STEFANIE

The snow was coming down hard by the time we made our way back to the house. Louis and I really enjoyed spending time together today, but we didn’t realize how long we were out until we got back to the house. It was getting dark outside and from the looks of it there weren’t many lights on in the house, which made me wonder if anyone was even home. I fumbled around with the keys for a moment before finding the right one and unlocking the door. We walked in and saw the lights in the living room had been dimmed and Erin and Harry were cuddled up in front of the fire place, their hair still wet from the hot tub.
“Uh…Hey guys…” I said turning up the lights that were dimmed.
Erin looked in the middle of laughing at something Harry had said, “Oh hey.” She said standing up, and suddenly I felt bad that we interrupted.
“Sorry, we didn’t know you guys were busy.” Louis said using no tact whatsoever as he winked in Harry’s direction.
“No, you weren’t interrupting, we were just talking.” Erin responded.
“Did the others come back yet?” I asked noticing how quiet it was.
“No,” Harry stated, “We haven’t seen anyone all day until you two got back.”
“Huh…well now I’m worried, it’s snowing badly out there. We had trouble seeing and we were only walking.”
“It’s snowing?” Erin asked.
Okay, something is up because you could just feel it in the air this morning that it was going to snow and Erin loved the snow…for her not to notice or be waiting for it to start so she could go out and play in it was just…weird.
“Uh yeah. A lot, actually. I should probably find out where they all are.” I reached into my pocket and texted Corrine.
Hey where the hell are you guys? It’s really coming down and I’m worried—S
A moment later I had expected to get a text back but instead the house phone rang and when I looked at the caller ID I saw Corrine’s home number. I picked up the receiver and heard Corrine’s voice on the other end, “Hey, we are at my place.” She said before I could even say hello back.
“Okay are you on your way here?”
“It’s too late, it started snowing hard here about an hour ago and you can’t see two feet in front of you.”
“Oh okay, well I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Yep. We are going to stay here until it starts to slow down a bit then we will head back but if it doesn’t start clearing up soon we might just stay here tonight and head back in the morning.”
“Okay…”
“How is it by you?” She asked sensing the uneasy tone of my voice. I was responsible for these guys while we were here. I mean, they are adults but if something happens to them I may lose my job on top of the guilt I’d feel if someone got hurt because of me.
“It just started coming down hard by us. We still have some visibility though, why is it worse by you?”
“Yeah, it started while we were in town and when we were on our way back by you it got so much worse so we just came here instead. Like I said, we will try to get back there tonight but only if it lets up a bit.”
“Okay…” I said once more trying to calm down a bit, “Keep me posted, alright?”
“You got it. I’ll talk to you later.” She said brightly before hanging up.
I put the phone down and turned to face everyone else, “Okay. So they are safe at Corrine’s place. It’s worse by them so they are gonna stay there until it’s safer to drive.” As I finished speaking I let out a little shiver, from still having wet clothes on.
Louis came over and draped his arm around me asking, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little cold, but you know what? I think the perfect way to warm up would be to get in the hot tub, you wanna join me?” I asked biting my lip as I looked up at him through my eyelashes.
I watched as a smile played on Louis’ lips and just as he opened his mouth to speak we heard Harry speak from across the room, “Oh you don’t want to go in the hot tub. It’s really cold out there and uh…you know we were out there earlier and the water wasn’t warming up right, I think it’s broken.”
I looked at Erin for confirmation and she just looked at Harry confused before answering, “Uh, I wouldn’t know I was only in the water for a minute or two, but I was uh…distracted.” She said looking down at the floor, blushing slightly and when I looked back to Harry he was trying to repress a laugh.
I shook my head trying not to think about what they were talking about, “Did you leave the cover off last night?” I asked and when I looked up I caught an exchange of glances between Harry and Louis. It suddenly clicked, the way Harry barged in last night, interrupting Louis and I and his insistence that we don’t use the hot tub now…he didn’t want us to be alone. He must’ve known what would’ve happened if Louis and I were alone out there. I would be offended, but I know Harry has the best intentions. It wasn’t me he had the problem with it was the fact that Louis was still with Eleanor. I knew that but it didn’t stop it from stinging a little.
