Tell Me a Lie - L.S. English

~ Eighth Chapter ~

**trigger warning - panick attack**

I put the photo down and hoped he didn't see what I was doing, before I turned around to find Louis Tomlinson standing in front of me with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Water still dripping from his hair.

I tried very hard not to stare at the tattoos that covered his skin and the drops of water that ran down his nose onto his stomach.

"I-
I didn't-
I mean-
I think that-
what I said was-
I'll go now."
I stammered.

"What are you doing in my room?" Louis asked not letting me leave without answers.
I tried to keep my eyes fixed on his face.

"I was looking for the toilet..?" I sort of said. He gave me a judgmental look.
"Couldn't you have come up with a better excuse?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have come in here." I said and tried to understand what he was thinking.
"You shouldn't have." He agreed.

We continued to stand there in silence until Louis sighed and went to his closet, starting to take out clothes.
I realized it was one of several thick hints I missed that I needed to get out of the room.
"I, uh, will go now." I muttered and quickly left the room. what is my problem?

I went to the living room and looked at his record collection again.
He had a crazy selection, he probably collects records.

A phone ring pierced the silence and I saw a landline phone on a dresser next to the TV. landline? Really, Louis?

I picked up the phone to answer and heard Louis' voice answer the call.
"Louis Tomlinson." He said and I assumed this phone was connected to another one I missed in Louis' bedroom or one of the rooms near it.

"Lou, this is Lottie. You've been unavailable since yesterday." Said a feminine voice over the line.
"Sorry, Lotts. I've been a bit busy. Did something happen?" Louis asked and I started to feel weird that I was eavesdropping on his conversation, but something burned in me to know who this woman was and what she wanted from Louis.

But I still put the phone down and hoped with all my heart that it didn't make a sound that announced on the other phone that I was hanging up.

- - - -

"Thanks for bringing me here, you didn't have to." I said to Louis as I got out of his car by Leon's bar.
He shrugged dismissively.
"And about last night, I'm really sorry about everything I put you through. Thank you for taking care of me. How can I repay you?" I continued and he nodded.

"You owe me a favor now." He said and I nodded. "Fine. Thanks again, Louis." I said and closed the door.
I walked away from his car and he drove away.

I found my car, unlocked it and got in, sitting on the cold leather seat.
I put my hands on the steering wheel and rested my head on the headrest with a sigh.
How did I end up owing Louis Tomlinson a favor?

And Cameron, I completely forgot about him.
I noticed that I hadn't thought about Cameron since Louis took me out of Leon's bar.
I was wondering if I should call him.
On one hand I didn't want to hurt him, on the other hand I felt more urgency to call Mitch and tell him what happened with Louis.

And in the back of my head, in a place I can't quite silence, there's an annoying hum. A man's silky laugh, pulling me closer to him to the sound of music on a dance floor full of people.
As much as I wanted to call this man and tell him the words that are playing in my head in a wonderful dance-

No.
Stop being poetic.
This guy is the devil. snap out of it!

I texted Cameron asking to meet to talk about last night and started the car.
I turned on the radio and started driving.

It was exactly eight o'clock, so the radio broadcaster opened the hour.
"Good morning everyone from BBC1! I hope your day has started well. I'm Nick Grimshaw, I hope-"

I switched the stations. I don't want to listen to Grimmy.
The song that was playing on the new station was familiar to me, I wasn't sure where I knew it from.
In my imagination blue eyes gazed at me from the other side of a dance floor.
Oh.

To hell with that, I'm calling Mitch.
I turned off the radio and dialed his number and waited for him to answer the call.
"Come on. Answer it, Mitchell."

Three rings and..
"Hello?" Sarah's voice was heard through the speaker of my phone.
"Hey, Sarah. Can you let me talk to Mitch? It's important." I asked and there was a strange urgency in my voice.

"He's just woken up, Harry. You can tell me what it's about and I'll give him the message." She answered. As much as I love Sarah, she's not helping right now. I needed Mitch.

"Please just put Mitch on the phone, Sarah." I said and stressed desperation ran through my voice.
I heard noises over the line and then Mitch's voice asking "Who is it?" dimly.
"It's Harry. He sounds very stressed, Mitch. I'm worried." Sarah answered him and more noises were heard.

"Harry? What's going on? Sarah said you sounded stressed. Is everything alright?" Mitch's worried voice came from the other end of the line.

I parked the car next to a random pavement fearing an impending panic attack and I started shaking.
"I can't breathe, Mitch." I cried and my whole body shook violently.

"Harry, relax. Take a deep breath through your nose and count to five and slowly exhale to the count of five, inhale to five and exhale to five." He said and I tried to follow his instructions slowly.

"Good, Harry. One more in. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... good, and one out. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... Good, Harry. Good, one more." He continued to count.

"Good, Harry. Keep breathing. Tell me, do you remember my birthday three years ago?" He asked and I nodded as I struggled to keep the beat.

"Do you remember how you pushed my head into the cake?" He continued as if I had answered him.
"It was terrible. I was covered in cake, and you were laughing like a madman." He continued the story and I smiled.
"Then you licked the cake off my cheek. Disgusting." He said and I giggled.

"Then you took some cake in your hand and smeared it on my hair." I continued to describe the memory.
"Sarah wanted to kill us." He added. "Niall tried to participate but we bullied him until he stopped." I said with a smile and realized that my breathing had stabilized and my tears had dried.

"What happened, Harry?" Mitch asked after a few seconds of silence.
My eyes moistened again.
The blue eyes again flowed in my head like a stormy sea. Like high waves crashing violently on the jagged rocks of my thoughts.

"I can't get him out of my head, Mitch." I cried.
"I keep imagining blue eyes and hearing his voice in my head... I can't think of anything! He's moved into my head, and he won't leave. He's just living there rentfree!" I continued and my cries got stronger.

"Who lives in your head rentfree, Harry? I'm starting to worry you're developing a blue-eyed multiple personality disorder." Mitch said worriedly.
"Louis."

_______

(1272 words)

I'm begging you, the silent readers of this fanfic, to speak up and start commenting here the witts that are surely running through your head when you read this 🙏❤️

I love you so much

I'm dedicating this chapter to Lovely_Rainbow_Sheep because she made me laugh after I cried hard a day before I wrote this in Hebrew.