Love in Music

Dad was quiet, that’s how I knew he was angry. Mum on the other hand let everything out when she was angry. Pacing, red faced and venomous words were her forte. Lucinda had kept Annalisa with her as my parents had forced me out of the room and into my own bedroom. Everything was extremely quiet outside of the room.

“Are you listening to me? We didn’t send you here so you could sleep around.” I glared at my mother indignantly. “If you want to fool around you could have happily done that at home.”

She paused and glared down at me from my position on the bed. I glared back at her, there was no point arguing. I wouldn’t get through to them, I never did.

“Are you really that stupid to think that he wants anything from you. For God’s sake Annabelle! He doesn’t care about you. It’s what rich boys do with their spare time.”

“You don’t even know him.” I hissed at her. I wasn’t going to sit there and let her bitch about Louis like she had known him since he was four years old. “Instead you humiliated yourselves and me in front of him. What are you even doing here?”

“We were invited here by Simon Cowell to surprise you and be here for your first performance.” My father finally spoke; stepping away from the back of the couch he had been leaning on. My mother stood back and let him take over. I tried not to roll my eyes at the way they always acted like lawyers when yelling at me.

“Great surprise.” I muttered, falling backwards on the bed and staring up at the canopy.

“If we had known that this is what you had been doing here.” I sat up and glared at my father.

“You would have what? Made me come back? It’s not like I’ve been screwing him while I was here.” I was fuming and I knew I was going to say things I would regret. But the words rushed out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I’ve been working hard. Working with four other girls to hopefully do something I’ve been dreaming about my whole life. Not that you would know or care about that. So how dare you come here and yell at me like I’m a child. I’m 18 years old now and you can’t be boss me around. You sucked at being parents and now is not the time to start acting like ones!”

I closed my eyes as silence filled my room. I wanted to take the words back, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. They wouldn’t believe me and would just think I was weak for denying it.

“Our suites two floors below yours. Your mother and I will be down there.” My father said abruptly. I kept my eyes closed until my bedroom door shut wiping away the few tears that had slid past my eyelids. Why couldn’t they just be happy for me?

“Belly?” My eyes snapped open to see Annalisa standing in the doorway to my bedroom. She was frowning at me, her hands clung tightly to her dress at the front. I plastered on a small smile and held my arms out for her.

We fell back on the bed and I buried my nose into her hair. She was warm, soft and smelt like home. Her hands rubbed my back soothingly as my body started to shake from holding in the tears.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered to her. She sighed in a way that made her sound older then her years before sitting up and pulling me with her.

“Not your fault. You’re gonna regret some of those words. But not your fault.” She smiled at me and wiped my cheeks. “Mum and Dad are just tired from the plane ride and well finding out that Louis was your boyfriend like that was seriously surprising. Gotta say I’m kind of hurt.”

“It only happened the other day.” I told her weakly. “I would have told you though, soon. All of you.”

“Can’t promise that mum and dad would have acted differently if you told them through the phone, but a warning would have been nice.” I glared at her.

“Yes a warning would have been nice.” She held up her hand and tried to look innocent.

“Hey, none of us knew you would be dumping a surprise like that on us. So not my fault.” I grinned and shook my head at her before pulling her forward into a hug. It was funny how much we use to fight before I left. All the time, most of the time I never had patience for her. But now I missed her in my life so much that I would have gladly spent time fighting with her again. The soft knock at the door made me pull away as we both looked over at Louis.

He looked nervous and worried as he hovered in the doorway to my room, unsure. I tried to smile at him reassuringly but I knew it didn’t work by the way his eyebrows only moved closer together.

“I’m going to go stare at Harry.” Annalisa suddenly jumped off the bed and moved towards the door.

“Too old for you.” I yelled after her, she flipped me off making me gasp in shock. Louis smiled weakly at her.

“Hurt her and I swear to God I’m gonna set a kangaroo on you.” I screwed my face up at her lame Australian joke. She knew I hated Australian stereotypes with a passion. Louis smiled at her wider before she left and he shut the door behind her.

“I don’t think I can apologise enough for my parents.” I told Louis straight away. Standing up and meeting him halfway across the room. He sat down on the armrest of the couch and rubbed his hand through his hair.

“You are definitely not the one who should be apologizing for anything.” Louis told me, the hint was obvious whom he meant. I sighed and bit my lip, glancing around the room for inspiration on how to explain my parents to Louis.

“They mean well. They seriously do. It’s just always been hard for them, I guess, to you know, accept anything less that what they already planned for me.” Louis looked at me doubtfully. “They wanted me to be a lawyer just like them. They wanted me to have the big career and be set for life. I can’t be angry at them for wanting what they thought was the best for me. I’m the one who insisted on going for a music career with the smallest chance of it ever working out.”

“Yeah but you got a shot. You’re getting a shot right now and you girls are amazing. You’re amazing and they’re not great parents if they can’t see that.” I frowned at Louis. Sure I had told my parents that but I hadn’t meant it. Louis on the other hand didn’t know them and he was already judging them just like they did to him.

“Please don’t say that. You don’t know them and they don’t know you so neither of you should be judging anyone.” My words came out harsher then I meant but Louis face softened and he reached out to grab one of my hand. Tugging me closer to him.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. They just didn’t treat you very nice.” He mumbled, his eyes didn’t meet mine as he tugged me closer situated my body between his spread legs. I moved my hands to rest on his shoulder. Looking down at him.

“It’s okay. Just trust me, when you meet them they’re really not as bad as their first impression.” I tried to joke with Louis he didn’t smile back.