I waited for an answer but it became obvious he was too busy silently arguing with Louis to answer, “Hello?”
“Right. No, I made sure it was covered before bed last night.”
“Okay.” I said now looking at Erin, unsure of what to suggest next.
“Why don’t we play cards?” Erin said, “We could play poker?”
“I’m game.” Harry said excitedly. Of course he was.
“Alright, sounds fun.” Louis said but I could tell he still wanted to give that hot tub a try.
“Okay great, I’ll get the chips. Erin, can you get the cards?”
“Sure. And can one of you big strong men get the card table out of that closet over there?” Erin said running her fingertips down Harry’s arm, batting her lashes at him, and he was putty in her hand.
“Yes ma’am.” He said before gesturing to Louis to come help him.
We set up the table and started playing soon after Erin came back with cards and a pitcher of sangria. We were having a good time, even though I was losing. I didn’t like losing. It was my turn to bet and I didn’t have enough chips to pull me out of the hole I was in, but this hand was too good to not try something drastic.
“Your bet Stef.” Erin said with a sly smile. I don’t know what she was so happy about…her stack was low too.
“Okay well I’m all in.” I said pushing in my last four chips.
“That doesn’t cover the bet though.” Harry said skeptically.
“I’ve got this!” I said as I stood up and took off a sock and threw it on the table before sitting down confidently and maybe a little tipsy from the sangria.
“What is that?” Louis asked with a laugh.
“Umm a sock.” I looked at him questioningly, “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Strip poker?” Erin asked.
“Strip poker.”
She looked at me for only a second before saying, “Fine. I see your sock and raise you one sweater.” She stood up and took off her sweater revealing the camisole underneath.
“Yep, I’m in.” Harry said taking of his sweatshirt and winking at Erin as he placed it on the table.
“Oh suuure.” Erin said laughing, “You’re okay with nudity now, but last night it was a problem…” She laughed again.
“Listen, I am just a man. I can only be so strong, but if you keep waving that forbidden fruit in front of me I will eventually take a bite.”
“Oooh.” I said looking to Erin whose face was now moving through several shades of pink as she tried to hide the fact that she was secretly turned on by his words.
“Okay, if everyone else is in, then so am I.” Louis said ignoring the exchange and eager to take off his shirt revealing his bare chest and number 78 tattooed on his chest. Why did he have to be so hot?
“Okay everyone flip their cards.” I said and thankfully I won. I put my sock back on and said, “Okay now let’s play by the actual rules, I may have pulled off my sock for dramatic flair but it’s going to be annoying if we keep taking off then having to put our clothes back on.”
Erin laughed and said, “Fair enough, but you’re the only one who gets to put clothes back on.” She removed her sweater from the table and placed it on the floor next to her and the guys followed suit.
We continued playing on this way for about an hour and Erin started playing more conservatively once the sangria was gone and she started sobering up. She was in her boy shorts and camisole and now it was Harry’s turn to blush when he looked at her.
I was not as conservative and was now down to my bra and panties and trying desperately to win the next few hands so that I wasn’t completely naked.
We finished a hand and now Louis was in the same boat as me only having his boxers on. I started shuffling the cards when the sensor light outside the door went on and we all looked up to see who was there. I looked over at Louis and blushed when I saw that he was already staring at me smiling.
The door started to unlock and I stood up now more curious as to who was at the door. Could it be Corrine with Liam and Niall?
When the door opened Niall walked in first with his arm around Corrine trying to protect her from the wind and Liam wasn’t too far behind. When they closed the door and looked over to see us sitting there in barely any clothes different reactions took place on their faces. Corrine kind of looked embarrassed for having walked in on us, Liam looked disappointed, and upset. Then there was Niall, who started stripping down as he said, “Strip poker? I’m in! Just let me catch up.” By the time he’d gotten halfway across the room he had his shoes, socks, and shirt off. He started to undo his belt when I stood up, “actually we were just finishing and starting to clean up. Right guys?”
