Deception

Chapter: Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty Four

"Britt, what did he say to you?" Niles questioned.

He wasn't the first person to ask me this. Jay had been the first one to catch on that something was wrong. It wasn't hard to guess what it could be, considering I'd been in here alone with Liam. For his part, he seemed cool as a cucumber, as though our conversation hadn't bothered him.

I thought I'd handled myself pretty well, but apparently, my expression betrayed me. He'd joined Zeke and Louis talking outside. Leave it to him to pull a Zeke and behave this way. Leave it to Niles to still be caring and attentive despite our recent struggles. I just wasn't ready to have another conversation when we'd actually had a pretty good one mere minutes before. I didn't need to worry him or depend on him. Even if he was being kind and trying to help me out of the goodness of his heart.

"It's nothing we haven't argued about before," I commented.

"So it was an argument."

"Did I say that?"

"Yes, you did," he smiled.

"It wasn't that bad. It's not going to change anything between us. I don't want to bore you with the details. Even if you wouldn't be bothered, I shouldn't be bothering you with it. Even though you wouldn't be." I frowned weakly.

"Well, you wouldn't be bothering me, and I'd be happy to listen to you. I can tell you know that."

"Right, but relying on you to listen to me. It's just not a good idea."

"I see," he frowned.

"Sorry."

"No your right. Let me just express that I am thrilled we weren't arguing tonight."

"Me too," I chuckled.

"As you said I can probably guess some of what your argument with Liam was about. That's really not something I have any right to talk to you about as it should be between you and him. Realistically if I'm hoping to fix things with you I probably shouldn't be trying to help you. However, I will keep my mouth shut unless there's something you want to talk to me about."

"Thanks."

"Alright, guys let's get going. We have approximately thirty minutes before we're supposed to be there for this ball. We should get going," Louis said raising his arms.

"Lucky us," Zeke snapped.

"Yeah, that's what I said," he returned.

"Okay, I'm ready," Lily announced, coming down the stairs, and again she and Zeke avoided looking at each other.

"Let's get this over with, Jay spoke taking Mattie's hand.

"I'm so excited," Aubrey cheered, showing she was the one the only one who was excited about this.

"You're going to be the best-dressed person at the ball," Tamron promised her as she held hands with Max.

"Any chance we're actually going to have fun tonight?" Megan asked.

"We'll do our best," Henry assured, taking her hand in his.

As we headed for our cars, Louis walked beside me and tapped my shoulder. I didn't know what he wanted, but by the look on his face; I felt like he was going to say something funny. Whatever it was, I'd really appreciate some humor to make me feel better right about now. Don't let me down, Louis.

"Hi, small fry."

"Hi, Louis."

"So," he trailed off.