Chapter eleven – kisses

Sydney's POV

Lou had sat the entire evening and barely spoke more then two words. It hurt to see him like this, he had comforted me and I wanted to be able to comfort him. We had all danced together, but occasionally the boys would go up to girls who were standing alone and ask them to dance. I thought it was sweet of them, especially the way they had made the girls faces become filled with happiness.

The boys had all found girls to dance with as The Only Exception by Paramore started playing. I really wanted to dance to this song, as it was one of my favorites. I looked around at boys who might possibly ask me to dance, but found none. My head turned to face Louis, who looked more depressed then ever.

Standing up, I held my hand out to him, "May I have this dance?" I smiled, as his eyes looked up to meet mine.

He did nothing in response and I then knew that whatever was wrong was serious. "You're not going to make me drag you out there," I said, crossing my arms and tapping my toe. He knew all too well that I was serious and he reluctantly stood up and took my hand.

We walked to the middle of the floor and he slid his arms around my waist. We swayed in silence for a while before we heard Zayn talking next to us. "You should DM me on Twitter tonight. You know, only if you want to."

This made both of us laugh, breaking the tension. I decided to finally speak as I saw my opportunity.

"Louis, I know something is wrong. Now, I don't know what it is, and if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you need me."

He stayed silent, just looking in my eyes and dancing. "Lou, please. Say something."

"Well," he started. "Erm, Eleanor and I, well, we broke up."

"Oh my goodness," I began, but was interrupted.

"She saw a picture of us from the night we met. The one of me hugging you and she just blew everything out of proportion and she always does that, you know. So I just got sick of it and ended it."

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I didn't know what to say or how to say it. I could tell that he knew I wanted to help but didn't know how.

He spoke again to help me, "I'm over her, and I really am. I just wish it would have ended differently. Also, please don't blame yourself. And the fans, well, some of them are happy about the news, some not so much. But they'll fall in love with you just like everyone else."

"Wait, what do you mean like everyone else? No one loves me."

"Syd, everyone does. All the guys talk about is how beautiful and amazing you are. I hear random conversations about how fantastic you are all the time. I really don't understand how you don't see it."

"I don't see it, because it's not there. There's nothing about me to love."

"You're ridiculous, any guy would be lucky to have you, and I'm using the next seven months to prove it to you."

I started to tear up as he kissed my forehead and pulled me in tighter. My arms were wrapped tightly around his neck as the song changed. Luckily it was another slow song and we didn't have to break apart.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned my head to see Harry standing there. "May I cut in?" he asked.

Louis bowed out gracefully as Harry's hands replaced themselves on my hips.

"Hello beautiful," he said as we started moving.

"Hi Harry." I stated, wishing I could still be dancing with Louis.

"Sydney, I have something I want to talk to – oh hold on, Gemma is calling."

I waited while he spoke to his sister. "Hello? … Yeah, I'm here. … Okay, I'll send you one." He hung up the phone but didn't put it away. "Gemma wants a picture, do you mind?"

"Of course not," I said. He held the phone in the air and took a picture. I wasn't satisfied with it, but I figured she wouldn't care. He quickly sent the photo and we resumed dancing.

"As I was saying," he continued. "I wanted to talk to you about something, something very important."

"Go ahead, what's up?"

"Well, I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and well, Sydney, you're perfect."

"Thanks, but, I'm very far from perfect."

"No, really, you are. For me."

"What do you mean?"

"Sydney, I-" he paused. Before I knew it his lips had met mine. I didn't kiss him back, but I didn't pull away. I had no clue where this had come from, Harry and me? No.

He pulled away and looked at me, "So?"

"I-I-I… Harry, I can't."

"What do you mean, you 'can't'?"

"I mean, this is all too sudden. I barely know you and this would just complicate everything. Besides, I know the fans couldn't handle it and I couldn't handle it. I'm also a mess; you would never want to deal with me. I just, there's a lot going on right now and adding this onto it would be a whole other thing. You're great; don't get me wrong. I just don't deserve you."

I quickly shut my mouth and stopped rambling. I relieved his hands from my waist and turned around to walk away. I could hear him calling my name as I got further and further away from him. I could hear the pain in his voice and it killed me inside.

I hurried as I grabbed my bag from the table and headed towards the restroom, this was too much for me to handle this evening.