Expect the Unexpected (A One Direction & Emblem3 Fan Fiction)

Chapter 29

Dedi'd to @ItssMeMariiaaa.

Niall's POV

It's been almost 24 hours since we've last seen Louis, and Liam was going frantic. Ed Sheeran, he claimed, had rang the doorbell, stolen Louis for a bit, and hadn't returned with him, and we had a concert to perform in 3 hours.

"Where is he?" Liam raged.

"Mate, you sound like Louis yesterday," Zayn said tiredly, stretching on the couch as Louis walked into the room.

"Hello, lads, what did I miss?" he asked brightly.

"Miss?" Liam choked out. "You were gone for almost a freaking day, Louis!" 

"Yes, and I'm back and ready for the concert tonight, and I'll have to step out again," Louis said, nodding.

"Where to?" Harry asked.

Louis bit his lip. "Can't say. I'm going to freshen up," he called, walking into the bathroom.

"He's acting funny," I commented. "Maybe Ed told him something."

"No shit," Harry said sarcastically. "The real question is, what?"

We were all silent as Louis came back downstairs, whistling.

"All right, enough's enough," Liam spat at him. "Where did Ed take you?"

"Out for dinner," Louis said vaguely. 

"Why?" I asked. "And why must you leave again tonight after tour?"

A shifty look came across Louis's face, but he swallowed. "None of your business," he said stiffly, turned on his heel, and headed for the door. "I'll see you guys at the venue."

With that, he was gone.

"What's up his trousers?" Harry asked curiously as we stared at the now closed door.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out," Liam said, determined. 

"Why don't we just let him be?" I asked, leaning back in my seat heavily.

"Because he's acting suspicious, and not at all like himself," Liam said.

"Just give it a rest, Liam," Zayn said, sounding utterly exhausted.

"I can't," Liam said. "There's something fishy about his behaviour."

"We can't do anything about it now," Harry said, sounding defeated. "We have the concert to worry about. We'll interrogate him afterwards."

"All right," Liam sighed, checking his phone. "We have 2 hours. Let's get some rest."

Ed's POV (First time).

"Come on," I said, exasperated.

Skylar threw her hands up. "It's impossible," she pronounced. "It is literally impossible for me to stand onstage and sing."

"No, it's not, because you did it at the Voice-Off," Eleanor said.

"But that was a one-time thing," Skylar insisted. "I can't do it again! Hell, I can't even sing in front of my friends, people I'm supposed to be comfortable around."

"Maybe we should focus on masking your stage fright, instead of trying to solve it," Louis suggested. "It may work better."

"All right, like how?" Skylar asked, sitting down, swinging her legs.

"Well have you tried imagining that the audience isn't there? I know you can sing, you sang in front of me and Simon," I said.

"I don't know," Skylar mumbled. "I can sing with one or two people watching, but I don't know if I can do it this time, even if there are one or two people in front of me, they're celebrities, Ed."