Illusion

Bella sat in the library with a book laid on the table in front of her. On the page she was currently on was a red party invitation. Of course, she usually would throw away the invitation and not give it a second thought but this one was different. It was from Mr. Louis Tomlinson. Louis was a bad boy of sorts who blew his parents money and didn't have a care in the universe if that hurt anyone's feelings. Of course, Bella knew quite a bit about Louis. Their parents had been friends for years were but Bella and Louis were far from being close in any way. She had always described the two them as oil and water. She couldn't stand Louis and she had good reasons. Louis was a slacker and every single time the class would have group work, Bella would do it all. He only ever talked to her if he needed something and he would completely ignore her existence for the remainder of the time.

So, the question was: Why invite invisible Bella to a party? If it was school work, he would have asked her at school and-

"Earth to Bells," Liam said, snapping his fingers in front of her face to get her attention.

Bella shook her head and sighed, closing the book on the invitation. "Sorry, I got distracted by that invitation."

Liam shook his head at her absent mind and started walking out of the library, Bella quickly falling behind. "I think you should go. I mean how else will you find out why the bastard invited you in the first place."

"What if it's all a big plan to murder me? He could be dragging me to his house to offer me to the Gods," she said dramatically which caused Liam to grown.
"The only one going to be murdered is Niall for letting you watch scary movies yesterday."

As if on cue, Niall came bounding down the hallway, his blonde hair in perfect condition as he bounced.

"Were your ears burning, Horan? Liam was just talking about murdering you," Bella said and Niall gasped as melodramatic as he could.

"That's not nice, Liam James!"

Liam just shrugged and continued towards the front doors of the school. There was a small silence before Niall took it as his turn to speak.

"So, are we going to that party or what?" he asked and Bella sighed gently as the sunlight hit her face. She would be lying if she said she wasn't curious as to why Louis invited her to his party but she was afraid it was something that she wasn't prepared for.

"Yes, yes we are."

❤❤❤❤❤

"Bella Marie, if you do not come down right now, I will come up there and get you," yelled Niall from the platform of the stairs. Bella just rolled her eyes and checked herself in the mirror again. To say she was nervous was an understatement but she knew if she backed out now, Niall would pester to infinity and beyond. So, she fixed her dress once more before heading downstairs to meet Niall. Liam had opted to stay home claiming parties weren't his forte.

"It's about bloody time, Bells," Niall greeted as Bella hit the platform. She ignored him and walked out of the house, him laughing behind her.

By the time they got to Louis' house, it was already an hour past the invite time. Bella expected it to be in full swing but when she got out, there were only about a dozen cars in the drive.

"Wonder what kind of party this is if there are less that thirty people."

Niall ignored her and pulled her towards the house. When they walked in, it seemed like a regular party minus the people. Bella would almost swear it seemed exclusive.

"Bella, you made it," a familiar voice called from the stairs. Louis stood there in a black button up with his hair combed out of his eyes, a wide smile plastered on his face.

Niall took that moment as his cue to leave which gave Bella no choice but to talk to the brunette. "Well, you invited me, didn't you?" she asked which earned a small chuckle from him.

"I did do that," he said before turning towards the kitchen. "Follow me."

Bella looked at him quizzically. She wanted to ask him some questions not follow him to the kitchen.

"I promise after we get a drink, I'll answer your question," he said, taking her hand to pull her in the desired direction.

When the pair got to the kitchen, Louis quickly started making some alcoholic concoction that Bella didn't know nor wanted to find out what it was. A soon as he finished, he handed a cup to her before motioning her to follow him outside.

The pair plopped into pool chairs before Bella turned towards Louis who had a smug look on his face.

"Louis why am I here?"

He looked at her and smiled a devilish grin. "Because you wanted to be."

She groaned deeply and stood up from her position. "Cut the bad boy act and answer my question, Tomlinson!"

Louis was taken aback by her sudden rise in confidence but his face quickly melted into a nervous stare. "You're here because I needed a reason for you to talk to me."

"Why do you want to talk to me? There is this thing called paying attention to someone," she spat and his face turned to annoyance.

"You are one to talk about about paying attention to someone," he said and Bella scoffed before downing some of the burning liquid.

"You've ignored my whole existence for five years unless it benefitted you. If we didn't have an assignment, you would never talk to me."

"That's a lie," he said before standing up in front of her. "You've ignored me. Every time I would start up a conversation,you would shut me out!"

Bella wanted to shoot down his accusation but quickly stopped to think about it. He was right. "Then why make an effort now?"

It was Louis who was then speechless as he tried to gather words. "I couldn't take being a wallflower in your life anymore. I want to be in your life. I have for a while."

"Louis, if you're playing some sick joke, I'll cut you."

He brushed off the death threat and smiled lightly. "I would never do that to you," he said with a genuine look that made Bella almost melt to the floor. This was crazy. She believed every word he said.

"Okay, I believe you."

Louis looked in her eyes and moved closer, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Really?"

"Really."