Louis rolled his eyes; Niall and Harry were jumping around and throwing pillows at each other. They’d just gotten the list of the girls’ names that were going to be in the video. The Irish lad and the curly one had taken it upon themselves to look up each girl on twitter. Only three of the fifteen girls had caught their attention, and they were excited for tomorrow; the first day of shooting.
The oldest member of the world-famous band wasn’t excited- he was tired of it all. The girls would all be loud and annoying and they’d all want pictures with them. A video wasn’t enough in their eyes. The last video girls had done nothing but brag about being in a video with them. It’d irritated the hell out of Louis; he’d followed them all on twitter out of courtesy before he’d met them and he grew to regret it. Now he knew better and he didn’t follow anyone unless they were worth it.
Shooting tomorrow would have an extra sting seeing as Eleanor had broken up with him just last week. Louis hadn’t been expecting it, but he understood why she’d had to do it. He was angry more than anything, and not hurt at all.
Harry plopped down next to him, displacing several fan-made pillows and distracting him from his thoughts. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” The curly lad threw an arm around Louis’s shoulders.
“Yeah... It’s not readiness that I’m worried about.” Louis shot a half-hearted smile at his best mate.
“There’s a couple girls that I think you’d be interested in, Lou.” Niall offered around a bite of left-over chicken dumplings.
Louis scoffed and stood up from the floral couch. “I won’t like any of the girls, Blondie. We both know that.”
X
The following day spelled disaster in Louis’s mind. Fourteen girls piled into the rather small meeting room and squished against the boys. The oldest band member weaved his way to the wall and the furthest point from any of the girls. Once he’d sat down, letting out a relieved sigh, is when he noticed there was someone there already.
The girl was slowly inching away from him while still trying to stay away from the other girls. “Hey,” Louis stage-whispered at her and it came out as more of a hiss. She whipped her head to the side to look at him… And Louis was near blown away.
“Sorry,” she stage-whispered back. “I swear I didn’t follow you back here. I was here before everyone showed up…” The girl seemed to realize she was rambling and bit her lip.
“I’m Louis,” Louis offered his hand; a small smile played around his lips.
The awkward tension snapped and she smiled, taking his hand. “I’m Amelia; I go by Mia or Ames.” Louis couldn’t take his eyes off of the girl’s dimpling smile. She was gorgeous and he really didn’t want to end up eating his words, so he dropped her hand.
“Do you know what role you are?” He went through the girls in his mind and could pick out several who seemed like the type to be the main girl. Louis tried to picture where Mia would fit in.
“I’m the girl. They told me I was the ‘She’s not afraid’ girl.” Mia shrugged, leaning back against the wall again. She hadn’t even realized she’d sat forward.
Louis got cut off by the director walking in. The handlers asked the group of girls to follow them so they could be set up with hair and make-up. Mia and Louis stood awkwardly behind the rest of the boys, awaiting instruction.
“Ames, we need you to get your wardrobe situated. If you’ll follow me please,” A personal handler that Louis had never seen came and took Mia’s hand. The guy obviously had come with her, but that wasn’t the way they usually did videos. Louis stared after them, confused. Liam caught the older lad’s arm and led him out to where they’d be getting ready.
“You like her?” Harry sat down next to his best mate, making sure to hold his head still. He was talking about Mia and all the boys had noticed that Louis had singled her out. The stylist was in on the match-maker plan they all had, and she put in her two cents as she finished up Harry’s hair.
“Let him get to know her first,” she swatted the curly lad’s shoulder before moving on to Liam.
X
Mia came out in the dress and she looked like an entirely different person. The pink fabric clung to every curve her petite body held. Her hair was down and wildly curly in a way that even Danielle would be jealous of. Louis stopped on his way to the set and stared, speechless.
“Will they be mad, do you think?” Mia asked the handler beside her, leaning on him to fix her anklet-thing.
“Ames, they can’t really force you to wear shoes. They begged to get you in here.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to sound like a diva. Maybe I should go put those heels on… I can’t walk in heels, but I can try.” Mia crossed her arms which made her chest spill out of the top of her pink dress. She was unaware of it, but her stylist stepped closer.
Louis decided to make his presence known when he saw that the handler had his eyes on the neckline of the dress. “Hey,” He joined their little group and they walked out onto the set together. “The shoe thing isn’t a big deal, Mia. Don’t worry about it.”
The girls all stared as Mia, Louis, and Kellin came across the wires spread over the ground. They’d heard that the girl playing the main role was a different label and had her own music. The rumor was that the boys didn’t know about it. Mia came to stand with the other girls while the director gave instructions.
“Amelia, we’ll be shooting the beginning scene in a couple minutes.” Mia nodded and went to where he pointed out her starting place.
They wanted her to climb out of a two-story window. “Do you want to start shooting in the room or?” She tugged on the bottom of the dress, hoping to cover more, and got into the window.
