classic » liam payne au

cherry cheeks

"Oh, look at you with your little name tag!" Violet's mother squealed, rushing over to her and picking up the tag hanging from the lanyard. "And it's purple. Just like your name! How lovely."

Violet was mortified. Not only because her mother was being especially embarrassing, but also because Liam was snickering away next to her. She wanted to elbow him in the stomach for laughing. 

"Mum, stop it." Violet said quietly and nodded toward Liam, hoping her mother would pick up the notion that she was embarrassed. 

And she did. "Oh! I'm sorry," she said, and looked to Liam. "I'm being incredibly rude. I'm Mary, Violet's mother." She smiled at Liam and the two of them shook hands. Violet let out a quiet sigh of relief that her mother was being normal again. "I'm so happy to see Violetfinally has a boyfriend! And a very cute one, at that." She winked at Liam and Violet's jaw dropped open.

"Mum!" Violet shrieked, throwing her hands in the air while Liam held back his laughter. "He is not my boyf-"

"Thank you." Liam interrupted her and shot her a grin. 

"Violet, why didn't you tell me you had such a nice, handsome boyfriend?!" Her mother demanded, turning toward Violet with her hands placed on her hips. 

"He's not my boyfriend, mum!" Violet said, eyes wide in disbelief that this was actually happening. Liam found it utterly hilarious, and was having an extremely difficult time trying to contain his laughter. He could see how shocked and embarrassed Violet was at her mother's antics, and that she was obviously very uncomfortable with anyone thinking he was her boyfriend. 

Violet's mother looked confused, and looked between Violet and Liam, sensing how awkward Violet now felt. She mouthed, "Ohhhhh," and pursed her lips. "Sorry, dear." She said to Violet who was blue in the face. 

"It's... Alright." Violet sighed, dropping he arms to her side. "Christ, mum." She huffed. 

"So, it's your first day, huh?" Mary smiled, attempting to change subjects.

"Yep. Liam's training me today." Violet confirmed, nodding. There was no doubt that there was an awkward tension in the room. 

"Oh, that's nice. You must be excited to work here." Her mother said, looking from Violet to Liam. "She loves this bloody shop." Mary laughed. 

"I've heard," Liam smiled, and looked to Violet.

If there is one thing Violet is not good at, it is being centre of attention. She blushed much too hard when Liam smiled at her, and she turned her head to the floor to let hair fall in front of her face.

"Well, mum, it was awfully nice of you to stop by but Liam and I have to get back to training so I'll talk to you later, bye!" Violet said quickly, leading her mother to the door. 

Her mum didn't object because she could tell Violet was getting uncomfortable. She kissed her daughter a goodbye on the cheek and waved bye to Liam before leaving the shop. 

"I'm so sorry about her," Violet told Liam, blushing hard and covering her face with her hands. 

"It's alright, Violet." Liam waved the occurrence off. "It was funny, actually. And it's nice to know she thinks I'm nice and handsome." 

Violet looked up to see a smug smirk on his face and lightly slapped his shoulder while he chuckled. "Tosser."





“There you are, sir, enjoy your afternoon.” Violet smiled at the young man with hair in his face who had purchased a few scarily loud rock albums as he grabbed his bag from the counter and left.

“Well, for your first customer, you were pretty good.” Liam praised her, and she couldn’t help but smile more. Violet liked being good at things. “I can’t believe we’ve only had one customer today.”

“What time is it?” Violet asked, it couldn’t be the end of her shift already.

“Nearly noon,” he confirmed her suspicions and she pursed her lips. “We’ve got lit soon.”

“Oh yes,” Violet remembered, getting excited for her favourite class. Their professor was introducing a new novel for them today since they were supposed to hand in their papers on Pride & Prejudice. She was very excited to have new reading material; it meant she could pop her earphones in while she read. Two birds with one stone.

Liam watched the girl with a smile on his face. She had pretty much started glowing since he mentioned lit, he didn’t think he actually understood how much she liked it. Liam rather enjoyed it, too, it was his favourite of his classes. Though, the work load was admittedly a little heavy for his standards. You wouldn’t think so since he is a history major.

"Y’know what,” Liam started, causing Violet to come away from her thoughts of books and music and look up at him. “We can get out of here right now, no one’s going to come in anyways.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, we can even stop at the bakery first.” he suggested with a smile and Violet gulped. Hopefully Clarissa wasn’t working, she would tell Elizabeth and Violet would get an earful from her. 

