“Katherina Styles you need to move your ass! Liam is going to be pissed that we’re late and if we don’t hurry we’re not going to make the reservations!”

“Harry, calm down! We don’t have to be there till 7!” I told my brother as I finished applying my mascara.

“Yes, it takes us half an hour to get there!” I sighed and continued to add the finishing touches to my hair and makeup while ignoring my brother in the mirror. I quickly ran my hand through my curls and then smiled at my brother through the mirror. He did not look happy; he actually had a small pout on his face.

“Done.” I took one last look in the mirror and smiled. I wore my black, tight jeans and a blood red off the shoulder top. I had on my small heeled boots and my hair was done in soft curls. I took a glance at Harry; He wore a white buttoned down shirt and a nice pair of dark, tight jeans. His hair was in his messy curls as always and he had a fedora on his head. My brother cleaned up good and he was not ashamed to show it.

“Wait, come here!” I walked over to him and we were standing in front of the mirror.

“Make a funny face!” I crossed my eyes and smiled. Harry stuck his tongue out making me laugh. He snapped the selfie of us and then nodded.

“Lets go!” I grabbed my purse and my brother’s arm and dragged him out of the room. We made our way down the hallway and down the elevator. We met the rest of the guys in the lobby, who all looked good in the attire. Lou was also there in a black and white dress that hugged her curves nicely. Tom had on a nice dress shirt and black pants. Then there was Lux, she had her hair up in a ponytail but because her hair was short she had it sticking up on her head, like the girl from Despicable me. She had on a little polka dot dress with little black ballet flats. Lou knew how to dress her daughter and she did it well.

I ran over pushing Harry out of the way because I knew he and I had the same idea. I ran towards Lux but then ran right into Niall’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and spun me around.

“I missed you too Kat!”

“Niall!” I watched as Harry ran ahead of me and stuck his tongue out at me. He ran past us and picked Lux up in his arms making me groan.

“Damn you Horan!” He finally put me down and I pushed him lightly. Harry giggled at me and held Lux in his arms making me glare at him.

“Alright children get in the car!” I huffed. Harry’s hand shot up.

“Shot gun!” I glared at him.

“No, you can’t have Lux and shotgun!”

“It’s the rules, Kat! Get your butt in the back.” I rolled my eyes as the Valet drove the black SUV to the front. Tom got into the driver side and Harry handed Lux to Lou. Zayn, Niall and Josh piled into the back. Then it was Liam, Me and Lux. In the front was Tom, Lou and Harry. As I got in the car, I saw the happy couple.

Eleanor and Louis were getting on a street car. He was dressed up in a nice outfit, with his hair slicked back. Eleanor was dressed up in a dress and her hair was done quite fancy along with her make up. Louis laughed out loud at something she had said and leaned down to kiss her. I watched as the street car went in the opposite direction of where we were going.

Louis had called Harry earlier, telling him he wouldn’t be able to make it today. Harry had asked why and he responded with Eleanor wanted to go out tonight and see San Francisco, with just him. Harry had told him we were having family dinner tonight and Louis still refused. Family dinner was the dinner we had with everyone who wanted to come. We would get dressed up and go someplace fancy, no matter where we were at, we always had family dinner. Louis apologized and said he’d probably meet up with us later.

Sure, it was eating away at me. The fact that he loved her and cared for her; the jealousy was creating a sickening knot in my stomach and I could feel myself get annoyed but it was just because of what I was feeling. It was only technically the first day and all day I had avoided them too. I didn’t talk to El and Louis never even tried to talk to me. I was still waiting till he told me when he was going to tell her, but so far he hadn’t said anything and hadn’t given me any word on when he was going to tell her.

All I knew was, I needed to get over Louis. I needed to get over my feelings for him and needed this pain in my chest to go away soon. I knew the guys were right, and they were being great. They would send me random texts making sure I was okay, which I was. I just wished I was good enough for Louis to actually want back. I was snapped out of my gaze, barely noticing that the street car was gone only when Liam poked me.

