Rumored Nights

We made our way through Ohio, continuing on our path. The bus pulled over for a quick pit stop so everyone could stretch and get something to drink and the driver could check out the bus.

All six of us headed inside a small café in the station and took some seats in the corner.

“I could sure go for something to drink and maybe a snack,” Niall rubbed his belly. “What about you guys?”

“I am a little hungry,” Harry agreed. “Hey Zayn, Liam. Come help us get something to drink.” Harry urged, practically dragging everyone away.

“Um…okay?” Liam rolled his eyes.

As Liam, Niall, Harry and Zayn went to go get some drinks and eat for all of us, I couldn’t help but feel extremely awkward sitting there with Louis.

“Alex?” I jumped a bit at the sound of Louis’ voice. I slowly turned my head to look at him.

His eyes were filled with sadness and confusion. I felt my heart falling to pieces as I just waited for him to continue.

“I’m-I’m sorry I kissed you before. I just thought that maybe you liked me because I liked you, but I guess I was wrong and now this is all screwed up.” Louis ranted on and my heart started to hurt even more.

“Louis…It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just that-”

“It’s just that you like Liam too…” Louis finished my sentence for me. I stared at him, my heart pounding.

“Yeah…” I sighed.

“Can I tell you something without you getting upset?” Louis scooted closer to me.

“What?” I could barely get the words out.

“I’m in love with you…”

I stared at him, shocked.

“Really?” My words came out in a whisper.

“I really am. I have been for so long…but being with you on this trip. It’s made me realize how much I love you…” He admitted.

“Can I tell you something without you getting upset?” I whispered to me.

“What?” His face was so close to min.

“I think I may be in love with you too…” We both smiled at each other. “But…”

“But…” He laughed, pulling away a little bit.

“It’s just…I’m in love with Liam too. And I know…I know how horrible that makes me. But it’s just…I can’t help it,” I could feel the tears rushing to my eyes.

“Hey, hey…” Louis placed his hands on my face, staring right into my eyes. “Calm down, Alex. It’s okay.” He leaned down and pushed his lips softly against mine.

His lips felt so…so right against mine. His kisses were so different than Liam’s. And I loved it.

As we pulled away, I stared at him, speechless. I opened my mouth to say something, but Louis just put his finger against my lips.

“Listen…I can wait, okay? I will wait for you, Alex. No matter how long…I’ll wait for you. Because I love you.” He smiled and his hand moved from my lips to the side of my face.

“Louis,” I smiled. “I know that’s a lot to ask of you. But believe me…” I took his hand and held it. “I really do love you too.”

“I love you,” He pulled my hand up and kissed it and then quickly moved his lips from my hand to my lips for a quick peck.

Louis moved away and sat back in his original seat when we heard the guy’s voices from not that far. We exchanged one last glance before turning our attention to the guys.



After snacking, the bus was ready to leave again. We all piled back on, taking our seats next to our original seat buddy. I smiled at Liam as the bus rolled on.

We finished our trip through Ohio and were now on our way to Indiana, which both Louis and Zayn’s had relatives living there. We had to be on the lookout for familiar faces and make sure not to get into too much trouble.

It was about four thirty in the afternoon and the sun had begun to fade and Indiana looked beautiful in the pink of the setting sun. We got off the bus and took in our surroundings.

“Ahhh…” Louis breathed a relaxed breath as he extended his arms over his head, stretching as he revealed the top of his boxers.

“It’s kind of nice to be here again. It’s been a long time. I kind of missed it,” Zayn smiled and said in a relaxed ton. We had all recovered from Trenton Miller, Go Fish and boxer dares and were now just ready to get to California or have some more crazy fun on the way there.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Louis nodded as he put his arms down from his stretch.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Harry announced.

“Yeah, I could take a dandy whiz.” Niall laughed. We all kind of just rolled our eyes as Niall’s word choice, yet again.

We all decided that we could take a quick bathroom break. We made our way off the bus and towards the designated bathrooms, Harry leading the way.

I felt something pull me back as I was about to walk inside the girl’s bathroom. I laughed as Louis pushed me against the wall and kissed me, smiling during the whole thing.

We kissed for what seemed like ever, which in reality was only a few second.

“Louis,” I pushed a way a bit as he kissed my neck.

“What?” He laughed and looked around. “Not romantic enough?”

“Not really,” I laughed.

“Rain check?” He leaned down and kissed me once more.

“Of course,” I smiled and pecked his lips before going into the bathroom.



