Both Sides of the Story

“I can’t do this,” Reese muttered. “I just can’t.”

I nodded. “I need my preserves.”

“Her what?” Niall asked.

Reese sighed. “Her strawberry preserves. You know, you put it on toast. She eats it out of the jar when she’s nervous.”

“That’s flat out weird,” Louis said.

“Says you!” I scowled around a spoonful of strawberry. “Want some?” I extended the jar to Liam. “Oh, wait. Spoons. Let me find a fork.”

I heard some sniggers from the group of boys, but I chose to ignore it.

“What are you so nervous about?” Harry asked.

“Yeah,” Zayn nodded. “You’ll do fine. And Alec, Lee, and Jackson are chill.”

“You don’t get it,” Reese shook her head. “We’re the ones that have to sing.”

“And this is our first big venue,” I explained. “We’ve never done this before.”

Some of the boys began to rattle off kindnesses and assurances, but I chose to ignore them. Dropping to the couch with the jar of strawberry preserves balanced between my knees, I took out my phone. Getting onto Twitter, I saw a message Liam had tweeted my sister and me earlier.

‘@Real_Liam_Payne: @BexIsBetter @ReeseRules Best of luck tonight! Don’t fret over it! xx’

“Aw,” I smiled before tapping out a response.

‘@BexIsBetter: @Real_Liam_Payne You’re too sweet! xx But I’m still nervous…’

“Are you two tweeting each other?” Harry asked. “That’s so cute.”

“You’re just jealous that Reese and I both turned you down,” I countered.

“You know you want me,” he smirked.

Reese and I flashed identical scowls before I stood up.

“I’m going for a walk. Liam, I’m taking your hoodie,” I said moving towards the door. My sister and I had yet to get into wardrobe, hair, and makeup as we had three hours until sound check.

“I’ll come with you,” he offered.

Everyone else was used to Liam and me (as well as Louis and Reese) going off on our own. We definitely had the strongest bonds with them. It was kind of nice.

****

“So what don’t I know about you?” Liam asked as we slipped outside into the London winter.

Liam wrapped his hoodie around me tighter as I zipped it up.

“I feel bad, you’ve only got a shirt,” I frowned at his attire. “But what do you want to know?”

“I’m fine,” he assured me. “There’s a whole life story that I know almost nothing about. Just start somewhere.”

I thought about that for a minute. “Um, my sister and I used to have these Disney movie marathons on Saturdays. We’d spend, literally, a full 24 hours watching our favorites.”

“A Disney-phile, uh?” Liam smiled. “Favorite movie?”

“Beauty and the Beast was mine. Reese changed hers so much I could never remember,” I said. “Yours?”

“Toy Story,” he blushed.

“Aw,” I giggled. “Liam Payne’s blushing! Alert the press!”

His face turned a darker shade of red but it might have been due to the wind and cold. Snow had even begun falling.

“Li-Li,” I said. “You’re cold. Let’s go back.”

“Did you just call me Li-Li?” his eyes went wide.

I was blushing now. “Sorry. Reese and I used to use nicknames for each other all the time. Now, they’re practically our names. Do you not want me to?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I just never took you as a nickname type of girl.”

“I’m a lot of things, Payne. You’ve barely scratched the surface,” I said leaning into his torso. Sharing heat was a good thing, right?

“Mmm,” he said into my hair. “I can see that.”

I smiled at the feeling of his breath tickling my skin. To hide it, I took out my cellphone to check Twitter.

“What the fuck?” I muttered.

“What?” Liam asked as he cleared the snow off a near-by bench.

“Look at what Lou just posted to Twitter,” I shook my head.

‘@Louis_Tomlinson: Can you guess who it is?’

He had posted a picture of a girl that was obviously my sister sleeping with her head on his shoulder. It was from an angle at which you could only see half her face.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked looking up from his phone.

“Louis and my sister together worry me,” I sighed.

“Aw,” he chuckled. “Lou wouldn’t do anything.”

I huffed a long breath. “I know. I just want an excuse to scowl around at him.” I reached into my back pocket for a cigarette. Liam usually didn’t care when I smoked around him, which was I was surprised when he took the cigarette from my mouth and threw it to the ground. “Hey!”

“Stop,” he said seriously.

“You know it’s not easy, you’ve dealt with Zayn long enough,” I scowled.

“But you’re different,” Liam insisted.

“How am I different?” I asked. “Because I’m a girl?”

“No!” he shook his head. “It’s just…”

“You’ve got no grounds to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do. I’m 19, thanks very much,” I stood up from the bench and took off Liam’s hoodie.

“What are you doing, Bex?” he asked following me down the road.

“Going back to the venue. And to my sister. I need to rant,” I said not bothering to turn around.

“Bex,” Liam said grabbing my wrist. “Why are you going off like this?”

“Don’t play innocent,” I muttered as I checked my ringing phone.

Gulping at the caller i.d., I called out to my sister.

“Reese! We’ve got a problem!”

I heard groans from down the hall and soon, my sister emerged.

“What’s going on?” she asked drowsily.

Extending my phone, her eyes widened.

“Mom is the problem,” I sighed.