“Come on, Love. We’re going to be late.” I nodded and got in. I closed the door and made sure Lux was locked in. The rest of the ride was uneventful. We all talked about the how steeps the hills were here and how Tom almost killed us all. My phone vibrated notifying me that Harry had tagged me in an instagram photo. I checked my app and saw the picture we had taken earlier. His caption read Sistergram. I laughed out loud and showed Liam.

“I’ll never understand your brother’s weird obsession over the ‘stagram.’”

“I heard that!” I liked the post and put my phone away. We had finally made it to the restaurant. We had decided to go to Fishermen’s Warf tonight. Fishermen’s Warf was basically the pier of San Francisco. There were tons of shops lining the docks and the restaurants were right by the water where the boats were docked. As Tom stopped the car, I got out and unbuckled Lux. She was smiling as I put her down and grabbed her hand. She immediately grabbed Tom’s as well. I let go and let Lou grab onto her. I walked a little further and took in the imagery.

There were tons of shore stores that were selling all kinds of things. There were various restaurants and there was a little grass area with trees by the water. There were people walking up and down the pier and I could see one of the bridges from where I stood. I smiled as I heard music playing and watched as various people were on the street. As we continued walking, there were people doing spray art right there in front of their customers. People were singing and making music for money and people were even dancing. I loved it. I felt a hand on my lower back and turned my head to see Zayn.

“Come on Love. We’re hungry.” I nodded and followed the rest to the restaurant, Alessandro’s. We had heard this place had good sea food so we decided to try it. We put in our names and waited for a table. As we were waiting, Lou and Tom were looking at the water with Lux in between them. The rest of us sat on the benches waiting. I stayed silent and admired the love Lou and Tom had. He had Lux in his arms and Lou had reached up on her tippy toes to kiss him.

“It’s something we all want.” I looked at Liam who was sitting there with his arms crossed also looking at the two.

“We all want that. We want someone who will love us for who we are. Even if we have flaws, we want them to loves us and be okay with whom we are. We want to wake up every morning and be excited to see that person. We want someone who even though we leave for months on end can deal with the distance and come visit us like Tom does with Lou and Lux. It’s not easy, but maybe love isn’t easy. No one said it was going to be.” I didn’t know what to say, mostly because Liam was right. It was something we all wanted and it was probably one of the reasons why they were all still single.

“Liam-“ He looked down sadly at me. I could see how much he missed Danielle and my heart ached for him.

“Don’t say anything, Kat. I know you understand.” I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. He leaned his head on mine and sighed. I had closed my eyes for a second and then I heard it.

“Oh my god, it’s One Direction.” Fans had found them. I smiled softly and got off of Liam. The boys had gotten up and started signing stuff and taking pictures with the five girls. One of them asked where Louis was and Zayn replied with, “he had stuff to do.” I was now standing by the railing of the water. Five minutes later a waiter came out and told us that our table was ready. The girls said thank you to the boys and we all walked into the restaurant.

We had sat down and decided to just order a whole bunch of different things and we could all just pick off of each other’s plates. The table was filled with laughter and random story telling; I took a sip of my wine and offered some to Niall who smiled and took a drink. They weren’t legal here in California so they couldn’t order any drinks. Tom, Lou and I had decided to order various wines and have the boys’ taste them and we were thinking of getting some drinks later at the hotel. We wanted to go night swimming and we had found out that the hotel we were staying out had a pool open all hours. I was excited just because it was some down time to the boys.

We had finished up our meals and were now waiting for the check. I took another sip of my drink and looked at Lux who was smiling and playing with her spoon.

“I have a question.” We all looked at Lou. She was twirling her glass in her hand making us focus more on the glass then her.

“Yes, Lou?”

“What the hell is going on with you and Louis?” I nearly choked on my drink. I heard Niall stop laughing at something Zayn said and turned his attention toward us.

