Chapter 17 ~ Darcy

“Do you love him?” My little sister asks me when I’m in her room to kiss her goodnight. I look at her surprised and confused and she giggles. “Liam, I mean. Do you love him?” clarifies the little girl.

I’m still surprised then I giggle. My little sister, always so blunt. She definitely doesn’t know how to be subtle but I love her that way, it’s just a consequence of her brutal honesty.

“It’s too soon to tell,” I answer with a smile making myself comfortable next to her on her bed. “I care about him and we have fun together, but it’s too soon to know whether I love him or not.”

Lizzie looks at me confused as if she can’t understand why it’s too soon, as if my words make no sense to her and that makes me giggle a bit more. I guess I miss being her age when things were so simple. You loved the prince charming or not. It was whether black or white, no shades yet. But as you grow up, you discover how complex the world is and how nothing is simple anymore.

“Love, real love, takes time. You need to know the person first before saying if you love him. Liam and I are just starting a relationship and in the future, after we’ve got to know each other better, I’ll know if I love him or not,” I try to explain it to her caressing her soft curls.

“Why don’t you love him already? He’s amazing!” Oh Lizzie, always a Liam fan. “And I’m sure he loves you.”

“That only he knows, Lizzie. I fancy him very much,” I add with a smile. “But love takes more than being amazing. Love has to grow like a plant, you know? Like the flowers we have. You have to take care of them, water them, right?” She nods, following my analogy. “With love is the same. It takes time and a lot of care, otherwise it doesn’t grow and it may even die. What I feel for Liam now is the seed of something greater, but only time will tell if it grows into love or not.”

Lizzie thinks of what I’ve told her for a couple of minutes and I know she’s making an effort, I can tell by the way her brow furrows lightly until she smiles and her eyes are shining. “It will grow in the most beautify flower of love!” She exclaims and I chuckle. It’s a cute way to call it.

“We’ll see, now you need to sleep because tomorrow we have to go to the airport really early, remember?” I tell her and her smile grows wider and I can feel her excitement; it’s bubbling inside of me as well.

Mum gets home tomorrow.

“Good night, sweet dreams and don’t let the bed bugs bite you!” I tell her pulling her nose just to mess with her. I’ve done this since she’s a baby and she always reacts the same way: with a fit of giggles.

I leave her room after she wishes me good night and walk to my room to prepare myself to go to bed. I take my mobile from my nightstand and I see the notification of a text and I immediately smile when I see his name on the screen.

It has been almost a week since our date and we’ve seen each other only once and it was very briefly. He came over to see us after a photoshoot they had but he had to go soon, he was really tired. He was even paler than usual, reason why I insisted so much on him going home to get rest. Despite we haven’t seen each other as much as I would like we are always in touch. Little texts here and there, a call at night to wish good night and those kinds of things. I don’t text him all the time because I don’t want to seem clingy or needy. Carter told me that it’s never good to be like that because it gets annoying after a while.

Sometimes Liam sends me pictures when something funny or bizarre happens and we laugh. We’ve also had some FaceTime and even Harry had joined us, telling me how much he misses Lizzie and he’s dying to see us again. That boy is really attached to my little sister already and I know that she looks at him with adoration in her beautiful eyes.

I miss him too, but I miss Liam the most. I want to see him and spend time with him, even a little bit, but I know he’s busy and he ends up dead on his feet every day, so I don’t tell him how much I want to see him because that may make him feel bad about it. When he has time, I’m sure we’ll see each other and we’ll be fine.

From the very beginning I knew this wasn’t going to be like in movies or the books I read and that was one of the things that made me hold back for a while, but I couldn’t resist him for too long. He just drags me towards him with such strength it overwhelms me. His world is very different from mine, and I have to accept that this relationship is not conventional. But I guess that suits me as well because that way I don’t get to neglect my little sister and other responsibilities.

Once you have time, call me. Don’t mind the time –Liam

I smile at his text and call him immediately. It’s not too late, Lizzie never goes to bed at late hours of the night, which makes this time perfect to call him. He picks up and I hear his tired voice. “Hi,” he greets and I feel all apprehensive towards him. He sounds exhausted and I really want go to his place and make sure he’s getting rest.

“Hi. Long day?” I ask wondering if he had a good meal before going to bed. I know that being alone sometimes makes you neglect yourself and when you’re really tired, nor even starvation can make you cook.

