A Love, a Lie and a False Identity (Louis Tomlinson)

Charlie

Chapter 12

Charlie

I was flirting with Louis Tomlinson, how on earth had that happened? And what’s more, he was flirting back with me, I was sure of it. There was a spark in his eye when he looked at me, and he was looking at me a lot. His hand was draped over the back of my chair as it had been in the dressing room and every now and then the tips of his fingers brushed against my back, almost subconsciously. To him, anyway, I however was very aware of the feel of his skin touching mine. It was almost electric.

This was insane, I had barely known the guy for two hours but I felt something about him that just…had never happened to me before. I was a romantic, but I was definitely predominantly practical. Louis Tomlinson falling for me seemed as possible as pigs flying. Besides, I had seen his last girlfriend, she had been absolutely stunning. And I heard incredibly nice. I couldn’t compete, not with something like that. And I shouldn’t want to, because I was lying to him. I was lying to all of them. They didn’t know me, they knew Veronica. Or least, me playing some kind of version of Veronica.

I didn’t have the luxury of being myself, and getting to know them. This was one night, one amazing night of my life and then we would go back to being strangers, and I could say I had met them one time…

          “Come on Veronica, it’s time to steal you away,” Zayn interrupted my thoughts as his chair scraped the floor whilst he stood up, nodding his head in the direction of the door.

          “Huh?”

          “It’s time for our date, remember?” he said slowly, looking at me strangely.

          “Right, of course. Sorry,” I shook my head and stood up as well, watching as Louis jumped up and offered me my coat from the back of my chair, being the perfect gentleman as he slipped it over my shoulders, his fingers lingering there for a moment as he smiled at me. Easy, Charlie…

          “See you later, you and me are last,” he said as he squeezed my hand before dropping it and sitting back down. My fingers tingled as I turned round to face my two best friends, wondering what was going to happen to them during my ‘dates’.

          “Don’t worry, Veronica, we will take good care of your friends whilst you’re out. We will make sure they get home safe,” Harry piped up as he caught me looking at them. They smiled encouragingly up at me, and I grinned back, knowing they were in safe hands.

          “Come on mi’lady, the carriage awaits…” Zayn said, his bravery obviously returning to him. I decided not to tease him this time as it might get a bit odd just the two of us if he took it the wrong way. Waving my goodbyes to my friends, who both gave me dorky excitable thumbs up in response; I took Zayn’s arm and let him lead me out to the car.

          “So, where are you taking me?” I asked once the doors had slammed shut and the lights had dimmed from my eyes. I had forgotten about the photographers who followed the boys around all the time. And followed me, I guess, or Veronica.

          “You will see when we get there…” he said, still playing the mysterious card. I had to admit, he was bloody good at it, he had got the brooding dark figure down to a tee. We sat making small conversation as the car drove down the streets, dark already even though it was only half past seven. He seemed incredibly nice, and not as gloomy as the papers made him out to be. Then again, I was fast learning that you should never trust what the papers print, I was living proof of that. No one in this industry was who they seem, I guess.

          “We are here,” he said, suddenly sounding exciting.

          “Where is here?” I asked, but he just leant across and pointed out of my window. Glancing out, I read the sign in front of the building and immediately started to laugh. Oh, this was going to be fun.