Just Let Me Adore You

XI

By the time Louis got his ass off to school the next day he was exhausted. They'd gotten home late, and Ollie had a sunburn on a small portion of her arm that seemed to miss every reapplication of sunscreen, so she'd cried for almost an hour before passing out in Louis' bed. Not to mention the house was a mess and Louis hadn't done any of his homework.

So, after no sleep and a breakfast-less morning, he couldn't tell if everyone was staring at him or if he was just being paranoid. He usually arrived right before first bell, so maybe he wasn't used to so many people standing in front of the school. Not to mention it was a warmer spring day.

He continued about his business as normal, finding an empty nook in the school's atrium. He lifted his assigned reading for the week and tried to act as if he wasn't experiencing some severe paranoia. A couple of underclassmen even whispered something that sounded like his name followed by a string of words he didn't quite catch.

That continued, until someone stopped right in front of him, he peeked up to see Kendell and Kylie, luckily no Camille in sight. Louis nodded a greeting and went back to reading hopefully he was just antisocial enough to shoo them away. That didn't seem to work though, because Kendell spoke like she was bored, like Louis had stopped in front of her not the other way around, "It's really sad."

"What?" Louis took the bait.

"That you can't just leave this school with your pathetic social life the way it is." Kendell looked to Kylie who just this past semester showed up to school with a new face, "That you have to try to bring Harry down with you."

"What are you talking about?" Louis whispered, there was no way they knew Harry and he slept together this whole weekend.

"The lie you've been spreading around?" Kendell nodded.

"I just got here." Louis frowned, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Louis finally went to leave, maybe try to find Cara and see if she knew what was up, when Kendell caught his arm, "I'm actually friends with Mitch on snapchat and I would know if there was a video on there. There wasn't so I and everyone else think it's so pathetic of you to be spreading around a rumor that you and Harry hooked up. There's no recording of it and it's really sad that you're trying to hurt Camille like that."

Louis shook his head again, "What? First, I don't have and never have had snapchat. I don't know what you're talking about, and I haven't been spreading any rumors around."

"You're a liar." She tilted her head condescendingly and shot him a fake smile. This girl was seriously trying to gaslight or manipulate him, and Louis wasn't sure which. So, he just sighed and set off to homeroom. He made it around the corner before being pulled into a closet. His fist rose to attack the culprit but paused when he saw Cara.

"Cara what the hell is going on?"

She bit her lip nervously before asking, "You haven't seen it yet?"

"Seen what?"

Then Cara pulled out her phone and started up a video, Louis squinted because it was obviously shot at night. He watched as a fire came into view and then a figure landed in front of the fire, shit was that Niall? Yup, Louis watched his brother shotgun a beer, turning to Cara, "So what? That's my brother."

"Watch it again and look in the corner."

So as Louis watched it again, he saw it, a large dark figure making its way up the beach. By the time Niall landed in front of the fire, it became obvious it was someone being carried (Louis being carried). Then it got more incriminating.

There in broad firelight, Harry and Louis leant their heads in close whispering in what could only be a flirty manner before... Well, before Louis leaned in kissing Harry as Niall drank his beer.