“Yep.” Erin agreed and we all started to get our clothes on again.
“Aww…I wanted to play…” Niall said with a slight pout.
“Maybe next time mate.” Louis said with a laugh.
As Erin got her sweater back on she asked Harry, “You wanna help me make sure all the doors are locked down stairs?”
“Sure.” He replied as he held out his arm for Erin.
Louis helped me put the chips and table back into the closet as I asked, “Is it still coming down out there?”
“A little,” Corrine said, “But Jamie let me borrow her truck so it was a lot easier to get here. She and I traded since she doesn’t really have anywhere to go tomorrow so we can use it to get you guys to the airport in the morning.”
“Oh okay great, please tell her I said thank you.”
“I will.”
Liam chimed in for the first time since getting back and I could hear a slight edge to his tone, “So if you aren’t playing strip poker anymore, what were you planning on doing? I could see the irritation on his face as he looked at me waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know, I was feeling tired and thinking of going to bed.”
“Okay.” He said as he walked towards my room and looked at me.
Louis headed towards his room and said, “Yeah, I think I’ll turn in too.” He stopped at his door and turned to look at me, and I suddenly found myself in the middle of the room feeling like I was the puppy they both claimed as their own, and now they were calling me to see who I’d go to. I was uncomfortable to say the least.
At that moment Erin and Harry came upstairs arm in arm laughing and smiling at each other, and as much as it pained me to do it, I knew I had no choice. “Oh hey! Erin let’s have another sleepover.” I ran to Erin and grabbed her hand pulling her away from Harry, and I cringed a little when I saw the disappointment on Harry’s face. I’ll make it up to both of them soon.
“Okaay.” Erin said a little confused but she thankfully just went with it. That was something I could always count on her for. “Corrine, you coming?”
She looked over to see her cuddled up with Niall on the couch “No thanks. I have other sleeping arrangements in mind.” She said looking up and smiling at Niall.
“Yeaheaheah pimp!” I said as I pulled Erin towards her room, “Okay good night guys!” I finished as I closed the door behind me, letting out a sigh of relief.



ERIN
I looked at Stefanie, stunned by her sudden jumpiness. “What the hell was that?”
“Did I just say, ‘yeah pimp’?”
“Yes. Yes you did, which leads me to this question…what the hell was that?”
“I don’t know.” She whined a bit as she ran her fingers through her hair and paced the room, “I panicked.”
“Okaayy…Why?”
“Well Louis was waiting for me to come to his room for the night and Liam was waiting by the door to my room and they were both staring at me waiting for me to choose and seeing as how I never actually told Liam that anything physical happened between Louis and I…”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“No! I just said that.” She said a little snippy with me.
I put my hands on my hip and gave her a stern look.
“Sorry, I know it’s not your fault I’m in this situation. I just never got the chance to last night because when you came in we had our mini Harry hating session. Then this morning there was so much going on while everyone was getting ready for the day that I couldn’t get him alone to talk to him.”
“So what are you going to do?”
She looked at me as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Sleepover!”
I shook my head and laughed, “I meant about this whole Liam and Louis thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Sleepover, yay! But you can’t just yell sleepover every time you are in a room with Liam, just to get out of actually having a conversation with him.”
“I know…I just haven’t worked out what I’m going to say yet.” She paced the room once more. “I mean, we said it was just a friends with benefits thing, but I kinda feel like I’m going to mess up our friendship if I admit that just one day in, I started making out with the person I needed a distraction from in the first place, ya know?”
“I get it. But you need to talk to Liam and see if this is something you both still want or if you wanna just be regular friends. And you really need to have a conversation with Louis about what is going to happen with the two of you. This can’t continue until he makes a decision about who he wants to be with.”
