Lost in London

It was just past their regular Sunday call time when Reilly signed into Skype. Within moments a call from Lexie popped up one the screen. She hit the answer button and the pretty blonde girl she'd known for more than ten years appeared in front of her.

"I danced again," Reilly said excitedly, before her friend could say anything.

Lexie's expression went from one of uncertainty to confusion. "What?" she asked. The girls hadn't spoken since they had discussed Zachary on Thursday, so whatever Reilly might be talking about was completely foreign to Lexie.

"On stage. In front of people," she said. "Niall invited me to his friend's concert Friday night, and he pulled me on stage and I danced with him and then he kissed me," she explained quickly.

"Wait," Lexie said, holding up her hand before Reilly could go any further. "The leprechaun kissed you?" she asked.

Confusion clouded Reilly's expression. "What? No. Olly kissed me," she said.

"Who's Olly?"

Reilly took a deep breath and started over, giving her friend a less rushed explanation. She had forgotten for a moment that her friend wasn't up to speed, and that they weren't actually telepathically connected, though they sometimes seemed to be. She didn't, however, go into the part where Niall got mad at her. That would undoubtedly come later in the conversation. At the moment she was just excited about having danced in front of people again, instead of alone in her living room or bedroom to help unwind and relieve stress.

"I'm sore, though," she said, once she'd caught Lexie up. "I wasn't warmed up. But it was still so fun. I forgot what a rush it is."

"I'll bet," Lexie said. "Hey, can I ask you something?" she said.

Reilly's eyebrows pulled together. "Sure," she said.

"Why didn't you tell me that the leprechaun is an international pop star?" she asked, straight faced.

She chuckled. "Oh, that. Well, I actually didn't know until Thursday night," she trailed off. "Wait, how did you find out?" she asked.

Lexie clucked her tongue, but didn't say anything for a second. She focused on something in front of her, eyes darting around the screen. Reilly could hear her tapping on the keyboard before she reached for her phone and typed something onto the screen. When she finished, she turned it around and held it up so Reilly could see.

She was looking at a dark, fuzzy picture of herself in pajamas, standing outside Niall's door, and Niall just inside. Above the picture, the headline read, 'Niall Horan Finally Off The Market?' with the subheadline 'One Direction Star caught with late night visitor.'

A groan escaped her. "Can you send me that?" she asked.

Within moments a chat box popped up with a link. Reilly clicked it and the article loaded immediately. Pictures littered the text, the fuzzy one of her standing outside, then a more clear one of her leaving, messy haired, in the morning, and another of her returning to Louis'. The article questioned who she was, and what she was doing hopping back and forth between the homes of two different One Direction members. It speculated that Louis might be cheating on his girlfriend, and did they know she was involved with both of them? It went on to say that this could be the beginning of the the end for the popular boy band.

She groaned again and clicked on a link at the bottom of the article. A similar article populated in front of her, this one including a grainy picture of her leaving Louis' before going to Niall's. It posed the same questions as the first article she read. She clicked another link and was redirected to an article about her lunch with Liam, Zayn, and their girlfriends. She was referred to as a 'mystery girl' who was 'suddenly very much in One Direction's world'. That part wasn't untrue.

The whole truth, though, was that she and Niall had spent the entire night talking, something that seemed to come very easily to them. At some point they had both fallen asleep. When she woke up in the morning, she went back to Louis' because she had left her phone there and he wouldn't be able to reach her, and she didn't want him to worry. She sighed as she closed the internet browser and her friend reappeared in front of her.

"You okay?" Lexie asked.

"I can explain all of that," she said, suddenly feeling exhausted. "But, I mean, should I call Louis and tell him about it? He should know about this so he's not blindsided by an angry phone call from his girlfriend, right?"

"I don't know, Rei," Lexie said. "Do you think this is something that hasn't happened before?"

