Love in Music

The hoops in my ear were too heavy. I snuck a look at Lucinda before quickly pulling them out and grabbing the smaller pair I had in before she had taken over my outfit.

She spun around to glare at me and I didn’t for one second think I had gotten my swap past her. I pouted through the mirror until she sighed and turned back to whatever she was looking through.

“You should wear heels.” She told me, no questions asked.

“How dressed up am I exactly getting for this?” I groaned at her, sitting down on the bed as she began rifling through my shoes in my wardrobe. “I’m just going to dinner with my family okay? Nothing too major.”

“Do you really think Louis is not going to get dressed up for this? I swear to you that boy probably got his stylist to dress him for tonight.”

“No heels. And anyway Louis will hate it if I’m taller than him.” She spun around to stare at me before smirking.

“Overcompensating huh?” She wiggled her pinky in front of her. I burst out laughing and shook my head.

“I wouldn’t know.” I grabbed the flats she threw at me and hooked the straps around my feet. A black clutch hit me in the back to match the shoes.

“Seriously the fact that you have not seen Louis Tomlinson dick makes every girls in the world incredibly pissed.” My mouth fell open at her bluntness.

“Should I be flattered?” I jumped and we both turned to see Louis standing in the doorway. I blushed and buried my head in my hands, of all the times to make an entrance.

“Don’t worry honey, they only want you for your money.” Lucinda assured him, I could just picture the smile on her face.

“So not for my lovely manhood?”

“Definitely not.”

“No more! Just please no more of this.” I groaned, pulling my hands away from my face and glared at them both. Louis smirked and winked at me before walking further into the room. This gave me the chance to notice his outfit.

“Fuck, get me your heels Luce.” I eyed the suit Louis was wearing, all tailored to fit him perfectly. Any hint of a tattoo had been covered and his shoes shined like Louis had just recently spat on them. “They’re my parents Lou.”

“Exactly, your parents Belle. The parents who may or may not have pulled you from the room when they saw us together and then proceeded to yell at you for over an hour about it. Your parents who can make you go home at any point and possibly have the power to make you dump me. So yes Annabelle it’s your parents and I want them to like me.” He glared at me over his defensive tone. I relaxed slightly at his words. He was nervous, I could tell by how stiff he was standing.

“I’ll just go grab the shoes that will go with your dress.” Lucinda shut the door before she had finished her sentence. Louis shrugged and sat uneasily down on my couch. I frowned and walked over to him. I didn’t realise he would be this nervous.

“You know I’ve met your Mum and your frightening number of sisters dressed in jeans and a jumper?” I knelt down in front of him, my hands splayed out on his knees. He rolled his eyes at me.

“We weren’t together then and I didn’t think my Mum was going to hate you.” He grumbled back at me.

“My parents are not going to hate you. Not when they actually talk to you. Right now you’re just a secret I didn’t tell them about and they’re more pissed at me than you. Also the whole celebrity status and rumours don’t really help your case. But once you both start talking you will be fine.” I assured him, smiling as widely as I could without looking psychotic. He sighed and shifted me onto the couch next to him, his mouth planted on mine instantly. I laughed into his kiss and pushed his face away.

“Lucinda will have your head if you mess up my make up.” Despite what I said I pressed another quick kiss to his lips before pulling back and wiping the pink lipstick from his lips. I was only slightly worried about tonight; it couldn’t go horribly wrong. My parents just had to give Louis a chance. He smirked and tried to bite my hand. I snorted and pushed his face away.

“You look hot by the way.” I teased him and grabbed my clutch off the bed, kicking the flat shoes off in the process.

“You look beautiful.” I flushed darkly and glanced down at the dark purple dress Lucinda had made me wear after refusing everything else in my wardrobe.

“Uh thanks, that’s all on Luce though.” I assured him before walking past him to the door.

“You two look amazing.” Gracie appeared in front of us first, handing over a pair of heels that I assumed Lucinda had told her to bring. I grinned at her thankful and rested my hand on Louis’ shoulder to slip the shoes on. Louis shifted nevousl and check the time on his phone.

“We’re not going to be late Lou, the restaurants in the same building.” I teased him.

“You guys heading out? Woah.” Frankie stopped, the sandwich in her hand halfway to her mouth. “I didn’t think you would be dressed up this much.”

“Neither did I.” I muttered to her, straightening up and stepping forward, trying out the shoes. I was glad that we would be sitting down most of the night. Lucinda may have taught me how to walk in high heels but I hadn’t learned to endure them for very long. My feet would probably begin aching before we got to the restaurant.

“You guys look cute.” Kate moved past us and straight toward Frankie. “I told you dinner would be ready in like five minutes. You’re ruining your appetite.” Kate grabbed the rest of the sandwich out of Frankie’s hand and shoved it in her own mouth. Lucinda squealed louder then whatever Frankie had retorted with. I smiled at Lucinda and immediately thanked her for her help.

“Look this is great but we really need to go.” Louis shifted nervously next to me, his hands clenching into a fist then unclenching repeatedly. He was stiff and slightly pale. I took pity on him and grabbed his hand tugging him forward. We may as well get there as early as possible before Louis panicked too much.

“Good luck.” Lucinda snorted; I could tell she was trying not to laugh at Louis. He did too as he flipped her off when we moved past her and towards the door.

“Louis stayed mostly silent all the way down to the restaurant. I chose to ignore the clamminess of his hand in mine; he squeezed mine occasionally as if assuring himself I was still there. I squeezed back wanting him to feel better about this. His nerves were in turn making me feel like there was something to panic about. I was eighteen and most definitely allowed to have a boyfriend without my parents’ permission, Louis was making this art to be much more serious then it was.