“Alright.” Violet swallowed the lump in her throat and to her surprise, Liam put his arm around her shoulder as they exited the shop. She kept her head down, not daring to look at him. This is the first time he’s actually touched her. Liam felt her tense under his arm and winced in silence, he had completed the action without thinking. He forgot how reserved she could be.

The two of them made their way across the street and over to Julie’s bakery. Violet let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Clarissa was in fact not working. It was a different boy; one that Violet had seen only a couple times when she had came into the bakery. The boy’s face lit up when the two of them came in, and he started waving at them.

“Liam, how are ya?” the boy said, his voice deeper than Violet would have thought by just looking at him. He looked young, maybe seventeen. Even from ten feet away, she could see his green eyes clearly, and his wavy brown hair was pushed away from his face slightly.

“’Ello, Harry.” Liam greeted him, walking in front of Violet to give his friend a man-hug. Liam didn’t realize Harry worked here. He knew he worked at a bakery in town, but he didn’t know it was this particular bakery.

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked, his eyes moving from Liam to Violet.

“Just stopped by with Violet, she works with me.” Liam told Harry, and Violet stayed silent at his side.

“Nice. Hey, are you going to Niall’s this weekend?” Harry asked Liam, trying to make conversation. Violet rolled her eyes – she didn’t want a conversation, she wanted a big cookie.

“I don’t know, my mum wanted me home this weekend and I’ve this huge literature assignment…” Liam trailed off and Violet cocked an eyebrow before looking up at him questioningly. They didn’t have a huge literature assignment due, all they had was their paper and Liam had already told her he had finished it. Liam looked back down at her as if to tell her don’t say anything, I’m trying to get out of this, and so Violet kept her mouth shut.

“Oh, well maybe another time.” Harry said, not bothering Liam to come. “What can I get for yas?”

Liam got the same cupcake Violet had last time, caramel chocolate. Violet was more than happy to get her big, soft chocolate chip cookie.

When Liam reached for his wallet, Violet swatted his hand. “I’ve got it this time.” she told him, digging into her purse for her change wallet. She traded the five quid to Harry for their goodies, and this time they decided to walk back to Liam’s car instead of sitting at a table.

“So, you know him?” Violet asked, breaking off a piece of her cookie and popping it in her mouth.

Liam licked the icing off his lips from the cupcake and nodded. “Yeah, he’s a nice guy. Terrible, terrible cheesy jokes, but he’s nice.” Liam laughed, remembering a bad joke Harry had told during history the other day.

“I rather like cheesy jokes.” Violet said, and had more of her cookie.

“Really?” Violet nodded. “I’ve got one for you. Why didn’t the melons get married?” Violet waited, her lips already turning up into a smile in anticipation. “Because they cantaloupe!” Liam finished, and Violet actually burst out laughing. She hadn’t laughed like this in a very long time, and she almost felt stupid for laughing at such a terrible joke, but Liam laughed with her. Liam never knew a laugh could make someone feel so warm, or that it could make him laugh, too, without finding anything funny. Violet looked pretty as her fringe fell in front of her glasses and her teeth showed just beneath her pink lips which were slightly chapped. Not only did she sound nice when she laughed, but she looked nice, too.

Violet stopped laughing, feeling Liam’s gaze on her. She looked back at him intently, wondering what could be going through his head. Violet knew she had a horrid laugh, she was even embarrassed of it, and maybe that’s why she didn’t usually laugh. She bit her lip and wrapped her cookie up before stuffing it in her bag as they approached Liam’s car.

It was an actual thought in Liam’s mind, to go to Violet’s side and lean in close to her, to see if she would take the initiative to close the space between their lips. But Liam knew it would never happen, she was much too quiet, and Liam reckoned he wasn’t really her type. She probably liked another literature major, someone who shared her love of music and books to the same extent as she did. A person more… intellectually sound would be better suited for her. He wished it wasn’t so, because Violet was honestly one of the most interesting people he had ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Maybe she didn’t so much, and she wasn’t all that good at keeping conversation once he started it… but every so often, she would forget those qualities in herself and Liam would be able to see a different side of her. He rather enjoyed that side of Violet, the one who rolled her eyes and cocked her eyebrow, the one who laughed at his terrible jokes and lame impressions of rock artists.