“I know…but like what should I say to Liam? I already know what to say to Louis because I’ve said it so many times before to Luke.”
“I would first think about what you want to do. If there’s a chance that you and Louis will end up together and now it’s looking like there is a chance, you don’t want to continue messing around with Liam. You guys say friends with benefits now but what if one of you starts to develop feelings? Someone is bound to get hurt. I’d say the next time you have a chance to be alone with Liam, and if I were you I’d make sure it was sooner rather than later; I’d tell him that maybe being friends with benefits seemed like a great idea at the time but that it’s already becoming too messy and you don’t want to ruin your friendship.”
“Okay…Sorry I pulled you away from Harry. You guys looked like you were finally going somewhere.”
“It’s okay, you probably saved me from doing something stupid.”
“Stupid, or really amazing?”
“Will you stop?” I asked throwing a pillow at her.
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Yeah well I’m just sayin’…good night!” I laughed as I got into bed and turned off the light.
“Good night.” Stefanie said as she got under the covers and got comfortable before falling asleep, while I laid there thinking about what she said, would it be amazing? Or would I regret getting so cozy with Harry this weekend.

The next morning I woke up early to find that Stefanie was already dressed as she came into the room with her phone in her hand. We got our things packed up before starting breakfast for everyone. Stefanie started making French toast while I ran to get the bacon out of the refrigerator. I started to open the package when I heard Stefanie say, “Crap, I forgot the cinnamon in the pantry.”
I offered to get it for her while she whisked the eggs and opened to door to the pantry. As I reached for the cinnamon I heard Liam say, “Good morning.”
I listened as Stefanie said good morning back. I hoped that Stefanie would take advantage of the fact that they were sort of alone to finally talk to him about what was going on.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Um, okay, I guess…Listen, about last night…”
“Something happened between you and Louis, right?”
“Oh! Uh…yeah, kinda. How’d you know?”
“Well I’m not blind am I?” Liam laughed but knowing Stefanie she was still probably a little on edge.
“Okay, so…are you mad?”
I could hear Liam exhale and cross the room to Stefanie, “No. I’m not mad. I’m a little hurt that you felt the need to run away from me last night instead of talking to me. We’re friends, I want you to be happy. If Louis make you happy then that’s all that matters to me.”
I peeked through the crack in the door becoming more nosey and saw Stefanie leaning in to hug Liam, “Oh thank God, because I don’t want to lose you as my friend.”
Liam laughed again, “You won’t. I promise. I only have one question, what is going to happen with Louis and Eleanor?”
Stefanie sighed, “I don’t even know the answer to that one. We vaguely talked about it yesterday and he said he knows he needs to make a decision, but we kind of got carried away with things this weekend and I feel terrible for having been a part of that. I just don’t know if I could handle him picking her over me, but I am preparing myself for it.”
Liam pulled her back hugging her tightly while he stroked her hair, “Listen to me. Whatever happens I’m here for you and if Louis chooses her, I’ve got a long list of friends that would love to have the opportunity to make you their first choice.”
Stefanie laughed now, “Yeah, okay thanks Liam. I’ll just take you being there for me if that’s alright.”
“Alright, it’s a deal.” Liam said before kissing Stefanie softly on the forehead. I’ll be right back to help you make breakfast but first I need to use the loo.”
Stefanie giggled, “Okay, but Erin was helping me so if you need to pack then you should do that.”
“Yes ma’am.” Liam said saluting before turning to leave the kitchen.
“The coast is clear Erin, you can come out now.” Stefanie turning towards the door but I was already closing the door behind me.
I sighed in relief for her as I said, “See…and you were all worried he would be mad.” I said tossing her the cinnamon before going back to my bacon.
“Yeah, I know. I guess I was worried for nothing.” She chortled, also relieved that the conversation with Liam had gone a lot easier than expected.
A few minutes later we were joined by Corrine who helped make scrambled eggs and pancakes, ensuring that we had plenty to choose from for breakfast. As soon as we put everything on the table the guys joined us.
