One Direction's Keeper

Chapter twenty-one - The Letter

"What?" a croaky voice whined, fresh tears still hot on his breath

"Louis, it's Emily. We need to talk"

Emily waited outside Louis' door for a response; a response that never came for the whole 2 minutes she was stood outside.

Waiting.

"Of course you wouldn't want to talk" she mumbled under her breath, tears filling her eyes at the thought of how stupid she had been.

Why had she thought he would want to talk? They hadn't even known each other a year, why would he choose to open up to her instead of his best friends?

Feeling foolish, Emily abruptly turned on her heel and began walking away from the door, rubbing her stomach as she felt un-comfortable pains running through the left side of her pregnant stomach where the head of hers and Niall's baby lay; sucking his or her thumb as the doctor had said on their last appointment.

Emily reached the end of the long hallway in record time. It was like she was running away from the monster under her bed who she was once terrified of in her childhood; only the person she was running away from was Louis.

A low creaking sound erupted from the room she was stood in front of moments before, her body spinning round just in time to see the Doncaster boys' head poke round the door.

"Emily?" Louis choked out, his voice croaky from endless months of crying himself to sleep, snuggled up with his favourite photo of him and Rachel from their first date, and her favourite jumper that still, somehow, smelt the same as it had the last time she wore it.

Emily nodded, cautiously walking back down the corridor. "Y-yeah?"

Louis stepped away from the door, opening it wide enough for a person to fit through, rather than just his head, beckoning for Emily to come inside.

Her pace quickened, becoming speed walking by the time she had reached his door.

She stood in front of it awkwardly, as he inspected her from head to toe, Louis hadn't seen her with a full grown bump before.

Emily stood there, impatiently waiting for Louis to do something, anything, other than stare at her bump.

Soon enough, the soon to be mum couldn't take the staring anymore (she had enough of that from fans daily) sighing loudly to get his attention back up to her eyes.

Once her dreary, hazel eyes locked with his gloomy blue ones, all irritation and awkwardness from his stare vanished, and was replaced by the sudden need to comfort the 21 year old.

"Louis.." Emily trailed off, pulling him into a tight hug, causing more pain to shoot out from her left side, but she just ignored it, pulling him in tighter as silent sobs came from his dry throat. "Shh, come on Lou, everything's gonna be okay, I swear" she whispered into his shoulder, stroking his toned back reassuringly.

Louis stood there, finally getting the comfort he'd wanted for so long, but was too frightened to ask for.

He slowly backed them back into his room, not once letting go of her, kicking the door shut.

At the sound of the door closing, Emily pulled away from the loving hug of one of her best friends, holding him at arms length, smiling up at him.

"Thank you" she whispered, pressing her hand lightly to his right cheek, wiping away the stray tear that slipped from his eye without his knowledge.

"For what?" he questioned, leaning into her caring touch

"Letting me in" Louis smiled down at his pregnant friend, pulling her towards the seat on the window ledge that overlooked the whole city so they could sit down.