Remember When ↠ l.p.

Does he know?

"Wh-?" Liam glances between Louis' face and my own in confusion. "What are you on about mate?"

"Shit." Louis loses his usual air of confidence and hides his face in his hands. "Oops."

"Hi." Harry says quickly from beside him. He grins and winks at me from over Louis' hunched over form. 

I  don't even register his playful grin, I'm too in shock of what Louis just said. He just blew my cover! He so much as said that I'm interested in Liam...ROMANTICALLY. "Louis!" I hiss at him through clenched teeth and worried glances towards Liam. "Do you ever think!?"

"Now hold on," he glares up at me from underneath his hand and through his fingers. "you could be jumping to conclusions. After all, Payno isn't the quickest lad." 

"I take offense to that!" Liam says, pointing a finger at him while laughing. It's obvious from their mannerisms that this isn't actually an insult, more likely some sort of old joke between the two.

I smile a little at the teasing tone Liam uses. Maybe he didn't catch what Louis said?

Louis initiates some sort of intricate handshake with Liam that leaves them both in a tangle of arms and frowning at each other. "Surely that wasn't how it ended up when we created this, was it?" Liam asks, puzzled and uncomfortable with his left arm twisted at an awkward angle.

"I think you must have done something wrong. I distinctly remember being able to let go of your hand with no trouble at the end." Louis frowns. "As it is now, I can't manage to get my right hand out from under your elbow."

'Well shit!" Liam laughs as he tugs his arm away from Louis. A few minutes later and after several accusations and threats (mainly from Louis) the two men have finally manage to untangle themselves. Through the whole ordeal Harry looked on in mild interest while I worried over what Liam may or may not have put together.

What was Louis' exact wording? You're just as far gone as she is, aren't you? Something along those lines, I think. How much can you read from that? Does it scream partially in love?

As much of me that is scared he heard what Louis said, there's a small part of me that hopes he did grasp Louis' meaning. That small part is the same one that thinks, 'surely if I just told him, he would understand and we could make things work between us'. Fantasy, not reality. Reality doesn't stop me from hoping, I'm not sure that anything would. There's always going to be an undying flame of hope somewhere deep down in me.

The thing that always stopped me from entertaining fantasies (well once I met Liam, nothing stopped the fantasies when I was nothing more than "just a fan") about Liam was Sophia. But now she's gone...possibly due in part to my involvement with their lives. It makes things all the more messy. 

I try to steel my gaze and keep a straight face, giving no emotion away, as I turn towards Liam as he settles down in his seat again, grinning. What is he going to think if he does put two and two together?