𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚 𝟐𝟓𝟖 [𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧]

𝟑𝟑. 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨?

I woke up and I felt a warm breath on my neck. I turned slowly and saw Louis less than an inch away from me. I had tried to stay as far away from him as possible, so much that I was at the limit between the edge and the floor, but apparently he had climbed the beds that I hadn't yet had the heart to separate until he reached my side.

I snuck out of the covers trying not to wake him, not because I wanted to be kind to the asshole in any way, but because I knew that once he opened his eyes, it would be harder to resist the temptation to forgive him and I had no intention of doing that.

The words he had said to me, or rather, the ones he hadn't said, were still burned into my head. I didn't want an "I love you", I didn't even want him to ask me to be with him, a 'maybe' would have been enough. Yes, because that little distant hope, that semi-open door, would have been enough for me to throw myself back into his arms. Maybe at that point it was for the best. So why did it hurt so fucking bad?

I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, which wasn't like me.

Most of the time I could even stay in there for an hour to let thoughts and worries slip away, it would have really helped me at that moment, but the desire to spend as little time as possible with Louis got the upper hand, so I got dressed just as quickly and went out of our room.

I arrived at the canteen which was still half empty. All the better, I didn't want to be disturbed by some asshole. I grabbed a cup, stuffed the milk into it and then the cereal, looked for a free table and listlessly nibbled on my breakfast. As if he sensed my need to be alone and had every intention of ruining my dreams, I saw Liam scrambling to get to my table. I rested my head on my hands, massaging my temples with my fingers.

"Stop now Payne" without even looking at him I raised a hand to stop his advance.

"But..." I heard him protest.

"No, today there are no buts, no ifs. I don't want to be with you, neither today, nor tomorrow, nor next month. Try to get it right into your head, because if your girlfriend's father doesn't break your head first, I'll do it. Now get out, go keep Niall company, you're doing us all a favour"

I went back to staring listlessly at my bowl of cereal, but when I looked up two seconds later, I realised that Liam was still standing there gaping at me.

"Well then?" I asked grumpy "Are you leaving? I'd like to finish my breakfast in peace!"

Under my glare I saw him turn and walk to a table where Niall and Zayn were sitting.

I noticed that in the meantime the canteen was filling up. In that instant, Louis and Josh had gone to sit at the usual table at the back of the room. I couldn't help but think that this is how it should have been, that it would have been like this if I had never made it to that school.

A lump rose in my throat and suddenly I also lost the desire to eat. Although it was very early, I headed to class, the classroom was the only place where I didn't run the risk of meeting someone I didn't want.

Niall, Zayn, Liam, Louis and Josh were all older than me so they were taking other courses and I was pretty sure that Nick wasn't enrolled in literature because places had run out. So I was completely alone and didn't know whether to be happy about it or not.

I really didn't know what to do anymore, I had reached a stalemate.

The only solution would have been to leave and go home, but for what purpose? To have my family tell me once again that I was a failure? Besides, I no longer had any friends there and Gemma would inundate me with questions about Louis. A while ago it would have made sense, I would have done it to protect my friends, but now Nick had won, they weren't my friends anymore, he had convinced Niall, Liam and Josh to stay away from me and Zayn and Louis it was myself who didn't want to have anything to do with anymore.