Dreams Are Like Stars

Chapter 9

"Don't you have people to take out the trash for you?" I looked over at him, only half joking. Hi smile slightly fell, as if the comment fell on a point of recognition that he didn't want to hear. He turned towards the door."I mean, guess we could," his hand met the back of his neck. I turned to Angel as I felt my face get hot. She looked at me, shocked.

She mouthed the words "I thought you didn't care?" I put my hands up and looked around as if to find where the comment had come from. In my search, I looked up. The red bricks stacked high, with floor upon floor of windows and balconies. The automatic doors swiftly opened up for Liam, and began to close just for a second before reopening for Angel I as if the doors were confused if we actually belonged inside.

As we entered the elevator I caught a glimpse of Liam's face, he smiled but his eyes still looked slightly hurt. And then there was silence.

Angel began sending me looks, asking what we were supposed to do. My mind raced. I had met Liam Payne, Liam Payne had given me his number, and Liam Payne had invited me back to his apartment and I had the absolute worst opening statement for what reason, I did not know. I was struggling to string when my mouth fell open and the worst sounding apology fell out of my mouth "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it any way. I was joking and, um, I don't care if you did have people or don't so um yeah," my words were scrambled and I was hoping that somewhere between my blushed cheeks, stiff body language, and soft voice that he felt it was somewhat insincere. His head lifted to see my eyes. He sighed and inhaled slightly as if to say something when the elevator doors opened.

A wall of noise hit us like a ton of bricks.

"So these are the girls we are watching movies with today, which ones yours?" Zayn I exchanged glances with both Angel and Liam.

"yours implies possession and we are not owned by anyone" Angel stated proudly and walked into the apartment first, "I believe the more exact question you are asking is which one of us has he been texted" Harry hit Zayn behind the head

"That is exactly what he meant," Harry stated as Zayn nodded. Liam walked over to me and put his hand on the small of my waist.

"This is Kathleen and her friend Angel" He gestured towards Angel who had obviously already invited herself in. she had already began taking off her shoes and putting them off to the side of the door. She did a little wave as she bent over to take off her doc martins. Liam leaned in and whispered.

"It's alright, we'll talk later," I looked at his face to see if his eyes looked different, and they did. I nodded.

"Nice to meet you all," I waved and walked into the apartment. I took my shoes off and Liam guided me to the living room. Niall and Louis were sitting on the large white couch with head-sets screaming at the TV. I sat down at the couch and Liam two seats away from me. Harry and Zayn quickly filled in the spaces as Niall and Louis continued with their game. Their exclamations included "die Zombies!", "Where are you?", and "where did you get that weapon?". This didn't go on for long as Angle quickly climbed over the couch in her mismatched socks and sat between the two boys. She slipped off their headsets and asked:

"So are you guys going to be over soon or what?" They both looked first surprised that their headphones were off, then confused on who Angel was, ad then upset that they had looked away from the screen for a moment. Both reached ad pulled their headphones quickly back on their heads. So I guess it will be a while I looked at Liam. Should I wait for him to talk to me, should I talk to him? Should it be him because he's the one wo brought up talking? Should it be me because I'm the one who made it awkward? Should it be him because it's his apartment? The thoughts circled my head and all of a sudden I just got up and asked him for a tour of the house. He nodded and said sure. A chorus of "ooohs" and kissing noises spring from the couch.

"Ignore them," He said, swatting their comments out of the air. "This is the kitchen", he motioned over to the black cabinets and stainless steel appliances that overlooked a large balcony. He walked over and pushed over the doors to walk outside. The cool air circled around us, I walked forward towards the railing to get a better look at the skyline, but my mistake was looking down first when I reached the railing. My whole bod tensed, I let out a wince and the people who were first most certainly walking in straight lines along the sidewalk began to walking in circles blurring between trees, birds and streets. I quickly took a step away from the edge, looking back to make sure my avoidance wouldn't have me knock into Liam for a third time. He turned,

"What's wrong?" I pointed to the balcony.

"Heights, not a fan. Like I realize the number equivalent of the floor we are on because I was in the elevator and fully saw you press the button of the floor we are on.,' Liam walked over to me ad for some reason I kept on talking, So, like, I totally understand that it is high up but it's still a shock of how high we are, I guess its not so much heights itself because then I wouldn't have even of come up here, maybe its more of falling like I can be up high, but away from a risk of ...." His arms fit around my waist and his head rested on my shoulders.

"'I've got you," he states as we look out at the view. The black buildings that were a mystery above the clouds before now were shadowy silhouettes with the setting sun. I felt my body melt into his arms as we watched the sun disappear behind the skyline ad the buildings began casting their own light on the city.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I wouldn't have said anything like that if I had realized it would hurt you, it was meant as a tease," there was a pause and I could se eout of the corner of y eye Liam catching the sigh of information he had meant to give earlier in the elevator.

"I would say I know or it's fine, but I don't know sometimes, you know?," He shook his head, attempting to move his thoughts in the right order. "living this life, which I am very lucky, comes with people assuming I have limitless amounts of money that I spend on every aspect of my day. That I have people doing everything for me. With that, comes with other people who believe that statement and think that associating with me or Louis or Niall or Harry or Zayn with only the priority of getting some sort of treatment is exhausting. And having that be the first thought of every person I hang out with and being worried that that's the reason we are spending time together is exhausting," He looked down.

"I have no idea what that is like," I looked over my shoulder at him.

"That must be nice," His eyes left my gaze and looked out at the city again.