admiration [l.t]

vi

After the fair "date" the two have hung out almost every day possible. Bella will sometimes come and visit him at work, just to look at her phone because she refuses to read anything, and Louis will sometimes randomly come to her dorm, just so the two can watch a movie together. Thankfully her roommate, Lacey, is rarely there.

Throughout their little dates, as Louis likes to call them, he has found out that her name is actually Isabella instead of just Bella. She said her mom was the only who used to call her by her full name until she died from some freak heart attack. No one's called her it since upon her request.

"No one knows how it happened. She ate healthy and even exercised every day. No one could see it coming," she said one day over a cup of coffee.

Little by little Louis was beginning to unravel the person behind those caramel brown eyes. He began to realize she only crossed her left leg over her right when she sat down and she bounced her foot up and down when she was bored or impatient. She ordered her coffee the same no matter where she went; black. Louis hated black coffee, so naturally he made fun of her for it.

"It proves you have no soul."

"Got that from a book, did ya?"

Louis also learned that her favorite color is yellow although she refuses to wear it, no matter the occasion. Her favorite season is autumn and she loves spaghetti.

"Honestly I wouldn't mind if the world was taken over by spaghetti," she said once.

"What? That would honestly be terrible."

"No, because then there would always be free spaghetti."

Her favorite dessert are these homemade cream rolls that her grandma makes back home, and she tells Louis he has to try one sometime. She has a deathly fear of heights and, as Louis knows, hates to read.

Whenever Louis listened to her reveal something about herself he couldn't help but smile and wonder what else there was to know. There are never ending questions running through his mind and he's determined to get the answers.

And after meeting almost every day for another month, Louis is more attracted to her than ever. However he still doesn't know if she feels the same way and he's too much of a chicken to actually ask her out. He's scared he'd lose her if he asked and she didn't reciprocate the feelings.

It's keeping him awake at night, eating him from the inside out, not knowing that she's thinking.

He's at work now, helping customers find a specific book and placing more on shelves. His glasses are perched on his nose as he looks down at all the papers in front of him from all the orders he's placed. He ends up boring himself, not being able to focus on anything, including a book, which is a rare sight itself.

Ever since he's been hanging out with Bella he hates coming to work and being surrounded by silence. He'd much rather be telling some corny joke that would result in her laughter. He still enjoys reading, don't get him wrong, but that's almost impossible to do when all he can think of is brown eyes.

So what he finds himself doing is rereading 'Around the Mountain,' imagining how Bella would be reacting at a certain scene if she were to ever read it. It satisfies both his boredom and his thoughts of her.

She still hasn't read a single page in the novel and the essay is due in two months. She has to write three pages full of her thoughts and emotions about what she was feeling while reading. Louis laughs at that, knowing if she were to read it she wouldn't be feeling anything. She does in fact drink black coffee.

"Louis Tomlinson! How are ya?" Louis hears as soon as the bell by the door chimes. He immediately recognizes the voice that greeted him, a grin forming on his lips.

"Carson, how are you man?" Louis says, looking up to see the infamous blue eyed friend walking towards him.

"Well I've been good. But I haven't seen you in a few weeks and I'm missin' my Lou. I knew I'd find you here, so here I am." He says as he walks to the counter Louis is standing behind, opening his arms to pull Louis into a hug.

"I've been a bit busy with work and school... and stuff."

He doesn't want anyone to know about him and Bella, especially his guy friends. They would make fun of him for not even making a move yet. To be honest, he would make fun of himself if he could.

"And stuff?" Louis nods. "Hmm, well how about you come to the party at Alex's tonight so we can all catch up. You haven't been to one in a while."

Louis thinks about his friend's suggestion for a bit, not really in the partying mood. He does know, however, that he needs to take a break from school and getting drunk will probably fix that. He doesn't have classes tomorrow so he doesn't see why going tonight would matter anyways.

"Sure."

"Great, it starts around nine-ish, but it doesn't really matter what time you get there."

"I'll be there," Louis says with a smile and Carson returns it.

"Alrighty man, I'll see you tonight then, alright?" Louis nods. "Later Tomlinson." And Louis waves the boy off as he's walking closer and closer to the door to leave. The bell finally chimes, signaling his exit and Louis returns to his deafening silence filled boredom.

[A/N; Again, no real big changes in this chapter]