locked hearts - louis partridge x reader

C8: Best Friends

"Amber!" Louis exclaims as I show up at his door wearing some comfy clothes and my school bag. My heart flutters a bit when he gets excited to see me. It was like a puppy seeing it's owner for the first time in a week, even if it's only been an hour. "Hey stupid." I say holding out my arms for a hug. He leans down just a bit to rest himself around me. It sends a spark through my body. I ruffle his hair a little bit and pull away. "Why are you so happy?" I ask with a small smile.

Louis simply shrugs as he looks into my eyes. "I'm always happy to see you."
I felt butterflies. They swarm through my stomach as if trying to attack me. I give off a small smirk. "I'm always happy to see you two."

Louis smile seems to double in size. "You wanna head downstairs?" He asks, while rubbing the back of his neck. I smile. If there's one thing I know about Louis, it's his emotions. No matter how hard he tries, I can just tell I'm giving him butterflies. And he was giving me some.

I decide to have a little fun with it and purposely make his heart flutter. I wouldn't call it "playing with his feelings" though... because I was starting to fall for him. And if he fell for me... well then we could be a thing.

Wait. No.

He doesn't like me. I know it. How could I want to ruin our friendship? Gahh I feel so stupid.

"Yeah sure, let's go downstairs." I sigh. Toughest part of being friends with a guy: there's the possibility of falling in love. And I can't fall in love again. Not after Noah... no it hurt too much. And Louis was one of the only people there for me, so if it's him who breaks my heart, I'll have no one...

We took his stairs down, silently. It felt wrong. But right. Normally we'd be joking around, or trying to push each other down the stairs, or laughing over some stupid stuff. But this time I felt a pinky touch the side of my hand. I let it slide by as a small mistake, but it kept coming back. Brushing mine. Each time it gave me butterflies. I had to clear the silence.

"We aren't anything... special right? Like we're just great friends?" He pauses and I feel his pinky drop. "Oh! No yeah totally! We're best friends." He said, sticking on a smile. I blushed a little. "So it doesn't mean anything if I just..."

Taking my hand, I carefully hold onto his. I didn't lock our fingers, but I took my other hand and also wrapped it around his. "Is this okay?" I ask, staring up at his face. He nodded, his eyes closed. I couldn't help it.

It made me kinda happy. But I feel like my heart is locked. Like it won't accept love anymore. So no matter how hard I try, it won't budge until someone finds the key. Until then, it remains locked.

"Yeah... yeah this is okay." He says, opening his eyes again and looking down at our hands. "I really like it..." I feel my stomach swirl again. It's a good feeling. It makes me wanna...

Hold his hand more often... as friends

We made it to the sitting room, where Louis plopped down on the floor, and I parked my stuff right in front of him. "Alrighty." I said as I got down on my knees and reached into the bag. Louis did the same in front of me. "So just to clear up, we aren't a thing. Your my best friend. It's normal to hold hands with your best friends." He looks up from his bag with a nod. "Yeah I agree. And just so I don't scare you or anything, we both don't have feelings for each other at all right?"

I pursed my lips and nodded. No feelings. "No yeah of course. Besides, I still don't wanna be in a relationship... you know... because if the last time." I say, cracking a few knuckles a few times. He nods. "I get that. It's okay, I agree..."

There was a long, awkward silence between us as I pulled out my homework. "Okay good, sorry for making you uncomfortable, I just had to clarify..." He smiles with a little head nod. "That's alright. Your my friend. My best friend and nothing else."

Ouch.

I smile wide, but it's all fake. "Right. Just friends." He smiles and looks down. He seems happy that we aren't anything special. It just hurts me.

____

Louis POV

"Right. Just friends." Amber says with a smile. She looks completely fine with where we stand and it kills me. I try to copy her grin and look happy, but I'm dying. I don't know why it hurts. It shouldn't. I don't like her in that way. I can't. She's my friend. I need to calm down.

Calm down.

Take a few deep breaths. Relax. I stare down at the math problems. Each one looks so much harder than normal and I can't focus. The only thing I was studying is her. The way she looked as her mouth lay a little open, her tongue to the slide of her mouth as she was deep in thought. The way her fingers twirled around her pencil as she wrote down her final answer. She's perfect. But she doesn't like me. She likes Chase. Chase. The name was like the buzzing sound of an alarm. You hate it. I look away from Amber and back down at my paper.

Focus.

____

Amber POV

After I calmed myself down from our talk, everything went back to normal. We just sat quietly, listening to his Alexa play music, and working on homework. Like best friends do.

"Can you help me out?" Louis asks, as he holds the end of his pen in his mouth. I look up from my paper at his slightly tilted head, fluffy hair, and the pen sitting on his slightly parted lips.

Part of me wishes it was myself touching his lips and not the pen... WAIT NO. Snap out of it Amber!! He's not like that with you!

"Yeah- uh which question?" I crawl over to his paper and lean down. Our arms touched and it made me smile. "Number 12." He says, looking admiringly at my eyes. I nod. "Oh yeah! This one isn't too hard if you just break it down a bit..." I show him how to do the problem, and the entire time, I catch him watching me. Not what I was doing. I twist my head away from the paper and over to his eyes, down to his nose, down to his lips. Why was I looking at his lips? I shoot my eyes back up to his and laugh a little.

"You didn't really need help with the problem... did you?"

He smiles for a moment. "Maybe... or maybe not."

I giggle and look down, but I feel his stare still on me. Tipping my head back up, I catch myself staring at his lips again. What was I doing?

And why was I moving in closer...

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A/N:
No they don't get together yet. Ik what your thinking. But please tell me if I'm rushing the story, because I'll slow it down if you want :)) thank you <3