Rumored Nights

“Alllleeeexxxx…” Louis’ voice rang in my ear, awakening me from a peaceful slumber and my heart began to race.

I was still half asleep so as Louis’ voice called gently, I imagined lying in a big, comfy bed with Louis, waking up by his side. Him calling my name as he ran his fingers through my hair. I would open my eyes to see his beautiful face looking back at me and his piercing and handsome eyes would lock with mine and we would kiss. A soft gentle kiss. But this was only a far-fetched fantasy that I feared I would never have the chance to experience. But a part of me still held onto the hope of that happening.

“Alllleeexxxx…” Louis called sweetly again; this time it was closer than before.

“Hmmmmmhmmmm…” I felt myself moan in a tired sadness that my dream of us had to end so quickly.

“Alex, Alex. Wake up, Alex. We’re here.” Louis informed me as he touched my hand so softly that it gave me chills and so lovingly that it made my heart feel as if it were melting.

“Huh?” I groaned, unattractively, as I opened my eyes to see the New York City skyline in the distance.

“Wake up, sleepy! We’re here!” Louis said in an excited whisper, because the guys were also getting their beauty sleep in the back. Louis was too hyped to even think of sleeping. It had been a LONG morning, but Louis knew that it was worth every minute of it.

“Really? Already? What time is it?” I questioned as I sat up straight and rubbed my sleepy eyes, trying to act as alert as Louis.

“It’s about 9ish.” He smiled, looking at the clock on the radio of the minivan.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t know I was asleep for that long,” I laughed a little bit.

“Yeah, you were. You were snoring and drooling and talking. It was pretty gross…” Louis joked, but I was so gullible that I actually believed him.

“REALLY?!” I blushed, having a panic attack on the inside.

“Haha, no. I’m just kidding. I thought you had a better sense of humor than that.”

“I do. I was just…I don’t know. I guess I’m just really tired.” I sighed, upset that I had fell for that.

“I gotcha,” Louis smiled as we stopped at a red light. I looked to the back to see Zayn drooling on his seat belt and Liam’s face pressed up against the window in an uncomfortable way. Niall was sprawled out in the very back, leaving Harry a small cramped space which he was curled up in with his mouth wide in exhaustion. I just had to laugh at them. They looked so cute and innocent.

“Wow, how long have they been asleep?” I laughed as I pointed my thumb back in their direction. Louis looked back and laughed a little too.

“Oh, well, once they got over the whole Lola explosion, Harry started snoring, then Niall conked out and Liam decided to close his eyes and then Zayn…Well, Zayn kept talking until I looked back and he was drooling. So I just let everyone sleep.” Louis explained in hilarious detail.

The two of us laughed and I found myself caught up in his smile and the way his lips curled when he started to laugh and the way his pretty blue eyes seemed to sparkle when he found something amusing. I could spend days being wrapped up in thoughts of Louis, but when his eyes wandered to mine and found them glazed over in thoughts of him, I looked away, nervously and tried to change the subject.

“Uh…should we…wake them up?” I asked, my voice still a little shaky, which wasn’t an uncommon effect Louis held on me.

“Uh, yeah. In a minute we probably should…” Louis was sort of hesitating like there was something more he wanted to say. “Alex?” He sighed, nervously, and I had no idea why he could have been so nervous.

“Yeah?” I asked back, kind of hesitant to hear what he had to say.

“I’m really glad you came,” He told me in his serious, yet sexy voice.

“Me too,” I admitted. At that moment I realized, yeah, I was pretty glad I came along for this trip. No matter what I had thought before, I was glad that something happened that brought me to come on this trip. I truly was.

“Really?” Louis seemed a little shocked.

“Really,” I assured him.

“You know…I thought you were only coming because you wanted to be nice to me. Not because you actually wanted to…” Louis admitted, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Well, when I first agreed that’s kind of what I thought, but now…now I’m actually happy to be here.”