“What?” I stuttered.

“What’s going on?! You can’t say nothing because clearly something is going on. It got super awkward when Eleanor came in yesterday and then you left.” I stayed quiet.

“Well Lou,” I cut Zayn off, I was tired of making him cover for me.

“Lou, it’s nothing. We got in a fight because of one of our practices and we haven’t patched things up. Words were said but that’s about it.” I quickly said. Lou took a minute to truly think about what I had said and then sighed.

“Alright, if that’s what you say.” I heard all the boys let out a breath of relief and the waiter brought us the check. I smiled at him as he handed it to me, but it was because I could still feel Lou’s eyes on me as I pulled out my card. She was giving me the look that told me she knew something. I handed the check around for we could all pay our share and we all got up from the table. We made our way outside and started walking down the pier, looking at all the shops. I noticed if we kept going straight we would hit the bridge eventually. I heard a phone go off and I knew it wasn’t mine. I looked up ahead where Lou, Harry and Josh were.

“Hello?” We all turned around and saw Niall on his phone.

“Okay, yeah. We’re going to the bridge right now actually.”

“We might stop at a couple stores but we won’t be too long.” There was a pause.

“Okay, bye.” We watched him hang up the phone and laughed when he looked up and jumped at all of us staring at him.

“It was Louis. He’s going to meet us at the bridge.” We nodded and continued our way down the pier. I had started walking slower, the boots I was wearing weren’t the best for lots of walking and soon I was at the back of the group with Niall.

“Hey, Kat?” I made an mhm sound.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did but you may ask me another.” He nodded.

“Why do you like Louis? He treats you like crap.” I was not expecting that question.

“Um, it’s complicated Niall.”

“So you like being treated lowly?”

“No Niall, I’ve always had a crush on Louis. Since I first met you guys. This just pushed it more. I don’t enjoy when he treats me the way he does but I also know that’s not him. He’s capable of so much more. I do know he cares; I convince myself he doesn’t though. One: because he wants everyone to believe it. Two it’s easier to accept that he doesn’t care rather than I’m not good enough. I can’t control my feelings, Niall. But I am trying. Louis Tomlinson is a good person; I’m just one of the people who don’t get to see it a lot.” I looked back at Niall and saw him with a sad smile.

“How can you still see the good in people when they’ve hurt you?”

“I just do. Plus Louis’s situation wasn’t his entire fault so I can’t blame him and be extremely mad. I think I’m madder at the fact that he won’t admit his feelings and he hasn’t told El. Which needs to be done. It’s not fair to her. “

“You’re a good person, Kat. You just made a mistake.” I smiled at him.

“Look, we’re close to the bridge.” We looked up and saw how close we were. We made a left and wound up on a small dock right above the water and the wind was much stronger making me shiver. I then felt something being dropped over my shoulders. I looked up to see Zayn.

“Thanks Zayn.”

“No problem, love.” Harry was taking pictures of the view with Lou. Tom, Lux and Josh were on the bench and Niall, Liam and Zayn were standing with me on the edge of the dock leaning on the railing.

“Hey guys,” we all turned around to see Louis and El. She wore his jacket and his fingers were laced with hers. I turned back toward the bridge and counted to five slowly. I tried focusing on the view, which did help. It was beautiful and peaceful.

I could hear El talking to Josh but I couldn’t hear Louis. Liam jumped down from the rail next to me and walked over to the bench. Zayn immediately took his place leaving me in the middle of the two. We were silent not saying anything. We were taking in each other’s presence. All we could hear was the movement of the water, the small conversations behind us, Lux talking to Harry and our breathing.

I smiled and decided to break the silence.

