The Story of Us // L.S

Sixteen.

Songs for this chapter are:

*Dear Darlin' // Olly Murs

*Like I Would // Zayn

*When We Were Young // Adele

*

I sighed and ran a shaky hand through my hair, trying to think of all the words and secrets I had bottled up for her whole life. Before I could think of where to start Isobel's voice cut through my thoughts and bounced around the room. Her tone was harsh and it caused me to flinch. "Was anything you told me the truth?" My eyes flicked up to her face and I didn't know how to answer her.

"Most of what I told you was the truth. Remember that night you asked me how I met Louis? All of that was the truth. I did meet him in a rainstorm and he gave me his umbrella. It's the one I always use, the one I was using today.

Our first date was to the fair and he won me a teddy.

We did used to live together and we planned our futures together. We planned on getting married but...but then..." My heart was beating wildly and it felt like it was on fire. I inhaled deeply hoping the cool air would soothe it. I had to admit the one thing I had been hiding all along.

"But then?" Isobel prompted me and looked confused with her eyebrows knitted together. I took another slow and deep long breath trying to process my thoughts before continuing. "But then, things started to go wrong. I loved Louis more than I had loved anything before and I thought we were forever. But the cracks started to show sooner rather than later. Louis struggled with being in a long term relationship with a man and saw judgement wherever we went. So, to compensate, he had an affair with someone he worked with, a woman named Briana." I stuttered at the end and barely even breathed the last word as I felt the weight of 18 years fall off my shoulders. My eyes overflowed with tears and I felt them splash down my cheeks.

There was a pause as I tried to breathe steadily and stop myself from crying. Isobel was the first to speak.

"How did you find out?" I fiercely wiped the tears away with both hands and looked around the room, exhaling deeply to the point it sounded like I was moaning out in pain. "He told me." She scoffed causing her eyebrows to knit together more intensely but I carried on before she could interrupt, "He had to. There wasn't a way to keep it a secret anymore." Her eyes stopped scanning the room and rested on me, causing my heart to pump faster and faster. I knew she was about to ask the question I had been dreading answering. My palms become sweaty and my back ran cold.

"What do you mean he couldn't keep it a secret?"

"Briana was pregnant." I paused and watched as the clogs started to turn in Isobel's head. Her jaw dropped open and she sprang up from the bed and started to pace around the room. Even though she was moving quickly, and it was completely dark around us, I could still see the tears falling down her cheeks.

"She was....pregnant...pregnant? As in...with a baby?" Her voice cracked at the end and all of a sudden she stopped pacing and collapsed to the ground in a ball, sobbing into her knees. I hopped off the bed and crouched next to her, wrapping my arms around her. My own tears continued to fall too, and I wasn't sure who's were who's as my shirt became damper.

"Is Louis my real dad?" Her voice was small and strangled and there was nothing else I could do but nod.