drowning ➶ larry

4. Delusional

Louis barely had two words out before Niall was dragging him out of the restroom.

"Come on, mate, its lunch time!"

"I-I have to return..." He says as he passed by the office.

"Oh? Okay I'll go with you." The blonde says steering them around and holding the office door open for Louis.

"In ya go." He says as Louis walks past him. The lady eyes them for a moment.

"A friend." Louis states as he hands her the meds. She takes them and the two boys leave without a word. They walk down the hall in silence until Niall speaks up.

"What're the meds for?" He asks. Louis was going to answer when he saw a girl with some tassels at the end of her bag. The girl didn't interest him. It was the tassels.

"You don't have to tell me, I was just curious." Niall says and Louis looks at him.

"Hmm? Sorry I got distracted." He says before adding, "Schizophrenia."

Niall looks at him with curious eyes.

"Schizophrenia?" He pronounced it 'shitz-o-prania.', "What's that?"

"I um...see things...Jace..." He trails off as they reach the cafeteria. It was full of people. Loud people. God, Louis did not like this.

"Who's Jace?" Niall asks.

"Don't tell him. I don't want these idiots to know who I am."

"A friend." He says sourly as he spots Harry in the corner of the cafeteria. He was waving as if his life depended on it.

"Is Styles calling you over?" Niall asks. Boy this kid has a lot of questions.

"I think so. He helped me find my classes this morning."

"Come on. Let's go see what he wants." Niall says grabbing Louis' forearm. Louis has to restrain himself from pulling away. He's not used to attention. Its terrifying.

The two boys make it to the table at the end and find Harry and three other people. They all smiled at them when Louis and Niall walked up.

"Hey Louis. Are you still gonna sit with me?" He asks eyeing Niall.

"I um...sure." Louis replies and sits down.

"Make sure they treat ya well, mate. Gotta go, Liam's probably wondering where I am." Niall says before leaving. The table is quiet for a second. Louis meds started kicking in, a small headache evolving.

"So Louis, these are my friends. This is Eleanor Calder, Nick Grimshaw, and Zayn Malik." He says and Louis squeaks out a small hi at each of them.

"Nice to..." He stops when he sees Jace take a seat next to him.

"Don't even think to try the food here. It's repulsive." He says and Louis notices everyone's eyes on him. Someone coughs. Nick.

"So um, Louis, where are ya from?" He asks.

"Here." Louis replies.

"Oh? Why haven't I seen you the past couple of years?" He questions and Louis felt like this was more of an interrogation than a friendly conversation. Louis doesn't answer.

"Nick, babe, leave him alone. If he doesn't wanna talk about leave him be." He says, leaning over and kissing Nick on his cheek. Of course.

"Remember when he was being really nice to you? And you thought he was complimenting you? Yeah that was hilarious."

Louis was on the verge of tears. Of course Harry didn't like him. God, how amazing his first day back to school was turning out. He instantly stood up without thinking. Harry looked at him with a curious eyes.

"Where are ya going?" Harry asks.

"I um...I need to go to the office...for something." Louis blurts out before basically running out of the cafeteria. He truly did have to go to the office. He needed to see the counselor and 'talk.'

He walked into the office and Ms. Brook looked up at him.

"Oh there you are. You left earlier without a word and I thought you forgot about the counselor." She says and Louis just shakes his head.

"Who's the counselor?"

"Oh he's an amazing person. His name is Mathew Martin but you should call him Dr. Martin. Come on, I'll take you to his office. Now its mandatory you come in visit him at least three times a week and update him on how your feeling and just some simple things. Okay?" She explains and Louis nods.

She stops at a door and knocks.

"Come in." Ms. Brook opens the door and Louis honestly didn't think the office would look like this.

The interior walls were a very light blue and there was a huge mohagony desk with weird trinkets like bottle caps and glass cats. The walls were decorated with frames of Paris and Africa. There were two bean bag chairs in front of the desk and one huge chair behind the desk. In the chair was a man who typing away on his apple laptop. He looked up.

"Ah, Louis. I was starting to think you forgot about me. Come and sit. Thank you Ms. Brook. I can handle it from here."

Ms. Brook nodded and left closing the door behind her. Louis was left alone with him.

"So, Louis, is it alright if I call you Louis? I can call you Mr. Tomlinson if you like." He rambles and Louis shakes his head.

"It's fine." He says and sits in one of the beanbag chairs. He sinks slightly and let's out a squeak. He shifted trying to get comfortable.

"So, Louis, how's your first day going." He asks closing his laptop and moving his full attention to Louis.

"G-Good." He stutters. He was hoping he wasn't going to ask about his problems. But when do things ever go his way?

That's right never.

"Have you made any friends? Ms. Brook said you were with someone earlier. Is that right?"

Louis nods.

"What's his name?"

"Niall." He says and looks at one of the pictures. It was a picture of of a lone elephant in a dry landscape.

He was so busy looking at the picture he missed Dr. Martins question.

"Louis?" The younger lad looked back at the doctor.

"Hmm?" He asks.

"How's Jace?"