Once the words were out of Louis’ mouth I saw the reaction on Lizzy’s face first. Yes, she had been the one yelling about it from the start, but by the look on her face she hadn’t believed it for a minute. She was all talk. She never once believed her own words that Louis liked me. She was only saying the first things that came to her mind to hurt Harry. Once the truth came out I saw a fresh wave of hurt roll over her face, Louis really never truely liked her and it all finally became clear to her. I really almost felt bad for her, no girl deserved what just happened to her. She had panted after Louis ever since she first met him and she finally got to date him like she always wanted, but it wasn’t real. Not in the sense of most couples, where feelings were mutual. I then looked back at Louis who wasn’t looking at me, but at Harry, with pleading eyes. Following his eyes to Harry I saw Harry watching me. He looked pained, I wasn’t exactly sure what could be putting the look there. Was it that his best friend loved me and he was causing his friend hurt? Was it because he was unsure what to do to make himself and his best friend happy? Was he thinking that I felt the same for Louis? I guess there were loads of reasons that could put that look on his face. It all depended on where his thoughts were leading him with this declaration. The silence started to become physically painful. Nobody knew what to say. The only sound was coming from Lizzy, who was starting to sink into an empty chair, she was sobbing, her hands over her face making the sound muffled. She really did like Louis a lot. I looked at Louis who was now looking at his hands and biting his lip, probably wishing he could take back what he said. Harry was turning into a statue, indecision taking the place of the pain on his face. The silence was broken as Niall stepped out on the balcony and looked at all of our faces. “Louis, the cab you called for Lizzy is here.” He quickly stepped back into the room shutting the door. Lizzy stood up, shaking her hair back and pulling her shoulders back, revealing way more cleavage than I ever wanted to see from her. She wiped away her tears and walked into the room, quickly shutting the door behind her. It was only a few minutes later when we heard the front door slam, only slightly muffled by the closed glass door. Then Liam was there sticking his head through the door, telling us what we already knew, “She’s gone. She went and gathered her things pretty quickly and left.” Liam caught on quickly on everything that had happened. No doubt one of the boys had been listening, or maybe he just assumed from what he witnessed this morning. Either way he knew Louis and Harry needed to talk, alone. Instead of quickly leaving like Niall did, he started speaking again, “Hey Emerson, we’ll be leaving soon for the next gig, why don’t you come and help us load the van up?” He stated it as a question, but I understood he wanted me to leave Louis and Harry on the balcony alone. I quickly nodded and started to walk back inside, Harry stopped me, “We can help. Emerson shouldn’t have to carry anything heavy or help load up the van.” Liam sighed and stopped him, “No. Me, Zayn, and Niall will handle most of it. You and Louis stay out here. I think you need to talk.” With that I walked inside, Liam shutting the glass door in Harry’s face, locking it, and pulling the curtain closed. I looked at him suprised, “Why’d you lock them out?” “If I hadn’t they would just come in instead of talking. Besides it’ll be pretty funny when they’re done.” He grinned and picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at Zayn’s sleeping head.
~~~
We were almost done loading the van and I had walked into the bathroom to make sure we weren’t leaving anything in there. Louis and Harry still hadn’t tried to come inside, and when Liam saw my worried expression peeked out at them and said they looked like they were talking seriously and shrugged his shoulders. I flipped the switch trying to distract my mind and saw a pair of boxers laying in the bathroom floor. “Oh gross!” Zayn peered around the corner at me and followed my stare. “Oh sorry, not used to girls being around.” He sauntered in and picked them up. I wanted to throw up on the tiled floor under my feet. Before I had the guys pack up our suitcases I changed quickly and remembering Harry and Louis were still only wearing what they slept in, I wrinkled my nose and unzipped each of their bags. They clearly hadn’t cared about packing, everything was just wrinkled up and thrown in there, not even folded. I tried not to think about them being guys and all of it might not be completely clean. I remember how when my cousin had to clean up his room when I was there he would pick his clothes up and smell them and make two piles, one for things that smelled so bad they had to be washed, and the other for things that still smelled okay and could be worn again. It was disgusting. I picked up the pair of khaki pants that was the first thing I saw in Harry’s bag and layed it on the bed and then the first t-shirt I saw. But what about underwear? I bit my lip and made a face, I dug deeper into his bag until I found a pair and pinching them between my thumb and index finger quickly threw them on the bed. Then picked up the pair of socks that had been beside them. I quickly zipped up his bag and put it in the floor and then moved over to Louis’. I grabbed the sweater on top and put it on the bed, and dug around until I found a pair of jeans. Under that I grabbed the first pair of underwear and socks I saw and put them on the bed, too, wrinkling my nose in disgust. I looked around the room and noticed Louis never put his clothes from the day before in his bag. I picked them up holding them away from me and started to drop them in his bag, when I realized his pants had something in the pocket