Vo'ke

Three

Louis wasn't pleased with me.

He hadn't been pleased with me when I'd broken the news, and he certainly wasn't pleased with me now, glaring out the window of the small charter plane we'd had to board to even get to Osage County, Missouri.

The foliage below left a lot to be desired. The trees were bare this late in December, and the grass was dead. Despite the cloudless sky, the color didn't seem quite right. The blue was washed out, paler than it should have been, and any time the slightest gust of wind lay a finger on the small aircraft we'd crammed ourselves into, the entire thing felt as if it were about to fall apart.

Niall was bursting with joy. I prayed for engine failure.

I'd been conflicted since the moment I woke up and remembered signing Louis and myself up for Niall's trip. On one hand, it was quite possibly one of the only things that could prove my loyalty to Niall. If I backed out of the trip sobered up, there was no way I could ever salvage our friendship, and Niall was one of my best mates. 

On the other hand, a paranormal research trip in the backwoods of the Ozarks wouldn't be an easy sell to Louis. This only proved true when I'd met him for coffee that morning, wincing at sunlight and cringing every time the glass door to the café opened with the jingle of a bell. 

"You look like proper shit," Louis had commented cheerily as he pulled out a heavy wooden chair at the table I'd found, the legs scraping loudly on the floor. I scrunched my nose in distaste, which only brought a bigger grin to Louis' face as he passed me a coffee. 

"Long night," I mumbled in return, pulling the lid off the paper cup and blowing into the dark liquid. It smelled rich and welcoming, but my stomach did a somersault at the idea of putting anything in it, and I sighed, pushing a hand through my hair. 

"Another domestic argument with the missus?" Louis joked, but I shook my head immediately, frowning at his referring to Niall as my wife. He chuckled lightly. 

"I pushed him too far. It was my fault."

"You're only being reasonable, Harry," Louis assured me.

"No, it's not like that. He's right, we can't keep up the pretense of a friendship, let alone sharing a flat together, if I keep belittling him."

Louis tilted his head to one side as he took a sip of his tea. 

"Fair point," he conceded. "But what are you going to do about it?"

I glanced up at him through heavily lidded eyes. Louis was dipping a tea bag in and out of his cup, eyes scanning the shop as if he were looking for someone. I wondered if he'd moved on to the phase in his weird relationship with Lisa Richards where he hoped to bump into her everywhere he went. With the way his blue eyes flickered about the room, I had my answer.

It took him a moment to realize I hadn't responded to his question. When he returned his gaze to me, his brows furrowed. A moment later, his mouth downturned.