Snapshot » l.t.

Chapter 17

Chapter 17


Renee's POV


I woke up the next morning and stared at the ceiling. I wasn't expecting anyone today, except for hopefully Elise, and I didn't plan on going out. Today was going to be my day.

I rolled out of bed and dragged my feet to the bathroom. I carelessly brushed through my hair and washed my face. I didn't put on any makeup.

I pulled on an old football jersey and some sweatpants cut into shorts. I grabbed four sodas and an unopened pack of dark chocolate chips from the kitchen. I went into the living room and hooked up my Wii.

I don't consider myself a gamer girl. There are just these two Wii games I absolutely rock at: Just Dance and Super Smash Bros Brawl, aka Super Smash.

I usually played Just Dance to get some exercise, or listen to my favorite songs while dancing. I couldn't come up with my own dance moves to save my life.

I played Super Smash when I was angry. I wasn't violent (for the most part), but there are always going to be one of those times when you just want to sock someone without getting arrested.

Louis was one of those someones.

I clicked the nunchuk into place and clicked A. I was brought to the Wii home screen, and I clicked on the Super Smash window.

I started with my usual: I clicked on Kirby as my avatar and used Jigglypuff as my CPU opponent. I don't know why, but I hated Jigglypuff with a passion.

I set the time to five minutes since two was too short, and clicked on my favorite stage.

After I killed Jigglypuff five times without getting a scratch on me, I reset my avatar to R.O.B. Now here comes the fun part. I set up three more CPUs, all of them R.O.B. I clicked on the Final Destination stage, and started playing.

That's how I usually did things on Super Smash. After a while, I paused it long enough to open my pack of chocolate chips and a soda. After drinking and eating some, I went back to the game.

I'm not sure how long this went on for, but I do know it was a long time. I could tell because it was past twelve when someone knocked on my door. And I started playing around nine.

"I know you're there, Renee!" a male voice called when I didn't answer. "I hear noises coming from inside!"

"Well, maybe I left the TV on!" I retorted, then cursed myself. I paused the game.

"Ha, so you are there! Open up!"

"Go away!"

I got up and stood by my door, glaring at it with my arms folded across my chest.

"Let's just get this over with," he sighed. "Will you forgive me?"

"No."

"Kay, bye."

But he didn't leave. I didn't hear his footsteps retreating. Plus, the shadows underneath the crack in my door didn't disappear.

I sighed. "I know you're there, Louis," I said.

No reply.

"You're not going to fool me."

Silence.

"Fine, stand outside my door all day," I said nonchalantly. "I don't care. You're still not coming in."

I went back to my seat on the floor, and I leaned back, making myself comfortable. I was just about to turn the game back on when I realized something.

I lurched back up from my seat and opened my door. Louis stared at me. I stared back at him. "What?" he finally asked.

"I would ask why you're still here, but that's beside the matter," I said. "Actually, no. Why are you still here?"

He looked lost for a moment. "Because I knew at one point you'd open the door," he finally said. "Not even you can resist me for long." I wrinkled my nose. Okay, now I was starting to rethink my invitation. "Not even close," I muttered. "Anyway...." I opened my door wider, moving to the side. "Why don't you come in?"

Louis looked so surprised I thought he might just poop his pants. But then he said, "Um, okay," and entered my flat.

He stared around. "What do you think?" I asked, closing the door behind him. Of course, I could care less of what he thought, I just couldn't really come up with anything to say.

"It's big," he said, and glanced at me. He narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute," he said. "You just brought me in here so you could use your crowbar on me in private. Then you'll just drag my dead body to the river and get rid of the evidence. Well, now I know your plan, and you're not going to get away with it! I'll--"

I stared at him as he babbled. He had a very active imagination. "Shut up, you idiot," I said, rolling my eyes. "I didn't plan on using my crowbar. But thanks for Plan B." I winked at him, and he took a step back.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to engage in a battle of Super Smash with me," I said, gesturing to my Wii. Louis' avatar would be much better than a stupid CPU. It would help me get my anger out. Plus, I could always pretend the avatars were real people. I'm telling you, I am not really a violent person.

"You have Super Smash?" Louis exclaimed, and looked behind me at the TV screen. "Wow, cool. I didn't think you were the type that played video games."

