I sat on the couch in Louis and Harry's apartment, laughing at a joke Louis had just told. I'd been in London a week, and aside from my shoot with Hollister I had spent nearly all that time with the boys.

After being reasonably quiet at Milkshake City, Louis had turned out to be just as loud as his reputation suggested, and being the closest to my age I got along with him the best.

Louis sat next to me, his arm around the back of the couch. He winked at me, tugging at a lock of my hair.

Harry walked into the room, his phone in his hand after talking to someone on it. "Aw, what a cute couple." He raised his phone, ready to capture the supposed moment.

I blushed, duckling behind Louis to avoid the camera.

Harry and Louis laughed, before Harry picked my bag up off the table and held it out for me. "That was Maxie. She said two things. First, answer your damn phone. And second, she'll be here soon."

I laughed, standing up and taking my bag. Louis stood up beside me, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"I'll drive you there if you want." He offered, smiling at me.

I nodded, flicking my hair off my shoulder and smiling back.

Harry raised his hand. "What about me?"

Louis grinned. "You can come if you can find your car seat."

Harry snorted. "Love you too, Boo Bear."

Louis rolled his eyes playfully, gesturing for me to lead the way to the car.

We arrived at the airport fifteen minutes before Maxie's flight was scheduled to arrive. Very surprisingly, we spent those fifteen minutes with no fan interaction at all. Either the fans were on strike or they hadn't realised the boys were here yet.

Harry left to go get the three of us some tea, leaving Louis and I alone. I yawned, covering my mouth my hand to hide it.

Louis smiled at me. "Tired?"

I just nodded, resting my head on his shoulder out of sheer fatigue.

He rubbed his hand up and down my back, resting his head on top of mine.

"What do we have here?"

I looked up to see Maxie standing in front me with all her luggage, her eyebrow raised at the scene before her.

I jumped up, letting Maxie throw herself at me, wrapping my arms around her.

Maxie finally let me go, smiling at something over my shoulder. "Harold!"

She went over to Harry, and I turned back to Louis. He just smiled at me, handing me one of the teas Harry had given him.

I looked over to see Maxie and Harry whispering to each other conspiringly. I looked at Louis and raised an eyebrow. "What are they up to?"

He shrugged. "Probably something we don't want to know about."

I laughed, letting him lead me back to the car. Harry and Maxie followed us, still whispering away.

Louis and Harry dropped Maxie and I off at my apartment, bidding us goodbye for the night. Maxie was in the house before I could get up the stairs, instantly knowing where my spare key would be.

She spun around to face me. "So…I have news that will either make you hate me or love me."

I groaned. "You meddled in something, didn't you?"

She nodded, taking hold of my shoulders. "Well you know how I was talking with Harry before?"

I groaned again, nodding.

She shushed me, giving me a disapproving look. "Well we both agree that you and Louis seem awfully close."

I shrugged. "And? So what?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You know what."

I gasped. "You didn't. No, Maxine. Please tell me you didn't."

She smiled devilishly. "Harry and I are going to set you and Louis up."

I groaned, smacking her upper arm. "Maxine! How could you!"

She yelped. "Oh, please. Don't be so dramatic, Elle."

I hit her again, less hard this time though. "How could you set me up with Louis? Better yet, what makes you think he'll agree to it? Why in the world would he?"

She raised an eyebrow. "That's it, isn't it? It's not that you don't want to date him, you just think he doesn't want to date you."

I groaned, flopping down on the couch. "And then our friendship will be ruined."

She shook her head, laughing slightly. "You're an idiot, Elle."

I glared at her. "Friendship ruiner" I accused.

She laughed again, patting my back before walking in the direction of her room. "Trust me, Elle."

I buried my face in my hands, thinking that this was Maxie's worst idea yet.

I fiddled with the sleeves of my white sweater, pulling them down over my knuckles. Sliding my hands into the back pockets of my jeans, I stood up.

After a long argument with Maxie over how I was nowhere near Louis' type, I had finally agreed to go on the date.

And now I was afraid that Louis had stood me up.

We weren't doing anything major, only going to see a movie. It's not like it was a huge deal, Louis and I were friends. But still, my stomach was knotted worse than a pretzel.

Louis was only ten minutes late, but all my worries about him thinking that this date as beyond ridiculous were slowly eating away at me.

I sat back down, tucking one leg underneath me. Just when I was about to call it quits, there was a knock at the door.

I grabbed the key off the dining table, unlocking and opening the door. Louis stood there, an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry I'm late." He looked down, and it almost looked like he was blushing. "The boys were helping me get ready."

I smiled. "They did a good job."

He looked up, grinning. He tugged at his striped shirt. "This was the only thing I really had a say in. Zayn can be pretty demanding when he wants to be. And Liam just stood there lecturing me about 'how to treat a lady'."

I laughed. "I'm surprised you even made it then."

He smiled. "Niall just ate. And Harry really only had one thing to say. He just kept reminding me how fit you are."

Now it was my turn to blush. "Harry's full of it" I murmured.

Louis smiled gently. "I just think he's silly to think I could forget."

I felt my face turn an even darker shade of red, and I bit my lip to hide my grin.

"You look amazing, El."

I didn't think it was possible for me to blush any further, but somehow I managed. I gestured over my shoulder back into my apartment. "I'll just grab my bag and we can go."

Louis nodded, smiling.

Walking to the theater, we chatted about nothing in particular. It didn't feel unusual, just Louis and me hanging out.

We saw The Inbetweeners, Louis vowing to teach the boys the dance. I spent the movie trying to decide who was funnier, the movie or Louis. Thankfully there weren't many people in the theater, so no one got mad at us for being too loud.

I could have almost fooled myself into thinking it was nothing more than two friends seeing a movie, until Louis took my hand and led me to the ice cream shop across the road from where we were currently walking.

"And no date is complete without food."

After Louis had bought us both ice creams, we ate them while sneakily sitting on the chairs outside the cafe next to the ice cream parlor, not caring that we weren't customers.

"I'm glad that Maxie forced you to do this. I had fun."

I instantly felt bad. Goodness knows where he thought I stood in this whole situation.

"Oh no, Louis. She didn't force me. I wanted to come, I just thought that you'd think it was silly."

He smiled, leaning forward to wipe away ice cream from the corner of my mouth. "You're silly."

I smiled, standing up with him. He instantly took my hand, swinging it slightly.

At my front door, I was completely lost. I didn't really know what to do here. "Lou, I had a really good ti-"

Louis cut me off, taking hold of my hip and pulling me to him, leaning down to kiss me.

I threaded my arms around his neck, kissing him back before pulling away. "Night, Lou."

He smiled. "Night, El."

I closed the door behind me, leaning against it. Biting my lip, I looked down at my buzzing phone as the screen lit up with Louis' name.

So pick you up tomorrow, five thirty?