It's difficult to know at what moment love begins; it's easier to know that it has begun.

It was an unusually hot day for England, Alexis held her hair up with one hand and shaded her eyes with another. “How freaking long is he taking?” Alexis cried out exasperated, turning to look over at her best friend’s brown eyes, as if saying ‘it’s your boyfriend!’.

Eleanor remained quiet, used to Alexis’s tantrums after thirteen years of being best-friends. She squinted and her eyes darted across the landscape to look for her boyfriend. “He’s here,” Eleanor declared giddily, seeing the charming brown-haired lad sprinting towards them.

“Sorry,” Louis yelled even before Alexis could spot him. She rolled her eyes, and huffed and puffed, and crossed her arms over her chest. Then looked at her older brother through narrowed eyes, before finally giving in and tackling him in a hug.

“You’re five minutes late,” she muttered in his shoulder, Louis let out an amused chuckle, and ruffled her hair, spun her around, before finally placing her back on her feet, He walked towards his girlfriend, they exchanged words in whispers, before kissing.

Alexis watched longingly, even after being the ‘it’ couple for two years, Lexi and Scott never had that sparkling romance like Eleanor and Louis. She pushed the thoughts away, and coughed loudly, making Louis mumble a ‘shut the hell up’ to her. She rolled her eyes, and marched forwards to pull the two lovebirds apart.

Louis carried the two small bags and led them towards house, he had been sharing with five other lads, whose names Lexi never seemed to remember. “Would I be considered ignorant if I tell you that I forgot their names again?” Lexi asked while picking on her nails.

“Lex!” Louis whined, “It’s not that hard, Harry, Louis, Liam and Zayn.”

“Alright, I get it!” Lexi raised her hands in surrender, trotting forward she repeated the names quietly until she had them memorized.

“I’m leaving you girl here,” Louis said dropping the bags on the porch of a huge brick house. “The show starts in two hours and the lads and me--”

“I,” Lexi interrupted, tapping her foot impatiently, while fanning herself with a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird she had been reading earlier.

“The lads and I,” Louis corrected glaring at his little sister, before continuing, “need to practice , you girls can freshen up, and I’ll see you there in a bit. Third door, on your left on the second floor,” He handed the keys to his girlfriend, and pecked her on the lips, before leaving, “ask anyone in there to lead you to the Judge’s House, Okay? Love you, both!” He called out while sprinting away.

“Are you sure this is Louis’s room?” Alexis asked looking around the room in awe, which was unusually clean for it to be Louis’s.

“Lex, the last time he called, he said that he was sharing it with two other lads,” Eleanor replied patiently, “One of them is a clean freak, Harry I think,” she said while rummaging through her bag for clothes.

“Oh, okay,” Lexi said finding her towel before jogging towards the bathroom, “me first.” Eleanor rolled her eyes, and fell to the bed, she was oftentimes annoyed by her best friend’s antics, but Alexis was her best friend, nevertheless, and she wouldn’t trade her for the world.

“Are you going to come out?” Eleanor yelled, just as Alexis stepped out of the bathroom. She dropped her phone on the bed and rushed towards the bathroom, ignoring Alexis’s smug smile, it was revenge from the morning when Eleanor had taken a little extra time to dress up for her boyfriend.

Alexis sat at the edge of the bed, playing with the ends of her towel, she had promised Eleanor she would let Eleanor do whatever she wanted to do with her outfit and makeup today, only because Eleanor, very skillfully, had blackmailed her by telling her how happy Louis would be to see her dressed up, and she ought to make him happy since the Finals were today, and if she made him happy he would do well. Now Alexis regretted the decision, while impatiently tapping her foot on the hardwood floor.

She waited for Eleanor to come out, dressed up, and looked at her with awe and slight jealousy as her best friend gracefully made her way towards her. Alexis, on the other hand couldn’t walk for five minutes without tripping.

“Lets get you dolled up, baby,” Eleanor mimicked a posh accent, motioning her friend to come over to the dresser, while spreading out her bag of makeup. Alexis came over to the seat and sighed before doing what she was told.

After an hour of whining and sighing she finally opened her eyes and stared at herself in the mirror, in wonder. Maybe dressing up wasn’t so bad after all. A little bit too much cleavage was visible, but it was okay to let loose once in a while. Clothes like this usually brought up the name of boyfriends, but for unknown reasons neither Louis nor Eleanor was very fond of Scott.

Once Eleanor finished curling her hair, and Alexis slipped on her boots, after arguing with Eleanor that she would definitely fall in a second if she wore heels of any kind, they walked out of the room arm in arm. A house-cleaner gave them the directions to the house, and all the way to the Judge’s House Eleanor blabbered about what a good job she had done in ‘dolling’ Alexis up.

---

Alexis and Eleanor held each others hands in a death grip as the five boys came on stage with Simon Cowell. Alexis’s grip on her friend’s hand tightened, Johanna sat on the other side her eyes shut tightly as she prayed for her son to win.