Liam actually found it hard to believe, as he and Violet got into his car, that this was only the second time they had really hung out (if you can really say that, because it was technically for work purposes). He felt like he had gotten to know Violet pretty well in the few hours they had been together. Well, maybe he didn’t know her well, but he had a feeling he knew her better than most people did.

“Do you mind dropping me at my dorm instead of class? I’ve got to get my books,” Violet asked him, pulling Liam from his thoughts. He turned to look at her, sitting her seat, one leg over the other, her brown hair falling freely down her shoulders and chest, her glasses that shielded her eyes. He was genuinely surprised at how much of a liking he had taken to her. “Liam?” she said again, trying to get his attention.

Liam felt his cheeks redden, and cleared his throat. “Oh, oh yeah of course.”

Had he just been… checking me out? Violet thought to herself meekly. She was flattered but confused. She didn’t know how to interpret a boy’s actions, she hadn’t had any experience. She wished she could ask Elizabeth what to do, but she would only tease Violet for being right. 

The drive back to campus was slow and awkward. Liam knew he had been caught admiring her, and Violet just didn’t know what to say – not that it was an unusual thing. 

Violet looked over to Liam when they pulled up to her dorm, and watched as he opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it again. 

"Well, thanks for driving me back." Violet said, placing her hand on the car door handle to open it. 

"Uh, yeah. No problem." Liam said, feeling like there was something else he should say. Violet's eyebrows pulled together in confusion at his tone. She sighed and began to get out of the car. If I'm going to say it, Liam thought, I might as well just say it now. "You look pretty!" Liam told Violet just as she shut his car door.

Violet had just barely heard him, and she froze next to his car. Pretty?! Should she thank him? Yes, she probably should. She swallowed the nervous lump in her throat and tapped on the window of the door. 

Liam rolled it down quickly, biting his lip as he wondered what she was going to say. 

"Um, thank you." Violet said quietly, giving him a quick half smile before adjusting her glasses and hurrying into her dorm. 

Liam grinned as he watched her awkwardly walk away, her cheeks redder than cherries. She was so absolutely quirky. Liam knew, even though Violet hadn't told him, that she didn't have experience with boys. In a sense, she was naïve when it came to them. He could tell by the way that she acted around him. He found himself in a hurry for literature class to begin.


Violet had gathered her books and was struggling to balance them in her arms as she walked to her class. She held her phone in her hand and it was pressed against her textbook. When it started ringing, she was completely caught off guard; so caught off guard, in fact, that she squealed and dropped all of her books on the damp ground. She frowned down at her books and answered her phone.

“Hello,” she said, sounding weary.

“Well, don’t sound too excited.” the voice on the other end laughed.

“Who is this?” Violet asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Louis.” 

“Oh, hi Louis.” she cleared her throat, trying not to sound too guilty. 

“So, about meeting up later, you really meant that?” he asked, and Violet frowned again. She had forgotten she’d said that. 

“Yes,” she confirmed, and bent down to begin picking up her books. 

“When and where, darling?” he asked in a teasing tone. It is when he said things like that in a tone like that, that made Violet feel intimidated. She cleared her throat again as she held her books against her chest once again. “You alright, lovey?” Louis inquired in a mocking tone. 

“Oh, yeah.” she assured him. “Where would you like to meet?”

“Well, there’s a book shop and café that I know of, we could meet there?” he suggested and Violet nodded even though he couldn’t see her.

“I’ve been meaning to pick up a new book.”

“Perfect, then!” Louis said, and smirked to himself because he could hear the hesitant tone in her voice. “What time?”

“Well, I’ve got class right now.” she told him. “How about ‘round five?” that gave her some time to work on a couple assignments and even get in a quick nap.

“Five sounds brilliant. Shall I give you the address?” Violet told him he should, and she got a pen out of her purse to write it on her hand. She’d have to take the bus there. “Well, thanks for meeting up with me.” Louis said, this time sounding serious.

A hint of a smile made its way onto Violet’s lips. “It’s the least I could do. I really am sorry for giving you a fake number.. I just-”

“Don’t worry about it.” he assured her, smiling to himself because he didn’t think she’d really feel bad about it, but he could hear the apologetic tone in her voice.

“Well, I’ve got to get to class. I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye, Violet.”

“Bye Louis.” Violet replied, and pressed the end button on her phone, not dropping her things this time. 

Weirdly enough, she was almost looking forward to meeting up with him.

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A/N: thanks for reading lovelies ~ mwahh xx