Two Truths & A Lie

Chapter 22

All eyes were on Louis and I as we walked into the school together Monday morning after Thanksgiving break. I was trying to keep myself from looking too hard for Harry, but I couldn't help it. For as much as I wanted to see him, I also didn't. The intensity of the situation had sunk in overnight and it had taken everything in me to even get out of bed this morning. The lie that Harry had told me was worse than any lie anyone had told me before, and honestly, I was disgusted.

"You wanna do it now?" I asked just loud enough for Louis to hear, glancing down at his black vans and at my own. For the first time in months, we partially coordinated our outfits. Black skinnies, black vans, graphic tees. Really, it was nothing different from my normal attire, but the fact that we discussed and agreed on our outfits made it feel different. Contrary to what I thought might happen, I woke up with no regret for forgiving Louis. It felt good to have him back as a friend.

"No, love," he said, nodding to one of his classmates on the side of the hall as we passed. "We'll wait a bit."

"It's going to stress me out to wait any longer."

Louis chuckled. "I know. Hang in there. You'll feel better when we talk to Raven later."

We had stayed up half of the night to find a way to screw Raven over for turning Liam against me while doing as little damage to their relationship as we could. I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the relationship they had finally built over the last few weeks, especially now knowing they had a child. This was beyond just high school drama. This situation wasn't as easy as just breaking up a destructive relationship. This was literally a family we were dealing with.

I could only imagine Liam would hate me more if I tore him and my arch-enemy apart. Louis knew how much I loved having Liam in my life. The fact that Louis didn't try to argue with me about publicly humiliating Raven or confronting Liam directly meant a lot to me. I could tell Louis wasn't lying about still being in love with me, but I was forced to roll my eyes at how much trouble we had given each other in the last few months.

I had the plan constantly running through my head, keeping me from noticing the stares that Louis and I were receiving from our fellow students. It had been months since anyone had seen any cordial interactions between Louis and I. Most of the time, we were glaring at each other and dodging each other like we were diseased, or he was starting drama with me in the middle of physics. Seeing the two of us walking arm-in-arm down the hallway to our lockers was a shock, to say the least.

The only time my attention snapped back to the students was when I heard a deafening shriek from down the hallway in front of us. Louis pulled me against the lockers with the others around us, and we all stared down the hallway of parting sophomores and juniors. To my surprise, Niall emerged in the middle of the parting crowd, crouching on his skateboard, laughing like a maniac as he rolled between everyone. Following him was Miranda, trying to run as quickly as she could in her black high-heels and struggling to keep her purse on her shoulder. Her cheeks were wet, but I couldn't yet tell if it was from tears or sweat.

"NIALL HORAN, COME BACK HERE!" She shrieked, hurt evident in her voice. She sniffed hard to keep her nose from running.

I wasn't sure what to make of the situation until Niall came skidding to a halt in front of Louis and myself. "She told me I had to choose between her and Em," he said, grinning and glancing over his shoulder at the psychotic-looking girl chasing him. "I chose Em." Niall kissed me on the cheek before dropping his skateboard again and pushing off down the hallway again. "Love you, Em!" He yelled, laughing over his shoulder. As he rolled past Mrs. Lowery's room, Mrs. Lowery scrambled out of the doorway and shouted at Niall to get off of his skateboard.