As they were announced third, Lexi’s heart fell a bit, a single tear made it’s way down her cheek and she saw the five lads’ and Simon’s face fall in disappointment. When Louis’s eyes found her sister in the crowd, though, she gave him a dimpled smile and a thumbs-up. This, she knew, wouldn’t be the end of One Direction, and how right was she?

When the five boys went offstage, Lexi clumsily made her way backstage, Eleanor and Johanna hot on her heels. “I swear to god, “she turned around, to face the two women, “if you say anything about how sorry you are to him,” she warned, “I will not hesitate to kill you.”

With that she smiled and walked inside, easily spotting her brother in the crowd. “Lou!” She called out. Her heart broke a little at the sight of her brother in tears, but she waved it away and jogged towards him.

Louis offered her a wry smile but Lexi threw her arms around him instead, “congratulations,” she softly whispered into his year. Louis had the nerve to roll his eyes, she slapped his arm, “hey you made it till here didn’t you?” She asked, gray eyes twinkling with pride for her brother, “imagine if it were Eleanor she wouldn’t even have made it past the auditions!”

Louis chuckled slightly, and Eleanor agreed until it dawned upon her what her best friend had said, she turned to glare at her, “Tommo!” Alexis chuckled, patting her best friend’s hair, as if telling her it’s okay.

“Are you gonna tell me who Liam, Zayn, Niall and Henry are?” Alexis asked, proud that she remembered all the names correctly.

Eleanor smacked her forehead with her palm, and Louis rolled his eyes, yet again, while three of the other four lads laughed their asses off. Alexis looked at all of them, her lower lip caught between her teeth in confusion.

“I’m Liam,” said one of the boys, holding his hand out as he spoke in between laughs, “nice to meet you, love.” Lexi nodded slowly still not understanding what the hysteria was about.

“Niall,” said the cute blonde one, with an accent. She shook hands, and the third boy held his hand out next, introducing himself as Zayn. She turned to face the curly-headed one, who was pretty cute to be have curly hair. He rolled his eyes and stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

Alexis stood awkwardly, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, before sneaking a glance to Louis who shrugged with a smug look on his face. Lexi bit her lip, and looked back at the boy, “Manners, Harold,” spoke Liam, “Introduce yourself, Harry.”

Alexis’s face relaxed as the confusion was cleared, “Holy fudge!” She cried, making the others laugh harder, at her inability to curse, “I--Oh Lord, I’m so sorry! I suck at memorizing names, I swear to God, I didn’t mean to offend you,” she blabbered waving her hands around, and apologizing over and over again.

But by now the green-eyed lad was laughing hysterically too, “fudge?” he questioned amused. Lexi’s face flushed with color, she covered her face with her hands.

“Well, I’m Harry, love,” he said holding his hand out. Lexi’s cheeks turned a brighter shade of crimson.

The cheeky lad opened his mouth to say something else, but Louis interrupted him, “She’s off-limits Styles.”

Lexi and Harry rolled their eyes at the same time. Louis ignoring the two’s antics went on with introducing his girlfriend, and mother.

“This is the beautiful girl you keep talking about, huh?” Harry asked, making Louis and Eleanor turn bright red in sync.

“This is her,” Louis said embarrassment flooding his voice.

“She.” Lexi mumbled under her breath, Harry simultaneously pronounced the syllable. All eyes turned to them, Lexi shifted uncomfortably, “this is she.” Lexi repeated, “not her. That would be incorrect grammar.” Lexi attempted to explain, her inability to endure flawed grammar, got out of control at times.

The three lads, except Louis who had gotten used to his sister’s grammar nerd-ity, stared at Lexi in confusion, her face flushed with color, yet again, and Harry took over the task of explaining subjective and objective pronouns to the three lads.

Louis meanwhile realized that Lexi had actually dressed up for tonight, to which Lexi hurriedly responded, “don’t get used to it, Tommo. This is the first and last time I let you girfriend put this disgusting…” she tried to think of a good word to describe the unnecessary amount of makeup planted on her face, but knowing Louis wouldn’t understand it anyway, she settled by saying, “stuff, on my face.

“And also this one-piece garment extending downwards from my waist, not joined between the legs,” Lexi finished, to see all the lads’ baffled eyes on her again.

“Skirt.” Harry said, his lips quirked upwards on one side, since the boys showed know acknowledgment, “she means a skirt,” he restated.

“Never mind.” Lexi said, ignoring the six pairs of eyes settled on her, “let’s just celebrate tonight, and I am not hearing any whining.”

Harry gawked, in admiration, at the beautiful brunette. He would have called her sexy, considering the amount of legs and arse her skirt was showing. Or the tiny strip of her flat belly visible due to the corset, which he did not mind at all. But something about her screamed beautiful, in a way he hadn’t known before, and he had known a lot, since he had had a fair share of girlfriends in high school. Maybe it was the sparkle in her pale-blue almost gray eyes, or the indent that formed on her cheek when she smiled. Or perhaps just the fact that she didn’t know how utterly appealing she was.

