Louis' POV

God, why had I have to cry right now? I tried to get myself together and stop sobbing. Tessa's T-shirt would probably soaked by now. We had such a great time today and I had to be ruining it now? After what seemed forever I stopped crying and looked at Tessa. Like every time I looked at her, she was the most beautiful girl ever. Her eyes were blue like mine but so much more interesting than that and I wanted so badly to stroke her long and brown hair behind her ear. I just wanted to touch her. I regained my self-control and started to talk.

"Hey, Tess. I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to go all teary in front of you?"

"Teary? Really, Louis? But you don't have to apologise. At least I know now you're not a robot or something."

I really really liked it that she still joked even though I was so sad. The last couple of months everyone has tried to be careful with everything they said. They were scared I would get mad or sad or something. I felt like no-one took me seriously anymore. Only my mom, dad and friends acted still more or less normal. But it still felt not the same anymore. With Tessa I could just be myself and she didn't act different since she noticed something's off. I gave her a little smile and shrugged.

"Shall we now practice for our audition, Tess?"

"Okay, I guess I promised you I would sing for you, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

Tessa tried to think about a song I thought and only began to sing after a minute. Her voice was enchanting and it took me to away from my problems. I couldn't think about anything else than her singing and her face. She sang 'Bridge of light' from Pink. The lyrics said that you can't give up in times of trouble and that you have to keep hoping and loving and try to move on to better times. You have to keep fighting because it'll be all worth it. And I loved it. It gave me hope. I've been in this situation the past several months and her singing it made me believe again. For those few minutes I felt strong and I felt like I could get through this and it was the most wonderful feeling I've had until now.

"Tess, you don't understand how much this means to me. You have a beautiful voice and you singing this song made me have hope again."

"I figured it would maybe help you a little bit. It's a powerful song and it's obvious you're in a very difficult situation. Just don't give up, Louis. Don't give up. I want to be here for you."

"Thank you, Tess. I guess we don't need much practicing. Only learning the lyrics from a West Side Story song by heart. Which one are we going to sing?"

"I've always wanted to sing 'Tonight' with someone."

"Great! So I'll be Maria and you'll be Tony I guess?"

She laughed and poked me in the arm.

"You amuse me, Louis."

The rest of the evening we just sat in my room and talked about random stuff. About 8 o'clock my mom came home.

"Oh, hello Tessa," she said, "It's lovely to meet you. I'm Louis' mom."

"Hello, nice to meet you too."

My mom winked at me.

"Is it okay if I take Tessa downstairs, Louis? I want to tell her something. She'll be back in a few minutes."

What was my mom now up to? She wasn't going to tell her, right?

"Mom, she doesn't know yet. I want to tell her, but not yet, okay?"

She nodded and took Tessa downstairs. Now I was alone in my room again. I took my headphone and computer and listened to the song Tessa picked for our audition.

---

Tessa's POV

I followed Louis' mom downstairs into the living room. She sat down on the couch and gestured at me to do the same, so I sat down next to her. Tears were filling up her eyes, but her voice was firm and strong. No mention of weakness.

"Okay, Tessa. You probably have noticed something is making Louis sad. I won't say what it is, but it's bad. We all are sad, but Louis is in the worst shape. The last months have been so incredibly hard for him and he didn't smile anymore or talk enthusiastically about something. The only few times I saw him giving a little smile was with his four amazing friends. Yesterday he came to me and he was happy he met you. You make him laugh, Tessa. If you want it also, you'll probably be best friends. But please don't hurt him, Tessa. He has been hurt enough times. If you're not ready to make him happy, then please just break all contacts now."

This was weird. What happened? The tears were now streaming down her face, but she did no effort to wipe them away.

"I like your son and I have no intention to leave him alone. He makes me laugh too and I'll think we'll be best friends."

"Okay then. Thank you and sorry I had to be so... you know. You can go back to Louis now, if you wish."

Without thinking about it, I hugged Louis' mom and told her that everything would eventually turn out right and I liked her. She smiled, gave me a little hug back and finally wiped her tears away. I went back to Louis. He was sitting on his bed listening to music and I sat next to him. He put his headphones next to him and looked at me.

"Had a good talk with my mom?"

"Yes, she's very lovely. But I guess I had to be leaving right now. Dinner will be served soon at home and I'm really hungry. See you tomorrow?"

"Sure, I'll come at your house again if you don't mind?"

"Of course not! It's nice to have someone to walk with to school!"

He walked me to the door and gave me a hug.

"Thank you for everything, Tess. One day I'll tell you, I promise."

"No problem, Louis. Take your time. I won't leave."

And then I left to get home and eat.

Notes

Hey!!!

I'm so so so sorry I didn't write earlier, but school really kept me busy! I promise I'll try to write as much as I can during Christmas break! So what do you think about my story? Do I need to work on something? And what do you think about the growing friendship between Tessa and Louis?? And what's that thing that's making Louis and his mom sad????!

Please comment, rate,....! <3

Lots of love!!!! <3 <3 <3