“That makes me feel better. I felt like I was forcing you and I thought you only agreed to come because you wanted to make me happy. Because you’re such a great friend.” He told me, using that word that I was starting to dislike…friend.

I wanted Louis and I to be more than just friends. I wanted us to be together and I wanted to tell him how I really felt and how much I wanted him and how much I longed for him. And mostly…just how much I loved him. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and kiss him and spill my heart out. But I knew that I probably shouldn’t; not now at least.

“Aww, thanks. It’s kind of like what Niall said earlier. I’m your friend…” I cringed a little at the word friend. “And no matter what…I’ll be here for you. I’d do anything for you. Always.” I promised him, hoping he would think deeper into what I was saying and see what I was really trying to tell him.

Louis held the steering wheel with one hand and rested the other hand on his knee as he looked straight on in thought about what I had just said (and possibly revealed). His cute face was covered with a thoughtful and sexy look and I hoped so much he had figured it out once and for all.

I guess I will never know what he had been thinking at that moment because just as Louis opened his mouth to speak, someone in the back had woken up and interrupted us with a big, loud yawn.

“Hmmm…Are we there yet?” Niall asked as he rubbed his eyes and sat up while looking out his window at the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Uh…um…” Louis tried to forget what he was about to say, because it was no use now. “Yeah, man. We’re almost to the city. I was going to wake you guys up in a minute…” Louis tried to save himself, even though I don’t think Niall was ever aware that something may or may not have been going on.

“Oh, cool…” Niall blinked his eyes, not really listening to Louis’ rambling. A groan came from Harry’s corner.

“AGHHHHHH!!!” Harry screamed and sat up, kicking Zayn’s seat in the process. “WHERE AM I?!” Harry stressed as Zayn flung forward and hit his head on the window somehow.

“Ow,” Zayn mumbled, sounding not so phased by the situation. Probably because he was still sleeping.

“WHERE AM I?!” Harry yelled again, frantically. He seemed to still be sleeping a little bit.

“Dude, why are you yelling?!” Niall covered his ears with his hands and closed his eyes at the loud sound.

“AGH!” Harry screamed yet again.

“Shut up!” Niall advised as we hit a bump.

“Ow,” Zayn moaned again as we went over the bump.

“Whoa…Where am I?” Harry asked again, but not screaming this time.

“In a minivan,” Niall’s voice was a little angry at Harry’s hysteria. “With us…”

“Oh…” Harry said, trying to open his eyes. “Why?”

“The road trip, idiot…” Niall shook his head and it was obvious now that Niall still needed some sleep.

“OH YEAH!” Harry remembered…loudly. “I remember now! I must have forgotten and I woke up and I was like ‘where am I?’” Harry explained what had just happened a minute ago.

“Are you done?” Niall asked, still trying to wake up.

“Yeah…Geez, sorry.” Harry apologized as he stretched.

“It’s okay, but I’m not sitting by him anymore if he’s going to freak out like that every time he falls asleep…” Niall warned, jokingly.

“Haha…” Harry found this amusing…barely.

“I’m serious,” Niall glared and then let out a smile.

“Zayn?” Harry asked as he kicked Zayn’s seat. “You up?”

“No,” Zayn grumbled.

“Well, rise and shine cause’ we’re almost there!” Harry laughed as he smacked Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn opened his eyes and spread his arms out wide, smacking Liam in the head while he stretched.

“Zayn!” Liam complained, his eyes still closed and his hood on.

“Liam, you still sleeping?” Niall asked.

“How can anyone sleep around here? You guys are the loudest people I know,” Liam mumbled. Someone seemed a bit cranky…

“Oh, did you hear me?” Harry laughed.

“Harry…I think everyone in the state heard you. Or at the very least everyone on the highway…” Liam told Harry, his eyes still closed like he was holding on to the idea of going back to sleep. Like that was ever going to happen.

“Whatever. I need some caffeine!” Niall announced and everyone had to agree. We were all pretty out of it since we got up so early. And if we were going to make this a productive day, we were going to need some fuel.

