admiration [l.t]

ii

And now Louis spots her brown curly hair in the courtyard almost every day, not that he was specifically looking for her or anything, and goes up to talk to her whenever he can. She is definitely more reserved than he is, mainly answering questions with just a simple word or phrase, and Louis can't help but admire that about her.

She's also very shy, which Louis would have never guessed by the way she portrayed herself in the book store the first time he had seen her, and all Louis tries to do is bring her out of her shell. He generally asks her questions instead of the other way around. He tries to make her laugh, succeeding almost every time, and he brings up her interests often when he realizes she talks about them with a lot of pride.

Their five minute conversations have been going on for a month now and she still has yet to read a single page of 'Around the Mountain', so naturally Louis has made fun of her every day for it.

"You're gonna fail, you know that right?" Louis would always say with a smirk. And she would only softly hit him on the shoulder and laugh quietly.

So today, on the 23rd of November, Louis has decided that he is going to ask her out. Yes, for a "date", but just as friends for now. It's not going to be anything extravagant. He's chosen a small café just outside the school's campus that they're going to go to for lunch, and then after that a small fair that has made its way into town. He only hopes she doesn't already have other plans, he's taken off work for this after all.

"Bella!" Louis shouts from across the courtyard as he spotted her brown hair pulled loosely into a bun. She hears her name immediately and turns around to see Louis walking up to her with a bright smile on his face, the crinkles by his eyes forming. She was sure her face soon reflected his.

"Hello, Louis." She says through a smile as she he adjusts the books in her hand so she could wave to him. But before Louis says anything else, he hastily grabs the books from her arms and holds them himself.

"They looked pretty heavy," Louis shrugs casually. "But I came over here to ask you if you'd like to come to lunch with me tomorrow, because we both don't have any classes? Even though I do love these brief meetings we have been having, I would in fact like to get to know you better." The end of his sentence begins to jumble into one long word, his nervousness getting the best of him. His gaze bounces everywhere except her eyes, including her face, shoulders, the green leaf on the ground and even the boy behind her that is in his own world dancing to the music in his headphones. He couldn't help but smile at that.

"Sure," she simply states causing Louis' eyes to dart back to her face. He looks for any sign of regret or hesitation, but doesn't seem to find one.

"Okay. Uh, I'll pick you up at twelve-ish?"

"Sounds good."

"Yeah, okay. How about I walk with you back to your dorm so you don't have to carry these." Bella nods and the two walk together to her dorm.

-x-

It's 11:30 in the morning the next day when Louis is running around his dorm trying to find a top to wear for his outing with Bella. Thankfully when he told his roommate that he needed to go out for the day he listened or else Louis knows he would be yelling at him for no real reason.

He's wearing his usual black jeans with vans and hopefully his grey sweater, if he can find it. The temperature has dropped drastically since yesterday and Louis can only hope Bella doesn't mind the cold. He knows he would hate himself if she does, planning this on the only day that has bad weather.

He's spinning in circles in his room with his fingers running through his hair in frustration after he's double-checked every drawer in his room, failing in finding the sweater. He's about to just say 'fuck it' when suddenly he spots a red hoodie thrown in the corner of the room that he knows will be perfect for him and her. If she finds herself getting too cold he can just give her the hoodie, something he wouldn't be able to do with the sweater. Girls like that kind of stuff, right? He practically shouts in victory, pumping both of his fists in the air, rushing over to the hoodie and pulling it over the white long sleeve shirt he was already wearing.

He double-checks himself in the mirror, making sure he didn't mess up his hair too much throughout his hectic dorm run, before grabbing his keys and running out the door. He almost trips over his own two feet.

[A/N; Thank you for all the votes and comments :)]