that was making one side heavier than the other. I sighed and realized I should probably get it out, in case it was something he would want. I put his other clothes in the bag and searched his pocket pulling out his cell phone. Oh yes, he would need this. In the process I had pushed some buttons and it lit up revealing his lock screen. At first I started just to put it on the bed, but the background picture caught my attention. Was that us? I remember the picture from the night he first invited me to his house for their practice, the night that started everything, what had started my friendship with him and Harry. I forgot he had asked if he could take a picture with me. I remember laughing and saying yes, but I quickly forgot about it when I was home, forgetting to ask him to text it to me. The memory came flooding back. In the picture you could see Louis’ arm outstretched, holding his phone so he could take it. But right before he took the picture Harry had tripped, spilling his drink all over Lizzy -how had I forgotten that? It was hilarious but that was also the night I was told she was talking about me because she was jealous of the attention Louis was giving me- so our smiling faces were laughing as we looked at each other cracking up. I could see Louis’ eyes crinkling up as he looked at me with all his teeth showing and me looking back at him eyes wide trying to hold in my laughter but my lips stretched out with the laugh I was trying to hold in at the poor girl’s sake I didn’t know yet. In my memory I remember that moment and then the flash from his phone, I hadn’t expected him to take it when we were looking at each other laughing at Lizzy instead of smiling together at the camera. He then turned it towards him and smiled and said “Good picture, I like it.” But he wouldn’t let me see it. Now I was finally getting to see it, it brought a lump to my throat, it really was a good picture, there was no fake smiles at a camera, he had caught us in a true moment, which I guess is why he snapped the picture then instead of waiting. The look we was giving each other, you would have thought we would have ended up together instead of me and Harry. How had I forgotten this? I shook my head not being able to take my eyes away from it. He had set it as his lock screen, too. That thought made the lump in my throat even bigger. Before I could think about it anymore I heard a loud bang and yelling. I jumped and dropped the phone like it burned me. It hit me, I guess Harry and Louis are done talking. They’re probably quite cold, too, now that I think of the air outside and what they’re wearing. I guess they either finally got everything out they needed to say or they couldn’t stand the cold anymore. I pushed Louis’ pants in his bag and zipped it up as the yelling continued. I took one more glance at the phone as it dimmed and walked out of the room to let the boys in. Liam, Zayn, and Niall had pushed the curtain open and were laughing as Louis and Harry beat on the door, rubbing there arms and yelling. I sighed and went to unlock it until Zayn restrained my arm. “Aw come on, just a few more minutes.” I looked back toward the door where the guys had gone still at my entrance, at first they wouldn’t look at me but then deciding I was their only hope Louis turned his beautiful eyes on mine with a pleading look that brought the lump back in my throat, “Emmy, please let us in. It’s cruel what they’re doing to us. We’ve been out here long enough. It’s cooold.” He whined. I looked back at Zayn really wanting to let them in. He rolled his eyes at me, “Fine! But you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun.” I rolled my eyes right back at him and unlocked the door. Harry and Louis came barreling through the door and wrapped me in their arms. I could feel their cold skin on my arms and wondered how they had lasted out their so long. Maybe it was easier to ignore the cold when they were talking so seriously, keeping their mind off it. I pulled away from them, wanting to ask what had been said but biting my tongue. “I got you some clothes out. You can go change while we put your bags in the van.”
~~~
After the concert that night we went ahead and drove to the next place. They were tired so I drove. Neither, Harry nor Louis told anybody what had been said. Harry and Louis acted like nothing had happened, but Harry never touched me. Louis even acted like his old self sitting on my other side and putting his arm around me every now and then. They laughed and cut up, and even picked on me being the only girl with them now, but neither so much as gave a hint as to what transpired. That night they changed sleeping arrangements, which was more than a little awkward. Our room this time had two bedrooms, one big one with a king size bed, and the other quite small with a bed that looked like it could fit only one person. Liam asked politely if he could have the small bed by himself since Zayn moved a lot and Niall snored. We agreed. The next part was what got weird. We were deciding which three would get the pull out couch -which I thought was a no brainer, obviously Zayn, Niall, and Louis. Did they expect me to share a bed with Zayn and Niall?- when Louis’ voice chimed in, “Well there’s really only one fair choice. The bed is quite big, bigger than the pull out couch, I think me, Harry, and Emmy can share the bed, leaving Zayn and Niall to the couch.” My mouth literally fell open at the suggestion, but Niall and Zayn agreed, liking the idea of only having to share with one person. I looked at Harry for help, but he was nodding his head, agreeing wholeheartedly. What has gotten into them?! The three of us can’t share a bed. How absurd! That would be so awkward, didn’t they realize that? The whole idea had me wondering again what had been said between them. My questions were answered later that night.