“Mmm…” Zayn smiled. “Good idea.” Louis looked around and pulled into the first convenient store there was.

After we were all done loading up on sugar and caffeine and any other stuff, we were all in a better mood and definitely more awake and aware of what was going on.

“So…what do you guys want to do? We have until four and then we have to check into a hotel,” Louis said like he really knew what was going on.

“Cool…I don’t know.” Zayn sort of answered for all of us.

“It’s New York City. Chances are we can probably find SOMETHING to do.” Niall reminded us.

“He has a point,” Liam agreed.

“Where can we go?” Louis asked, trying to get everything in order.

“I say we just park it somewhere and I don’t know…explore…” Zayn said ‘explore’ in a fake, mysterious voice that was pretty hot if you asked me.

“Hah, I guess…” Harry agreed. Niall and Liam nodded in agreement as well at the idea.

“Yeah, that works. I mean exploring is what road trips are all about…” Louis reasoned, starting to like the idea.

“Yeah. Let’s do it.” I smiled, starting to feel more adventurous.

Louis smiled his irresistible and mischievous smile and, like always, my heart felt like it was going to pump out of my chest. And I smiled back at him foolishly.

Louis drove around looking for a place to park so we could all go and ‘explore’ New York City.

“Hey, well I know this is a little off subject but…what do you think Lola’s going to do to make us ‘sorry’? I mean do you really think she’s capable of doing something that bad?” Niall asked and he sounded a little scared.

“Psh, Lola? I doubt it. She’s all talk.” Zayn shook his head, making a disgusted face. The last person he wanted to talk about was Lola. He came on this trip to get away from her, not worry about what she could or couldn’t do.

“Yeah, he’s right. She’s not capable of anything too threatening…” Harry assured everyone, even himself.

No, Lola couldn’t do anything that bad to us…or could she?



Lola walked down the hall of the boy’s dorm building on her way to see Aaron…or Jonathan; or possibly someone totally different. She hadn’t decided yet.

Her brain still hurt from thinking up a way to make our lives miserable from where she stood. She still couldn’t think of one thing to do…or at least anything bad enough.

She looked at the ground, telling herself how cute her shoes looked even though she was still pretty pissed, but complimenting herself made her feel better about herself. She was so shallow…

Lola didn’t really seem to notice Steve until he sighed and Lola looked up and noticed that Steve had a puzzled look on his face. Like he had lost something. Even Lola was able to notice this so it had to be serious.

“Hi.” Lola said trying to be friendly.

“Oh, hey Lola…” Steve said in a distracted way as they casually passed each other in the hall. “Oh! Hey, hey Lola!” Steve said suddenly stopping and going back to her.

“Yeah?” She turned around.

“You hang out with Zayn and Harry and that gang, right?” Steve asked.

“Well, actually…” Lola began but decided to keep it simple. “Yeah, yeah I guess I do.” She sighed. “And…?”

“Have you seen them around? I can’t find any of them. Zayn, Niall, Louis, Harry, Liam…none of them. And I just got a call from the girl’s adviser, Amanda, that Alex’s gone too…I just thought maybe you might know where they are.” Steve asked and explained altogether.

“Uh…” Lola wasn’t in the mood to go into details, also it was highly embarrassing that she wasn’t invited; so she just decided to play it cool. “Nope, sorry, haven’t seen them.” She shrugged.

“Ugh, really? Oh, okay…well, I…thanks anyways.” Steve sighed too, kind of distracted and disappointed.

“No problem…” Lola shrugged and with that Steve smiled a little quick smile and walked away to go search for the students that were unaccounted for.

Lola sighed and walked the rest of the way and ended up at Jonathan’s door. She slammed it open in her bossy way and Jonathan rushed to her side and started kissing her. But Lola was still thinking of a horrible, evil plan and she just couldn’t think of anything. So she let Jonathan or whoever it was, she had forgotten already, kiss her as she tried to concentrate. Aw, poor Lola…don’t think too hard; you might hurt your head!