"Lovely"

Part Forty Eight (Liam) & Part Forty Eight and a Half (Leigh)

Part Forty Eight (Liam)

About two weeks after my confrontation with Louis, I arrived at football only to find that our teams kicker, Harry, had taken an impromptu rain check on practice. The last time I looked into that, the last practice session before a game had always been mandatory.

Apparently not for Harry.

No matter, I go about practice with the same charisma that I do my best to bring every time the team is together. That charisma; however, is nearly crushed by the appearance of Louis on the bleachers at the end.

"Louis?" I ask, confused, why would he be here an hour before class started?

"Hey Liam," he says quietly, gripping the handles of his crutches, "I wanted... I wanted to thank you."

I'll have to admit that this is a first, I've never been personally thanked after early clobbering someone.

"Don't mention it?" I joke, but Louis' serious tone tells me that this isn't the right time.

"Louis," I clear my throat, "I'm really sorry about everything, I shouldn't have come at you like that. It wasn't fair of me to do that to you, nor was it right. I hope you'll forgive me."

Louis nods in acceptance, "Don't worry about it. It's done."

We sit in an awkward silence, "However, I still need to thank you, Liam."

I'm quite astonished, "what for?"

Louis takes a deep, contemplative breath, as if to collect his words before he speaks. "After what happened between you and I, I realized that I needed someone who was going to stand up for me, and be there for me no matter what the circumstance, and no matter what the consequence. And, after my boyfriend, didn't do either of those things yesterday, I broke up with him."

My jaw drops.

Harry and Louis, the power couple of the fucking decade, called it quits.

Huh.

"So thank you, I guess." He sighs, "for bringing that to light for me."

I don't know if I exactly feel bad about what I did to Louis, but I know that I don't feel great about it either. Knowing that Louis felt it was a good thing makes me feel better about myself for doing it? Should it feel that way?

Looking at Louis the way he is now, I can't help wondering if Harry ever treated him the way that I do. However, now that Harry is out of the picture then I suppose that now is a better time than ever to try and move things a long between us.

"Louis, you can't think of things that way, Harry isn't worth the second thought."

Louis gives me a reassuring look and I nod, grabbing his crutches for him.

"You really think so?" he asks, using me to steady himself on the crutches.

"Not only do I think so," I respond, "I know so."

Louis nods back to me, "well, alright I guess."

He stands completely, and together we head back towards the school. When we reach Louis locker, that girl that was with Louis after yesterday is there waiting for him. When she sees me, her face goes cold.

"What is he doing here?" she asks Louis cooly, "he's not bothering you is he?"

Louis shakes his head, "No, Leigh, everything's fine. We're cool."

Leigh gives me an unassured look before forcing a smile, "Good to hear. Do you want to have lunch with us today....?"

"...Liam." I smile, "and that would be awesome....?"