Love in Music

It was late. I was exhausted and the airport was practically empty. My sister, Mum and Dad could easily be picked out of the few people waiting around even without the loud yelling and squeals from Annalisa. I grabbed onto her tightly when she knocked me backwards into a tired Louis.

“Hey Lissy.” I mumbled around a yawn, patting her hair down softly before resting my head on her shoulder. I could feel my eyes droop shut. Before I got too comfortable she pulled out of my arms and pushed herself into Louis’ startled grip.

“I’m so excited that you came.” She chatted to him; grabbing his hand and tugging him all the way back to my parents.

“Feeling so much love.” I called out to her, grabbing the bag Louis had dropped while being ambushed by Annalisa. I headed over towards my family while they were welcoming Louis. Telling him how nice it was for him to come for Annalisa’s birthday. Louis took it all with a smile but stayed uncharacteristically silent, he must have been more tired then I was, which I had previously thought impossible. I let my parents pull me into hugs before linking my arm with Louis, resting my head against his shoulder. Ready to pass out.

“We’ve still got a two hour car ride Annalisa. Think you can stay awake for it?” My Dad nudged me almost making me lose balance.

“I highly doubt it.” I nuzzled the side of Louis shoulder wishing I could mould it like a pillow. Except this pillow moved, tugging my unwilling body with it. Grumbling I followed through the now almost deserted airport out into the empty carpark. The cool summer air of my home whipped around us, shivering, I was glad I had kept a cardigan on during the plane ride.

I made Louis sit in the middle of my Dad’s car while I claimed a window seat. Resting my back against Louis I let my eyes slowly drift around the dark scenery that passed us on the way home. Everyone chatted softly and mindlessly around me except Louis, who said less than was normal. I glanced towards him expecting to see dark tired circles around his eyes but he didn’t seem too bad. More thoughtful. Frowning I nudged him which only earned me a kiss on my temple before his eyes cast themselves back out my window. Sighing I nestled myself closer to him I watched the city lights blur past us.

We lived on the opposite side of Sydney to the airport and normally this ride would be annoying and boring but even though I had only been here at Christmas it felt like a lot longer. Things had changed in the city I had grown up in and it sat uncomfortably inside me. The fact that things were changing around here and I probably wouldn’t be a part of it anymore. I wouldn’t come here for long intervals of time and when I did: shops would be different, cafes changed, buildings knocked down and people would grow up. I didn’t feel as connected and in tune with this city as I used to. I had never felt so out of place here in my whole eighteen years.

I moved off Louis and rested my head against the glass of the window in the door. My eyes tried to focus, in their sleep deprived state, on personal landmarks that I knew well.

The McDonald’s where a naked man had wandered through, one early morning, when everyone was still drunk or hungover and proceeded to lecture us on the danger of underage drinking. Or The Rock’s Markets on George Street where I had lost Annalisa for over an hour when she was six years old and eventually found her with a strange old man. Mum only found out because Annalisa couldn’t keep quiet. I had been grounded for months.

There was the shelter where we bought our first dog, a Pomeranian; his favourite past time was constantly peeing on people, the park where I sprained my ankle and broke Annalisa’s arm in the process. The hundreds of memories I had of roaming the streets after school popping in and out of shops while giggling and gossiping with my school friends.

These places had memories that I never wanted to forget but it certainly felt like the places were going to forget me.

Louis’ gasp finally pulled me out of my trance. I turned to see him staring at our home in shock. It was large, I knew that, and it was way too much for our small family. My parents were lawyers and they spent their money with joy. Where most people looked at our house with awe and jealousy, seeing only rich happy families I looked at it with less favourable memories. Many lonely nights spent with Annalisa, our parents on trips or working late hours at the office and more often then not when they were home they usually spent the time in their office where we were not allowed to interrupt unless of course one of us were dying.

“I love your house.” Louis commented to my parents, probably the longest sentence he had said all night. They thanked him with the usual pomp and arrogance they did everyone else. It was nauseating.

“Your room has been set up for the two of you, your father and I debated but we decided you are old enough to have Louis in your room. Know that we trust you both to keep everything suitable for this household.”

“Yes Mum, got it Mum.” I rolled my eyes and helped Louis grab our bags from the back of the car. “See you in the morning.” I passed them through the front doorway and placed a kiss on Annalisa’s head before dragging Louis straight past everything else and up the stairs. He stumbled along blindly behind me, trying to look at everything we passed. If he was looking for personal items he was going to be disappointed. The photos that we had in the house sat within the living room but the rest of the house was reserved for paintings and sculptures that my parents deemed pricey enough to suit our houses expense.

