Breathe in, Breathe Out

The morning following the disagreement Isabella had with Louis, she has snuck back home. She had wanted to stay with Eleanor, but at the same time she didn’t want to drag her into the middle of their mess. It was something she and Louis had to solve on their own.

"Isabella! Open this door right now, we need to talk! Come on," Louis said as he stood outside of Isabella’s room. He hadn’t slept much the night before, his mind raced with thoughts of how to deal with Isabella. Because he has been awake for so long, he had heard her try to sneak into their home.

He tried to turn the knob to her door, but she was smart enough to have locked it.

"No Lou. If you’re not going to treat me like the adult I am, I want you to stay away from me. Act like I don't exist," Isabella knew it was probably pretty childish to lock herself up in her room and ignore him, but it was all she could think of doing at the moment. She had spent so long in Lou’s shadow and now all she wanted was to be treated like her own person. She didn’t even need all that much; she just wanted some degree of freedom. Some degree of her own personhood.

“Why? Why now?" She heard him slide down the door and sit down.

"Nothing happened, Lou. I just want to be myself for once. An adult...that can make their own decisions and not have you judge everything I do! You say you don't like Jake, but you don't even know him. You met him once. And you treat me like I'm five years old! I can make my own choices,"

"Why now?" Lou asked again.

"Why not now? I've just grown tired of it. I live in your shadow, Louis. I don't want to! What about all the things I accomplished by myself?" She asked back.

"You're just being difficult!" He said in frustration. They paused briefly as they heard some movement from upstairs. Harry had probably heard all the cross words they had exchanged and decided he might as well get up and be productive. He presumably wanted to come back down, didn’t want to come down and be caught in the middle of everything. After a few moments, the movements faded away.

"Well. You don't have to worry about me anymore. I don't really want much to do with you if you're going to keep treating me like a child," Isabella opened her door and Lou fell into her room when the support behind his back vanished. She didn’t even look at him as she walked into the kitchen.

“Izzy. Stop being so...like this," he sighed and walked to his own room.

When she walked into the kitchen she saw Harry sitting at the bar in the kitchen. Somehow he had managed to sneak downstairs in the midst of the argument. He smiled weakly at her as spooned more cereal into his mouth. Isabella walked to the fridge and tried to find some words to say to him. She knew she could always talk to Harry, but lately things had been a bit awkward between them. A while back they had had a somewhat romantic evening, after some moderate drinking and lost inhibitions.

“Hey,” she quietly said as she sat next to him. It was the best she could think of at that moment,
“what’s up?”

"Not much. Trying to avoid Louis as much as you are," he whispered softly.

"I suppose I'll have to deal with him again later. I just...I don't think he likes the idea of me growing up.
But I have to at one point or another, you know what I mean?” Isabella felt that Harry should know what she meant. He too had an older sibling. She bit her lip and tried to turn the morning around a bit,
“the real question of the moment is, do I look good?"

"You always look beautiful," he said so quietly that Isabella wasn’t even sure of what he. He shook his head and tried again, “yeah! You’ll be beating off all the guys.”

"Thanks, Harry. I'm glad you're...always here for me," she smiled and kissed his cheek. She grabbed a quick bite of his cereal and left the kitchen.

"I will be. You can count on me forever," he said as he watched her back retreat. This time, Isabella had heard every word, and smiled widely to herself, but decided not to comment. No need to make things awkward again.
____

"Hey babe. You look good," Jake grinned widely when he met up with Isabella outside of the club they had agreed upon. The way he looked at her made her pause for a second, something about it hadn’t felt quite right. She brushed off the feeling though, tonight she just wanted to have a good time.

"Thanks. You clean up nice too!"

The pair walked inside and the first thing Jake did was head over to the bar. She cringed slightly; she didn’t care for drinking all that much. The past few experiences hadn’t turned out quite as she would have liked, so she was definitely skeptical about drinking.

“What’ll you have, love?” Jake pointed at the bar and she hesitated.

“Just…a beer then,” she figured it was probably the least bothersome thing she could have. Plus, tonight she just wanted fun.

He handed her the drink and she took a few hearty swigs.

"Come on! Let's dance!" Isabella shouted at him over the loud music. She didn’t care anymore. All she wanted was to have some fun.

"You go ahead! I'll be there in a few," Jake rubbed the back of his neck. Isabella surveyed him and noticed that he was acting strange, but thought nothing else of it. She watched for a few seconds longer and noticed he was heading to the bar again, although he hadn’t even finished his drink. She shrugged him off though.

Once she got to dancing, she kept her eyes peeled for Jake. He was the one would thought the club would be a good idea after all. Isabella drank down her second beer and kept on dancing and drinking. If she wasn’t going to have a good time with him, then she sure as hell was going to have a good time with somebody. That was when Jake came back into her line of vision. While making out with some blonde.

