Could You Love Me Just A Little Bit More

'Are you two ready?' Kellin called from mine and Lola's living room. He and Eric were sitting waiting for us to finish up so we could go out on our double date. Kellin had been in Newcastle for three days and Lola had suggested she invite Eric around so he had male company. They got on like a house on fire and decided it would be nice for us all to go out and get to know each other better.

'One minute!' I called back from my bedroom. I sat on the edge of my bed, which Kellin had kindly bought as he refused to sleep on the floor, and pulled on my brown boots. They had a small, flat heel and a multi-coloured top that stopped mid-calf with feathers hanging from them. They went quite nicely with my plain black dress I had opted for.

'That's what you said five minutes ago.' Eric then called. I darted from my room into the living room where they were both sat on the sofa, their heads thrown back in annoyance.

'Ready!' I called out, smiling. Kellin sat properly and stared at me.

'Well, don't you look beautiful.' He said, coming towards me and twirling me around. He kissed me softly and Lola appeared. She was wearing a dark purple blouse and a short, black, tube skirt. A pair of flat dolly shoes sat on her feat.

Eric quickly stood up and shuffled towards her. 'You look wonderful.' He whispered to her and pecked her cheek. She blushed a little, not something I often saw Lola do and a small smile crept onto her face. We all finally made our way to the door and to to the taxi that had been waiting ten minutes for us.

'How does my face look?' I asked Kellin before I got into the car.

'It looks fine, stop worrying.' He kissed it and followed me into the car. The purple bruising had gone down and the puffiness had went down a fair bit, but it was now yellow and brown and just not very pleasant to look at. But if Kellin was OK with it, I was too.

***

The restaurant we'd been in that night was quiet. We were sat in a corner out of the way which made it much more comfortable to be in. I didn't want people to stare or point but we could hardly be seen so it was OK. We'd all discussed what we were doing, college wise and Kellin with his band and Eric with his job. He worked in some large IT department, fixing computers, correcting programmes and the likes.

I couldn't help but stare at Lola and Eric as they sat in conversation. She never took her eyes off of him for a second. Even if she wasn't actually listening to him and was just staring at his face, she was making sure to say yes and nod in all of the right places.

'Should we go? Leave these two love birds?' Kellin asked once we'd paid our bill. I smiled and nodded at him.

'Lola, Eric we're gonna go for a walk. Are you two OK here?' I asked, interrupting their conversation. Lola quickly nodded and politely shooed us away. I chuckled at her gesture and took Kellin's outstretched hand. We exited the restaurant, thanking our waiter as we went.

'Its so much colder here than it is in Florida.' Kellin shivered as we walked down an empty street. It wasn't too late, it was just gone half past seven, but it was nearing on autumn, Newcastle didn't have much of a summer so it got cold early.

'Maybe you should have packed a few more layers. You'll know for next time.' I nudged him, laughing at his misfortune.

'That I will.' He replied and continued to walk. There was a jewellers a little way down the street that seemed to catch his eye and he stood in front of the metal shutters that covered the glass front from being broken by thugs.

'You like a magpie or something? Do shiny things attract you?' I chuckled as he stared in the window.

'They do, and I like to look. No harm in that is there?' He questioned, looking down at me.

'Not at all, look away.' I smiled up at him and watched him as he continued to look in the window.