“You grew up here?” Louis whistled lowly when I pushed him through the door to my bedroom. Most of my personal things had been taken with me to London. I still had a few clothes, books and DVD’s but all packed away neatly so as not to disrupt the order of my parents house. “This house is amazing.”

“No this house is stupid, large and ridiculously big. Really not as amazing as you think.” I threw my bag into a corner of the room and rifled around for pajamas.

“Bella?” Louis tentatively asked from the middle of the room where he had stopped spinning to admire everything. Sighing I paused and sat down heavily on my bum next to my bag.

“Sorry Lou. I’m just grumpy ‘coz I’m tired. ‘m shower and go to bed.” I grabbed my pajamas and headed into the adjoining bathroom that, for some reason, was kept well stocked of necessary bathroom essentials. The good stuff too.

Louis switched with me once I was finished, I didn’t waste time and jumped on the large bed in the middle of my room, crawling under the covers and immediately burying my head amongst the pillows.

They didn’t smell like me anymore, they smelled like washing detergent and nothing. The cushions weren’t arranged around my body specifically for a perfect night sleep instead I had to kick and shove some around before I got comfortable.

I had given up rearranging the pillows by the time Louis came back and flicked off the light. I felt the bed dip behind me as he crawled in, the blankets lifted and he rearranged a few of his own pillows.

“Want to talk about what’s wrong?” His voice floated softly through the quiet night. My own grunt of acknowledgement sounded harsh to his gentle tone. I rolled over anyway and buried myself as close as possible to him, relaxing in the familiarity of his smell and body.

“This doesn’t feel like home anymore.” I finally told him, making what I thought that much more real. I had made a home back in London with the girls. My experiences in London were changing me to the point where I wasn’t the girl who fitted in here anymore.

“It’s still your home Annabelle. You just have to learn how everything works again.” Louis’ hand came up to play gently with my hair. “Everyone you love is here.” Sighing I snuggled in closer, letting my eyes fall shut.

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been very silent.” Louis shifted and didn’t reply until I thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“Did you want me to come here?” Louis finally asked, his voice sounded smaller than normal. I moved to look at him but his hand tightened on my head making sure it stayed resting on his chest. I placed my hand over his stomach instead and traced, what I hoped were, soothing circles.

“Of course. I’m glad someone’s here.” I told him honestly. He tensed up.

“But you didn’t ask me to come with you. I had to offer.” I didn’t know what was making Louis weird but I was tired and craving sleep.

“I just didn’t think you would want to come.” I yawned against him. “But I’m glad you did.” I rolled over and pushed my back into Louis side until he finally rested an arm over my hip. Smiling in contentment I finally allowed myself to fall asleep, stopping our conversation for the night.

-

“Lou, get up.” I continuously poked a squirming Louis until he finally pushed the blankets off his head.

“What do you want woman?” He growled out to me making me laugh. “And what time’s it?”

“Like 5.30, in the morning.” I shrugged and got off the bed, securing my board shorts around my waist.

“We’ve had five hours sleep why are you awake?” Louis groaned and pulled the blankets back over his head.

“Because my family is here to surf. And if you want good waves I would get up.” I threw his board shorts at him before leaving the room and headed downstairs to where all the noise was coming from.

“Annabelle!” Laughing, I allowed Ben to pull me into a hug, he smelt like pancakes and syrup.

“Missed you too.” I mumbled into his neck before glancing over at the table full of pancakes. “God I’m starving.” Rushing out of Ben’s arms I fell down into a seat next to my other cousin Christian, Ben’s older brother.

“Heard you brought your boyfriend with?” Christian nudged me, trying to grab more pancakes before I could get to them. I stabbed his fork with mine and successfully grabbed mine.

“Yeah he’s upstairs, hopefully getting ready.”

“He’s going to surf?” Ben asked surprised, sitting down across from us. I nodded and covered my pancakes with maple syrup.

“Yep.” I popped the ‘p’ before shoveling pancakes into my mouth. I watched both boys, they stayed silent, finishing of their own pancakes. I rolled my eyes at their weird behavior. They would soon see how normal Louis could be.

I looked up at the door when Annalisa walked in.

“Well Happy Birthday sunshine!”I called out, grinning and sweeping her into a hug. She grumbled and pushed my face away, heading for the juice that was in a pitcher on the table. “Aren’t you just joyful this time of morning?” She glared at me before shoveling pancakes onto her own plate.

