Trace of Innocence | Sweet and Sour (Book 4)

Chapter 59

(No Control | Holding Me Ransom - 59 - Hotel Rooms and New Tattoos)

"Good flight?" Louis smirks as we disembark the plane several hours later.

I give him a sheepish smile in return, and Niall slaps me on the back and smiles too behind Jess's back. I'm grateful to them for not embarrassing her by openly admitting they knew what we were doing, but I suspect this will change once Jess isn't with us.

I'm half right. Louis makes a couple of crass comments in the car on the way to the Good Morning America set the next day, but everyone's attention seems more focussed on Liam, whose phone has been glued to his hand for the last twenty four hours due to the fact that he hasn't stopped texting Cheryl since the moment they parted. 

"You always fall so hard, so fast, Payno," Louis teases, as Liam stares out of the window, grinning goodnaturedly. "It's like you meet a pretty girl, she smiles at you, and bam! You're in love. You're worse than Harry. Way worse than Harry," he emphasises as I give him an indignant frown.

"I'm not in love," Liam protests. "I just like her, and I want to see her again."

"You sure you didn't fuck?" Louis presses. He keeps asking this out of the blue, as though hoping to catch Liam off guard and force a different answer out of him.

"I'm telling you, nothing happened," Liam insists, and I believe him. He's an open book, it would have been obvious if he'd slept with Cheryl.

"Stop trying to get out of giving me my twenty quid," I pipe up, and Louis turns on me.

"Funny how it's twenty when I owe you, but it was ten when you owed me."

"I never owed you," I point out. "Liam said - nothing happened."

"What are you talking about?" Liam asks, looking back and forth between me and Louis.

"Nothing," I reply quickly, at the same time Louis announces, "We had a bet on whether you'd bang Cheryl. Harry won, and is pestering me for twenty quid. You know, because he needs it, because he's so poor."

"You made a bet?" Liam moans, frowning as Louis and Niall both cackle and I throw him an apologetic look. He pouts. "You fuckers, why would you do that?"

"Because you deserve it," Louis replies with a shrug.

"And you've never been keen on a girl before?" Liam retorts, his expression changing and a glint forming in his eye.

"You coming to meet my tattoo guy later, H?" Louis changes the subject swiftly.

"What's this about a girl?" I ask, my attention piqued.

"Ask him about Danielle Campbell," Liam winks as Louis pulls a face at Liam and looks pointedly out of the window.

"The actress? What about her?" Niall asks.

"Desperate to get his end away," Liam supplies as Louis gives us all two fingers. 

"I mean, she is gorgeous," I agree carefully and Louis turns his fingers on me. 

"Keep your eyes on your own bird," he states.

"Oohh, see what I mean?" Liam chuckles as Niall cackles and smacks his own thigh in mirth. "He's getting a bit possessive already."

"So are you coming to talk about tattoos?" Louis interrupts loudly.

"Only if we can talk about you and Danielle," Niall answers.

"You weren't invited, dickhead," Louis retorts. "Unless you want to talk about how you've been talking dirty to Selena Gomez?"

"Definitely don't wanna talk about that," Niall answers immediately and Liam and I protest loudly and request more details. "I'll spill about Selena when Louis talks about Danielle."