I Can Love You More Than This

*beeeep beeeep beeeep*
My alarm rang on my phone. I slowly opened my eyes, and was immediately confused by my surroundings. As I looked around, my night started to come back to me, and I remembered I was at Louis'. Just as I thought about him, he began to stir.

"Thank you for stopping that awful beeping" he mumbled, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer to him.

"Louissss,” I grumbled, “I have to go to work. You said you'd drive me."

"Ughhh but why does work have to be so early?" He asked as he pulled away from me.

"Louis, I told you I had someone open for me so I wouldn’t have to go in early, it's already 10 am."

"Already?" He said, finally opening his eyes and looking at me, "I'll have you know I'm normally up at 11, maybe. This is early."

I just laughed, "Well, I'm really sorry to disturb your sleep schedule then, but you need to wake up. I'm going to go shower, ok?"

"Yay! Sleep!" He said, rolling back over and closing his eyes. I shook my head and got up as I find my way to their bathroom to get ready.

When I was done, I fully expected to see Louis still asleep in his bed. I was surprised, however, to find him up and dressed, with two travel mugs in his hand.

"I found coffee for you!" He said excitedly.

"Yay! Coffee!" I said as I snatched the mug from him & took a few gulps. As I did this, a groggy Harry walked by.

"Americans and their coffee." He muttered as he headed to the kitchen.

Louis drove me to work, and promised to pick me up when I was done. Lane got really excited when I explained I was staying with Louis temporarily.

"I knew it! I told you he had the hots for you!" She said triumphantly

"This doesn't mean anything, he's just being nice. We're friends, friends do nice things for each other."

"Yeah, but do friends cuddle each other when they fall asleep in the same bed?"

"Well... I mean... some might!" I said. She just laughed and walked away, knowing she had won this time. But it didn't matter. I knew Louis didn't like me. I mean, he's an international pop star, he could have any girl he wants, why would he choose me? Besides, I don't even know if I feel that way towards him, with everything else going on, it was hard to figure my feelings out.

About 10 minutes before I got done work, Louis texted me, "Sorry, love. I'm coming to pick you up, but I'm going to have to bring you back to the studio with me. I was able to grab you done extra clothes though, so you can change." I smiled, he was seriously the sweetest.

"I see you smiling! You love him!" Lane laughed as she pointed at me.

“I do not!” I said, “I’m just excited to be going to see them record for a little, that’s all!”

“Jealous! You’ll have to tell me all about it!” she said.

“Ok, I will, but you have to do me a favor first. Help me make some subs.”

………..

Half an hour later, I was walking into the building where the studio was with Louis, bags of subs in hand.

“Sarah, really, you didn’t have to make us food. And why the bloody hell did you make so many?”

“Well, you guys are letting me stay with you until I get everything with Zach figured out,” I cringed as I said the name, and Louis started to look mad. “And plus I didn’t know how many people it took to record an album, so I made extra!”

This made Louis laugh as he shook his head at me. “Sarah, you made like, 20 sandwiches. The boys and I are just recording vocals, so it’s just us and the 2 guys in the booth.”

“Oh… but wait, you forgot one thing”

“What’s that?”

“Niall is one of those people.”

Louis started cracking up as we walked through the door into the studio, causing everyone to look up.

“Yay! It’s Sarah!” Niall cheered. “OH AND YOU BROUGHT US FOOD!” he ran over and grabbed 2 of the subs out of the bag before I could even put them down, and started eating.

“Thank goodness, I’m starving.” Zayn said, following Niall and grabbing some food. “But what is this? Are you feeding an army?”

“Apparently Sarah thought it took one to record an album.” Louis said as he set his bag down and ruffled my hair.

“If you don’t stop picking on me I’m never being nice and making you food again.” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

“No! Louis, shut up! Leave her alone!” Niall said through a mouthful of food.

“Yeah, Louis, leave her alone, I’m sure we can find someone to eat these. Or just take them home.” Liam said, smiling at me, “We do appreciate them, Sarah, all this work really makes us hungry.”

At that, I had to laugh, “Oh yeah, because you guys look like you’re working so hard” I said, noticing that they all just seemed to be sitting around, not recording.