“Of course he likes blondes better,” she muttered to herself as she felt the alcohol coursing through her veins.

"Hey Jake!" she shouted as she stumbled towards, trying her hardest not to trip. Something in her head told her that wouldn’t make for a good scene.

"Babe! It's not what it looks like!" he stammered as soon as he saw her.

"I'm sure. That's what you'll tell me the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that.

Don't call me ever again," she said and slapped him across the face. He rubbed his cheek and mouthed wordlessly after her as she turned her back on him. Before she walked away completely she said one more thing, “and don’t ever call me babe again.”
______

Isabella grabbed herself another beer and returned to the dance floor. She was getting more drunk with every minute that passed, but she didn’t care anymore. She was way beyond caring.

"You're really hot!" another guy, very good looking, but obviously not in the mood for just dancing, shouting into Isabella’s ear. She turned to face him and smiled. Every fiber of her being told her to walk away and ignore him, but she couldn’t.

"Thanks! You too!" she slurred back at him. They started dancing together, which quickly progressed into much more. Before either of them knew it, they were in a corner together, making out.

That’s when five very familiar boys walked into the club and saw Isabella.

"What on earth are you doing!?" Louis was beyond furious as he pulled hard on Isabella’s arm and yanked her away from the man she was with.

"I-I. Uh. This isn't what it looks like!" She shouted and tried to get back to the man, who looked utterly confused. He didn’t want any of it, so he gave her the bird and walked away, “no! Come back.”

"I don't think so," Louis said and pulled her along with him.

"Leave me alone you jerk! I can do whatever I want! I'm an adult," she yelled at him as she tried to break free of his grasp, much to no avail.

"Explain. Now,” were the only words that came out of Louis’ mouth. He was so shocking and disappointed with her for letting this happen to herself. Who knows what that could have tried to do to her?

"No. I don't have to tell you anything," she said, slurring her words.

"I think we got here just in time,” Liam said as tried to keep Isabella from falling over, “you’re really wasted.”

"I am not, Payne. Shut up," Isabella frowned at him, but appreciated the fact that he was helping hold her up.

"Izzy. Come on, you're better than this," Harry said softly into her ear, as he told over and held her upright.

"He said I was hot. I was just enjoying the moment," she replied softly to him, so only he could hear.

"I know, love. But you know how people are. He could have tried to do something to you and you wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

"I just want to have fun Harry,”

"Everybody does. This is not the right way to do it,” he said and stroked her hair. Isabella appreciated his gentleness.

“I want to go home Harry. I just want to forget about all this.”

“Okay love. I’ll take you home,” Harry sat her down on one of the stools at the bar and went over to Louis.

“How is she?”

“Bad. She wanted to go home,” Harry shrugged lightly, “I promised her that I would take her.”

“Are you sure mate? I can do it, she is my sister after all,”

“Don’t worry about. I’m not in the mood to be here anyway.”

“Thanks mate. You’re a good man,” Louis gave him a quick hug before he went to find the other boys and tell them.

"Come on, Izzy. We're going home," Harry said and help her up.

"Thank you Harry. I love you," she whispered into his ear, as he picked her up, bridal style. At that moment, it was the only way he could hold her. She was too...drunk for it to work any other way.

"It's nothing. You know I'm always here for you," he replied and she smiled as she started to doze off.

He wondered how she loved him as he put her in the passenger seat of his car. He realized that she probably just said because she was tired and drunk, but it sent a tingle down his spine anyway. As much as he tried to suppress his feelings, he could never do so completely. Harry had fallen in love with Isabella the day he met her, and had fallen harder for her every day since. He knew he shouldn’t have fallen for his best friend’s sister, but he couldn’t help it.
_____

"Oh Harry! You're my Superman," she sang out as Harry put her into her bed. He smiled a little to himself.

"It's nothing. Are you going to be okay?”

"I don't know, I'm sleepy," she yawned and stretched out.

"Here. I'll give you a hand," he said somewhat shyly.

He went to her dresser and pulled out some of her pajamas. She seemed in condition to put them on, so he did it for her. It wasn't like he hadn't ever seen her without clothes on before, so it wasn't awkward. But she still had on her underwear. This way it might avoid some confrontation later. When he was done, he was heading to his room, when she called out for him.

"Harry. Please stay with me," she pleaded.

"Okay," he smiled softly. She scooted over and patted the space on the bed next to her.

"I need a guy like you. I wish all guys were like you," she whispered.

"It's alright. You'll find him one day," he told her and covered her.

"Will you sing to me? I love it when you sing ," she smiled and Harry nodded. He made sure she was in a comfortable position and pondered what song to sing to her. It took him literally no time to choose.

Isabella started drifting away to the sound of Harry’s sweet voice singing Little Things.

She fell asleep with a big smile on her face.