We continued our way through Indiana, hitting a few more pit stops along the way. And each time the bus would stop, Louis and I would sneak off somewhere and spend a few moments kissing, most of the time quitting not that long after because our surroundings were disgusting. I never realized how gross bus stations were until I tried kissing in them.

But, of course, after every time I kissed Louis I couldn’t help but think how upset Liam would be if he found out. Gosh, why was I so terrible?

“So, what’s going on?” Niall asked as we took a seat at some benches in our latest pit stop.

“I heard we’re just going to chill here for a while so they can, like, load more people on the bus. We have a few hours,” Louis explained as everyone nodded.

“Oh, cool…I guess. But what are we supposed to do?” Niall asked.

“Hmm…I don’t know. I guess just do whatever you want. There’s some stores and stuff around.” Louis shrugged. “I need some fresh air so I think I’m going to go for a walk. Anyone want to come with me?” He slugged his arms through his jacket and smiled a little bit. I had to admit, he looked absolutely adorable.

I wanted to go with Louis badly, but I told myself not to because I knew if I did I would only cause myself more trouble and more heartache that I didn’t necessarily need. So I just sat on a bench with Liam, not saying a word.

“I’ll go with you. I need to take a walk too.” Zayn agreed to go with Louis.

“Okay, you guys coming?” Louis looked around at the rest of us.

“Nah, I’m going to go find some food.” Niall, of course, said.

“Yeah, I might too. Or just check out the place.” Harry rejected Louis’ walk.

“I think me and Alex might take a walk to that store over there and get some magazines to read or something.” Liam answered for me. I loved how he always knew what I was thinking.

“Alright, see you guys later.” Louis smiled at me as he and Zayn took their sodas and strolled out of the café and outside.

“Bye,” I smiled, mostly directing it towards Louis as I watched them walk away. Liam soon got my attention again by softly touching my arm.

“Hey, let’s get out of here.” He practically whispered in my ear, using a rather deep, sexy voice.

“Okay,” I smiled.

Liam and I got up to go to the bookshop as Harry and Niall bought another snack and decided to take a walk themselves.



Louis and Zayn found a cement step to sit on that faced the trees that surrounded the secluded bus station.

“You know what?” Zayn asked after a moment of silence between them.

“What?” Louis looked at him as he took a sip of his soda.

“I’m glad I came on this road trip after all,” Zayn admitted. “Just to think right now I’d be studying or worse, hanging out with Lola…doing something so dull and meaningless. I’m just so happy I actually came. I can’t believe I ever doubted this trip.”

“Well I’m glad you came too. It wouldn’t have been the same without you man.” Louis smiled. “Not only have you made us laugh at all your stupid moments, but I’m just generally happy you came.”

“Awww, how sweet.” Zayn joked as he messed up Louis’ hair and Louis just kept it that way.

“Shut up,” Louis smiled.

“I wonder what Lola’s doing right now.” Zayn thought.

“Oh, come on dude. You are not seriously thinking of THAT girl. You know you could do so much better than that. Lola isn’t even worth talking about, so let’s stop.” Louis was feeling almost nauseous at the thought of disgusting Lola.

“I know,” Zayn laughed. “I don’t even have feelings for her anymore. I was just wondering,”

“Okay, good.” Louis approved.

A few minutes passed by as the boys just sipped their drinks and enjoyed the fresh air.

“Toys R Us was so fun, wasn’t it?” Zayn asked, reminiscing like it had been years ago since they played with the Barbie display and rode around on little kid cars and bikes.

“Haha, yeah that was a lot of fun,” Louis remembered, bringing another smile to his adorable face.

“We should definitely stop there on the way back,”

“Okay Saliva. Remind us.” Louis laughed.

“We’ve had a bunch of fun so far, even though some of the stuff happened sucked like Liam getting totally wasted-”

“Yeah, but you have to admit that his ‘I’m too sexy’ song and dance was pretty hilarious,” Louis cut him off and they both laughed, remembering Liam’s drunken moments.

“Yeah that was pretty fun. But I mean, like, the HOEL lady and the car breaking down.” Zayn smiled. “I still can’t believe that Harry kissed her,”

“That’s just hilarious. I wish I could’ve seen that,”

“Yeah, but even though some stuff sucked everything ended up being pretty fun,” Zayn finished his original thought.

“Yeah we are having fun, but dude…we’re not even, like, half way there yet. The fun has only begun.” Louis smiled mischievously and Zayn couldn’t help but smile like that too.

“I can’t wait,”

“Cheers to that,” Louis said, holding up his cup.

“Cheers,” Zayn laughed as he and Louis tapped cups.

