storm ➳ tomlinson a.u

three - battles

Five days had passed since I'd arrived back in London. It's been good, except that Louis seemed to enjoy taking the piss out of me or making snide comments when he thought I couldn't hear. Joshua had told me not to let it bother me, which I'd been doing for the most part. Louis was easy to block out. Harry was a lot nicer than Louis, and was always sweet and offered to help me with my homework and other things. He'd always tell me about his sister Gemma and how I was a lot like her - he said he enjoyed having me around because it was like having her around all the time.

A lot of my time had been spent playing piano in the basement. It'd been so long since I'd even touched a piano. Even before mine had burned down with my home, I'd been pulling away from it. My Dad had been my teacher when I was younger and now it was a way I could feel closer to him without getting too close that I got upset.

Camilla, Liam, Niall and I were sitting in the basement doing homework since my bedroom was too small to seat us all. It wasn't really that dirty or messy down here. In fact there was hardly anything even in the basement. Joshua had put carpet down and a few couches with a coffee table in the middle in the corner.

"We use this for, um, meetings. It's, you know, safer down here. No one can really listen or see in to spy on us." Joshua had explained (rather awkwardly, at that) in reference to the gang business he was involved in.

He'd gave us permission to use the area though, since there was obviously no one using it. Camilla and Niall were doing their History homework together and I was trying to explain our Maths lesson to Liam. But he just wasn't getting it.

"I give up!" Liam cried, throwing his pencil on the coffee table and covering his face with his hands. "I'm never going to get this."

My eyes rolled at him, "Well, maybe you would understand it if you weren't constantly like 'Kelsey let's take selfies of us doing Maths!'. You need to focus, Payne."

Liam lifted his head to give me a dirty look, to which I stuck my tongue out at him, before he put it back in his hands. Camilla and Niall were snickering at us as I pulled out my phone to check the time. A few moments later, footsteps were heard coming down the basement stairs and we all glanced around to see Joshua appear at the bottom. "Sorry to cut this short lads, but we're going out for dinner tonight, so..."

"We're going out for dinner?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

Joshua nodded, "Yeah, we go out every Friday. You can stay in if you want but there's like no food left."

"No, it's fine. I'll go."

With that, Joshua nodded with a grin and turned to walk back up the stairs. We packed everything away and while I was seeing everyone out the front door Camilla turned to me and whispered, "Your brother's cute."

"Dude."

She held up her hands in defence, "Just saying! I'll see you Monday Kelsey." Camilla pulled me in for a light hug and I waved Niall and Liam off before closing the door.

After this, I made my way into the living room and leaned my shoulder onto the doorframe when I noticed Joshua and Louis seated on one of the couches watching TV. Joshua smiled at me but Louis kept his eyes focused on whatever he was watching.

"What time are we leaving?" I asked Joshua.

"Six thirty. It's nothing fancy so you don't need to dress up or anything, it's just a diner about a fifteen minute drive from here." He pushed himself from the sofa, "I'm going to go find out where Harry's fucked off to."

"Cool." We still had a good half an hour before we needed to leave, which gave me time to freshen up and redo my make-up. As Joshua left the room, my eyes wandered over to Louis who was looking at me with his head tilted to the side and biting into his lower lip. "What?" I asked with a questioning look. He jumped slightly, which made me believe that he hadn't noticed I'd caught him looking.