“This all looks amazing.” Niall said.
“Yes, thank you for making breakfast ladies.” Harry agreed.
“You’re welcome, we were glad to do it.” Stefanie said.
“So what’s on the agenda for today?” Louis asked.
“Well,” Stefanie began before taking a quick sip of her coffee, “We were going to go horseback riding before leaving for our flight back, which was originally scheduled for four o’clock this afternoon. However the snow from yesterday has made it pretty much impossible to go out riding today and it looks like it’s going to snow hard again today. So I called the airport to have them get the plane ready for takeoff in four hours from now. That should give everyone time to get packed up and time to get to the airport. I don’t want us getting snowed in and you guys missing your first concert of the tour.”
“Oh, that’s why you insisted I pack early.” Liam said with understanding.
“Yep, I wanna get off the ground and far enough away from P.A. before that other storm comes in this afternoon. The weather report says it’s supposed to start around three this afternoon and if we are off the ground by eleven the better chance of us not even coming close to having to land or fly through it.”
Niall looked over at Corrine, “Any chance you’re coming with us?”
“To the airport? Yes. I want to spend as much time with you as I can before you leave.”
“Okay good.” Niall said smiling big before taking a bite of his pancakes. “I wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet.” He spoke with a mouth full of food, making Corrine giggle and me cringe.

After breakfast the guys offered to clean up since we cooked and Stef and I took this opportunity to make sure everything was in order before leaving. The hot tub had been drained and we washed all the towels that had been used over the course of two days.
When everything was back in its place we took advantage of the having more than two hours to get to the airport that was easily ninety minutes away and got everyone into the Dodge Durango that Corrine borrowed from her friend. It was a little cramped, but everyone managed to fit for the most part. Niall did have to keep his bag up in the front seat with him, but I have the feeling that as long as Corrine was next to him he wouldn’t mind if he had two more bags up there with him.
We made it to the airport with just twenty minutes to spare. We hurried in and got our luggage checked before heading towards the terminal. There we all said goodbye to Corrine. She and Stefanie made plans to get together when we were in the area for the North American leg of the tour. We all tried to head into the terminal but had to stop because Niall insisted on one more kiss before leaving Corrine behind.
Once we were on the plane everyone started to relax a little. I started to read a book that I hadn’t gotten the chance to start with all the craziness of the last few days. I had gotten a few pages in when Harry sat down next to me, “Hey, what are you reading?”
“The Notebook.” I said absentmindedly.
“Nice. I loved the movie, it’s one of my favorites. I know you’re reading so I won’t bother you too much but let me know how the book is when you’re done. I’ve been thinking about reading it.”
“Sure, it’s pretty good so far.” I said looking up to see his gorgeous smile as he looked back at me.
Just then the flight attendant came by to ask us if we wanted anything.
“I’ll have a beer.” Harry said.
“I’ll have a glass of wine please.”
Harry started to laugh, “Careful, too many drinks and you’ll be taking off your clothes again.”
He continued to laugh, as the flight attendant walked away to get our drinks. I shook my head and went back to reading my book, angry that he thought of me that way, some sorority girl who takes her clothes off every time she has even one sip of alcohol. I wanted to yell at him for making me look like some sort of groupie but that wouldn’t do any good because I’d still be stuck on a plane with him for another eleven hours until we got to London.
“Nothing? Come on it was funny.”
“Uh huh,” I said aloud while I thought to myself, No it wasn’t! When he went to put his arm around me I knew I needed to get away before I started yelling. I stood up and said, “Excuse me for a minute.” I walked down the aisle and closed myself off in the bathroom while I regained control of my emotions. Every time I start to let my walls down he gives me a reason to put them back up! Why do I let him get to me like this? Well I’m done. No more falling for his crooked smile or becoming intoxicated by the scent of his cologne. I was going to stay strong and not fall for another jerk.

Notes

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-Erin and Stef <3