“Just as long as Trenton Miller doesn’t come after you ZaynWillDavid,” Louis teased Zayn.

“Hey! What did I say about bringing that up?” Zayn whined.

“Get over it!” Louis laughed and even though Zayn hated thinking about it, they both couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Zayn flipping out over a silly little story.

Another few minutes went by as the boys looked around and watched it get darker and darker by the minute.

“So…” Zayn began, not sure if he should ask what he wanted to ask or not.

“So?” Louis looked at him while eating a piece of ice from his sodaless cup.

“Are you and Alex still…?” Zayn decided to ask.

Louis sighed and began to feel a little sad…



“Heyyy…” Harry winked at a girl as he and Niall walked by. But all he got in response was a dirty look.

“Ouch.” Niall bit his lip, feeling sympathy for his friend.

“Whatever,” Harry shrugged as the two boys walked along.

“Can you just imagine after last night what the rest of this trip is going to be like?” Niall asked.

“Oh God, it should be good.” Harry smiled.

“Yeah, it should be better than good. If we all keep it up, it’s going to be CA-RAZY!” Niall was getting excited.

“No, you know what’s going to be crazy?” Harry looked at Niall.

“What?” Niall asked as they stopped at a little stand and tried on hats. Wait…who sells hats at a bus station?

“If Liam finds out about Alex and Louis?” Harry took his hat off and put it back on the stand rack.

“Wait, I thought they all knew about all this stuff?”

“No way man. Liam has no idea about Alex and Louis, but I’m not sure if Louis knows about Alex and Liam. It’s pretty screwed up. She needs to make up her mind before she hurts either one of them,” Harry said as they put the hats down and kept walking.

“Really? Then you’re right, that would make for some crazy stuff,” Niall agreed.

“Yeah I know. I just hope nothing bad happens though.” Harry sighed.

“Don’t worry, everything will get worked out. Alex is smart and I know she wouldn’t want to hurt either of them.” Niall said in his cool and calm way.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Harry shrugged as they went on trying to talk to more girls.



Liam and I were holding hands as we walked into the bookshop to look for stuff to read for the rest of our trip.

As I grabbed the latest teen magazines and Gossip Girl books, Liam surprised me with a sweet and adorable kiss.

“What was that for?” I asked, feeling a little happy to be there, holding his hand, but also very guilty since not that long ago I was locking lips with Louis. God, I seriously hate myself and this whole thing.

“Nothing. I just wanted to show you how happy I am with you,” Liam smiled and my heart felt like it broke a little more than it was. Liam was being so sweet and wonderful and I didn’t have the decency to stop leading him on and to stop thinking of Louis when I was with him and to stop being so horrible about all of this and just make a decision already.

“Oh, well I’m happy to be with you too,” I smiled at him and knew how awful I was for doing this to poor Liam without him knowing about it.

“Is that what you’re getting?” He asked as we made our way up to the counter to pay.

“Yep,” I said, too busy with my thoughts to talk.

We paid for our stuff and then decided to go look for a place to sit down.

Liam and I were acting like a couple, but the truth was we weren’t even really together since I haven’t figured out this whole thing with Louis and the feelings I felt every time I looked at him and every time I was around him. And I couldn’t very well throw all those feelings away when I wasn’t sure yet. Plus, Louis was such a wonderful guy. He told me he’d wait for me. He’d actually wait until I made up my mind and, to me, that was incredibly sweet and that’s why I couldn’t resist Louis even when Liam was by my side.



Zayn waited for Louis to answer him. He let Louis take his time, because he saw the sadness in his buddy’s face and he knew Louis was messed up over this whole thing between us. Welcome to the club…

“Yeah…” Louis finally said as he looked out into the sun, which had pretty much set. His cute face was set in a sad and hurt expression.

“What’s going on between you guys?” Zayn asked.

“I have no idea. She’s been hanging out with Liam.” Louis tried to stay strong when talking about this, but he couldn’t quite do it.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Yeah…You know, I really think we could have something. That maybe we could be together, but now that I think about it…I don’t know.” Louis sighed.

“Why?” Zayn asked, wanting to help his best friend in every way possible.

“I don’t know, I…look, don’t tell anyone this, but I told her I loved her.” Louis admitted.

“You did?”

“Yeah. And she told me she loved me too.” Louis almost frowned.

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah. I really thought she meant it too…” Louis could feel himself getting teary eyed, feeling extremely uncool.

“Did you mean it?” Zayn asked.

“Hah…yeah, I did.” Louis nodded.

“Do you still mean it?”

