Trust Me, Don't Leave Me

~~~~3rd Person POV ~~~~
How dare he! Why the hell did Dougie kiss her! They hadn’t even known each other for half an hour, and he kissed her! What was he thinking?
Liz was grumbling in her wordless babble as she had always done when she was mad, ever since she was a baby. She wasn’t just walking casually anymore, as she had been when she left. Now she was alternating between stomping around and dragging her feet.
Then she was nearly frozen where she stood.
Had she been…pleased that Dougie had kissed her? Had there been an instant of desire for that kiss? Had she wanted to kiss back for a moment when their lips had met?
She shook her head. What was she doing? That had been her first kiss. Ever. She’d spent…years wanting to be kissed by someone. She’d spent years fighting against anything that might end up causing her emotional pain. She’d spent years hiding her pain and tears, only letting them out once in a great while when she was alone.
She’d developed a thick, icy shield against the world besides her best friends. She wouldn’t let a single kiss from a nearly complete stranger change all that.
Right? She could keep it up, couldn’t she?
Liz leaned back against a wall, overcome with two similar yet very different thoughts.
Would she get herself hurt through this?
Would she end up hurting Dougie through this?
She looked down at herself and made a decision about which thought was more important.
She’d been hurt before, she’d know how to deal with it. But Dougie was like a little kid, so innocent through and through. He’d be hurt worse by this.
She would try her hardest not to let Dougie get hurt so bad. He was so like her little nice, so like little Scarlet…
Though she was younger than him, she knew he was more of a child than her. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to force her involuntary tears back to the ducts from which they came.
Then she heard foot steps coming her way and put on a brave face so no one would know how close she’d been to tears. But suddenly, she was paranoid, worried about who it might be. She tensed for what could very well be a fight.
Then Dougie came into view and her fear melted away.
“There you are, Liz, you shouldn’t have run off like that!” he said with great relief, putting a hand on her shoulder. She watched his eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Your face is red. What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” she muttered, cursing her easily flushed face. She stepped away from his hand, trying to refuse him in a gentle manner. “I was just…thinking.”
Dougie took two steps in her direction, lightly touching the long blond streak in her hair that fell to the right of her face. “You didn’t look fine,” he pressed in a whisper. “You looked close to tears.” His hand fell away from her face to just dangle at his side.
That simple action clued her in to the emotional pain she was already causing in him.
“Sorry,” she murmured. “I’m hurting you, aren’t I? I’m hurting you in ways you’ve never hurt before.” She looked down at the floor.
~~~~Dougie’s POV~~~~
Hurting me? What did she mean? I was nervous and hesitant, yeah, but I didn’t really notice any pain.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my confusion showing clearly.
She looked up at me and gave a sad smile. “I’ve felt it before. You should realize what I’ve done.” Her voice was getting rough and a tear leaked from her eye. “I’m sorry. I wanted…” she stopped, shaking her head.
She was crying.
I impulsively pulled her into my arms. “Don’t cry, Liz, I’m here for you.” She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes on her arm. Then she pushed me away gently.
“You don’t need to be,” she said calmly. Her face was emotionless again. “Eight years of practice allow me to hide my feelings easily. I can take care of myself.” Then she turned away and started walking back to the living room.
I followed her, thinking, What just happened?
~~~~Grace’s POV~~~~
I was sitting with Harry, wondering how Dougie was faring with Liz. If he could get her to let her guard down, they would be absolutely perfect together.
Emma was sitting with her head on Danny’s shoulder and his arm was around her waist. Gio and Tom were pretty much sprawled out on the floor next to each other.
Then there was a knock on the front door.
“I’ll get it,” I said, getting up. When I opened the door, I saw Olivia blowing a bubble with her gum. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to see Danny, of course,” she snapped at me.
“He’s busy,” I said, blocking her path.
“Get out of my way, you jealous hag!” she spat, pushing me aside. When she was almost around the corner, she froze, and my guess was that she saw Danny and Emma. “Danny, why is she still here?” Liz must have come back from the tour, cuz she then said, “And who is that?”
I walked back into the living room and put my arm around Liz’s shoulders. “I’m Liz,” she said in her ice cold voice. “And you?”
“I’m Olivia, Danny’s girlfriend.”
“Really?” she asked in a calm yet very frightening voice. “Cuz he looks quite happy with Emma.”
“Oh, you’re just some jealous bitch who’s out to get my man.” She didn’t realize the danger she was in. I looked over at Liz to see that a muscle under her right eye was twitching like crazy.