A World of Differences [1DFF]

Chapter 19

Charlotte's POV

Marisa and I stood in front of the Sorin's house with our mouths open. I don't know what we were expecting to find –but this wasn't it. It was a mansion. Not literally –I guess it was a mini mansion.

"Whoa," Marisa managed.

I shook my head and made my way to the doorstep, ringing the doorbell.

"Char? Marisa? Is that you?" Amalia's voice rang through the entry. "I'll be right there."

"Intercom," Marisa mumbled. "That's fancy."

Seconds later the large wooden door opened to reveal Lauren and an older women standing next to her.

"Hey, Charlotte," Lauren smiled. "Marisa! Nice to see both of you again! Come on in."

We entered into a grand entry way.

"This is my mom," Lauren introduced us.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sorin. Thank you for letting us get ready here." I shook her hand and Marisa did the same.

"You are always welcome," she greeted us. "So far away from home, both of you; my home is your home."

"Such a great host," Amalia laughed as she entered down the winding spiral staircase. She gave the two of us hugs before escorting us to her bedroom. Lauren followed.

"This house is beautiful!" I said as we walked through the upstairs hallway. Picture frames filled the walls.

"Oh my goodness. Lauren, is that you?" Marisa had stopped suddenly and was pointing to a picture on the wall.

Lauren must have known what picture she was looking at because when I turned around to see her expression she was laughing.

"That's me all right!"

Marisa seemed confused, "But you aren't very old at all. And that is Louis, isn't it?"

Finally, I looked at the picture she was pointing at. It was clearly Lauren, just about seven years younger. She looked about nine; and there was a boy kissing her on the cheek. That's when I realized it was Louis. He looked around twelve.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, taken back.

"How long have you known each other?"
"Come to my room and we'll explain," Amalia herded us through a door, leading us to a room painted bright purple. The furniture was black wood. There was a white fluffy rug on the floor, and wall accents all over the room.

Marisa and I sat down on the bed which was covered with a black and white comforter.

"Waiting," we said at the same time.

The two sisters came and sat next to us.

"We've known Louis ... well, actually Louis has known us all our life. We used to live next door to him in Doncaster. We moved to London when I was ten and Lauren was eight so that my mom could follow her fashion career dreams. By then, our families were so close that we stayed in touch. It just happened to work out that now my mum works with the band."

Marisa slapped her head, "So Louis introduced you to Niall."

Amalia chuckled, "Yeah. Funny thing is he wasn't trying to set us up. We would just spend time on tour together so we might as well get to know each other ..."