With A Touch Of Magic (Larry Version)

18. Cake Of Doom

Pacing up and down in front of his safe haven, the bay window, Louis contemplated what he should do. Thoughtlessly, he had agreed to stop by the bakery today but he wasn't sure if he really should. The rational part of him was fighting his emotional part on this decision. And even though Louis knew now how it felt like to have a dick in his precious bum, he didn't think that was enough of a reason to go over there and suffer. But maybe the tempting chocolate cake was reason enough. Louis was weak for Harry's cakes and pastries. They were just too good and Harry knew that. It had been a smart move from his side to mention cake.

With Alexa most definitely judging his every move from her spot on the couch, he took out his phone and pressed call, deciding to push the inevitable as far away as possible. Instead, he needed to get something else off of his chest that had been bugging him since yesterday. He just needed to know.

"Louis? Hey, mate. What's up?" Sean answered the phone, sounding as surprised as Louis had expected him to sound.

Closing his eyes at the sound of his voice, Louis felt his throat closing up with shame. "Am I a bad friend?".

"What? Why would you think that? You're not ...".

"I'm never asking you how your job's really going or how that's affecting your personal life" Louis knelt down by the window. "It's selfish of me to never ask only because I'm triggered so easily".

"Louis" Sean sighed heavily, making Louis' heart constrict at that. "You are not selfish, more the opposite, mate. We never talk about it because I know how horrible your time has really been, even if you never actually told me everything. I know how vivid your mind is, so I'm trying not to remind you of your past too much by talking too much about football and everything around it".

"But you can. You're my friend and I wanna know what's really going on with you" Louis could see the huge frown on his face in the reflection staring back at him. "Are you actually alright?".

"Mostly, I am. Really. I'm not lying about that. I'd never lie to you. I know how much you hate it and I have no reason to lie to you, like ever" Sean reassured him softly. "There are parts of my job that I wish weren't there but it has really nothing to do with me. More with the younger players and their fates".

"You mean, watching them make the same mistakes as us?" he could hear what he really meant by the edge in his voice.

"In a way, yes" Sean confirmed his suspicion lacklustre, having never sounded so dull before. Not even back then when things had gone down because of their stupid mistake. "As their coach, I'm really in no place to intervene with something that will help their career but I'm still always trying to warn them of potential dangers and traps but not everyone likes that".

"Have you been threatened?" Louis' heartbeat picked up in pure worry, ready to fight for his friend if he had to.

"Not directly, no. But it feels like a threat sometimes. They can't really do anything though and they know it" Sean wasn't calming him down with that answer. "I'm excelling at my job and they need me for now. The team is doing great and the players all want me there. No management or PR team can do anything against that behind the scenes for now. They can only take away one player after the other and sell them to bigger teams and that's what's been happening for a while. My players are all amazing and the football world knows that. They get one opportunity after the other and they're all still pretty starstruck and starry-eyed, too naïve to make good decisions. It's hard to watch sometimes".

"Because you wanna help them and prevent our history from repeating itself over and over again" Louis understood what he meant, his mind going back in time to various conversations between him and his manager. It made him shudder in disgust. "Are there ... people like me in your team?".