I stirred in my bed, not wanting to open my eyes to the light, wishing I could just have 10 more minutes… I turned over to face my bedside table and groggily squinted through only one of my eyes at my alarm clock. Trying to read the time in my sleepy daze was difficult, instead I felt for my phone and lifted it close. 7:45. I groaned and shut my eyes again, have a couple more seconds wrapped in my cosy duvet…
"Shit!" I hissed, suddenly realising I had overslept by 45 minutes! I jumped up and hastily started making my bed. I grabbed my clock to see that I hadn't even put the bloody batteries in, and then chucked it back down.
Running across the landing I looked out of the window and noticed my Dad has already left. Why didn't he wake me up? I frowned. Lately, he had been as out of routine as I had. Picking up my towel and clothes and ran into the shower being as quick as possible.
I ripped a cereal bar out of the box from a cupboard in the kitchen and stuffed it into my bag as I ran out the door, locking it behind me. I ran across the grass and onto the pavement of the cul-de-sac, throwing my bag over my shoulder and carrying a folder and my phone in one hand. I made it to the end about to walk onto the main road when I heard someone call my name.
"Allie?" I turned around to see Louis… Great. I looked awful having only woken up only 30 minutes ago and here was Mr Attractive no doubt about to talk to me, pulling a denim jacket onto his muscular frame. He was standing outside what must have been his house, flapping his arms around goofily as if I couldn't see him.
"Hey Louis!" I chirped, cringing at the heavy enthusiasm in my voice. I ran a hand through my damp hair as I panted a little from all my running around this morning.
"Do you need a lift?" He asked gently, looking a little confused by my frantic appearance. Any other day I would have made a pathetic excuse about enjoying walking to school, just to avoid him seeing me looking so rough. I had even less make-up on than usual, not that I usually wore much, and I must have looked terrible. But today… today I was late, and now frustrated and staring at his gorgeous face before school would probably cheer me up…
"Please," I nodded. "I overslept, you can probably tell…" I laughed, looking down at my clothes that I had flung on, whilst raising my arms to my side as if on display. He laughed and then smiled sincerely. Despite both his normal bag and a gym one on his shoulder, he walked the few metres to come and stand quite close in front of me, the top of my head came to just over his shoulder. He then took my heavy bag off of my shoulder and carried it for me.
"You look as lovely as ever," he winked and smiled. He then pulled my cardigan up over my shoulder where it had slipped down from my bag strap. His hand on my arm was warm and comforting. We looked at each other straight in the eye for the briefest of moments before I annoyingly shivered from the cold. He noticed and rubbed both my arms quickly, as if to warm me up.
"Come on then, hop in!" He turned to put our bags in the back seat before opening the passenger for me.
"Oooh, what a gentleman!" I giggled, impressed, sliding in as gracefully as I could.
"Only the best for the best," he murmured, looking at his feet as he shut the car door. I wasn't sure if he meant for me to hear. He slow-motion ran around the front, making me laugh again, before he got into the drivers seat and smoothly reversed out.
Unsurprisingly, I only really felt safe when my Dad drove, but amazingly I felt protected with Louis in the car. I bit my lip, wondering whether that was right after only knowing him for a day…
We chatted a bit about insignificant things, mainly about the coincidence of living next to each other. Shortly, we pulled over at a random house. I looked at Louis questioningly, wondering if he was trying to make another joke. He was looking out his window at the front door and then unexpectedly tooted the car horn. I jumped up in my seat a little and he looked wide eyed at me.
"Sorry!" He muttered, bursting into laughter. I was still a little shocked but could help but laugh a little, looking across at him. He was leant over the gear stick, his hand resting on my seat for support as he eventually stopped laughing. We both looked up as groggily Harry emerged from the house, a slice of toast gripped between his teeth.
"Aaah… and it becomes clear. The boys lift share…" I said slowly.
"If you can call it that; Harry can't be bothered to take the test so I'm stuck driving him around every morning like a stupid chauffeur: Aimeriez-vous un ascenseur, madame?" he imitated before glancing over his right shoulder at Harry getting into the car. I sat there ogling, and probably drooling, over his sexy, charming and just oh-so-perfect French accent. I forced myself to snap out of it quickly.
"Oh I see. I've been replaced… by Shorty of all people! 5 years of friendship down the drain because of a girl… what a waste." Harry shrieked dramatically. Louis and I both laughed at his joke. "Seriously though… what have I missed?"
"Turns out Allie and I live almost next door… who'd have guessed?" Louis glanced over at me smirking.
"Huh… maybe I should move in, I don't want to become the third wheel or anything…" Harry said. Louis carried on looking at the road ahead. I blushed at whatever he was suggesting, deciding to change the subject.
"Speaking of the odd one out… how come you both have these massive gym bags?" I looked behind at the back seat, all our bags were lined up on the spare seats.
"We have Rugby practice; Harry and I are the Wings!" Louis sounded excited, it was really sweet. I noticed Harry's hand come in-between Louis and I, before Louis quickly smacked it as a high five. They clearly had a bit of a bromance going on… now who was the third wheel?
"Oh really? Let me guess… Louis is left wing, and Harry's right?" I looked hopefully between them. Louis stared in amazement at Harry in the rear-view mirror.
"Spot on! Don't tell me you actually know about rugby?" Harry squealed from the back.
"My Dad likes to watch it, and my elder brother used to play it all the time." I thought about James at university, it must be hard for him being so far away. "Let's just say I sat through the games basically every Saturday morning."
"Impressive…" Harry murmured.
"How about coming to watch us play at lunch?" Louis asked expectantly, I looked at him, his blue eyes lit up with anticipation. He pulled into the school car park and reversed into a space.
"Sure," I replied simply. "Sounds like fun." We looked at each other for a moment, complete silence apart from Harry's munching. He flashed that gorgeous smile again and we both just sat there. All of a sudden Harry stuck his head right between us. His loud voice pierced the silence.
"YEAH SOUNDS REALLY GREAT, I can't wait… Louis can't wait and now Shorty can't wait. So let's not wait any longer and get on with our school day, shall we?" That was a bit awkward. Louis and I stepped out of the car, shutting the doors. I looked up to see Louis in hysterics… he had locked Harry in the car.
"Oh come on, you're so immature. Very funny!" His voice was muffled through the car window. I walked round to their side of the car and started giggling at his expression pressed up against the glass.
I grabbed the keys out of Louis hand and pressed the window button. Harry's face slid down along with the window, it was hilarious. Louis came to grab the keys back off me, I tried to hold them up high but that was pointless with my height so I just held them close to me with my back turned to him. He soon came and wrapped his arms around me and easily got the keys, but his hands lingered on mine for a moment longer than necessary.
Meanwhile Harry was still locked in the car, Louis opened his door and handed me my bag before getting his own.
"Thanks," I smiled up at him and he locked his car. Harry walked in front pretending to be in a sulk but when we got to his form room he turned round and waved good bye, smirking.
The bell rang when we got to Louis' form room, the art classroom, and we said goodbye. He told me to meet him on the field and thanks to the eventful P.E. lesson yesterday I knew exactly where that was.
Considering how badly it started, this day looked promising! I walked into to my form room, to see Flick grinning at me.
