No Direction

Lucy's Point of View

I kind of felt like they were expecting some kind of bad reaction for me. Especially with the way that Louis was kind of staring me down. Except I was kind of really happy for both of them. Amelia seemed to be this sweet American girl and maybe she was exactly what Louis needed in his life. Despite the fact that all of it was moving almost too fast it wasn't my place to step in and say anything.

"Gross. This doesn't give any of you permission to snog in front of me," I rolled my eyes but behind my tone was a smile that was kind of hard to hide.

The rest of the morning was dedicated to rehearsing which meant that I got to spend time with Amelia. Dark clouds were starting to roll in so instead of going outside to the pool, I tugged her back to my room, and we were both settled down on the bed that I shared with Harry. Amelia was flipping through some magazine that she found in the den while I worked on painting my toe nails.

A comfortable silence had settled over us with the occasional conversation happening about a bag or an article of clothing that we both liked. Thunder shook the windows while I finished up the dark silver polish job and finally put the cap back onto the bottle. I wiggled my toes a couple of times before leaning back against the pillows that were against the wall.

"Are you excited to see America?" Amelia closed the magazine as she sat up and looked at me with that smile that I had grown used to.

"I am! Kind of nervous because I don't really know what to expect but I think it'll be a good experience, right?"

Amelia giggled as she grabbed the bottle of blue polish from the nighstand and picked up my hand with her own, "I think that you'll like it. It's different from here but it's wonderful!"

Instead of pulling my hand back like I would have done to anyone else wanting to mess with my nails I let Amelia work her magic. I watched as she painted them perfectly without any of the color spilling over onto my cuticle.

"Don't hurt him. I know that he's supposed to be protective over me but he's my older brother and I need him to be okay," there was an almost pleading tone to my voice.

Louis and I had always been there for one another. During the brutal fights that our parents had we would distract each other. He helped me through almost every problem that I had and he was one of my best friends. Even though I didn't show it, I admired him more than I'd admit, and he deserved the best. Amelia could be the best as long as she didn't hurt him.

Amelia didn't say anything at first. Maybe it was too early for me to say anything like that and I instantly wanted to take it back. I could feel her eyes studying my face and it made me feel almost awkward.

"Do you mind if I asked what happened?" Her voice was quiet and soft.

"Huh?"

"With your mom and your dad and you and Louis," Amelia brushed her fingertip along my thumb nail to make sure the polish was dry.

The question had been more than enough to make me off guard so I stayed quiet. I wanted to curl in on myself, lock her out, and push her away. That was what I had done with almost everyone except the four other boys that were in the house besides Louis. Amelia grabbed another bottle from the table since I had practically brought my whole polish collection and she shook up the bright pink color. Finally I cleared my throat and while she went to work on putting stripes on my nails I began to tell her the story.

"My mum came home from work one day to see him with another woman. She had been suspicious for a while but never said anything. They really did try to make it work but he brought home another woman a few months later while they were both drunk. All of the family was home and he didn't seem to care. Before that they fought so bad. It would be one of those slinging expensive china, screaming matches that always caused me to hide in the furtherst corner of my room," I willed my voice not to crack.

"So finally one day she packed up Louis and I and we just. We left and I miss him but not the person that he became. He was a drunken fool. Mum went in and out of relationships with shady guys and...that just. That just kind of sealed the deal for Louis and I that true-real love could never exist."

That was the short version of the story but we didn't really have time for long version. It was filled with custody battles that got ugly fast and I wasn't ready to scare off this girl just yet. If she stuck around for a while she would eventually get to hear them.

"But...you're with Harry. Is it just one of those things or are you in love with him?" Amelia continued with the pink stripes on my nails.

"There's a spark with Harry that I can't explain. I've never felt it with anyone else and I never want to. But we're both afraid of the relationship label. It adds a lot of extra added stress that none of us need," I mumbled while I watched her add a heart to the tip of my nail.

Thunder rolled lightly as the lights flickered a few times and I groaned. Everytime it stormed the power seemed to go out. Harry and I had spent almost two weeks at the Bungalow last fall and the power went out three or four times easy. Amelia worked on my other hand while I made sure not to smudge the one that she had finished.

"Lucy! It's storming!" Harry's voice rang out through the bungalow while my eyebrows shot up.

"Can you come fix us some lunch?!" Zayn's voice followed and I giggled quietly.

"Let's pretend we're not in here and see how fast they freak out about not having someone to fix their food. Harry thinks that he's a chef but we all know that he's not," I giggled again along with Amelia as she finished up my nails.