We were led to our table and I ordered a drink while we waited for my family. Louis sat next to me, his hand never letting go of mine, back straight and eyes trained towards the door.

“Relax.” I leaned over to whisper in his ear. I had no idea what was going on in Louis’ head but I felt like I was unnecessarily forcing him into doing this. He looked towards me and smiled softly but it was weak and not at all convincing. I sighed and nudged Louis letting him know my parents were walking over. He stiffened again and shot up out of his seat.

“Mr. and Mrs. Blake.” Louis leant over to shake both my parents hands. I rolled my eyes and watched their greeting.

“Mr. Tomlinson.” My father replied easily, almost mockingly.

“You can call me Louis.” Lou flashed a smile at them and then turned to greet my sister. I moved around to hug both my parents.

“Be nice,” I hissed to them. My father looked almost offended that I considered him being anything other then nice. The moment we all took our seat a silence fell over everyone. I nudged Annalisa with my foot as she sat across from me giggling into her menu. She always enjoyed awkward situations that didn’t affect her.

“So what have you two been doing today?” My father broke the silence and I shot him a relieved smile.

“The girls and I had a free day today, so I slept in late.” I grinned at them as mother shook her head. My father turned to Louis who shifted in his seat.

“Well I’ve been at the studio most of the day working on plans for the next album.”

“Another album?” My father asked, leaning forward slightly. “Must keep you quite busy.”

“Yes sir. But we’re just in the planning stage; so the boy and I normally spend out time between helping the girls and planning the album.”

“How do you help the girls?” My mother cut in, her menu forgotten as she eyed Louis from across the table. He shifted again and I reached over to place a hand on his arms. I shot Mum a glare, she didn’t have to be so demanding about information.

“Not a lot right now. We’re mostly just helping Simon with a few things and offering advice. But once their first single is released we will help them with how to manage everything, how to talk in interviews, how to act in public, or how to ignore the rumours.” Louis’ fingers played continuously with the menu in front of him.

The conversation was interrupted as our waiter returned to place our order. I ordered the vegetarian meal I had already decided on before we headed down here. My stomach had been grumbling just thinking about it.

“We met the other girls families today.” Annalisa jumped in before the conversation could lead anywhere different.

“Oh really?” I hadn’t even had the change to really meet all the other families yet, we had been too busy and I had been too worried about my family and Louis. But tomorrow would definitely be spent meeting everyone.

“Lucinda has a lot of sisters.” Annalisa nodded at me.

“Yeah but only two came with her Mum and Dad. One’s my age and the other is like 23 I think. We’re going to have a movie marathon later.” I smiled at Annalisa, glad that she was getting along with Luce’s sisters. Our families would probably be spending a lot of time with each other, hopefully.

“Grace’s grandma wants to cook for us all one night.” Mum cut in as I gaped at her in shock.

“Everyone?”

“Yep, she said she wants to have a family dinner. She’s honestly too sweet.” Mum smiled before taking a bite of her marinated steak.

“Liam’s Mum was like that when we all first go together. Insisted we all get together with our families. It was loud but we had a good time.” I smiled at Louis who seemed to have relaxed greatly now that the focus wasn’t completely on him.

“Will your family be at the performance tomorrow?” Louis shook his head at my Dad. “Shame, it would be nice to meet them.” My eyes widened at them. Louis and I were definitely not serious enough to be having our families meet; we had barely been dating for three days. If I had the choice Louis wouldn’t even be meeting my family now.

“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves now Dad.” I winced at my own laugh, it sounded awkward and forced. Ignoring the eyes centered on me I focused back on my food.

Dinner lasted another couple of hours and the conversation had turned relaxed. My Mother only threw in a few rude remarks to Louis but Dad tended to smooth over them quickly. I knew my Mum would take longer to warm up to Louis, I hadn’t expected anything different.

“You’re not staying together tonight, are you?” My father eyed Louis as he followed us into the elevator.

“No!” I shook my head violently. “Of course not, he’s just walking me to my room.” Louis stayed silent and my Father relaxed, satisfied with the answer.

“We’ll see you both tomorrow.” Mum stepped forward as the elevator neared their floor and pulled me into her arms. “He better not be staying the night.” She whispered into my ear before pressing a kiss to my cheek and pulling back. I glared at her before pull Annalisa and my Dad into a hug. They all left when the elevator doors opened.

Louis slumped back against the wall as soon as the doors shut. He pulled at his tie and closed his eyes. He looked like he was ready to pass out.

“I did good right? I feel like it went well.”
“It was fine.” I assured him, reaching over to ruffle his hair. He smiled at me widely and pulled me into a hug. His hands placed themselves on my hips, his nose buried in my neck. I let him hug me until the doors opened.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Lou.” I pulled away and moved to step out of the elevator.

“Can’t I come in?” Louis pouted, grabbing onto my hand and holding the button to keep the doors opened. “Stay the night?”

I shook my head at Louis instantly and rolled my eyes at his pout.

“I was serious what I said to Mum and Dad and plus I just want to go to sleep before tomorrow. Louis frowned but nodded. I pressed a kiss to his cheek before wishing him goodnight and headed back to the flat.

All four girls were seated in the living room watching re-runs of the last X Factor on TV. I fell into the seat next to Frankie.

“How did it go?” Gracie murmured, not looking at me, her eyes half closed.

“Good.” I replied, leaning my head on Frankie’s shoulder. “There was nothing to worry about.”

There were a few mumbled replies but none of us continued the conversation. I fell into a mindless state, watching the TV but not realizing what was happening on it. I could feel the nervous energy vibrating between us all.

We were going to perform our song tomorrow, properly. In front of our family and hopefully everything was going to turn out alright.