Anonymous

Hm. That was a very good question. One that I wasn’t sure I had the answer to.

For a while, she stared at me, waiting for an answer, her dark eyes boring holes in my head, while I just stumbled for the right words to say.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she mumbled, “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want. I don’t want to give you a brain aneurysm over it.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to give me a brain aneurysm.” Not that I knew what that was, but Jess didn’t have to know that. Finally, I answered, “I guess I don’t know. Even though I’d never really talked to you before today, I just kind of trusted that you wouldn’t rat me out. Call me optimistic, I guess.”

She smiled at me, a cute little thing that didn’t show her teeth. “That’s really sweet, Louis.”

I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I just grinned back. “I hope it’s just sweet and not really daft.”

“You’re not daft,” she told me seriously.

I was about to say something, but she stared over the camera, as if listening to someone who was standing in front of her. I could hear snippets of the conversation, but nothing really definite. I think she put her hand over the microphone, since I had been able to hear a bit of her conversations before.

After a couple minutes, she brought her eyes back down to me again. “Alright, Elena’s being a bitch and is telling me that I have to get off the computer. So maybe you can call me later or something?”

“On Skype?” I asked. “Or on your mobile? ‘Cause I don’t have that number.”

“I’ll give it to you, if you like,” she replied without missing a beat.

A voice muttered something in the background that sounded suspiciously like “Sexting.” And I must have heard somewhat properly, since Jess threw something at her friend.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

I blinked a couple times and reached for my mobile, bringing up the contacts page and typing in her name. “Alright, go.”

She rattled off the numbers quickly, all in one breath. I went to repeat it back to her, but she cut me off. “It’s been lovely talking to you, Louis. I can’t wait to talk to you again.”

“Yeah, you, too,” I seconded, grinning.

And just like that, she was gone.

I let out a long sigh and signed out of Skype, closing the window before leaning back on my bed and staring at the ceiling.

I had no idea if that call had gone well or not. Part of me felt it had, but another part of my mind hated me for stumbling over my words, for not coming up with answers as quickly as I should have. Maybe she thought I was a moron. Not that she was necessarily wrong.

Compared to her, I was incredibly dumb. I hadn’t even known what an aneurysm was.

Oh, thinking of...

I typed the word into Google and got a simple definition: “an abnormal widening or ballooning of a portion of an artery due to weakness in the wall of the blood vessel.”

Um. Ew. No wonder Jess didn’t want to give me one of those. That sounded disgusting. And not to mention painful.

Making a grimace, I exited out of the window and shut my laptop.

As if the sound had broadcasted around the house, Liam threw the door open the second I put my laptop down on the ground. “How’d it go?” he asked.

I shrugged. “She just asked a lot of questions. So I answered them.”

"But you didn’t ask any questions about her?”

I opened my mouth before shutting it again. God, that was idiotic of me. Why hadn’t I thought of asking her questions about herself? Suddenly, I felt very self-centered.

“No, I didn’t,” I finally sighed. “But it’s okay. I’ve got her number. I can ask her anytime.”

“You have her number?” Liam smirked as he sat down on the end of my bed. “Does that mean that you’re going to have your nose in your phone at all hours of the day? Like Niall already is?”

“No, it doesn’t,” I responded honestly. “She has school, you know.”

“Does she?”

I thought back, trying to remember if she’d ever said anything about school. And it was possible that she was in uni or something, but… Ugh, maybe I should have asked her.

“Hold on, I’ll text her,” I muttered, pulling my mobile out of my pocket.

“So soon after talking to her?” Liam asked, making a twisted facial expression at me. “She might think that you’re obsessed or something. Not that you’re not obsessed, but…”

I shot him a glare, but maybe he was right. What if Jess thought I was trying too hard? Or that I was fixated on her? Would that freak her out and scare her away?

God, I thought girls were complicated when I met them in person. But adding a computer screen and the internet into the mix made everything infinitely more complex.

So I slipped my mobile back into the front pocket of my jeans and sighed. “Alright, you win.”

“Figured I would.” Liam grinned at me before slapping me once on the knee. “Now come on out. Harry’s making tea.”

I got to my feet and followed Liam out of the room. In the living room area, Niall and Zayn were lounged around, watching football on the telly.

“Louis!” Harry called out to me, closing a cupboard loudly in the kitchen area. “Do you-?”

“Yes, please,” I cut him off as I plopped onto the couch next to Zayn.

A second later, Liam tried to copy my action, but he ended up getting too close to me and landed partly on my leg.

“Um, ow.” I laughed loudly as I shoved my friend into the arm of the couch. “I’m not a chair, you ass.”

“Sorry. Your lap just looked so comfy,” Liam snickered.

“Yeah, whatever you say.” I rolled my eyes jokingly as Harry came in, trying to carry all five mugs at once.

“Shit, Harry,” Niall burst out as he climbed to his feet. “You could have called for someone to help you. If you spill everything everywhere, we’re going to get in all the tabloids for trashing the hotel room.”

Harry let out a huff as he put all the mugs down on the table, pretending not to hear the liquids sloshing around the disposable cups. “I wanted to see if I could do it,” he muttered, pushing teas toward the people they belonged to. “And I did. So I win.”

Zayn leaned over and took his cup, taking a small sip. “So, Louis, how was that girl? Even better than you thought?”

I turned and glared at Liam for telling everyone business I figured was secret between him and me, but he just shrugged.

“Jess,” I filled in, figuring that we could all call her by her name at that point, since I’d talked to her live and almost in-person. “And she’s great.”

“He spent the whole time talking about himself,” Liam tattled as he drank a bit of his tea. “He didn’t think of asking her to talk about herself.”

“Rookie mistake!” Niall scolded from the floor.

I fought the urge I had to pour my scalding drink over both of their heads.