After the End: Book 3

11. Nighttime

Louis POV

I didn't have a plan. I had no idea what I was doing. My strategy was genuinely to just ignore how he was acting and hope for some sort of improvement. In some areas, that was allowing me to be hopeful that I hadn't just made a major mistake.

His attitude was insufferable and annoying. He was being erratic and evasive whenever I wanted answers. I genuinely couldn't tell if he was serious about leaving as soon as he could. I had no faith that he was going to stay sober longer than a couple of days if I couldn't figure something out. He hadn't mentioned a single long term plan aside from when he'd told me in the car he planned on breaking out of sobriety at his convenience. He made no move and showed no intentions towards going down to his flat.

In contrast to that, he'd been perfect for the twins. He had turned off whatever part of him was agitated and pissy and he'd let Daisy talk his ear off. He'd made dinner with only a side adventure to bitch at Naomi for whatever he was trying to bitch at her for. I missed his cooking even though he seemed to be spitefully vegetarian again, which Cory had assured me wasn't the case anymore. Like I said, she'd only been minimally helpful. She hadn't responded to me at all once leaving the hospital other than to send me a single message.

"Dont give up on him. Please."

It seemed hypocritical considering that's exactly what she'd done. He was too much for her and now I was stuck glueing the pieces back onto the broken toy she'd returned to me. I had to keep reminding myself that I'd asked for this. I wanted him to be my responsibility, knowing I didn't actually have the bandwidth for it. Now it was time to pull myself together so that I could start glueing down his pieces.

Dinner was quiet and strangely uneventful. I'd texted Daisy to tell her to say the frozen pizza thing, because I knew he'd jump right on trying to correct my mistake in feeding the household. He was way too predictable. In that way, I could atleast manipulate him into emulating some sort of normalcy.

Harry finished his spaghetti and then barely touched it despite claiming he'd been hungry several times. Daisy continued to talk his ear off. Phoebe came out for a plate, glared at him and took it to her room.

Daisy assured him that Phoebe was actually happy to see him, but Harry just shrugged and ignored it. After dinner I called Naomi back on my own phone to put Oliver to bed. Harry busied himself with deep cleaning the kitchen after the table was cleared because according to him I did a shoddy job at it, and when I surfaced a bit later, I found him fast asleep on the sofa.

Daisy sat at his feet smiling at his snoring. She'd been at his side the majority of the time since he'd arrived home and I was actually thankful. It seemed like it was helping him to have one of his familiar faces around. She might have even been providing him a distraction from whatever was going on in his head. I wouldn't have a way of truly knowing. It wasn't like he was being forthcoming with information. Naomi had even assured me, he wasn't talking about himself or where he'd been at all, except for in a mocking manner.

"Not much has changed then," Daisy assured me, rising from the sofa. She gestured to his sleeping form. He was still fully dressed and curled up on his side with his face smashed into the sofa. Harry was notorious for falling asleep curled up anywhere like a baby, with the exception of his own bed. Insomnia seemed to find him there most frequently, but he'd been dozing on my sofa since the beginning of time.

I watched the even rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed for a moment before gesturing for her to follow me. I was trying to honor the tradition of communication my mum had always allowed them. I hadn't had a chance before, but I needed to talk to them about Harry.