“You coming out surfing?” Ben asked Annalisa who just nodded but stayed silent. I shared an amused look with Ben before we all went back to eating. Annalisa would perk up eventually.

I was almost done by the time a tired Louis stumbled into the kitchen; smiling fondly I grabbed a plate for him and served his own pancakes to him, even though they had grown slightly cold. Louis fell down in the chair next to me with a sigh and immediately dug in, his expression matched Annalisa’s alarmingly well. I glanced at Christian and Ben who watched Louis, surprised.

“When Lou’s more coherent I’ll introduce ya’s.” I grinned as Louis looked up suddenly staring at the other two boys at the table like he just noticed them and Annalisa.

“Sorry.” He quickly held out his hand to Christian. “Louis.” The boys introduced each other before Louis turned to my sister and ruffled the mess of hair on top of her head wishing her a happy birthday. Louis could thank his celebrity status for not getting his hand bitten of by that action. Though Annalisa did look to be having trouble restraining. Laughing again, I grabbed the plates and dumped them in the sink.

“Go get ready Lissy, we’ll meet you in the water.” I grabbed Louis hand and tugged him from the table, Christian and Ben were cleaning themselves up before ruffling Annalisa’s hair and running out the door.

“Come on, I’ll find you a board in Dad’s shed.” I tugged Louis along out back while Christian and Ben grabbed their boards and took off straight into the water. Opening the doors Louis eyes widened at the selection of boards. “Take your pick.” I gestured to him, grabbing my own blue board, seeing that it had been cleaned and readied for me already. God knows what time Ben and Christian had arrived this morning. I waited patiently for Louis before we made out way down onto the beach. Ben was already up on his board, riding a wave.

“I can’t believe you grew up with this practically being your backyard.” Louis stared wide-eyed at the large expanse of blue water in front of us. I looked up at the clear blue sky, the wasn’t one cloud in sight, it was going to be a perfect day.

“Pretty amazing huh?” I smiled at Louis before taking off running into the freezing cold water. I pushed through the waves, on my board and enjoyed the chills of the water a stark contrast to the sun’s heat. I could hear Louis behind me as we made our way to wear Ben sat patiently while Christian headed towards his next wave.

“Ready to show us what you got Tomlinson?” Ben grinned over at Louis, winking. I had a feeling he was going to turn this into a national contest.

-

It isn’t until much later that we noticed them all.

“There are people taking photos,” I looked over to wear Annalisa pointed and noticed a group of people not far from our large family who had set up a picnic, taking photos of us, particular us in the water. Frowning I called Louis over before gesturing over to them. He frowned, but shrugged like it was normal.

“Nothing we can do about Belle. They always find us. Just do your best to ignore them.” Louis smiled at Annalisa and pushed her off her board before quickly swimming away, she laughed and climbed back on, taking off after him. I looked back at the paparazzi, feeling awkward in my own skin, seeing them all there.

“It’s fine Belly.” Annalisa called out gesturing me over to where my Dad and Uncle Craig had joined us. It seemed Dad and Louis had started up a contest.

“You going to join or just sit there all day?” Uncle Craig called out. Grinning I paddled over to them, splashing him as much as possible.

“None of us care you know sweetie.” Uncle Craig tapped my leg to keep my attention off the photographers.

“I do.” I mumbled to him before shooting him a weak smile and calling out for the next wave. Swimming past a bicker Ben and Lina I grabbed the next wave letting the motions and rush distract me from the outside world.

We all stayed out there until stomachs started grumbling and my Auntie Julie called us in for lunch. I paddled in next to Louis companionably and grabbed plates of food for us from the Barbeque.

“Hey, I have a question.” Louis said the moment we fell down on the beach chairs that had been set up. I looked at him encouragingly. “Am I the first guy you’ve bought home?” I chewed the piece of chicken on the stick for a moment before nodding at him.

“Yeah, I’ve never really had serious boyfriends before. Just guys that were there that I hung with a lot but no one really serious enough to bring home. This is actually the first time I’ve been in a proper relationship like that.” I admitted to Louis before taking a sip of the can of coke we were sharing. Louis looked entirely too happy and smug while he continued to eat his food.

“Tosser.” I teased him, nudging his shoulder, making the chair almost tip over. He squawked and flailed managing to stay upright and not drop his food.

“Your families great,” Louis commented after he made sure his food was safe, “unlike you. I have no idea how you came from these people.” He added on, his tone teasing. I rolled my eyes and dug back into the food. I had no idea why Louis insisted on making the family introductions a bigger event then they were.