With a Lack of Wanderlust

Liam’s POV

I continued my pacing around the kitchen while Harry stared at me with a ’c’mon, lighten up’ look on his face. He finally turned to the pot of tea, his chin resting in his hands on top of the edge of the stove as he waited for the water to boil.

“So how are you going to explain to her that your sister is away for the summer?” He asked, and I could hear the smirk in his voice as he spoke.

“Not helping!” I said over the loud whistle of the pot. He took it off the broiler and ran to fill the six cups lined up on the counter.

“Okay,” He said as he filled them, “Everything should be fine. I’m sure she’s having a great time.” Filling the final cup, he looked over at me, still twiddling my thumbs anxiously. “Seriously, calm down.”

“Go look to see if everything’s okay.”

“Why can’t you!” Harry whisper yelled, but rolling his eyes and peaking his head into the living room anyway. He came back a quick few seconds later. “Everything’s fine.” He looked at me with what I could tell was an insincere smile.

I rose an eyebrow, “And?”

“Louis’ got an arm around her.” He stated hesitantly.

“What?” I looked at him, exasperated, before turning and grabbing two cups of tea, handing them to him. “Go, go give them tea and…sit between them or something.”

“I can’t bloody sit in between them!” He objected as I slowly turned him around and gave him a light push out the doorway. He looked back at me, shaking his head as he walked toward the group.

--

Isabelle’s POV.

“Hello, Harry! Come to join us?” Louis inquired beside me as Harry padded slowly into the room with two cups of tea. He shook his head and handed them to me and Louis. “We were just talking to Isabelle here about her career choices.”

“Well don’t scare her off,” Harry’s eyes looked from Louis to me with an apologetic glint in them, “I’ll stay in a moment, I was just going to bring more tea.”

“Okay!” Louis exclaimed as Harry walked off. He turned back to me, “So you’d really give me a back massage?”

“I mean I could sometime, I guess.” I answered, taking a sip of tea and practically burning my tongue.

Soon, Harry was back in the room with a platter holding three more cups. He placed them on the table in front of us and sat down on the other side of Louis, taking his cup of tea from him and putting it on the table as well before wrapping his arm around Louis’ waist.

“So Louis, how’ve you been?” He smiled wide, leaning, or jerking more, to the side, pulling him closer to himself and causing his arm to drop from my shoulder.

“Er, I’ve been okay…” Louis trailed off, looking at him oddly.

“So your name is Isabelle?” Harry looked over at me, disregarding the fact that he had asked his friend a question. I nodded and he smiled. “It’s lovely.”

“Thanks,” I laughed, blowing on my tea a bit and taking another sip. We all sort of sat there in silence for a while after that, drinking our tea, until Liam came in to inform us that the food was ready.

The dinner went pretty smoothly the rest of the night. Liam was more quiet than usual, but all of his friends were very welcoming and we had a good laugh around the table, them all telling me stories about different experiences they had together and about themselves.

“Thanks for coming,” Liam smiled at me as we stood by the doorway and I got ready to leave.

“It was fun,” I smiled back, “But I didn’t get to talk to you as much.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I had to cook and everything.”

“It’s alright.” We looked at each other for a moment before Liam opened the door for me.

“So, uh, I’ll see you sometime, then?” He asked as I walked out and toward my own house.

“Yeah,” I looked back at him and grinned, “We’re right next door to each other.”

--

Sleeping that night was even harder than the night before, most likely because Nick was no where to be found. I figured he had gone out to find his own friends, since I had abandoned him for my new ones.

After attempting to fall asleep for at least an hour, I got up with a groan and opened the doors to my balcony. I stepped out to the edge and looked at all of the houses that went on for miles in front of mine in awe. Barely any of their lights were on, it being 4 am, but the street lamps gave me enough of a view to find it fascinating.

“Can’t sleep either?” A voice caused me to jump and I looked over to Liam’s house to my right. It was Louis sitting out on their own balcony.

“No,” I let out groggily, sounding like I had actually been sleeping all that time.

“Want me to show you something?” He didn’t waste any time.

“I can’t go out, I’d wake my parents up.”

“That’s fine,” He got up and walked back into the house. Well he could’ve at least talked to me or something, I thought. But then I heard the rattle of the door and saw him come out and run around to the side of my house, under where our balconies were. “You can just jump.”

“Are you crazy?” I gasped, “Did you not see what happened to Liam!”

“It’s not like he died or anything.” He tried persuading me, but I continued to shake my head. “I’ll catch yoouuu,” He sang, holding his arms out.

“No way!” I laughed, taking a step back from the railing.

“Come on, I’ve got something cool to show you!” Louis begged, his arms still open wide.

“What is it?”

“A surprise!” He put his arms down and back out for emphasis. I bit my lip, “Come on Isabelle! You need to live a little!” I just looked down at him, unsure, shaking my head. “You know, you seemed like that type that wouldn’t take chances. I’m going to change that!”

If I wouldn’t jump, he wouldn’t shut up. “Fine!” I yelled down at him, giggling and putting one leg over the railing hesitantly, and then the other so that I was basically sitting on it, “But you better damn catch me or I’m filing a law suit.”

He just shrugged and shook his arms, “I’m ready!” Closing my eyes, I let go of the railing and felt myself falling before, to my surprise, landing in his arms. “You can open your eyes now.” He laughed.

I looked at him and smiled, “and you can let me down now.”

He did as he was told before he grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the backyard of my house that I didn’t even know existed. All it was, was a field of grass, but I still found it cool.

My teeth chattered, making me remember that I’d forgotten a sweatshirt and thankful that it was night time. Louis looked over at me, “Are you alright?”

“Just cold,” I looked at him happily to assure him, but before I could oppose, he was unzipping his own sweatshirt and putting it around me. “You don’t have to be such a gentleman,” I said, feeling bad. It really seemed like way too much since I’d only just met him.

“Well isn’t that the stereotypical British thing to do?” He asked with a chuckle before running forward a bit and lying down in the grass, “Come on, now!”

I slipped my arms in the sweatshirt and ran over to him. He patted the spot next to him and I sighed, sitting down.

“So, that’s Orient’s Belt,” he pointed to the sky, and I looked up to see a much more lit up sky than I had ever seen in California, “And that’s Pandora. Oh and that’s the small dog thing over there.” He continued to point.

I lied down and watched as he pointed out a few more, “How do you know this?” I asked, still looking at the sky.

“Astronomy classes, I guess.” He laughed and I felt him turn to look at me, “So hey, do you like Liam?”

“Yeah,” I turned as well, “He’s nice. You’re all very nice. Nicer than any guys I have ever met.”

“He told me about how you said you didn’t like going out places,” He laughed again, “A bit of an excuse if you ask me. I was kind of surprised that you came over tonight.”

I looked back up at the sky, “It wasn’t an excuse,” I countered quietly.

“I know you wouldn’t tell him why then, but when you can, I’d like to know too.”

The way he had asked made me feel like I could actually tell him everything, right then and there. But I didn’t, figuring it was too soon. If I had, he would’ve been the first person outside of my family to know, and I was almost certain he was the first person outside of my family that I had felt would genuinely care.