Enchanted To Meet You

And there he sat. Smiling at hundreds of fans until his cheeks ached. Signing autographs was giving his hand a cramp. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and stared at the ceiling for a moment, blinking away tears. He felt a hand close around his shoulder, and he turned to see Harry giving him a sympathetic smile. Louis knew Harry felt terrible about it all. All of the lads felt horrible. But, quite obviously, no one felt worse than he did.

See, as most of the world knows by now, Louis was dating Eleanor Calder. Hollister underwear model, long tan legs, beautiful brown wavy hair…any guy in the world would die to get with her, basically. They had been dating for about a year now. Since then, Lou had fallen horribly in love with her. And that’s where the problem always starts, doesn’t it? Falling in love…letting your guard down, allowing someone to break into your heart. And once you open your heart, then anyone can just sneak in there and tear it to shreds. And he’d allowed Eleanor into his heart, and she’d torn him apart. It all happened a week ago, and he wasn’t even close to over it.

He’d invited Eleanor to hang out at his apartment. She arrived, greeting him with a passionate kiss which he’d gladly returned. She sat down on his couch, and he went to grab a move for them to watch.

“Louis…Come here for a moment.” Eleanor said. He was confused but he ran to her, and playfully tackled her on the couch. While he grinned, she made a disgusted face, and pushed him off her. His grin slowly faded.

“Eleanor…what is it?” He said, searching her face for some sort of emotions, but her face remained blank, unreadable.

“Louis…I’m sick of this. Sick of you. You’re a child, you’re annoying, and honestly? You’re boring. This was all a stupid publicity stunt, to get my modeling career back on track! And, now that it’s back, I don’t need you. I don’t need you anymore," she said, and began to gather her thing and stand up. He sat on the couch, frozen, disbelieving. She paused by the door, before saying “Louis…don’t take it personally, really. I just needed some gullible, easily seduced celebrity, and you fit the description. Bye.” She slammed the door, and left with my heart.

Louis entered the crying phase about two days ago. Before that, it was the numbness phase. He guessed that was going to enter the anger phase in about five days. Harry was infuriated when he found out. He marched over to Eleanor’s house, and retrieved absolutely anything that Louis gave to her, all of the expensive clothes, high heels, and dazzling jewelry. He yelled at her, and told her she was a bitch and didn’t deserve someone as good as me. Zayn tried to drag Louis to a club to get drunk, find girls and forget about her. He refused. Niall did stupid shit to try and make him laugh. Liam handled how the press would deal with this, because there was no doubt Eleanor would try and sell a story about it. Liam and Harry would be the best to talk to about it, when he was ready, Louis thought.

Louis heard someone quietly clear their throat and he looked up to see a pretty brunette standing in front of him. Her light brown eyes cut right through him. She gave him a timid smile, before her eyes flicked down to a colorful poster of One Direction, before looking back into his eyes. Louis uncapped his sharpie and scribbled down his name, adding a smiley face because he felt slightly guilty for blanking out on her. She kept gazing at him intently. It made him feel a bit nervous.

“Are you alright?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Surprisingly, she was the first fan to ask that today. Most fans just squealed, begged for a follow on Twitter, or cried. She seemed so... normal. A good normal, not a boring one. Louis was disappointed that she noticed his frown. He thought that his fake smile was pretty convincing. He looked back up to her, and shrugged. He was too tired to lie, really. She hesitantly moved her fingers across the table, and held his hand. He was shocked. It was such a kind, and warm gesture. No fan had ever held his hand like this before. Most of the time it was a death grip or sweaty palms. She held on gently, and lightly ran her thumb over his knuckles. It was exactly what he needed.

“If you ever need anyone to talk to…I’m a pretty good listener,” she mumbled and blushed. Louis just stared at her, like an idiot. Why was he even so interested in her? She took the sharpie out of Louis' other hand and scribbled her number down on his Starbucks cup beside him.

“Give me a call if you need anything.” She gave Louis another timid smile and edged away. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. His gaze was trapped on her. She was so…different. She didn't freak out over him, and she seemed to genuinely care about him. As a person in general, and not as Louis Tomlinson, member of the UK's hottest boy band. He liked it. He sighed and shook his head. No. He couldn’t let her into his heart, or into his head. Although, she didn’t look like the type to shred his heart like Eleanor, he was smart enough to know that it would never work with her. He could think of a million reasons why. Fans weren't exactly kind to their girlfriends sometimes…she couldn’t deal with the hate. Her life wouldn’t be private anymore; paparazzi would go crazy over her. She was just a girl. Just another fan. At least, that’s what he told himself. Not while he was a celebrity, not while he was Louis Tomlinson, from One Direction. They couldn’t be together. Maybe if he was still that careless, funny kid from Doncaster. Maybe if he was in another life, just not this insane one. They’d both get hurt. He took a final glimpse of her. Her eyes were cast downward, and she pulled her red scarf tighter around her neck as she was about to step into the snowy London weather outside. She turned her head and their eyes locked. No one could deny the chemistry that flowed between them, Louis thought. Something just clicked with her. He didn't have an explanation, and honestly? He didn't want one. He just wanted to have a nice, normal girl in his life. A girl like her.

That was when Louis figured it out. She was exactly what he needed. She was…the one. She could fix his broken life.

And that was it. A toothy grin and a raised hand, as she stepped outside. Louis gave a shy smile this time, and a discreet head nod. She was one in a million, literally, he thought as he looked at all of the jumping and screaming girls in line. Eleanor might have torn his heart, but the girl stole it back, and was going to mend it.