Falling Fast (Louis Tomlinson AU)

Chapter 3

Rehearsals began the following Monday. I got ready for school that morning very carefully, the examined myself in the long bathroom mirror.

My grey school sweater didn’t cling snugly like Carli’s jumpers always managed to. It bulged out unattractively over my boobs, the settled stiff, ugly folds just below my waist. There was no getting away from it. I looked fat. Bulky at the very least. God, I really was the perfect person to play Juliet’s ex-nanny or nurse or whatever she called herself. I sighed and stroked mascara up on my eyelashes. I spent most of my weekend thinking about Louis. Wondering about him. He intrigued me – the way he’d made everyone in the room aware of him just by walking across it, the weird contrast between how bored he’s looked most of the time and then the intense interest in his crystal blue eyes when he’d looked at me, like he really wanted to know who I was. That look, on its own, made him unlike any boy I’d ever met.

I was determined to talk to him later. To find out about him. He must be really into the play to speak his lines as well as he did. I could imagine him, in his room, hunched up against his pillows, reading his way through Romeo’s and Juliet’s love scenes, just like I had.  He probably read all types of books. Maybe even poetry. A shiver slithered down my spine. I knew it wasn’t love I was feeling. I didn’t eve really fancy him. I was just  . . . well . . . interested. Then Carli’s pretty, flirtatious face popped into my mind. Louis wasn’t going to notice me. He wasn’t going to see past her – the fake Juliet in front of him.

I put my mascara down and leaned against the long mirror. ‘OI, SWAMPY’ Stone – my younger brother – was yelling from outside the bathroom.  I sighed. Stone was nearly fourteen and the biggest jerk in the universe. He was full of himself for weeks after he started calling me swampy. It’s a mickey-take on my appearance, you see. Because apparently my hair is the colour of mud and eyes the colour dishwater.

‘HOW MUCH LONGER YOU GONNA BE IN THERE?’ Stone thumped on the door. I reluctantly peeled myself away from the bathroom mirror. No way was I letting Stone in until I’d finished – but If I didn’t hurry up, he’d get mum on my case. I really didn’t want a row this morning.

I picked up my mascara again and leaned towards the glass. There was nothing good about face. My nose was too blobby; my eyes set to close together, my mouth too small. ‘SWAMPY, DID YOU HEAR ME?’ Stone yelled again.

‘Just a minute,’ I shouted.  Stone swore loudly, and then I heard him stomping off upstairs. Up until six months ago, Stone’d been quite nice. This shy, sweet kid who got on with everyone and spent most of his time collecting football stickers. It felt like he changed overnight, though I suppose it couldn’t really have happened that quickly. Now he seemed to hate everyone and everything and spent all his time locked in his bedroom listening to loud, aggressive rap. Mum says he’s a walking teenage cliché and that I should just ignore him.

I moved closer to the mirror and finished applying the mascara. Stone wasn’t wrong about my hair and eyes. I had to admit. Dull brown and dirty blue. Mum was waiting for me just inside the front door. She was all dresses up for work in a blue suit, her hair carefully done in a consciously messy, flicked back style.  You’d ever of guessed she used to wear long hippy-skirts and smoke joints with dad after me and stone had gone to bed. ‘I haven’t got long’ she said. ‘I just wanted a quick word. I stared at her. Mum and I lookalike. Even I can see it. We’ve got the same dark hair and blue eyes. The same heavy features. Only they suit mum. She somehow carries them off. ‘Tommi?’ she said impatiently. ‘This is important.’

‘What is it?’ My mind ran over the possibilities. Maybe mum was secretly dying of some rare disease? No. She would hardly tell me about that just as she was about to leave for work. Maybe it was Stone. Maybe he’d been nagging her about us swapping bedrooms again. Mine was twice as big as his. No way was he having it. ‘I wanted to talk about tonight’ Mum said, checking her watch. I frowned. Tonight? What was happening tonight? God, it wasn’t her birthday again, was it? We’d forgotten it last year. She went mental on us. But no, Mum’s birthday was in February. And it was late September. ‘It’s the paly you have gotten involved with,’ she said. ‘Where is it and everything?’ I shook my head. ‘What . . .?’

Mum sighed. ‘You know I’ve always treated you as an equal Tommi, so I’m not telling you what to do.’ Right. I’m just saying, it’s in a boy’s school. As in a boys’ school where no girls are allowed. And you haven’t . . . well, I’m just saying, as an older woman with a bit of experience; I know what boys are like. At that age they’re mostly going to be interested in getting as far as they can and . . . ‘

‘For god sake, mum,’ I snapped, too shocked and embarrassed to sort out all the different things I was feeling. How dare she try and warn me off boys she didn’t even know? I thought of Louis and the way he looked at me. Into me. That wasn’t about sex and stuff.

‘Look, I just wish my mother had talked like this to me.’ Mum sighed, her cheeks reddening slightly. ‘But the truth is they’ll be after whatever they can get.’ I stared at her, feeling my own cheeks burn, as if mum’s blushes were now flowing into me. ‘Yeah, Swampy’ Stone slouched up behind mum, a sneer on his spotty face. ‘Most of them, won’t be fussy about who they get with.’

‘Stone, be quiet.’ Mum rolled her eyes, but I could see she wasn’t actually disagreeing with him. In fact, that was her real point wasn’t it? That boys kept artificially away from girls most of the time, were bound to be so desperate that they’d try and do it with anything that moved – even something as hideous as me. Tears pricked at my eyes. I didn’t want either Mum and Stone to see how upset I was. ‘Right’ I snapped. I stomped outside, slamming the front door shut behind me.

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                                                                                                       ~This is life, Not a rehearsal~

Heyyy, more of a filler chapter, pretty boring and shorter than the others sooo, I will update again soon, I’ll be doing more bios as well, like DSFB bios and stuff.

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