"Elizabeth!" Brad exclaimed when I entered the house. He and Tristan rushed over to give me hugs, and Connor lingered back, giving me a polite hug once the boys had calmed down.
"We were having a bit of an Elizabeth withdrawl." Tristan said, frowning.
"It's only been a day." I pointed out, giggling.
"Yeah, well. We don't see a lot of new people." Brad shrugged, flopping back on the couch. James and I joined them, abandoning my bag at my feet.
"What's with the luggage?" Connor asked, taking the armchair.
"Liz is spending the night because she doesn't have work tomorrow." James said simply. Tristan's eyes went wide and he put his hand up to his mouth.
"Agent E, we have a code blue in the kitchen." Tristan said in his voice.
"Over and out, Agent T." I replied, getting to my feet and walking to the kitchen behind Tristan. As soon as we were inside, Tristan turned around excitedly.
"You're spending the night?" He whisper shouted. I nodded, blushing. "Did he ask you?" Tristan asked, looking for details.
"Yeah, he took me home and then was like, 'want to spend the night?'" I played along, grabbing a soda from the fridge and cracking it open for a drink.
"So has he tried anything?" Tristan asked, wiggling his eyebrows at me. I giggled and shook my head.
"He held my hand and called be beautiful when I tried on this dress at Topshop." I told him. Tristan almost exploded, shaking my shoulders dramatically.
"He totally fancies you!" Tristan whisper shouted again, grinning in my face. I blushed and shook my head, pulling away from Tristan and setting my drink on the bench.
"No he doesn't! Now let's go back so it doesn't seem suspicious." I said, grabbing my can and turning to go.
"Yes, because when we spoke in our secret agent voices nothing was suspicious at all." Tristan chuckled. I laughed and was about to enter the sitting room when I heard hushed voices and stopped short, holding my hand out to stop Tristan as well.
"I mean, I like her, but she'll never like me back. And I'd rather be friends and have her not know than tell her and stop being friends if she doesn't feel the same way." James was saying quietly. Tristan gripped my arm excitedly, but I ignored him and kept listening.
"You're so oblivious, man." Connor's voice said. I froze, waiting to hear what he was going to say next.
"Connor, it doesn't matter whether you think she likes me or not, because I know for a fact that she doesn't. I'm way beyond friendzoned." James said, sounding slightly exasperated. He was actually pretty convincing, and I realised I need to step up my game. I looked nervously at Tristan.
"He swore he wouldn't tell." I mumbled. Tristan gave me a sympathetic look and patted my back, then counted down from three on his fingers and opened the doors.
"You're so funny, Elizabeth." He said sarcastically, pretending we had been talking. Three boys snapped around to look at us, and I giggled, smiling at them.
"I'm pretty shot from shopping. I think I'm going to get ready for bed and maybe call it a night." I said, making sure there was a slight sadness to my voice so that Tristan would think I was upset by what we'd heard.
"Hey, is something wrong?" James asked, standing up and giving me a worried look.
"No, just... really tired." I said, offering a "sleepy" smile.
"You're a terrible liar, you know that, right?" James said flatly. I nodded, patting his arm and picking up my bag before heading for the stairs. As soon as I was in James' room, I did a tiny celebration dance and quickly put on my pijamas, checking twitter and whatever else.
@ElizabethW01: Had a lovely tiring day of shopping with @TheVampsJames but I think it's time to call it a night!:)
I tweeted, uploading a picture of all of my shopping bags that I'd taken earlier on to Instagram and tagging James before climbing onto his bed and pulling out a book I was currently reading, The Host by Stephanie Meyer. It was actually quite good. I had just finished a few pages when James entered the room. As soon as the door was closed we both jumped up and did mega high-fives, grinning and dancing around.
"Tristan and I listened to your conversation, so I pretended to be all sad." I said, and James nodded.
"After you left Tristan told us you heard and I was like, 'oh, she must be upset I never said anything because we've always told each other everything.' and Tristan was like, 'no, she likes you and thinks you don't like her.' and then I pretended not to believe them and they were all calling me stupid and then I said I was going to bed and pretended to be all mad." James explained. We did another high-five and celebration dance until we were tired.
"I'll sleep on the floor." James offered. I objected a first, but he wasn't having it and took a blanket and pillow onto the floor with him, sorting himself out and locking the door so the boys couldn't walk in and realize he was on the floor.
I climbed into bed, feeling awkwardly alone in his large, half-empty bed. But after an hour of trying, I finally fell asleep
