Moments

Louis dragged me through his house. The room I was staying in was upstairs with all the other bedrooms. It was a decent sized room, but the large bed in the middle took up most of the space. Around the bed was a bookshelf, desk, and flat screen TV. There was also a door on the other side of the television, which I assumed was a bathroom. The carpet as a light sandy color and the walls were painted a smokey grey. Louis smiled as he pulled me into the room, his hand still around my wrist.

"This is my guest room, you'll be staying here for the evening." He let go of my arm. "There's the bathroom," He pointed to the door on the other side of the TV. "Go ahead and clean up, there are fresh towels in there. When you're done I'll have your things on the bed."

"O-ok." I stuttered. "Do you need my keys?" I reached into my pocket, but they were gone. I began to panic.

Louis held them up in his hand. "They fell out of your pocket when you fainted, my dear."

"Oh," Was all I could mutter.

"Just come downstairs when you've finished. I'll see you then." And with that, he walked out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

I sat on the bed for a moment, trying to take in what was happening. I had meet Louis Tomlinson. OK. I had passed out. Yes. I had woken up in his house. OK. I had performed for Louis. Yep. And now he was making me stay the night. Holy shit.

It was almost too much to process. I held my head in my hands for a moment before realizing that Louis would be back at any moment with my bags. It would be very awkward if I was sitting on the bed when he expected me to be in the bathroom. Sighing, I got up and walked into the restroom. It was small and kind of cramped, but it was clean and that was all that mattered to me.

I looked into the mirror at myself. I looked like shit. My hair was greasy, tangled, and looked like it had been through a tornado. My eyes had bags under them and my skin was pale and sickly, my face was also oily. No wonder Louis was letting me stay. I looked sicker than a dog. He probably took pity on me.

Stripping, I turned the water on warm and stepped into the shower. The heat felt good on my back and softened the kinks I'd had since I slept in the car. The shampoo was Herbal Essence which happened to be my favorite. I smiled at the familiar scent. I rinsed my hair and continued to wash my body with Dove soap. After washing my face with the face-wash, I sat down in the pooled up water. I was just so tired and wanted to be home. I wanted to feel my parents hugs. I was tired of being tired. At this point I didn't even care about college.

I let the water beat down on me and I leaned my head onto my knees. I wrapped myself with my arms and thought for a moment. It's not that I didn't want to be here, with one of the most famous boys in the world, but I was just worn down from traveling and school. If it were a summer vacation I would probably have been more enthused. But now I just felt like I had no time for it. I wanted to at least be in my new dorm room relaxing for a little bit before I had to get to work. Instead I was going to be two days late and I was going to have to jump into my classes, and be behind.

I shook my head and got up, shutting off the water and wrapping myself into a large, fluffy towel that had been sitting on the sink. I dried my hair off with another and wrapped it. I inspected myself again, making sure I looked better. I did. The bags were still there, but my skin seemed better and I'm sure my hair would look a hundred times better after it was dried and combed.

Opening the door, I shut the light off and stepped back into the bedroom. My bags were all on the bed. I smiled. Upon inspecting my clothes, I realized that I had brought hardly anything appealing to England with me. Angry, I settled on a pair of skinny jeans and a sweater with the outline of a mermaid on it. While it wasn't too attractive, I liked the outfit. I threw on some white socks, pulled my now almost dry hair into a pony tail, and went downstairs.

"Louis?" I called out softly.

"In here," He called out.

I followed his voice to what I imagined was the kitchen. It had a tile floor, stove, and refrigerator. It also had Louis sitting at the table with a couple boxes of pizza and a...

I inhaled sharply and muffled a scream. Harry Styles and Niall Horan sat next to Louis at the table. I could feel my eyes bulging and my breath growing rapid. I had to calm myself.

Calm down, Lyric. I told myself. You handled an encounter with Louis, you can handle one with these two.

"Lyric, I'm sure you know that this is Niall and Harry. But I'm afraid they don't know who you are, so..." He turned to the two boys. "Harry, Niall, this is Lyrics Cole."

"Oi, you've only been telling us about her for the last half hour." Niall shook his head.

I could feel myself blush.

"Hello," Harry drawled. "It's nice to meet you Lyric." He stood up and walked over to me, his hand extended.

I took it and we shook hands.

OMG I shook hands with Harry Styles.

"I hear you're looking for the College of Music and Drama?" Harry asked. I nodded my head yes. "That's a neat choice of career. I like it it." He smiled, his white teeth showing.

"I quite like it too, it's bold." Niall got up, too, and shook my hand. "So it's your last year of college, then?"

I knew that I wouldn't be able to say anything without squeaking, so I just shook my head yes.

Louis smirked at me. "She's probably not saying anything because she's freaking out. Remember, she passed out when she meet me."

I rolled my eyes. "Only because I was shocked it was you."

"She speaks!" Harry yelled, laughing.

We all laughed with him. Louis motioned for us all to sit down, so we did. He opened up the pizza boxes.

"I didn't feel much like cooking tonight, so I had Harry and Niall pick up some pizza's and soda on their way here."

