Power & Control

8: Teen Idle

~A

TW: Body Image, Self Harm, Suicidal Thoughts

His mere existence was confusing to me. Niall appeared out of nowhere, supposedly after living in California for most of his adult life. He claimed he was Irish, but his accent didn't exactly match all of the time. I know Irish accents. My childhood friend was Irish, and Niall didn't talk that much like her. And I swear when he did, he was doing it forcefully. He had a very specific way of rolling the R's and over pronouncing certain consonants, like T and L. And that name he called me, it had to be in some form of Slavic language. I needed to know the truth. Maybe I was always too curious for my own good, but I couldn't help myself at times.

"Lou, what's Niall's last name?" I asked out of nowhere, turning to Louis as he was sat beside me in a car. He looked up from his phone in confusion, his thick eyebrows furrowed.

"Where did that come from?" He chuckled, his lips curling into a crooked smile. I shrugged my shoulders. It really was the only opportunity I had to ask him. We had a very long day ahead of us, so the only time I assumed we'd be able to talk was in the car ride on the way to the studio, where the performance livestream would take place.

"Just tell me." I sighed, rolling my eyes lightly. He groaned under his breath in complaint, tapping away on his phone to presumably find it. I'm not surprised he didn't remember it, he's got a lot on his plate. He brought his phone closer to his face, eyebrows creased together in concentration.

"Horan. Think that's how it's pronounced." He informed me, still looking confused over why I was asking him in the first place.

"Is that like, really Irish?" My question confused him even more, his eyes darting to me.

"The fuck am I supposed to know?" He snapped, though I wasn't that fazed. He does this all the time when he's stressed.

"Calm down Tomlinson, I just asked a question." I chuckled at his outburst, patting his shoulder. He sighed deeply, rubbing his temples with both hands.

"I don't know, I guess. His CV said he's Irish. Why are you asking that anyway?" His question had me go through everything I've been thinking about the last couple days. Maybe I was overthinking things, being paranoid for no reason. But my gut was almost always right.

"I don't think he's telling the truth about who he is, Louis. He told me something in a different language in the video shoot."

"So? He might just be bilingual. How did the shoot go by the way? Jack told me he got plenty of material for editing."

"Don't start. We were pretty much forced to do it. I'm just glad we got the shots needed easily and we got it over with." I huffed, looking out the window on my left.

"A bit too easily I'd say. Took you what, only an hour of filming to get everything?" He laughed under his breath, managing to get on my nerves.

"Guess neither of you could last long." That was the final straw. I smacked his shoulder, taking him by surprise and causing him to yelp out loud

"I'm joking, calm down! Jesus."

"Well, it wasn't funny." Before Louis could respond with anything else, the driver brought the car to a stop.

"We're here." He announced, glancing back at us. I unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled on the door handle, Louis' hand taking my wrist stopping me from getting out of the car.

"This isn't over." He smirked, but I simply just rolled my eyes at him before yanking my wrist out of his hold, hearing him stifle a laugh as we exited the car on opposite sides. I was in a dressing room in no time, getting my hair and makeup done. I was honestly beginning to feel giddy over the performance, excited to sing the newest songs to the worldwide audience as well as a few select fans that would be in the studio. Louis proposed the idea of holding a competition for tickets to the performance when we were organizing it, which was honestly perfect. I much preferred having people react to my music in person rather than just online.