The cameraman shot Mia grabbing her money and tucking her tube of lip gloss into the bra of her dress. She tiptoed to the window, easing it up as she threw furtive glances over her shoulder. Once the window was up she perched on the windowsill, ready to swing her legs out. “Camera two, are you on?” Camera one shouted, after asking Mia to stay where she was. When the affirmation came back, Mia was told to continue out of the window. She maneuvered carefully so that no matter where someone was standing, they couldn’t see clearly up her dress.
Girls stood at the bottom of the tree, quietly urging her on and telling her to hurry. When Mia finally got to the base they set off to the party in a teal bug.
“That’s good.” The director called and everyone gathered around him. “Mia, that was beautiful. We’re going to review the tapes and see if we need to reshoot. We may decide to shoot the party first and come back tonight for the sneak-out.”
“Yeah, I thought it was supposed to be night time. ‘Sneaks out in the middle of the night…’ you know?” Mia stood leaning against the bug. The rest of the girls had wandered over to the refreshment table while there was a break in shooting.
Louis joined her just in time to hear her hum the last bit of a song he was sure he’d heard before. “What’s that?” He wondered and she startled up.
“My… Uhm… Oh I can tell you.” Mia bit her lip and nodded to herself. “Yeah, I can tell you. It’s one of my covers.”
“Your covers?”
“I’m a cover-only artist… That’s how they label me anyways. I like to take songs and make them my own. My label wanted me because they think I’m unique and talented. They’re idiots; there is much more out there than me.”
“You’re signed?” Louis asked. He was surprised and it pissed him off because that meant he’d begun to like her. Of course she was signed to a label. That’s the only reason she got the role and the only reason she was here in the first place; to get some promotion.
“I really wish I wasn’t.” Mia shrugged and her voice was small. She didn’t catch Louis’s hostility. “Freedom is a good thing and I feel like I have none. There are so many stupid rules and-” She threw a sharp look at the boy beside her. “Can I trust you?” Mia implored.
Louis nodded stiffly, not meeting her eyes.
“I want out.” Mia let out a deep breath.
“Shooting for the party scene is starting in five minutes. Get to your places,” The director cut off whatever Louis was about to say, and the two quietly made their way over to the set.
The room was purposely darkened and had black lights set into the corners. A strobe light flashed in the back and the room was packed with people dancing to the Harlem shake. Camera Two shot Mia walking into the room of grinding bodies. When she smiled, tossing her hair as she danced, the lights in the room went up a tad.
They continued shooting up until the first Louis/Mia interaction. Mia was sitting on the couch with a guy on each side of her, flirting their faces off. Across the room, Louis caught her eye and she offered him a secret smile before turning back to the boys sitting with her. It was the perfect illustration of ‘she doesn’t want anyone to know/ I’m the only one that gets to take her home’. After that scene they moved on to the scary movie and kissing scenes.
“Are you okay with this?” Mia asked for the tenth time as she and Louis made their way into the basement of the building where the set was. She clutched his arm as they went; the stairs were narrow, steep, and dark.
Louis tried not to be objective about the hand on his arm. “I’m okay with it.” He’d only said it twenty times. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself, though, which is why he kept getting asked about it. Mia wanted out from under the close eye of her label. And what had Kellin said? That Modest had begged to get Mia into this video. She wasn’t leeching, she wanted out… But Louis didn’t want to take any chances when it came to his heart.
Downstairs, they curled up together on the couch. At first they were awkward with each other, but then Louis dropped his walls. They honestly fit together perfectly; it made him more comfortable with the entire situation. Camera one shot them watching the scary movie in which Mia had to laugh in the face of the horrors spilling out of the television set. After that, they had one practice kiss and then the shot one.
Mia’s eyes were so bright. Louis’s breath caught at how beautiful she was up this close. When she bit her lip in a shy gesture he smiled and gently tipped her head back. Their lips brushed first once, softly, and then Louis pressed forward. As the kiss deepened, the cameraman metaphorically patted himself on the back for never stopping recording. He’d caught all of the shy playfulness between the pair. It was pure gold.
Later, Louis took his break on the couch with Mia. While everyone else was upstairs or outside, the two disentangled themselves but sat close together to talk. Louis hadn’t told her about El and she didn’t seem to know.
“You have a favorite.” He pushed. “All of our fans have a favorite. Tell me,” They’d been on this point for several minutes and she kept giving him non-answers.
Mia groaned. “Why’s it matter?” She really didn’t want to tell him that he was her favorite. How would that look? She’d be just like every other girl he’s ever talked to that tried to get with him.
“Mia,” Louis pleaded.
“Niall. Niall is my favorite. Are you happy?” But her eyes told him that she was lying. Why would she lie about her favorite?
Louis narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you, Mia.”
“You don’t have to, that’s not the point.” Mia scoffed and leaned back against the couch, farther away from her favorite member. “Now, back on subject: yes, they begged me to come for this video. I would have come when they asked the first time, but So So wanted to play hard to get. I just ended up getting Kellin to get me Modest’s number so I could call and tell them I wanted to.”