He shook his head, coming back to reality and followed his friends back to the room he had been sharing with Louis and Niall.

“So you’re a grammar geek too, huh?” Alexis’s mellow voice spoke from just behind him. His cheeks tinted pink and he nodded slowly.

She was easy to talk with, Harry realized after a few minutes, and so did Lexi. They made small conversations about school, college and music on the way to the room. The topic of relationships never came up, and Lexi was glad that way. Scott hadn’t picked up her call since morning, and she had a bad instinct about it. They hadn’t talked about her leaving for college across the country, three days later, and Lexi didn’t know how to feel about that.

In some ways she didn’t want to be tied down to Scott, and wanted to start a new life in France. She had known from Day One that they weren’t the forever kind of couple anyway. But other times she felt like Scott was a great guy, and she did love him, they had had a fair share of drama in their relationship, though. But who doesn’t?

She sighed quietly, before tuning back into the conversation with Harry. Under the moonlight his face was even more beautiful than usual. He had an angular face and a sharp jawline, a perfect nose and a set of straight white teeth. His dimples somehow made him look boyish, and his eyes; they took her breath away, they were filled with so many shades of green, she couldn’t count, lighter, mantis green was surrounded with darker forest green and looking closely she could see the beautiful specks of gold within them. She faintly wondered just how long it would take her to perfectly sketch that beautiful face of his on paper.

---

“Styles, I told you once, and I’m telling you again. You keep your hands and your eyes off her,” Louis said icily, after noticing Harry’s eyes following Alexis’s every move. Harry simply rolled his eyes, ignoring the dangerous undertone in the other lad’s threat.

“She has a boyfriend anyway, and arsehole of a boyfriend,” Louis mumbled the last part to himself.

Harry’s gaze now turned to Louis, “boyfriend?”

Louis merely replied in the affirmative, that made Harry’s eyes stop ogling Lexi. He might be a flirt or whatever his friends called him, but he wasn’t the one to steal another man’s girl. No matter how much he wanted to.

---

“I’m sorry, Lou.” Lexi mumbled softly in her brother’s shoulder.

“You’re leaving in two days and you don’t want to stay here!” Louis whined.

“It’s just,” Lexi trailed off knowing that Scott was a twat in Louis’s eyes, “Scott and I have a few things to discuss,” she murmured, she hadn’t been the one to lie.

Louis rolled his eyes, “please? I’ll call you everyday, I promise, and Skype every Saturday?” Lexi asked in attempts to cheer her brother.

“I expect so, Ms. Tomlinson.” Lexi smiled, and placed a kiss on her brother’s cheek. “What about food?” He asked suddenly, while scratching his chin, “you don’t know how to cook. Jesus Christ, Lex!”

Lexi rolled her eyes, but patiently listened to her brother’s rambling, with a small smile on her face. “You talked to Isabelle, remember?” She said softly. That made Louis stop, his blue-green eyes seemed glassy when he turned to face her again. Lexi lightly slapped his arm, “you promised you wouldn’t cry,” she threw her hands up in the air, ready to throw a tantrum.

Louis smiled slightly, letting the tear roll down his cheek, “take care of yourself, lamb,” he said quietly, using her nickname from when she was a kid. “I’ll miss you.”

“You too, Tommo,” Lexi grinned despite the tight knot forming in her throat. She wrapped her arms around her brother again, before shutting the door of the car. She waved to the five lads until they weren’t visible, then she rested her head on the window and let the tears fall.

---

“Scott?” Lexi called out in the empty house, she had a spare key. She bit her lip, and looked around the darkened room. “Scott?” She tried again, before carefully making her way up the stairs towards his room.

Her heart beat rapidly as she pushed the door to his room open, she shut her eyes and slammed the door shut before she could see anything more than she already had. A mixture of grief and relief flooded her, “Lexi?” his voice was loud as he called her name.

“It’s okay, Scott. Finish whatever you guys are doing,” she said so coldly, that she herself couldn’t believe it. “I’m leaving, tonight. Just came by to say goodbye,” she said quietly, she wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheek. “Goodbye.”

“Lexi!” She could hear him fumbling, probably throwing on a pair of jeans. She could hear Veronica in the background, mumbling that ‘Lexi wasn’t worth it’. Lexi quietly walked out of the house, and fled to Paris before Scott could even anticipate what had happened.

She didn’t return to England for years, more than often making Louis angry. Since she had been making excuses every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even in the summer.

---

That until two years later, when she stood at the airport, bags in her arms, giddily staring at the back of Louis’s striped T-shirt.

Notes

First chapter's up, lemme know what you think? I'll try updating again tonight, but that seems very unlikely. Considering I have three other stories to update. Comment, Vote and Subscribe. Luv y'all.

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