys.

<3 Angel