“Her name is Noelle, I had a dream about her, she rings my bell, got gym class in half an hour, oh how she rocks in Keds and tube socks but she doesn’t know who I am. And she doesn’t give a damn about me…” I looked at Niall hoping he’d get where I’m going. Him and Zayn both smiled and started singing out the lyrics to Teenage Dirtbag breaking the silence around us.

x-x

Louis leaned against the light pole and watched the scene before him. El was now talking to Josh and Tom. Lux was taking selfies with Harry and Lou or more like they were taking selfies with her. Then there was Kat. She did look good tonight. She was wearing Zayn’s jacket that fit her kind of big and Niall was poking her as they sang at the top of their lungs. She finally poked Niall back and Louis watched as Niall picked her up over his shoulder making her skip the lyrics in the song and squeal. She had a huge smile on her face.

Louis felt a feeling wash over him, it was a cold feeling. It was all because Niall had his hand planted on Kat’s bottom and he squeezed it making her let out a “Niall! Stop that!” and hit his back. Louis felt himself get angry and was about to make his way over to them.

“Leave her alone, Louis.” Louis stopped and turned around. Liam was standing there, arms crossed.

“What?”

“Leave her alone, Louis. She’s having a good time. Don’t ruin it.” Louis’s eyebrows furrowed.

“I’m not.” Liam sighed at how predictable he was.

“Louis, I’m going to ask for a favor.” Louis nodded, Liam never asked for a favor.

“Tell Eleanor to stay here with Tom and the rest. You’re going to go with me to get the car back at the lot okay? Then we’re going to have a chat.” Louis gulped but nodded. He walked over to the group and told them which they all agreed to. He then turned to Eleanor and told her she should stay. She protested at first but then he told her he was going to talk to Liam about some Danielle thing and she understood. Tom threw Louis the keys to the SUV and told him not to wreck it making Louis laugh. Louis walked back over slowly and nodded, the smile from his face gone.

“Let’s go.” The two made their way off of the dock and made their way back down the pier toward the lot.

“So why am I here?” Louis asked running a hand through his hair.

“Louis, tell me something.”

“What?”

“Why don’t you want Kat?” Louis felt his breath fall short. He felt his heart stop for a second and then he remembered how to breathe. No one had just came out and fully asked him this question and he never thought they would.

“Liam, it’s complicated.”

“But you do care for her?” Louis didn’t answer. He just continued to walk.

“Then what’s holding you back, Louis? What is holding you back from stop leading Eleanor on? What’s holding you back from actually being with a girl who cares for you and you care for back?” Liam was now practically chasing Louis. Louis had taken the initiative to walk faster. He couldn’t handle all these questions Liam was throwing at him so he snapped. He stopped walking almost making Liam run into him. He turned around and Liam’s face had pure anger or as much anger as Liam’s face can handle.

“It’ll ruin her reputation! I’ll cost her, her job; her life back at home will be destroyed. She’ll be kicked off of tour!” Louis finally yelled.

“If I admit I care for her and if I go through with wanting to be with her and I break up with El, Kat’s life will be torn to shreds. I won’t let myself do that to her, Liam! I’ve destroyed her enough; you don’t think I know that?! You don’t think it killed me to walk out of the hotel room that night after admitting I cared for her? It did Liam, and I regret it every day but I do this for her because I know she’ll at least be okay. She’ll have her life still.” Louis was breathing hard. His hands were clenched at his sides and he had his eyes closed. He looked to the water ignoring the stare Liam was giving him.

“Louis, I don’t understand. Kat can deal with the paparazzi. She’s done it this long.”

“I’m not talking about them Liam!”

“Then who are you talking about Louis?! You’re not making any sense!” Louis sighed and leaned against the railing and stared down into the dark water.

“Liam, do you remember the night we went to the club in Vegas? I think it was Vegas but we went to that club and Kat wound up going back to the hotel with Tom, Tom from the wanted not Lou’s Tom. Anyway, I interfered. I couldn’t have her hooking up with him no matter how angry we were at each other. That night I told her I cared and we slept together. My intentions in the morning were to stay with her, to watch her wake up. I was going to talk to her and break up with Eleanor if we decided to start something.” He paused to make sure Liam was still with him. Liam was now standing right next to him rather than behind him and he too was leaning against the railing.

