Detached [h.s au]

Chapter 27: Revenge

Elizabeth's POV

Now that things are back to normal with Harry, for now, and I've managed to talk to Zayn, one of the things on my to do list is to make amends with Louis. It's not exactly that I want to be friends with him or anything, but I don't like the fact there's someone who dislikes me for all the wrong reasons.

I take a deep breath and enter the lab he works in. Niall is observing something through the mycroscope and taking notes at the same time. Harry seems to be absent and it'd be ideal if Niall wasn't here to witness a probably very awkward conversation, but we can't always have what we want.

Louis is spinning in his chair, seemingly bored. He throws a red rubber band ball in the air and catches it.

"Louis?" I say as I approach him.

He stops spinning and gives me a quick glance before rolling his eyes, throwing the ball in the air again.

I contain myself from snapping at him and force a friendly smile. "I need to talk to you."

He keeps playing with the ball, but I know he's listening. "In private would be great," I say.

"There's nothing to talk about," he says sternly, taking another spin.

"Yes, there is. I'm not leaving until we talk."

"So you have nothing better to do?" Louis raises his eyebrow, throwing his ball in the air and catching it in one hand without looking up.

"What's better than trying to make friends-"

"Aw I'm touched," he says flatly.

"Can we just--"

"No."

"Louis-"

"No." He jolts up from his seat, walking over to Niall.

I clench my jaw in anger. Two can play this game. Niall waves and smiles at me as Louis approaches him, making me smile and wave back, the sight of his sweet smile making me feel better. I take a seat in Louis' chair, watching them having some kind of discussion. Niall points at me a couple of times and Louis only rolls his eyes. I lean my elbows against the counter, absently starting to flip through the papers placed on it.

I stop once I realise there's Harry's handwriting on them. I've always loved chemistry, so I lean forward, reading what are probably some kind of experiment observations, my eyes taking in a bunch of chemical formulas scribbled on the papers.

"Out of seventy five attempts, only two were close to the original."

"What do you think you're doing?" Louis' voice makes me jump up slightly and I move away from the counter.

He quickly collects all the papers, stuffing them in a manilla folder placed aside. "This is confidential, I'm sure Harry wouldn't be satisfied to hear you've been going through his stuff." He narrows his eyes at me, a small smirk playing on his lips.

I stand up, clearing my throat. "I wasn't looking. Can we talk now?"

"Mhm," he mumbles, letting me know he doesn't believe me. "And no, we can't." He grabs the manilla folder, turns on his heel and leaves the lab. Chills run down my spine at the thought he might tell Harry about this. I know very well how he reacts when someone tries to pry into his private things, so it's safe to say there's a fight waiting for me if Louis tells him something.

"Don't worry about him," Niall suddenly says. "Louis is a drama queen."

I smile at him. "Can you tell him it would be good for us to have a conversation?"