Piper

Erick had ordered a limo to take us to dinner. He and Paul – One Direction’s tour manager – were going to discuss some things back at the studio, so he told us to go on ahead, and to not bother waiting for him.
Even though the limo could fit fourteen people, it felt severely cramped with on ten of us in it. This might have to do with the fact that both Niall and Harry were sprawled across two seats each, giving the rest of us barely any room.
I was crushed in between Louis and Scarlett. I gave her the look I’d given her earlier. I hadn’t planned for One Direction to be so…charming. I thought they were going to be major divas, but I guess I was wrong. When I was talking with Louis and Harry, I was surprised to find that they were actually quite nice. I thought Louis was going to be rude, but it wasn’t at all –sarcastic yes, but not at all rude – and that Harry was going to be much more flirty – he was in a way, but not as bad as I expected. They were, dare I say it, normal. And I knew that would make our entire plan more difficult.
See, I was hoping they would be stupid-as-doorknob divas, but they were the exact opposite – down-to-earth guys who would figure out our plan immediately. And I knew they would never go along with it.
Louis looked at me apologetically when we did a tight turn, sending him crashing into me. I smiled nervously. I don’t know what it was about him, but he made my tummy flip. That was another thing I was worried about; if I was getting distracted, then the rest of the girls must be going gaga over them.
“Sorry about this, mate. Niall and Harry take up a lot of room,” said Louis, smiling at me.
“They sure do,” I replied, glancing over at Lucy. She was staring out the window, trying to ignore Harry, who was trying to get her attention. Scarlett and Sky were being polite, but distant, I noted, and Reagan…well, Liam hadn’t left her side the entire evening. She was handling it…well…as well as she could I suppose. She looked like she wanted to jump out of the limo just to escape Liam.
“I heard your guys’ new single. It’s pretty good,” said Louis. I turned back to him. He was smiling softly.
“Oh, thanks. Yeah, we’re just finishing our new album,” I said. “Hopefully it does well.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will,” said Louis. He smiled again, and I felt another tingly sensation go through me.
Just then, we arrived at the restaurant, some Asian-fusion place with black and neon lights with koi ponds and bamboo scattered everywhere. I didn’t really like Asian food too much, and with the boys here I couldn’t talk to the girls about our plan.
We were escorted to our table immediately – Erick or Paul must have called ahead and made reservations – and we were situated at a long table. I was secretly hoping in vain that the boys and us girls would sit separately, but no such luck. We were scattered again. Louis chose to take a seat by me, and to my left were Reagan and Liam. I smiled at Reagan assuredly, but she only raised an eyebrow in return. I sighed and scanned the menu. This was going to be a long dinner.
The menu was just a bunch of sushi, which didn’t sound appetizing at all. I hated sushi, and just looking at Louis’ face, he didn’t like it that much either.
“I don’t mind sushi,” he said amiably, “but I’m not really in the mood for it right now.”
I laughed as he squinted at the menu before making a disgusted face.
“And this place? This place just has weird combinations,” he said, pointing at one of the selections. Octopus, cucumber, and cream cheese. I tried not to barf.
“Good, you feel the same way about this,” he said. “That makes two of us.”
He nodded towards Harry, who was on the other end of the table.
“Harry loves sushi, Niall will eat anything ‘cept vegemite, and Liam and Zayn don’t care,” he said. “I’m always the odd one out.”
I nodded.
“Same here. Scar loves sushi, and Erick always takes us to sushi joints because of that. I don’t know, maybe he assumes we all love sushi. I certainly don’t,” I laughed.
Louis laughed along with me, and I felt the usual barrier slip away. I never let anyone see the real me – even the girls – because I always wanted to make sure things were running smoothly before I could let go and relax. Problem was, that never happened, and so I was always being uptight and cautious while the rest of the girls ran wild. Around Louis, though, I felt like I didn’t need to worry so much.
The waiter came by to take our drink orders. Since all of us – the girls and I – were underage, we just ordered cokes. Louis ordered a beer and Liam ordered just water, but I couldn’t hear what the other guys ordered. When the waiter came back with our drinks, Louis offered me some beer.
“C’mon, take a sip,” he urged, shoving the glass in my face. “I bet you’re such a goody goody that you’ve never had beer before.”
I blushed a bright red. He was right, I never had, but I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I grabbed the glass.
“Aw, Lou, don’t pressure her,” said Liam, leaning forward to chastise Louis.
“Shove it up your ass, Liam,” laughed Louis, waving him away. Liam rolled his eyes and went back to talking to Reagan, who was watching me with wide eyes. I knew what she was thinking; was I going to drink it?
I paused, looking at the golden liquid. It had a few bubbles in it, and it had a strange odor coming off of it.
“C’mon, mate, drink up!” I heard Louis say.
Without any second thoughts, I took a giant chug and slammed the glass down on the table. I swallowed hard as I realized exactly how beer tasted.
“UGH!” I groaned, sticking out my tongue. I handed the glass back to Louis. “It tastes like dirty socks! How can you drink that?”
Louis inspected the glass.
“I said for you to take a sip, not drink the half the pint!” he laughed showing Scarlett to his right. Scarlett widened her eyes then leaned forward to give me a look; did you really just do that?
I shrugged in response, and then started laughing. I’d never drank before, but I had a feeling I was slightly buzzed now.
The waiter came back to take our orders, and Louis and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. I don’t know why we did, it was just a feeling we had.
I caught Scarlett’s eye once, and from the look she gave me, I was the only one losing it.