friends to lovers - lilo

00

"What the hell am I going to do?"

Louis paces around the room, freaking out about what happened earlier with his mother.

"Do you have anyone special in your life?" Johannah asks as she's preparing two cups of tea. Louis looks up from his phone, and gave her a confused look. "Special?" She gave him a small smile and hands him his cup. "Yes! Do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" Louis frowned at the question.

It's been about a month since Louis came out to his family and friends as bisexual and they've been poking at him if he's dating anyone and what it's like to be bisexual. In fact, he has never had a proper date with someone after he came out. His friends constantly try to hook him up with strangers at the club, but Louis doesn't want that. He'd rather get know someone first and see if they accept him. They just don't understand.

"Uh, yes? Yeah, um, a boyfriend." Louis hesitated. Johannah's smile brightens up and starts to ask him about 2 questions every 5 seconds. "Oh! What's his name? Do I know him? Is he nice? Please tell me he is nice or I-" Louis cuts her off by saying, "Liam."

"Liam? Your friend?"

Louis started playing with the spoon next to his cup and mumbles, "yeah."
He heard her squeal and say, "That's great! He is a nice boy. Honey, I'm happy for you." She places her hand on his arm and squeezes it. Louis started to smile, even though he feels completely guilty by lying to his own mom. "Thank you." As long as she doesn't consider they all go out for dinner, he's good. "You should invite Liam to dinner with us some time."

Crap.

"I-I don't think he'll come. I mean he's probably busy!" Louis exclaims. "Don't be silly, Lou. I'm sure there's some room on his schedule for the dinner. I've only seen him a couple times when he comes over for some footie. I think it'll be nice if we all sat down and know him a bit better, you know? Welcome him to the family." Louis is seriously starting to get anxious as his heart speeds up. He is a 23 year old man and still isn't honest with his mother.

"I'll give him a call then."

Louis stares at Liam's contact name and his thumb hovers over the call option. What if Liam stops talking to him? Will he help him play along? "Fuck," Louis says and puts his phone down. He doesn't want to ruin anything. He doesn't want to ruin his relationship with his mother and his friendship with Liam.

After an hour of panicking and a beer, Louis decides to call him. He taps on "Call" and held the phone to his ear as he taps his foot on the floor. Liam finally picked up after about 5 seconds which felt like minutes. "Hello? Louis?"

Louis' heart races and sat there without saying a word. "Loooouis? Are you there?" He snaps out of it and started speaking. "Um, hey Li! Just need to know if I can come over for a bit. I need to talk to you." His palms were starting to sweat and he rubs his left hand on his sweatpants. "Hmm? Oh, yeah! Of course, I can have a beer ready over here for you," Liam said cheerfully.

"Nice, I'll come in a few minutes"

"See you soon, Lou."

"Cheers."

The phone call ends and Louis throws his hands on his face and groans. He's going to make things between them awkward.

_

He walks down the sidewalk as he tries to warm up. It's freezing in England, yet he's wearing a tank top. Liam's place is nearby, be calm. He sees the familiar place and stops right in front of it. Louis suddenly feels like he's going to throw up, but he takes a deep breath. It's almost time.

He walks up the steps and knocks on the door. It took about 3 minutes for Liam to walk over to the door and open it. He smiles brightly at Louis which made Louis feel a bit better.

"Louis! Come in, you seem cold." Louis walks in and the warmth hits his skin immediately which made him feel comfortable. "I don't think you need a beer anymore, maybe some tea?" Liam said with a smile. "Thanks, man," Louis said in a low voice, "I'll be honest, can we talk first and then tea? It's super important." Liam's expression of happiness then turned into worry and concern.

Louis sat down on the couch and Liam followed. Louis started playing with a loose string from his tank top as he cleared his throat. "First, don't think I'm crazy, alright? It sounds ridiculous and I'm going to let you know that I'm nervous as fuck." Those words made Liam worry even more and he scooted closer to him as he wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "Whatever it is, I won't judge."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Louis closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again to look into Liam's. "I want you to be my boyfriend."

Liam furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to take in what Louis said. Louis then realized the way he said it and his face instantly heated up. "Wait! No! What I meant was that I want you to be my fake boyfriend like pretend! I didn't mean to say it like that, shit," Louis said rapidly with his eyes wide open. Liam smirked and leaned back onto the couch. "For why? Is there somebody you want to impress?"

"Yeah, well, kind of. My mum. She asked me if I was dating someone earlier today and I hesitated, so I said you're my boyfriend," he explained, "She's expecting you to have dinner with the family someday." Liam stared at Louis with a focused expression and Louis shifted at the sight of Liam's reaction.

"Y-you don't have to do it. I'm stupid for even lying to her. I'm so so-"

"I'll do it."

Liam cuts Louis off with those three words and Louis sat there, not moving a muscle. He gave him a smile and said it again, "I'll do it." Louis blinked. "Really?"

Liam puts his hand on Louis' knee and gives it a warm squeeze. "Of course, I just need to know how long we have to be together, you know, for the fake relationship." He watches him sit there, rubbing the stubble of his chin.

"Maybe a few weeks? After that, we call it off." Liam nods. "Do we have cute pet names now? I can call you sweet cheeks." Louis reaches his hand towards Liam and gives his nipple a twist.

"Hey!" Liam exclaimed, with a smile plastered on his face. "Babe and love are fine," Louis says as he rolls his eyes. They sit there in silence as they are smiling.

"Thank you."

Liam pulls Louis in a hug and plants a kiss on his head, "Anything for you, Lou."

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THERE IT IS! this is probably my first story on wattpad and i'm honestly proud of it :-) hopefully you liked it to those who are reading!!! more to come