elevator au - one direction

Hour three

Louis can feel his eyes begin to shut and yawns.

"Take a nap, Lou. We're not going anywhere soon." Harry says quietly.

Louis didn't want to fall asleep. He'd been having horrible nightmares about an old friend of his. Stephen.

Stephen was Louis' bestfriend. They had been inseparable since they were in diapers, but Stephen wanted to be more than just Louis's best (and only) friend. Louis hadn't ever questioned his sexuality at this point but he knew that Stephen was his best friend, and nothing more.

He thinks back to when he last saw Stephen. At the time Stephen was 15 and Louis 14.

~flashback~

Louis began to swing their interlocked hands. Stephen had been acting strange all night and Louis wondered why.

He playfully bumps into Stephen, jolting him from his thoughts.

"Mate, are you alright? You've been awfully quiet." Louis says with a confused smile.

"Not that I'm complaining, you can be quite loud." he teases.

Stephen just rolls his eyes with a small smile.

"Yeah yeah. It's just... I had a question." he says unsure of himself.

"Shoot." Louis says kicking a rock.

Stephen takes a deep breath before asking, "What are we, Louis?"

Louis, oblivious to where this was going, replies "You're my best friend Stephen." with an easy grin.

"But best friends don't do this," he says gesturing towards their swinging hands.

Louis shrugs and responds, "Well we do it, don't we?"

Stephen feels his shoulders slump but he stops the two from walking.

"I don't want to be your best friend," he says firmly.

Louis' eyebrows furrow.

"I want to be your boyfriend." he says, his voice wavering.

Louis pauses and locks eyes with Stephen.

"What do you..." Louis trails off knowing exactly what Stephen meant.

He had told Louis he was gay a few months ago and of course Louis was happy for him. That's his best friend for god sake.

"Louis?" Stephen says cautiously, "Can I do something?"

Louis nods numbly and feels Stephen's lips against his.

He felt Stephen pull back quickly and look into Louis' eyes.

He hadn't felt anything. No spark that he read in books or butterflies like his mum had described.

He shakes his head slowly and drops Stephen's hand.

"Stephen-"

"That was a bad idea I'm sorry. I'll go now." Stephen says tears filling his eyes.

Louis couldn't do anything but watch Stephen walk away from him. They found him the next day in the bathroom. Drowned himself at 15.

~end~

"Lou?" Harry says.

Louis blinks before smiling at the boy.

"Yeah, yeah just wake me up soon." he says shutting his eyes.