Promise Me (N.S.)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"You suck, Lewis."

"Clearly, you're the one who sucks, Harold."

Louis taunted me as he won yet another game of FIFA. I never really liked the game, but I hated losing to Lou in general. I guess you could call me a sore loser, but it was only with him. Maybe because he was so cocky all the time.

Louis set his controller down gracefully while eyeing me with a look that was meant to taunt me.

Dick.

"Fuck you, Louis.

He chuckled while he patted me on the back briefly. He stood and made his way to the kitchen and began to rummage through the pantry and then the fridge, settling on a bowl of cereal, yet again. What was this obsession with cereal he had going on? At least he wasn't eating out of the box again.

I shook my head at his and sat back on the couch, trying to relax.

Louis stood in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at me while slurping Lucky Charms off of his spoon. The cereal must have made him remember, because what he asked me caught me a bit of guard.

"Oi, have you heard from the little Irish fellow lately?"

I sat up abruptly, startling Lou.

"No, I haven't. It's funny; he said he was going out of town for some family stuff but he was really shirt with me while he was gone. Actually, he barely spoke to me. He hasn't said anything to me in over a week..." Now I was worried. Niall was never like this. He was always cheerful and happy to be around everyone; happy to be around me. But lately, things had changed and now I was beginning to worry.

Thanks, Lou.

I whipped out my phone from my jumper pocket, quickly unlocking it and scrolling to Niall's contact. I looked at his contact picture for a moment, my finger hovering over the screen. I clicked his name to start a new message, hoping he would respond.

To: Niall; Sent 9:57 pm

Hey Niall

I waited patiently for his reply, but when he didn't reply for over an hour, I began to get knots in my stomach. The anxiety started to eat at me.

To: Niall; Sent 11:23 pm

Did I do something? Are you okay?

I sat on the couch, eagerly waiting for a reply. I needed to know what was happening. I needed to know that everything was okay, that we were okay. I was starting to freak out. My leg started bouncing anxiously and I brought my hand to my mouth, beginning to bite on my nails.

I about jumped up from my seat when I heard Niall's text tone go off, which appropriately was "They're after me Lucky Charms!"

I read his message slowly:

From: Niall Received 12:02 pm

Everything is fine, Haz. I'll be gone for a little while longer.

I furrowed my brow. This was weird. Something was off. This wasn't like him; he was keeping something from me, I knew it. He should have known that he could tell me anything and that I would understand. But lying to me like this made me uneasy, to say the least.

"Everything okay, mate?" Louis raised an eyebrow at me, the spoon lifted to his mouth.

I snapped out of my trance, anxiety still flowing through me like blood in my veins.

"Yeah, yeah everything's fine..." I trailed off.

Lou eyed me suspiciously, his mouth full of cereal.

"Oh...okay then..." he mumbled.

I turned to look at his as he retreated back into the kitchen.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Tommo."