"I love pizza," I reached for a plate and Louis put two pieces of cheesy, pepperoni pizza on it.

Niall had four pieces and Harry and Louis both had three. We all poured a glass of Coca-Cola and sat there quietly eating. After a few minutes, Niall spoke up through the pizza.

"So, Louis says you've got a real good voice."

I blushed again and looked down at the table. "I don't know about real nice, but it was good enough to get me into the BFA program in college, so it'll work." I shrugged and took another bite of the pizza.

"You're being modest," Louis said in a sing-song voice. But his eyes burned into mine.

I rolled my eyes at him, breaking his stare. I had a decent voice, but there was no need to fuss over it. Honestly, I had never thought that my voice was that good. But people seemed to think so and I loved to perform. So here I was training in musical theatre.

After we all ate it was around probably around 11 PM. Louis stretched out and sighed, sounding content. Harry and Niall kept cracking jokes about things that had happened on their tour. I sat there silent, playing with my cup of Coke. We'd all talked for a bit, but things had wound down and I was tired. After a few more minutes I decided that I was tired.

"Um," I stood up. The boys looked at me. "Thank you for dinner, but I'm tired. I didn't get to sleep in a real bed last night. And I suppose I've got a big day tomorrow so is it alright if I hit the hay?"

Louis stood up, too. "I'll go help you get settled in." He said, smiling. "I'll be right back, boys."

"Alright, good night, Lyric! I hope we get to meet again." Harry flashed a smile at me.

"Same here," Niall said. "Good thing we'll know where to find ya!"

I smiled at them. My heart warmed at the thought that they liked me and might want to hang out again. Aside from the fact that they were all gorgeous and had amazing voices, they were just really cool boys. I reveled in the thought of them enjoying my company.

"It was nice meeting you." I waved goodbye as Louis and I walked up the stairs.

When we got to my bedroom, Louis followed me in. I questioned why he was there, but I figured that it was just to make sure I was alright. After I picked out my pajamas he helped me move my bags to the floor. I sat my purse on top of the luggage and stood up. Louis was right there in front of me, his eyes - the color of the sea, - intense. I gulped and took a step backward. Louis followed me. We kept doing this until I was backed into the wall, his arms rested on either side of my head. He was so close to me. I could smell him, he smelt like musk and sea salt.

"Louis," I whimpered.

"Why'd you pick this house?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing, his expression questioning.

"I - it was the first house I saw and only one car was home. I didn't want to have to handle a bunch of people."

"Why not just call someone? Use your phone?"

"It g-got smashed on the plane. By luggage. I don't have any numbers memorized."

"Not even your home phone?" He tilted his head to the side.

"No home," I whispered, looking down at the ground.

"What?" He asked quietly. His hand lightly grabbed my chin and guided it up to look him in the eyes. "Lyric?"

"My parents..." I muttered. "Last spring..." I wasn't ready for this. It was bad enough traveling across the sea, leaving behind everything about them aside from the money they'd left me. I felt my eyes water. "I can't talk about this."

I pushed off the wall. Louis backed up, he looked concerned. I had no idea what he had been trying to do, but whatever it was, I was done with it.

"I'm going to leave." I said, my voice like stone. I tried to walk by him, but he caught me.

"No, Lyric. No." He held me in place. "Stay. It's alright."

I looked up at him, the tears spilling over.

"Hey," He said softly. "Hey, it's alright. Everything's going to be OK." He pulled me in, wrapping his arms around me. I found his embrace comforting. Feeling safe, I cried into his chest. "Shh, shh, it's alright, Lyric. It's alright." He stroked my back.

After what seemed like forever my sobs had simmered down to a silent trickle. Silently, Louis guided me over to the bed and helped me sit down.

"Here," He said, lifting the blanket up. "Get under,"

I laid down as he placed the blanket on top of me. As I curled up on my side, he stroked my head and gave me a sad smile.

"Get a good nights rest, Lyric. I'll wake ya in the morning."

I shook my head OK. Louis patted my shoulder and left the room, turning off the lights as he went.

I stayed up for awhile, still crying, the streetlight outside the house shinning in through the window. I hadn't broken down in weeks, I thought that I had gotten stronger. If my parents could have seen me they would have told me to stop crying, that everything was going to be alright. But they weren't here. They hadn't been for months.

Lightly, I could hear the boys talking downstairs. At first they seemed like they were trying to keep quiet, but after awhile they sounded rowdy, just like the image I'd fallen in love with. I guess that sometimes management and media doesn't always portray celebrities differently.

After awhile I stopped crying and thought about Louis. How he had just accepted me into his home. He must have either been very caring, or psychotic. I was betting on a bit of both. I was uncomfortable with what had happened earlier, before my breakdown. I'll admit, it turned me on a bit, but I wasn't sure what his motives were and that scared me.

Around 2 AM I drifted off to sleep. I could still hear the boys talking downstairs. It was softer, though. Like they had settled down. Right before slumber had finally taken me, I heard my name said.

Notes