And What If I Were You

Chapter 1 - Part 20

Friday, April 15, 2022

Louis' Villa

Pandanus Palms Retreat

Pandanus Island

8.45am. The calm before the storm...

Louis slides his foot out until his big toe nudges the leg of the small table next to his chair on the deck. He sets his bowl of cereal and cup of tea down, the morning sunshine just starting to stream through the canopy. It's going to be another warm day, as are most on the island. He's acclimatised surprisingly well, even though the humidity is still a challenge. Of course, it helps that he's easily slipped into the standard Pandanus dress code of shorts and tank tops, with long sleeved cotton shirts to protect him from the harsh sun, for the most part. He's never been much of a fashionista, always preferring comfort over whatever trend was popular at the time, much to the dismay of Harry's stylists. Not that Harry ever gave a shit about that, he was always a fan of whatever Louis wore.

The birds are singing up a storm this morning, chirping and trilling at each other as Louis settles down into his comfortable outdoor chair. He stretches out his legs which are a little achy from his sunrise walk along the beach and then yoga with Zayn, Penny, and some of the B&B guests. Contributing to the state of his tired limbs, he'd spent most of last night at the bar standing up chatting with the 'Fam', the new nickname for his Pandanus 'family' as they're now being referred to. Niall has even been added to their WhatsApp group chat as a self-proclaimed member of said family and it's convenient given that he's the facilitator of so many of their activities.

Louis takes a sip of his tea, his second for the day. He'd ordered a travel mug last week so that he can make a cuppa and then take it on his sunrise walk. He likes to drink it as he walks and then finishes it when he stops and sits down on his rock. Yes, he has a rock. Or 'contemplation rock' as Zayn persists in calling it after Louis had stupidly mentioned it to him. Stupidly, because he'd told Becky who then proceeded to tell the rest of the Fam who have affectionately teased him about it at every opportunity. Whatever, he likes his rock. It's flat and smooth, just far enough away from the shore to not be engulfed by the tides, and big enough for his arse to nearly fit.

This morning, sitting on his rock, his thoughts had kept coming back to this idea of family and what it means to him. Family has long been a somewhat uneasy concept for Louis, so this new designation with his neighbours at the retreat is an oddity in his world, but one that has crept under his defences before it had occurred to him that one was being formed and he was a part of it.

His own family history hasn't exactly been what he might've hoped for, but he learned long ago not to dwell on it too much. His dad had ditched them before Louis was even born, and he has no siblings. He and his mum had a tempestuous relationship throughout Louis' teenage years, which translated into Louis leaving home as soon as he finished school. By the time Louis had taken his head out of his arse and grown the fuck up, time wasn't on their side to redevelop a relationship, with his mum falling ill and passing away when Louis was only twenty-five. His friends had become his family, but he was never one to rely heavily on a network of other people to provide him a cushion of emotional support. Harry was really the only proper family he'd ever known, the only person who made him want to let his walls down, but look where that got him.

Now though, on the island, it's surprising how comfortable he is with the concept in this new iteration.

His peace and tranquillity is interrupted by an alert on his phone and he sets his cereal bowl down, tapping on the screen to get his app to read it out for him. It's a WhatsApp voice note, which isn't unusual with how active everyone is in the Fam chat, except for the fact that it's a message from Niall. He and Niall have never messaged each other directly, so this is new.