“Yeah,” Louis admitted and then looked to the ground so Zayn couldn’t see the tears in his eyes.

“You know what I think?” Zayn asked, sensing that Louis could have possibly been crying.

“What?”

“I think that she loves you too. No, actually I KNOW she really loves you. But she also loves Liam. I don’t know what she’s going to do, but I know for a fact that she loves you man. She’s just in a tough situation right now. She’s just as confused as you are. Zayn tried to reassure Louis.

“I knew that she had a thing for Liam too and that’s why I told her that I would wait for her to make up her mind.” Louis looked down to his cup, stirring his straw through the ice in his cup.

“You told her that?” Zayn asked, finally seeing just how much Louis liked me.

“Yeah…” Louis nodded, still trying to hold in his tears. Stupid emotions. He thought to himself.

“Wow,”

“Yeah,” Louis sighed.

“Are you still going to do that? Wait for her?” Zayn asked.

“I have to. That’s the only way I’ll ever know if we should be together or not.” Louis looked at him. They sat there for a few moments in silence. “Oh my God. I feel like such an idiot.” Louis sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“You’re not an idiot. You’re just…I don’t know, you’re just in love.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” Louis sighed again. “This is so messed up.

“But dude…what are you going to do about her and you and her and Liam?” Zayn asked.

“Seriously…I have no clue. It’s just. I can’t stop falling in love with her. It’s like…impossible for me. I can’t help it. Every time we look at each other…I fall more and more for her. I just want to be near her. I just love the sound of her voice and I love when she rests her head on my shoulder. I love how great her kisses are and I love the way she understands me like no one else ever can. I just need her. I need her.” Louis spilled his heart out and if only he knew that I felt the same exact way about him. But, sadly, I still felt that way about Liam too…

“Whoa man. This is worse than I thought. You really do love her. Geez.” Zayn was in awe.

“Yeah, but I know that she loves Liam too. You can just see it in her eyes. But I wish she knew that I’d give her anything she need. I’d take care of her. If Alex was mine she’d be my everything.” Louis gushed. “But then I look at Liam and think of what a great friend he is and I couldn’t handle hurting him. So, I guess I’ll just have to wait like I told her I would.” Louis shrugged and that struggling tear finally fell from his eye and into the dirt. Louis quickly wiped away any traces of tears he had on his face and sniffled his nose as he stood up.

“Wow. Zayn said as he looked up to his friend. “And to think Liam has no idea that his is even going on…”

“Yeah, I know. It’s okay though. I’m just going to keep on enjoying the trip and try not to think of it. Which I think that’s what she’s doing too.”

“That’s the spirit!” Zayn tried to comfort his friend. “Look, don’t worry. I’m sure everything will work out. Everyone’s just confused right now. It’ll be okay.”

“I hope, for once, you’re right Zayn.” Louis said, helping Zayn up from the cement step they were sitting on.

“I think I am.” Zayn smiled.

“Thanks for that little talk. I really needed it, man.” Louis said, feeling a little cheesy.

“Anytime.”

“Let’s go,” Louis said as the two boys began to walk back to find us.

Leave it to Zayn Malik to lighten the mood…

Just as the boys took their first step, Zayn tumbled to the ground, a result of tripping over his own two feet. Before Louis knew it, Zayn was sprawled out on his stomach in the dirt.

“Ouch.” Zayn replied, getting used to falling.

Louis couldn’t contain his laughter.

“How did you do that?” Louis laughed, feeling better already.

“I have no idea.” Zayn shook his head as Louis pulled him off the ground.

“That’s what I thought,” Louis shook his head and the boys finally began to walk, no falling this time.



“Hey look!” Niall pointed to Louis and Zayn who were laughing about something.

“HEY ZAYNWILLDAVID!!” Harry called out from across the large area.

“SHUT UP!” Zayn sort of joked and everyone got back together in the middle of the station.

“How much time we have left before we go?” Niall asked Louis, the only one with a watch.

“In like another half hour,”

“Oh cool. Where’s the bathroom around here?” Harry asked. “I have to pee.”

“AGAIN?!” We all yelled at him and he just smiled.

“I guess I need to go too,” Niall and Liam both shrugged.

As Harry and the other guys went off to find a bathroom, I stood there with Louis and Zayn. I looked to Louis, like I always did and his eyes burned into mine. We were both thinking the same thing. Thinking of how much we wanted each other. But his beautiful eyes gave me a sad look and I couldn’t help but feel sad too. Why was Louis so wonderful? Why did I love him so much? And why did I love Liam so much?

And most of all…

Why couldn’t I make up my damn mind?