admiration [l.t]

xvii

[A/N; I know the family members mentioned here for Louis' family aren't actually his real family. This book is obviously fiction so he has a different family. No sisters and one younger brother.]

Louis ended up calling Amber and cancelling his original plans with her, not including all the details about how he ran into his ex that he still loves and how she now lives here again and how he doesn't know how he's going to handle it.

Bella was really back, and for the entire rest of the semester.

He began to think, which is never a good thing when it comes to Louis, about how he would be able to see her every day and not become anything more than friends with her. He saw this task as almost impossible, considering how he felt his heart rate quicken and his mind go fuzzy when he saw her for the first time in two months.

He was hoping it was just the shock from seeing her and nothing more.

When he opened the door to his dorm he was relieved when he didn't see Joey anywhere, leaving Louis able to crawl into his bed without any questioning about why he's home so early when he was supposed to go to Amber's.

He quickly changed into some gym shorts and took off his shirt, lying himself under the comfort of his sheets and turning a small T.V. on, not liking to fall asleep without any kind of sound. Thankfully he was able to fall asleep soundly, his mind deciding not to dig too deep into his own thoughts.

***

Surprisingly so, Louis was able to remain friends with Bella throughout the rest of the semester. However, it wasn't very easy.

He began to take different routes to class every day just so he didn't have to see her in the courtyard, and he always responded to her asking if they could hang out with him being busy with work or homework. At first it was rather difficult, but it soon became a routine that he was so accustom to that it no longer bothered him.

Without Bella in his life all the time and the constant parties he went to on the weekend, his life went by pretty quickly.

It was now the end of the school year and graduation was tomorrow. Louis was so overwhelmed with excitement that he was now able to leave this hell hole, especially with a degree in his hand, something he thought he would never be able to accomplish.

His parents called in yesterday and told him they were flying in today and that they were all going out for dinner tonight, and that Louis had no room to protest. But to be honest, he wasn't going to protest in the first place.

So that's why Louis finds himself buttoning up the last buttons on his black dress shirt and fixing his fringe, realizing at that moment that he was in desperate need of a haircut.

His scruff was also beginning to grow a bit, but Louis didn't mind that, he actually thought it made him more attractive, boosting his already too high ego. He only hoped everyone else thought the same.

He met up with his parents an hour later at a small and fancy restaurant in the center of town, and actually found himself enjoying their company. Ever since he left them to go to college he thought that he had become more independent and that having them as company wouldn't make him as happy as it used to. He was everything but right.

"So," his mom, Jenny, started as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, "anyone special I don't know about?"

Louis chuckled and took a sip of his sweet tea. "Nope. Not yet. There was this girl earlier this year but it just didn't end up working out."

"Aw, that's too bad," she said after taking a bite of her salad, and that was the end of that.

The rest of the dinner was filled with god awful jokes told by Louis' dad and even more told by his younger brother Brian. Once everyone finished eating, they stayed for another hour just talking and catching up with everything that's been happening in their lives. Bella was only brought up once more during this but the subject was pushed away quickly.

Soon, dinner ended and Louis' family left to the hotel they were staying at for the week and Louis made his way back to his dorm, where he stayed up for hours talking to Joey about everything and nothing, knowing this would be their last night together.

[A/N; 3-4 more chapters most likely.]