You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 11

There was a knock on the door, and he really hoped if he ignored it, whoever it was would leave him the fuck alone.

Then there was another knock.

And another.

And then a "He's not going to answer. Just open the fucking door, Liam."

And then, after the door was flung open, a "What the fuck?"

Louis stayed under the blanket, facing the opposite wall, willing them to go the fuck away.

And really, he shouldn't be surprised that it didn't work because nothing had gone his way today.

The bed dipped next to him, and he knew it was Zayn, even without turning around.

"Lou?" Liam said. He'd walked around the bed so that he was crouching down in front of Louis.

Louis pulled the blanket over his head as much as he could, but Zayn pulled it down so that his face was uncovered. Louis squeezed his eyes shut to recreate the same level of darkness, but it didn't work.

"Lou, What's going on?" Liam's voice was gentle.

Louis didn't answer.

"You know," Zayn said from his other side, "your bed is comfier than mine."

Louis gave a nod because he did know.

"So," Zayn said, "the way I see it is you have three options. You can tell us what's wrong, and we can deal with it. You can continue to refuse to talk about it and lay here, and then Liam and I will spend the night here trying to make you talk. Or, and I have a feeling this is going to be your choice, you can get out of bed, and come downstairs with us, so we know you're not going to off yourself, but you don't have to talk."

"Why are you even here?" Louis asked. Like yeah, he was sulking and had been all afternoon, but they didn't know that before they walked in, and they wouldn't usually storm into his bedroom.

There was a pause. It went on too long.

Louis groaned. Harry. Of fucking course, Harry would have told them to check on him.

"Anyway," Zayn said, ignoring the question altogether or realising that Louis knew the answer, "which option? Because if we're spending all night sitting here begging you to talk, I want to put comfier clothes on."

"Aren't you mad at me?" He asked. "You guys seemed pretty mad at me last night. What did he tell you anyway?"

"Nothing, really," Liam said.

"Fuck off," Louis said with a sigh. "Based on your messages, he said something to you."

"It really doesn't matter," Zayn said. "We're here now. So hurry up. What option?"

"None," Louis said.

"Mm, that's not how this works, Lou," Zayn said.

"I want to go out," Louis said. It wasn't until the words were out of his mouth that he realised it was actually what he wanted to do.

"Tonight?" Liam asked.

Louis pushed himself to a seated position which was difficult because his friends were both sitting on the blanket, practically trapping him to the bed. "Yes," he said once he was up. "I want to go out tonight."

Liam sighed, "When you say out, what do you mean?"

"Drinking," He wanted to do a lot of drinking.

"You sure that's the best idea?" Zayn asked. "Because I kind of liked the idea of annoying you all night."

"I want to go out," Louis said resolutely.