"I have no idea. We don't talk about them being famous," she said. And it was true. Niall had only told her because she had asked a question that didn't give him any other choice. "I'm sorry, Lex, but I have to call him. Can you give me a minute?" she asked. "He's going to hate me," she said.

She looked distraught as she reached for her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found Louis' name. She hit the call button and put the phone to her ear. Lexie gave her a reassurring look as she listened to the line ring.

"'Ello, Love," Louis' cheerful voice greeted her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your lovely voice on this beautiful Sunday afternoon?"

Under any other circumstances, she would have been smiling, and probably giggling. He obviously hadn't seen the headlines on the gossip sites yet, and she was concerned with how he would take the news.

"Louis, I'm so sorry," she said.

"What for?" he asked, obviously confused.

"I was so stupid the other night. I shouldn't have left your place to go over to Niall's," she said.

A chuckle sounded through the line. "Reilly, Love, what are you talking about?" he asked.

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before she answered. "My friend sent me a link to a website that had pictures of me leaving your place the other night, and going to Niall's and then going back to your place in the morning. It said something about you cheating on your girlfriend. I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid," she said.

Louis laughed again. "You're not stupid. The gossip sites write about us all the time. My girlfriend knows you were here the other night, and she knows you borrowed her pajamas. It's fine. And you don't need to apologize. If anything, Niall and I should be apologizing to you for getting dragged into it," he said.

Reilly breathed a sigh of relief. "You're really not mad?" she asked.

"Of course not, Love. Don't you worry your pretty little head about it for another moment. I'll make some calls to management and see if there's any kind of damage control that can be done about this. But unfortunately there's nothing any of us can do to keep you out of it. If they see you with us, they'll take pictures of you and they'll write about you. I don't like it any more than you do, trust me," he said. "Just remember, they're only words, Love. Some people will believe them, and some people won't. But all the people who matter know the truth," he told her.

"Thanks Louis," she said.

"I'll talk to you soon, friend," he said.

She dropped her phone into her lap when after she hung up and looked at her friend on the computer screen in front of her. "He's not worried about it," she said.

"That's good, right?" Lexie asked, and Reilly nodded. "Good. Now, can we change the subject for a just a minute? I don't want to upset you, but I think we should talk about Zachary," she said.

Reilly nodded. After she and Niall had discussed Olly, and he shrugged off her questions about why it mattered to him, he asked why Lexie seeing Zachary had upset her so much. She tried to explain it to him, but it all came out very nonsensical. He explained to her in a way that seemed to make a lot of sense that it had nothing to do with her and that the way she was acting wasn't fair to Lexie.

"I overreacted," Reilly conceded.

"Okay," Lexie said.

"You deserve to be happy. And it's not really my place to tell you who you can and can't date, especially since I'm a couple thousand miles away. I think, if you want to date him, then you should. It doesn't involve me. I know he's a really good person, and you deserve that," she said.

The blonde smiled. "Thank you, Rei. You know your opinion means the world to me," she said. "But honestly, I don't know if it's going to go anywhere with us. There wasn't really any spark between us. It was just like, I don't know, having dinner with a friend," she paused for a moment, contemplating if she wanted to say what ended up coming next. "We talked about you," she said.

"Oh," Reilly replied, not knowing what else to say.

"He feels really terrible about disappearing from your life. He wants to explain to you why he did it, but he's afraid you don't want anything to do with him. He said he wouldn't blame you, if that's the case," she said.

Reilly stared down the keyboard for a minute, trying to figure out if she wanted to talk to him. She shrugged as she looked up. "Did he tell you why?" she asked.

Lexie shook her head. "He said he wants to tell you first, because you're the one he hurt," she said.

"I don't know, Lex," she said. "But I think you still give it a shot with him. Maybe I was part of the problem. Not to make it all about me, just, you know."

"Yeah, I know. We'll see," she said, and then changed the subject. "So, tell me all about your apparently big night with the leprechaun."