“Before Kat woke up I had gotten a phone call. It was Tom. It was as if he knew everything about Kat and I. He threatened to tell her boss, the ass actually had the nerve to say he would call the company and say Katherina Styles was being unprofessional on the job, which is what this would be viewed as. He said if he couldn’t have her then I couldn’t either. He said he’d sell the information to the paparazzi’s and he’d put the truth out there. He’d say that Katherina Styles was having sexual relations with a member of One Direction. Then when they found out it was me, she would be viewed as a home wrecker because of Eleanor. She would be fired from the job, she would be sent home and we’d probably not see her until we get back. It would break Harry, they already give him enough crap about me and him, and him being a womanizer. I just don’t want to put either of them through this. Kat though is what I’m more worried about. I’m hiding this from her; I’m hurting her to protect her. She doesn’t deserve any of this.” Louis put his head in his hands. Liam was trying to understand. It made sense now, it all made sense.

“Do you know what it’s like Liam? Do you know what it’s like to not be able to hold or kiss the person you may or may not be falling in love with? Do you know what it’s like to watch your best mates be there for her and make her smile when you know it should be you? Liam, do you know how much this hurts me every time I have to treat her like I don’t care? Because I do Liam and it’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever experienced and I don’t want to feel it anymore. I want it to stop.” Louis’s voice broke at the end and Liam felt bad for his friend. He realized what a horrible position he was in.

“Louis, I don’t know what that feels like. But I do know how it feels to get your heart broken. I do know how it feels to lose someone you care about deeply and not be able to hold them. But I can tell you right now, it’ll be okay in the end. You’ll heal and things won’t be as hard. But first you need to decide what you want and how you’re going to fix this. You have two girls who are crazy for you, you need to pick one and stick with her. You can’t keep this game going anymore.” There was a moment of silence before Louis spoke up. His voice was barely a whisper but it was there.

“I think I’ve already chosen Liam. I know who I want.” Liam placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Louis, I understand mate. I understand why you did what you did. But do you think Katherina is going to choose her job over you? She won’t if this got out she wouldn’t care, yeah she loves her job but she’s going to have her music to fall back on soon. She won’t need the magazine anymore, Louis. It’ll look bad on her sure but she’s a strong girl. She’s already getting hate, what would be any different? I’m not saying to go for it because that could be a bad idea too but you need to tell her all of this. You need to break up with Eleanor and you need to tell Kat how you feel. You can’t keep going on like this. You guys need to make this decision together.” Louis had his eyes closed but he nodded. He agreed with Liam fully, he knew he was right. He lifted his head up and looked at Liam.

“I’ll do it soon but you can’t tell anyone. No one was supposed to know. Kat can’t find out.” Liam nodded already knowing this.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone.” Louis nodded and stood up straight and for the first time in a long time Liam saw a scared, lost, little boy. He saw a boy who had lost his way and was fighting his hardest to find the right path. He was so close to it, he just needed that last push. Liam grabbed Louis by the arm and brought him into a hug. Louis laughed a bit but hugged him back.

“Thanks mate,” Liam nodded and pulled away.

“No problem, Louis. We’re always here.” Louis nodded and started walking in the same direction they were heading before. Liam smiled at his retreating figure and pulled out his phone. He immediately typed a text to Niall.

Mission get Louis to admit his feelings…check. Now we just need the other two parts and we should be good to go.

He sent the text to Niall and walked after Louis to go find the car.

Notes

Tada.
I hope you guys enjoyed this. I worked hard and it was tearing me apart trying to figure out how exactly I wanted this scene to happen.
Vote, comment? Let me know what you think!
I really hoped you guys liked it.
Thank you my lovelies.