Rachel’s P.O.V.

“You know I wouldn’t mind. Like, at all. Honestly, it’d be kind of cute – my best friend dating my brother,” I told Skylar, as I was doing my eyeshadow.

We were in our room, getting ready for the party. Lizzie had opted not to come, as she was spending the evening with Michael. I still felt a bit awkward around them – Michael had been the only one that knew Ashton was cheating on me, he had admitted it to me in Spain, and apologised profusely for helping him cover it up.

I had forgiven him before too long. Although I had felt slightly betrayed that Michael wouldn’t have told me about it, Ashton was his best friend, it made sense that he would have his back, and he genuinely seemed to feel really guilty about the whole situation, promising he told Ashton how wrong it was many times. Despite this, Michael and I weren’t really friends anymore. We’d exchange polite greetings whenever we ran into each other but it always seemed somewhat tense.

Calum was the only one of the boys I had managed to salvage a friendship with. Luke and I were sort of still friends of course, as a result of him dating Skylar, but since I had broken up with Ashton, I felt slightly awkward around him too, and we honestly didn’t have a whole lot in common.

“That’s good to know, Rachel. But like I said, I’m not dating your brother,” Skylar deadpanned, as she fixed on her false eyelashes.

“Sure, but if you were to date him, I’d have no problem with it, just saying,” I replied.

“I’ve told you a million times, Rach, Harry and I were just hanging out,” she countered. “And I’m dating Luke,” she added as an afterthought.

I mulled over her words for a second. Sure, I knew her and Luke were together, but there was always something between Harry and Skylar, and when she chose Luke over him, it absolutely crushed him. I couldn’t let that happen again.

“Okay, fine. You guys are just friends. Just please, make sure he knows that this time ‘round, okay? You know how heartbroken he got over you, and I don’t blame you Sky, you love Luke, I get it. Just please don’t mess Harry around,” I pleaded softly.

Skylar was my best friend and I loved her, but seeing Harry so upset over her last year was simply heart breaking. I knew she would never do it on purpose, but she had led him on and then cut him off, and it took so long for Louis and I to get him back to normal. I didn’t want him to suffer through that again under any circumstance.

“I-“ she started to respond, but knocking on the door interrupted her. When I answered, Harry and Louis were waiting for us. We took a taxi to the party, as the house wasn’t very close to campus. When we got in, Skylar and I wandered away from the boys to dance for a while. We had been pre-drinking while we were getting ready so we were already slightly buzzed, but we continued to drink as we danced, getting more into it as the time passed by.

We were talking about going to find Harry and Louis, when all of a sudden Luke was behind Skylar covering her eyes. She seemed surprised to see him, especially considering she had told me he wasn’t coming. He quickly pulled her off to the side somewhere, so I was left alone.

I wandered around for a while, looking for Louis, before I eventually spotted him, leaning up against a wall, talking to someone. I made my way over to him quickly.

“I’ve been looking for you,” I exclaimed, immediately catching his attention.

Although he didn’t respond, his answering smile made me smile too.

“Come dance with me?” I offered him my hand, hoping he would accept. When he grabbed my hand, he quickly laced our fingers together, causing my smile to widen. I couldn’t tear my gaze from his, until I was distracted by someone clearing their throat.

When I spotted Delia, I greeted her warmly and she quickly sent me and Louis on our way, insisting she could entertain herself. I pulled Louis deeper into the crowd of people, finding a spot for us to dance. And dance we did. With the musically constantly changing, our dancing style varied. We went from bobbing along to the beat, to dancing ridiculously over the top, making us both burst into laughter, to dancing sensually, our bodies close together.

It was only when we dancing like this, our bodies almost flush together, that I really thought about how attractive Louis was. The way he was dancing outlined his defined torso, his arms which had moved to wrap lightly around my waist were tan and toned. It took me a few seconds to realise we had stopped dancing entirely, and were simply standing still, his arms still encircling my waist, just staring at each other.

We were so close, I could feel his breath on my face. Neither of us moved a muscle for another thirty seconds, before I spotted Harry out of the corner of my eye, watching us curiously. He looked away as soon as I met his eye, starting up conversation with Demi, who was sitting next to him, but the moment had been broken.

I pulled back from Louis, gently, nodding over to where Niall, Eleanor, Demi and Harry were sitting on a couch on the other side of the room. Louis began making him way over to the couch, and I followed behind him closely.

“Rachel!” Eleanor squealed, immediately jumping up from her seat to pull me into a hug. “Its been far too long. How are you, darling?” she giggled. Demi too stood up to hug me, and when they sat back down, Eleanor had to sit on Niall’s lap, now that Louis was sitting on the couch too. I glanced across, looking for somewhere to sit, before shrugging and plopping down onto Louis lap, crossing my legs and wrapping an arm loosely around his neck.

“So what have you two been up to?” Harry asked, his tone suspicious. I just laughed loudly, avoiding his question, while Louis shrugged.

“We’ve just been dancing really, haven’t seen you much since we got here,” He replied, casually.

Harry rolled his eyes at Louis response but didn’t question it.

