I Promise // l.p.

Chapter 11

I sit up from bed and rub at my eyes so I'm able to see the sun peeking through the wavy blue curtains. I glance to my left to see Liam, peacefully asleep after getting quite banged up yesterday. He looks so adorable laying there. I sink back down under the comforter and take a minute to study his face. It's perfectly symmetrical. Liam has a cute wrinkle formed across his forehead, his cheekbones look amazing, and his pink lips look softer than ever. Before I realize what I'm doing, my thumb is lightly caressing the outline of his lips. I know we kissed last night, buts it's been way too long since I've had the feeling of his lips on mine. I realize that I've been caught when a grin wipes across Liam's face.

"I can feel you staring." I never noticed how much thicker his accent is in the morning.

His eyes slowly open and he brings his hand up and tucks my hair behind my ear, revealing his bruised arm. I look up at his forehead again, and the bump is still there, which sends me back to the reality of the night before.

I can't prevent the tears from rolling down my cheeks. I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

X

"It's okay. He's okay." Niall's voice sounds shaky as he pulls me up into a hug.

X

"Hey. Liam will be fine. I promise. It probably just looks worse than it is."

"You alright?" Liam's voice breaks my trance.

"Yeah. It's just, you look cute when you're sleeping." I tell him and his cheeks flush pink.

From what I've been told, Liam passed out, hit his head, and landed on his laser gun. I'm not sure the reason why he passed out, but what else can I believe? Liam tells me that he'll be up in a few minutes so I slide out of bed and step into the bathroom. I've got the same clothes on that I wore yesterday, my hair is a mess, and the makeup around my eyes has been smeared. I try to quickly clean myself up by wiping off my makeup and pulling my monster of hair into a ponytail. I'll change when I take a shower later.

"Hey, Zayn." I smile at him as I walk into the kitchen and he returns it. I pour a couple glasses of orange juice, one for me and one for Liam, and look over the counter so the living room comes into view. It's completely empty. I figure that the rest of the boys are still sleeping after the rough night we all had.

Liam makes his way to the kitchen and I pass him the glass of juice. He nods in thanks then turns to Zayn, who is scrolling through his phone.

"Has anyone found out what's going on with the tour?"

"Modest delayed it a couple days, to give you some time to recover." Zayn responds.

"I feel terrible. I'm so sorry, you and the boys were so excited and I put it to a halt." Liam runs at his forehead.

"No, no, you rest up, mate. We want you to be the best Daddy Direction you can be during the tour, yeah?" Zayn flashes a smile, gives Liam a quick hug, and exits.

----

"Hey, we're putting in a movie, do you want to get Liam and join us?" Harry stops me as I'm walking down the hall.

"Sure, what movie?"

"Don't know yet, Caitlyn's picking."

"Oh, Caitlyn's here?" I look around the corner and see her looking through a stack of DVDs.

"Yeah, I think she's really starting to like me. She wanted to hang out tonight so I-" He mumbles and his face heats up.

"Awh, Harry." I mess up his curls before going to get Liam.

I walk into the massive living room to wait for Liam and find Caitlyn and a few of the boys. My eyes trail to Louis on his phone, and a strike of curiosity hits me when I see the glittering purple case he has wrapped around it. Wait, that's my phone, isn't it?

"Intrusive much?" I stand in front of Louis and swipe my phone from his grasp. "Do you always go through people's phones? First Liam's and now mine?" I joke with sarcasm behind my voice.

"Liam told you about that?" The boy avoids eye contact with me and almost looks embarrassed.

"Liam tells me everything." I smile trying to get Louis back to his normal witty self. "Aw, lighten up. I was just messing around, Lou." I ruffle his hair and throw myself onto the couch next to him, and Louis' eyes brighten a bit.

"This one? I've been dying to see it ever since its release!" Caitlyn holds up Insidious Chapter 2 once we've all gathered into the room. Who bought all these horror films in the first place? There's no way I'm watching this.

Almost as if on cue, the boys turn their heads towards me, Caitlyn not having a clue what's going on. I part my lips to tell her no, but stop myself. There's no way that I'm going to ruin the night Harry and Caitlyn had planned. In the back of my mind, I can hear Harry's voice repeating 'I think she's really starting to like me'.

"Maybe we can watch that one some other time." I hear Harry softly say and Caitlyn's face falls a bit.

"C'mon just this once, Katie, please." Niall looks at me with wide eyes and sticks out his bottom lip.

"Don't push her, Niall." Louis growls. I can feel Liam staring at him.

"Um. Ok, why not? It'll be a..an interesting movie, I'm sure." I laugh nervously and confusion fills the room.

"Are you sure? I don't think it would be a good idea for you." Liam bends down and whispers to my ear. I know what he means. I never walked into a room alone, and I forced Liam to stay at my house for a week and a half after watching one of those possessed movies.

"What could one hurt?" I respond, trying to sound as calm as possible. I know I must seem like some paranoid kid, but horror films are 'way out of my league' to put it.

They turn all the lights off and slide in the disc. The first thing that lights up the screen is a family of four being hung by their necks from a tree. Why did I agree to this?

During most of the movie, I'm looking away or biting into Liam's t-shirt. Liam kisses my forehead and constantly reminds me that 'it'll be ok' while Louis is rubbing his hand up and down my calf in efforts to comfort me. At one point I feel like getting up and walking away, but it's as if I'm glued to this exact spot and can't move until the film ends.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" Niall gives me a half-hug from the side as he walks past me.

I start walking down the hall to get to Liam and I's bedroom and take in a sharp breath when an arm snakes around my neck.

"Are you doing ok?" I sigh in relief in the familiarity of Liam's voice.

"I think so."

"That's good..." He trails off, "Um.. is something, uh.. never mind."

"What? You can talk to me." I've rarely seen Liam act like this.

"Do... do you and Louis have something going on?" He lets out a deep breath.

"What? Why would you think that? Liam, you're my boyfriend." I turn to look him in the eyes.

"Dunno. Just... you two seem a bit more friendly than you should be." Liam puts an arm behind his neck.

"Me and Louis are just friends, I swear it. Remember how we were before we started dating? It's kind of like that. Only I don't have as much of a backstory with him as I do with you." I explain. Liam just stays silent. I stop Liam just as he's about to open the bedroom door and stand up on my toes to kiss him. "Would I do that to Louis?" I ask rhetorically and a look of relief crosses his face.

"Where's your smile? The tour starts tomorrow!" I squeeze Liam's hand and walk into our bedroom.