A Bit Of Love/Hate (Louis AU)
She could see him coming – strutting, actually- confidently across the hallway to reach his locker with Harry Styles. They were laughing, oblivious to the impending horror about to befall them.
“Really Summer, this is definitely your worse one yet,” Liam whispered from beside her. The two of them were standing where they had a front row seat to what was about to happen.
“He deserves it,” she shrugged. “Besides, best friends are supposed to be supportive Lili, so shush it and let me enjoy.”
Liam, righteous as he was, followed and propagated non-violence to everyone but her, especially when it came to Louis Tomlinson. Summer and Louis had a long and complicated history. It all started when they were 5 and were building castles in the sand pit at the park near their house.
“Summer, who are you going to get married to?” the blue eyed boy asked as casually as his five year old self would allow him to.
Earlier that day his parents had kissed over the kitchen counter and when Louis had groaned they had told him he would be the same with his girlfriend in a few years. Louis had crinkled his nose and said, ‘I won’t kiss a girl until I’m married.’ That’s when his mom had laughed, ‘What are we going to do about Summer then mini Romeo?’ ‘Mom,’ Louis had whined, ‘I’m not marrying her! She likes the pink power ranger!’ His mother laughed with his father, kissed him and dropped him till his car to go to work.
But when he thought about it over his chocolate chip pancakes and milk, he realised it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. They walked to school together, shared their juice boxes, loved SpongeBob and hated Math. It could work.
So that day when they met at the park and she suggested that they make sandcastles, Louis decided to ask her.
“I don’t know Lou, can you pass the shells?”
Louis heart fell. He really wanted to know what she was going to say! “Summer,” Louis whined, pouting at her.
“Lou, you’re a baby,” she said as if she were way more mature. “Maybe that new kid Harry? He has curly hair like Pongo.” Pongo was Summer’s dog whom she loved dearly.
Louis was crushed; this wasn’t the answer he was expecting. He hadn’t realised how much he wanted her to say his name. He was angry. For some reason he didn’t like the new kid so much anymore. He stood up and in a fit of anger, he kicked the castle that they had spent an hour building. Without another word he stomped off, leaving a very confused and teary eyed Summer amidst their destroyed castles.
The next day in school when the 7 year old bullies pulled at her head, he didn’t help her. In fact, when Summer called him to sit with her during break, he yelled ‘Poophead!’ in front of all their classmates and ran from there. The following week Summer threw a stone at him when he laughed and called her a ‘poophead’ again. People still called her that.
Fast forward 12 years and there they were, still trying to antagonize each other to the best of their capabilities. They didn’t know when or why anymore but every prank was bigger and worse than the last to the point where all the kids were used to their drama and tantrums and all the teachers just gave them detention.
“That’s it Louis, open your locker,” Summer smiled to herself evilly, completely ignoring Liam, who was shaking his head at her disapprovingly.
Louis opened his locker to a flood of pictures. He stooped down to pick one up. It was a picture of when he was 4 and had decided that rather than be superman, who had to wear his underwear outside he wasn’t going to wear any at all. And so there were many, many pictures of a very naked Louis, grinning happily at the camera with a towel cape on his back. All the classmates in the corridor picked up one of the pictures and laughed hysterically. Harry stood beside his friend who had a look of pure shock.
Louis remembered when that picture was taken. Summer was wearing a tutu and they had pretended that he was going to protect her from any monster they had to face because she was a princess. He couldn’t believe Summer had forgotten.
Louis looked up to Harry who was smiling at him sympathetically. Louis didn’t need pity, especially from him. He calmly walked away from the scene while the others just pointed and laughed. He walked to his classroom and waited.
When Summer came strolling in the classroom with Liam, Louis stood up. He walked up to her and blocked her way to her usual seat. “Are you happy now?” he asked her, his face passive.
“I have no idea what you are talking about, Tomlinson.” She said, pulling her sling back up higher on her shoulder. “Now can you move? My friend is waiting.”
“You were the only one who knew about the picture Summer, he said, trying to hide the emotion his voice was showing. “You were the one who took it, remember?”
Summer was silent, of course she remembered. It was one of the highlights of that summer. But she was stubborn, so she looked him in the eye, “The way you took a pair of scissors and snipped holes into my backpack last week and I had to carry all my dirty books home in the rain because they fell in a puddle.”
Louis didn’t know about this. His eyes widened and he stayed silent while Summer pushed him behind with one hand.
“Or when you told my mum that it was me who broke the trampoline,” another push, “or when you fed Pongo rubbish from the dustbin,” another push, “or when you told my ex that I was mentally unstable, or when you threw a fucking stone at me two years ago? The pain was more than just physical, Louis.” She lifted her hands and balled them up in fists to hit his chest. “What did you expect me to do huh Louis? Ever since that day in the sandpit you’ve been such a jerk, you were my best friend and then -” Summer burst into tears right there, covering her face while her friend ran up to support her.
Louis felt guilty, he knew why he had done all that he had but she didn’t. “Summer-”
“Go away, Louis”
Louis sighed but then looked at her again, “Do you know why I went away that day in the park?” Summer looked at him from underneath her eyelashes and shook her head. It killed Louis to see her like that, to think that she had cried like this before because of him. “We were making sandcastles and I asked you who you would marry when you were older and you said Harry. It killed me,” he said softly.
Summer looked up to see Louis, his own eyes moist as he explained. He walked towards her tentatively, pulled her into his arms and kissed her head. She didn’t protest, she missed him too much to do anything but hug him back.
“I’m so so so sorry, Summer. At the age of 5, I realized that I loved you and it killed me that you didn’t.”
Summer was shocked. Vaguely, she remembered what she had said to him all those years ago. “But Lou,” she whispered into his chest, “I was 5; I liked the pink power ranger.”
Louis laughed softly and wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could, “I know, you had horrible taste in super heroes and boys.”
Summer pulled away, looked at him and smiled, “That’s not true, I did like that one Superman, remember? He saved me from all the monsters.”
Louis grinned at her and then softly pressed his lips against hers. She held his biceps pressed her own lips harder against his as a chorus of aww’s and gagging noises sounded from the other students in the classroom.
“Well, well, this is new. Mr. Tomlinson, Ms. Evans, both of you can take your highly complicated love – hate relationship and proceed to the Principal’s office. Now.”
Louis saw their first period teacher Mr. Garcia look at them sternly. He saw that Summer was blushing now. She turned around and slipped out of the room. Louis followed Summer’s petite figure. But this time he was glad he had to go in the corridor he could kiss her without any interruptions or commentary.