“So Harry, about Skylar –“

“Oh my God, Rachel, nothing is going on between Skylar and me,” Harry groaned, though I stuggled to hear him over the loud music.

The urge to feel Louis hair had become too much and I quickly combed my fingers through it, almost gasping aloud when I did. His hair was so much softer than I had imagined.

“That’s good Harry, that’s what I wanted to say. Skylar’s with Luke, I don’t want you getting the wrong idea and getting your heart broken again,” I told Harry as I continued to comb my hand through Louis’ hair. Louis was looking at me weirdly but chose not to say anything.

“I’m not a baby, Rachel, I can handle myself,” Harry grumbled, although not unkindly.

“Hey, Rach, I gotta go to the bathroom,” Louis told me, nudging my side lightly.

I stood up to let him get up, and quickly took his seat as he walked away, watching him as he wove through the crowd, disappearing from sight.

“What’s the deal with you two?” Harry’s question made me turn my head to face him so quickly, my neck made a cracking sound.

“What do you mean?”

“You and Louis. What’s going on with you two?” He repeated.

“I have no idea what you mean,” I replied coolly, willing my cheeks not heat up at all and give anything away. There was nothing going on between Louis and I, sure. But did I want there to be?

“Oh come on, Rachel, I’m not completely oblivious,” he folded his arms, fixing me with an even stare.

“Au contraire, dear brother, Louis and I actually happened to be dating behind your back once, for a quite some time and you were painfully clueless,” I retorted.

“So is that what’s going on now? You guys are secretly dating again?” he continued on, completely missing the point.

“What? No! Harry, there is absolutely nothing going on between Louis and I. We’re just friends. Good friends. Okay?” I explained quickly.

He was still biting his lip, thoughtfully, but he didn’t say anymore on the matter, as Louis reappeared then, and I retook my seat on his lap.

We spent a while on the couch, the six of us, chatting and joking around. Eleanor seemed pretty drunk, and when she leaned up to kiss Niall, we quickly disbanded. The four of us danced for a while, specifically avoiding the couch, where Niall and Eleanor were now full on making out.

The night passed by in a flash, and before I knew it, I was back in a taxi on the way home. Harry had wandered off somewhere not long before we left and had text me to leave without him, that he would follow us back. And so, it was just Demi, Louis and I in the taxi. Once we got out and had split the fare, we went our separate ways. Demi waved goodbye to us both, and headed off in the direction of her apartment.

“Well that was fun,” I announced, as Louis and I began walking towards my apartment. I shivered slightly in the cold winter air, and before I could protest, Louis had handed me his jacket. I pulled it on quickly, humming in pleasure at the sudden warmth.

“Mmm, Louis, your jacket smells like you,” I told him, my voice dreamy.

Louis laughed loudly in response to that.

“You’re such a weirdo, honestly Rachel,” he said, fondly.

Within a few minutes, we were at my door. I didn’t feel like giving the jacket back quite yet, it was warm and smelt like Louis’ cologne. Feeling like a stalker, I pulled the jacket a bit tighter on me.

“Thanks for walking me home, Louis. And for giving me your jacket, you’ve been a perfect gentleman,” I teased.

He grinned in response.

“You’re most welcome m’lady,” he responded, good-naturedly.

I couldn’t help but giggle a little.

“I can get the jacket back off of you tomorrow,” he added, noticing I was in no hurry to take it off.

“Thanks Louis, goodnight,” I quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek, as I had done earlier that week, without even thinking about it before hand. This time when I pulled away, I kept our faces closer together. He had sucked in a sharp breath when I kissed and was now staring at me intently, as If willing me to pull away.

“Goodnight Rachel,” he murmured, before pecking my forehead quickly.

Again, we both remained still, staring at each other, waiting for the other to make the next move. Eventually, I pressed another kiss, to his other cheek this time, muttering another “night, Louis,”. When he met my eye this time, his gaze dropped to my lips.

“Rach, you’re driving me crazy,” he mumbled, meeting my eye again.

“Oh yeah-“

A loud giggle cut me off, and Louis and I both turned out heads to see Lizzie and Michael making their way to the room. When they saw us, they stopped dead, obviously sensing the tension.

“So sorry Rachel, we were just –“

“No, no, it’s fine, I was just leaving actually. Just making sure Rachel got home safe,” Louis interrupted before I had a chance to say anything, taking a step back from me, putting a reasonable distance between us.

“See you tomorrow?” he asked me, smiling brightly.

I nodded in response.

“Of course, see you tomorrow Louis,” I replied, unable to contain a smile in response.

Louis immediately took off, leaving me standing in the hallway with Lizzie and Michael. Lizzie waggled her eyebrows, smirking at me.

“Don’t,” I said shortly.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” she shrugged in response, still smirking.

I unlocked the door, making my way into the room. Once I had I flung myself face first onto my bed, groaning loudly. “What on earth am I doing?”

Notes

Hope you liked this chapter my lovelies!
What are your thoughts on Rachel and Louis?
Would you rather she got back with Ashton?
What about Harry and Skylar?
Do you believe them that they're just friends?
And what would you like to see in store for Lizzie and Michael?

Please comment below with any comments, thought or criticism you may have on this and previous chapters.