“You want me to meet them?” he questioned softly. I frowned and nodded.

“Of course I want you to meet them. You’re my boyfriend Louis. Isn’t that what you do when you have a boyfriend?” I teased him. He grinned and nodded at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his head on my stomach. I idly ran my fingers through his soft feathery hair.

“How badly was my sister mooning over Harry when I was gone?” I questioned Louis casually. He snorted and looked up, tightening his arms around me more.

“Right little charmer that one. I reckon by the time we get out there she would probably have his number for emergency reasons. He’s too innocent towards the advances of young girls.” I groaned at Louis words and pushed out of his arms.

“God help him.” I grabbed Louis hands and dragged him towards the door and down the hallway. All the girls were in the living room watching, amused, as Annalisa talked fast enough that I’m sure Harry’s nodding couldn’t even keep up with her.

“Breath Lissy.” I teased her as we stepped into the room. Her eyes snapped to mine before falling down to where my fingers hung intertwined with Louis’. She smirked.

“Do you guys wanna know about the time Belly and our cousins thought it would be fun to play with jellyfish?” I groaned and knew this was Annalisa’s revenge for not telling her about Louis.

“How do you even know this story? You weren’t alive then!”

“Researched especially for blackmail reasons.” She supplied, snuggling further down into our white leather couch.

“Did you have to pee on the sting?” Harry asked curiously. Frankie snorted in disbelief.

“This isn’t a Friend’s episode.” Frankie turned to me smiling. “Right?” I blushed crimson.

“Oh my god.” Gracie muttered shaking her head.

“See Belly was obsessed with Friends when we were younger…” Louis’ hands around my waist were the only thing stopping me from jumping on her and stopping her ability to breathe.

-

“Seriously how am I more mature then you? You’re 18!” I glared at Annalisa as she sat on the bar stool at the kitchen counter, continuously spinning it around in circles. We were the only people in the suite. Everyone had gone to spend time with their families as they arrived one by one over the last day.

“Do you think they’re still angry?”

“Mum’s probably upset after what you told them.” I glared at Annalisa more.

“Gee thanks for the comfort.”

“You were mean Belly. Not gonna say you weren’t.” She shrugged at me and grabbed the last chocolate biscuit from the packet we had been sharing. I pouted until she split it in half and gave me some of it. I grinned and dunked it into my milk before chewing on it happily. Annalisa copied my movements.

“I’m gonna Skype my friends on your laptop while you’re down there.” Annalisa stood up from her chair and straightened her dress out. “They’re going to be so jealous when they see where you’re staying.” She left the room before I could say anything more. I frowned after her before grabbing my key and heading out of the suite.

I had put it off last night but I knew I needed to go talk to my parents. The nerves were stemming from the fact that I had no idea how they would react. I didn’t know if they were more angry or upset from what was said.

My mother answered my knock at the door almost immediately. I looked at her shocked, her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying. I sighed and stepped forward to hug her. Her skinny arms wrapped around my shoulders and she buried her head in my hair.

“Sorry Mum.” I apologised first, looking at my Dad over her shoulder. Mum pushed me further inside and shut the door behind me. I watched silently from my chair at the table as my Dad made a cup of tea for me and placed it down on the table. I took a sip; he always made it exactly how I liked it.

“I’m sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean—“

“It’s okay honey. We know you didn’t mean it.” Mum sank down in the chair beside me and opposite Dad. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. None of us wanted to mention the slight truth in my words but we all knew it was there, hanging like an elephant in the room performing One Direction’s favourite dance moves.

“We may have overreacted.” Mum started until Dad cleared his voice. She sighed and continued, “Okay so we did overreact when we saw you with that boy.”

“Louis.” I cut in. She nodded and glanced at Dad. He leant forward.

“We would have preferred at least a little bit of warning that you were seeing someone while staying here Annabelle.” My father scolded me while pushing his glasses further up his nose. I nodded in agreement, I should have told them.

“And I didn’t mean what I said yesterday about him using you. We obviously don’t know him. It’s just you were supposed to be here for your music not to be frolicking around with a boy.”

“I’m not uh frolicking.” I frowned at the word and tried not to roll my eyes. “Seriously not. I work hard with the girls all the time. When you see our performance I swear that you will see how hard we’ve been working. He’s not getting in the way at all.” I watched as my parents exchanged looks with each other. “I would really like it if you both met him.” I crossed my fingers around my mug of tea. My mother noticed and smiled at them.

“It would be for the best if we did. Especially if we leave you to continue living here.” I smiled widely and noticed the tension leaving my shoulders. I hadn’t realised that what I’d most been worried about was my parents deciding to take my back home with them. Or make me choose between having Louis or not. I knew what my choice would be but it would still hurt.

“Maybe dinner tomorrow night?” My father offered. I nodded eagerly.

“I’ll ask him.” I responded instantly, already mentally dialing Louis number in my phone that I left upstairs. “Right now. Thank you guys.” I stood up and pressed a kiss to my Mum’s cheek before rushing around to do the same to my Dad’s. I left their suite and took the stairs to hurriedly get to my own floor.

I burst through the door to see Annalisa walking around with my laptop and talking to it.

“My sister lives! Did you actually go to them?” She questioned, angling the computer so I could see her friends staring at me eagerly. It was slightly creepy.

“Yes I did and they’ve agreed to have dinner with Louis.” I yelled the news at her and began searching for my phone. Annalisa pointed it out to me.

“God help Louis.” Annalisa mumbled before disappearing down the hallway.

I rolled my eyes at her and her dramatic personality.