With a Lack of Wanderlust

As Louis led me into Liam’s house, I tried to hide how ecstatic I was, but I could still feel myself blushing and it was hard to suppress my smile. I was greeted happily by the guys the moment I walked in, and Niall rose his eyebrows at me upon seeing Louis’ hand wrapped around my shoulder. I bit my lip to keep from grinning even wider and looked at the ground, pretending I hadn’t seen him.

“D’aww!” I heard Harry say following the many happy and surprised hellos. I supposed it may have been intuition; they were best friends after all, Louis and Harry. Either that or I had missed something.

“SHH!” Erupted Zayn from across the room. I looked up to see him pointing to an unfamiliar girl asleep on the couch. As he was sitting there too, her head was placed on his lap. I assumed that it was his girlfriend, the girl that Louis continuously made fun of him about. She seemed to stir in her sleep as Zayn gently stroked her hair. Niall decided to smack him upside the head following his outburst.

“No, Zayn,” He pointed to me and Louis and enunciated, as if teaching a kindergarten student, “AWW.”

“What?” Louis and I said at once, both pretending to be oblivious. A small giggle escaped my lips and Louis turned to me with a grin.

“I see it on your faces,” Niall declared, his eyes narrowed teasingly, “Something happened out there…”

“Er, I’m cold.” I intruded, feeling slightly uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what being Louis’, or anybody’s, girlfriend entitled me to, or how differently the boys would treat me. I was kind of afraid to admit it. As happy as I was, there was no urge in me to boast about it.

“AW! KISS! I DIDN’T GET TO SEE!” Harry whined, disregarding my statement and knocking a rolled up piece of paper against an end table like a five year old having a temper tantrum.

Louis shook his head and turned toward me. I shivered dramatically and he tightened his grip around me, rubbing my arm as if that was going to keep my whole body warm. Harry continued to whine, as did Niall. It was strange. It was as if they were waiting for this to happen, like they knew it was going to.

“PLEASE!” moaned Harry. He pouted and threw the piece of paper at us. Louis continued to shake his head, and the boys continued to beg.

I tried walking toward the kitchen, but without warning, Louis grabbed my hand to stop me. He pulled me closer to him and pressed his lips against mine for the second time that day. I smiled under them and the room erupted in whoops and hollers, mostly coming from Niall.

Once we separated, I turned to see why Harry hadn’t been loud as well. He was looking at us, a mock frown on his face. Noticing me look at him, he ran a finger down his cheek as if there had been a real tear there. His other hand was placed to his chest and he mouthed ‘my heart’ multiple times, his face even more exaggerated now.

I laughed lightly and turned back to Louis, who was now giving me a teasing look, “Would you like some tea?”

“Yes,” I smiled and he moved to the kitchen, leaving me with the other four.

As soon as he was gone, Niall let out his loud chuckle, “Don’t fancy him, my ass!”

“Did you plan on this, Nialler?”

He merely smirked, throwing his hands in the air, “Maybe!”

Before I could respond, Liam cleared his throat and stood, making his way to me. He gave me a weak smile, but I could tell it was extremely forced. The mixture of sadness and hatred in his eyes made it obvious that there had been something bothering him.

He looked at the ground as he spoke, “I’ve got, um, stuff to do,” He cleared his throat again, “Glad you’re not mad, though.”

With that, he hurriedly ran up the stairs two at a time.

As he did, Louis came back in from the kitchen, “Tea’s on,” he looked around at all of us and seemed to become a bit stressed as he did so. However, his voice stayed even as he spoke, “Where’s Liam? I put on enough for everyone.”

“He’s got stuff to do, I guess,” I answered, shivering still. Louis was still seemingly distracted, but was still aware as he glanced at me, concerned. I was tempted to take my nearly soaking sweatshirt off, but I was still uncomfortable having my scars showing at this point. The boys knew, but it made everything different when I had shown them. However, Louis appeared to read my mind, gesturing to my torso.

“Do you want me to wash that?” He hesitated, probably thinking the same as I was. I nodded reluctantly and unzipped the hoodie, removing it one arm at a time. Once my cut up arm was revealed, it was immediately pressed against my leg in order to stay hidden. Louis looked at the walls, the ground, anywhere away from my wrist, probably taking notice to my efforts, and grabbed the jacket from my other hand. He forced a smile, just as Liam had, but once again I could see the sadness in his eyes before he disappeared into another room.

“C’mere!” Niall hadn’t seemed to be aware as he patted the spot on the couch next to him and bounced up and down. I made my way over and his arm snaked around my shoulder, replacing Louis’, as I sat. Niall crossed his legs before speaking again, “Yeah, I made this happen,” He said proudly.

Harry laughed on his opposite side as he checked his phone, “Louis did, actually.” Niall shushed him, but he looked up at me and continued to speak, “Now Isabelle, I’m willing to share, but I get Louis on nights and weekends, okay?”

“I’ve had Louis every night for the past week, I think it’s only fair that I get him on nights.” I played along, rolling my eyes.

“NO WAY!” Harry jokily flinched. Louis came back in with a cup of tea for me and Harry looked up at him, his mouth gaped, “Louis, she’s taking you away from me!”

“Never, babe,” He said with a chuckle and then turned to wink at me, “You’ll always have a special place in my heart, Harry.” Louis turned to the couch Zayn was placed on and continued to laugh as he saw the girl lying there, asleep.

“Ohh, Joy!” He said, turning and sitting on her. Zayn let out a faint ‘don’t,’ but he already had done it. “Joy!” he bounced as he said this, and she jumped awake.

“What the hell?” she muttered, “Louis get your fat ass off of me before I cut you.”

“Aww, love you too, babe,” He stood, allowing her to sit up and let out a yawn. In the middle of doing so, she smiled upon seeing me. The corners of my mouth twitched up a little in response, the feeling of inferiority that came whenever I met new people was on its way.

“Is this Isabelle?” She asked sleepily. Louis affirmed her guess and she shook her head, “The boys love you, you’re lucky. All they do is fart on me.”

Everyone laughed and Niall rose his hand, whimpering, “I take offense to that.”

She rolled her eyes at him with a smirk and turned back to me, “I’m Joy, by the way.”

“Hi!” I said as confidently as possible. Louis sat beside her with his own cup of tea and scooted closer every few seconds. He let out a shriek as she bumped into him forcefully, his tea nearly spilling all over. We all laughed loudly and spitefully at him, noticing that the splattered liquid made it look as if he’d wet himself.

It felt good to laugh like that again and have a decent time. It felt like, for the first time in ages, everything was going alright. I was actually allowed to be happy.