His fear

4. Hanging Out

Louis wakes up by the sound of his ring tone filling his bedroom, Harry who is laying beside him stirs awake and groans at the noise.

When ringing finally stops, Louis reaches over and grabs his phone from his bedside table which shows '14 missed calls from Niall.'

Louis' phone lights up with a phone call coming through from Niall again and Louis answers it.

"Where the fuck are you?" Niall curses through the phone.

"Good morning to you, too!" Louis says sarcastically through the phone.

"It's half two in the afternoon you, twat. And I've been waiting outside your front door for over half an hour, so are you gonna let me in or what, you lazy git?" Niall hollers.

"I'm coming, chill out." Louis' replies, getting out of bed and then hanging up the phone.

Harry is sitting up in bed by the time Louis is putting his socks on and he asks, "Niall?"

"Yeah, he's waiting outside. It's up to you whether you want to come down or if you want to stay in bed, you need all the rest you can get." He smiles.

And then Louis walks out his room and jogs down the stairs and opens the front door to an annoyed looking Niall.

"Took ya time, didn't ya." Niall says as he walks past Louis and goes into the living room and collapses on the sofa, throwing his bag that has his spare clothes in next to the sofa.

"Sorry mate." Louis apologises, sitting down next to Niall.

"You have seriously bad bed hair, Louis." Niall laughs.

"Keep it down will you, Harry's asleep upstairs." Louis whispers.

"Is that why you look like you had sex last night then?" Niall winks.

"It's not like that, he u-um, got beaten up pretty bad yesterday so I let him crash here." Louis stutters.

Niall's eyes widen and he questions, "Shit! Is he ok?"

"Well no, not really. He acts like he's ok, but I know he's not. But the worst part is that I think he's getting used to getting beaten up."

"Who was the fucker?" Niall asks, his face turning red with anger.

"Mark Lucas."

"You wait 'till I see him Monday." Niall says, his voice laced with anger.

"Don't worry, I think I've sorted it, hopefully for the better and not for the worst." Louis says worriedly, biting his finger nail.

Niall knits his eyebrows together in confusion and then catches on to what Louis' saying and then looks at him, his eyes wide, and says, "Wait, you beat Mark up?"

"Yeah, uh, I got carried away, when I saw what he was doing to Harry I just saw red, I guess."

Niall leans in closer to Louis, whispering, "You really like the lad, don't you?"

Louis looks at his lap and fiddles with his fingers, and whispers "Yeah, I do, and u-um we, nearly kissed last night."

Niall's eyes widen, "Really? And wait, what do you mean by nearly? Why didn't you?" Niall questions.

"I just panicked." Louis admits, his face red with embarrassment.

Niall asks, "So, you haven't told him that you like him yet?"

"Niall, he gets bullied because of the fact that he's gay, the only reason I don't is because I haven't told anyone that I am, apart from you, Liam, Harry and my family," he bits his lip in worry, "Can you imagine the shit he would get for having a boyfriend? I will protect him as much as I possibly can, but I don't want to be the reason for him getting hurt."