“Actually, we were just waiting on your loverboy here to come back. We finished up while he was gone, so he just has to record his part then we can go home.” Harry said smugly.

Him calling Louis my “loverboy” caused us both to blush, but I ignored it, and Louis said, “Alright, well, might as well get it over with then so we can go home, yeah?” he walked into the booth, and the producers counted him in. I got comfy on one of the couches as he started to sing.

Maybe I Just gotta wait.
Maybe this is a mistake.
I'm a fool, yeah,
Baby, I'm just a fool, yeah, oh, oh
Girl, what would you do?
Would you wanna stay
If I were to say?..
I wanna be last, yeah.
Baby, let me be your,
Let me be your last first kiss.
I wanna be first, yeah,
Wanna be the first to take it all the way like this.
And if you
Only knew.
I wanna be last, yeah,
Baby, let me be your last,
Your last first kiss

I smiled as he finished singing. He had an amazing voice, and all I wanted at that moment was to hear more of it. Instead, I heard someone clear their throat, and looked over to see Harry giving me a smug look. I looked back to Louis, and realized we had just been staring at each other, smiling like idiots. I blushed and looked down nervously, as their producer said, “Good, that was good. I think we’re going to do a few more takes though, but then that should be it.”

……….

After they were done, I had Louis take me back to my apartment. I wanted to see Kelly and make sure she was alright and everything, since we hadn’t gotten to talk after last night’s events. I walked inside, and she was already there. Before I could say anything, she ran over and hugged me.

“Are you ok?” She asked, “I was so worried when Louis called and told me what happened. Then a little freaked out, because I had been here until kind of late last night, and what if he had gotten in while I was in the shower or something. Ugh, he’s such a creep. But I’m more worried about you? Are you ok?”

“Yeah I’m fine!” I smiled at her as she looked at me suspiciously. “I swear I am!” Normally, I think I’d still be a wreck. But, I mean, with Louis around making sure I’m ok, I just feel great!”

Her suspicious look turned into a smile. “Good, I approve.”

“Approve of what?”

“You and him. It’s obvious you like him. And he likes you.”

“Ugh! You and Lane! Why on earth would Louis like me? He could have anyone he wants, so why would he pick me?!”

She just smiled some more, “Ok, first of all, you’re awesome, any guy would pick you in a heartbeat and 2…” she paused.

“What?!”

“You didn’t deny that you like him.”

“I… uhh… shut up! I don’t know how I feel ok. I mean, I think I might, but it’s so confusing with everything going on. And speaking of everything…” I was determined to change the subject, “Where have you been lately? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Oh. I umm… actually meant to talk to you about that. I’m kind of, sorta, seeing someone.”

“What?! Who?!” I was shocked. I didn’t know she even had any interests! The only boys we’d even hung around the past few weeks were… “Oh my god, is it one of the guys?” I asked.

“It might actually be Niall…”

“What?! And you didn’t tell me?!”

“I’m sorry! I wanted to! But Niall thought we should keep it a secret for now. We were all worried about you, and thought that us being together would take everyone’s attention away from you.”

“That’s so stupid!” I said, “It would have made me feel better to know about you guys. But wait… how long has this been going on? It’s only been a week since the concert?”

“Well, we started talking then, and then we kind of hung out a few times since then, and last night he finally took me on a proper date and asked me to be his girlfriend. I know it’s kind of soon, but I really, really like him. I can’t help it.”

“Wait a fucking second… were you at the house last night too?” She looked down, and I knew the answer, “Oh my god, you could have come to see me! I wouldn’t of been mad! I would’ve been relieved actually, not knowing where you were after what happened really freaked me out!”

“I’m sorry! I really am! Do you hate me?” She looked at me with puppy dog eyes, and although I did feel a little upset with her for all the secrets, I knew I couldn’t stay mad forever.

“Well I might,” I started as I glared at her, “But it’s hard when I’m so happy for you and Niall.”

“Yay!” she said as she hugged me.

“Now, why don’t I get Louis to drive us back to the house? I still don’t think we should stay here if they haven’t found Zach yet.”

“Agreed, let’s go!” We left and went out to Louis’ car. He looked at me a little confused when Kelly got in the back seat, but then he just shrugged and drove off; not bothering to ask what was going on.