“Very,” he answers and despite I feel his exhaustion, I know he’s smiling. The sweetness in his voice is telling me so. “How was yours? Something interesting to tell me?”

I could tell him about my conversation with Lizzie but that may scare him off. Talking about love is not a good idea when a relationship is just starting. At least that’s what Carter told me. “I have an interesting conversation with Carter today. He gave me useful advices,” I tell him taking a seat on the mattress of my bed.

“Is that so? What did he tell you? To run away from me? That I’m not good enough for you?” He ventures and I giggle.

“No, silly. He respects my decisions, he’s just protective,” I say.

It’s no surprise that Carter doesn’t quite like Liam yet, and it’s obvious. It’s like your dad that it’s supposed to hate his little girl’s boyfriend and when Dad is not around, the older brother takes that role. Well, that’s what Carter is doing. He’s taking the role of over protective male figure in my family and he’s reluctant to allow me take the risk to get hurt. But I know my friend will come to terms with all this and he’ll accept Liam.

“Then what? Can you share this new knowledge?” He inquires and I can’t banish the silly grin from my face.

“It’s top secret information. He gave me the key to understand men, I can’t break his trust like that, can I?” I hear him chuckling on the other end. “I’ll just tell you I took notes.” He laughs again.

“Great. I guess I’ll have to talk to a girl to get some advice too. You think Lizzie could help me?” It’s my turn to laugh at his words.

“You probably will have more luck with Perrie,” I offer thinking of Zayn’s girlfriend. I haven’t met her, but the black-haired boy has only said nice things about her and all the boys seem to like her as well. Zayn told me that we had to have a double date someday because it’s my duty to meet Perrie. When Louis heard us talking about this, he insisted I have to meet Eleanor as well. And all this happened over the phone.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll talk to her. Brit may even help as well, she’s a girl after all,” he carries on with the joke and I chuckle lightly.

“How’s Brit?” I question remembering he took her to the vet because she’s been acting weird lately. Lizzie is sick worried for her.

“The vet says that everything’s fine with her, at least physically. But she’s different, like she’s worried or nervous. It’s like when I’m about to leave to another country. She sees me packing and she sticks by my side all the time, like she doesn’t want me to leave. But I’m not going anywhere, I haven’t even packed a single thing so I don’t understand,” he explains and I try to think what can be wrong with Brit.

“Maybe she just misses you, you know, as you spend a lot of time outside the house. You get home late almost every day,” I suggest and I know he’s thinking about it.

“Maybe it’s that. She’s spends a lot of time alone here.”

“You could bring her here some day, just to see how she behaves with us. I’m sure Lizzie would love to play with her while you’re working,” I say finding quite appealing the idea of having Brit here with us, even if it’s just for a few hours.

“Really? Are you okay with that? Brit is always demanding attention,” he warns and I chuckle.

“It’s totally fine. I love Brit and I’m worried, too. I want to help you.”

We stay in silence for a few seconds until he speaks again, “thank you, Darcy. It means a lot. Let me know when it’s okay to leave Brit with you.”

I nod then I remember he can’t see me. “Sure. Well, I guess we should say goodbye, you sound really tired. Did you have dinner?” I question and I hear him chuckle.

“I did, don’t worry ‘cos I’m fine. I’ll get rest and everything will be fine in the morning. Plus, tomorrow we don’t have much things to do, which is good news.”

“Don’t overwork yourself,” I plead. I don’t like knowing that he’s pushing himself beyond his own limits.

“I won’t. Darcy, when will I see you?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “Mum gets home tomorrow and I want to spend time with her. I haven’t seen her in three months. You can come over if you want, though I think you may find that scary,” I trail off and his laugher rings over the phone.

“It’s a bit scary, but it would be lovely to meet her.”

“She has already asked me to meet you. Lizzie told her immediately when she called the other day,” I confess with a nervous laugh.

“Oh, and it gets scarier!” He jokes. “But I’m brave. I’ll be there, you just tell me the day. We can have dinner together,” he offers and the idea sounds lovely, but yes, a bit intimidating.

“Will do. Now go to bed and get a well-deserved rest. I’ll see you soon,” I say though I don’t really want to hang up, I could stay up all night talking about anything with Liam.

“I’ll see you soon. Sweet dreams, Darcy.”

“Sweet dreams, Liam,” I say back before we hang up and I indeed have sweet dreams because I dream of him.

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Shout out goes to @cwainwright because she's ill and she wanted this.

Bel, xx