"I'm not really," I assured him. "I just play this game and Just Dance." I sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm not very good," I said, tapping my foot against the carpet. I was modest.

Louis grinned. "Really? If I do say so myself, I rock at it," he smirked. I raised my eyebrows. "Then I challenge you to a duel," I said. "Right now. You up for it?"

"Are you sure you want to do that, Renee?" he asked smugly. "You're going up against a professional here."

"I'll take my chances," I said coolly, leering back at him.

We both jumped to the couch and sat down. I turned off the CPUs and handed Louis a Wii remote and a nunchuk. I chose Kirby, and he chose Pikachu. Geek.

"How long is this duel?" Louis asked me, changing his color.

"Ten minutes," I replied, resetting the time. I changed Kirby's color to white.

"Which stage?" Louis asked. I smirked. "This one," I said, and clicked on Final Destination.

"Prepare to get your ass whipped," Louis said gleefully. He was going to enjoy this, but I would enjoy this more. I could already feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"We'll see," I murmured, and the battle began.


......


It was close. It was really close. All of my CPUs were set to normal, and Louis was definitely on the hard level.

I was killed more than once, and soon enough I lost track. I just knew that I had to kick, punch, and swallow my way up to first place.

There was ten seconds left on the clock, and Louis and I both had extreme percents. That meant either of us could die soon.

Kirby raced towards Pikachu and kicked him up in the air. This was my strength. While Louis tried to regain control of his avatar, Kirby hopped up and gave Pikachu a merciless kick. He sailed off into the distance, and a blue explosion spread across half the screen.

In other words, I won.

Louis' jaw hit the floor while our kills tallied up. I never cared about the information below, I just wanted to know how many times I had beaten my opponent. I had managed to kill Pikachu ten times. Louis had killed Kirby seven times.

"Winner," I sang, pointing to myself. I pointed to Louis. "Loser," I added, smirking evilly.

"H-How?" he demanded. "I thought you said you weren't very good!"

"Don't you know modesty when you see it?" I asked, pouting in a pathetic way.

"That's not fair," he grumbled. "You tricked me."

I winked at him again. "I'm a tricky girl," I giggled. Louis looked at me, and I didn't like the expression on his face. He seemed to be... scrutinizing me or something. It was hard to explain.

"Yep," he muttered under his breath. I narrowed my eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded a little indignantly.

"Nothing, nothing," he said quickly. A little too quickly, for my liking. "Rematch?" he offered.

"Gladly," I said, and shoved a handful of chocolate chips into my mouth. Louis reached for some, and I was tempted to slap his hand away, but... I didn't. I was going soft. I shook my head and slapped the chocolate out of his hands. He stuck his tongue out at me.

"I'm gonna be Bowser now," he said. "You be someone else." Bowser was slow and stupid, kinda like Louis. I snickered at my metaphor, and Louis gave me an odd look. I ignored it.

I chose R.O.B, and changed the time back to five minutes. This wasn't really a duel anymore. It was just for fun, but also competitive. I don't like to lose.

"I get to choose the stage this time," Louis said, and chose the Smashville one. That one wasn't too bad, probably my fifth favorite.

We began to battle.


*~*~*~*


I leaned my head against Louis' shoulder, laughing my head off while trying to kill him.

Now, most of you must be thinking: "WHAT?! Renee is touching Louis, and not with a ten-foot pole? And she's laughing?!" Well, I'll have you know I couldn't concentrate too well on the game because of Louis. He would make sound effects and wisecracks often, and it was super hilarious. I was actually kind of enjoying myself. Wait, whaaat?

It was late. Like, really late. It was dark out, but neither me nor Louis noticed. We were too wrapped up in our game.

Ike used his super important special power and Link blinked off into the distance. "Game!" the commentator declared. I had lost... again.

"Stop it!" I gasped out at Louis as he gave me a smug grin. "You're killing me! Literally!" He laughed and pushed me back. I shoved him in return.

I glanced out the window and gasped. I picked up my phone and looked at the time. It was nearly 10:00pm! It was late!

"Something wrong, Renee?" Louis asked, sounding concerned.

"Yes!" I cried. "Something is very wrong! You're still here! You have to go!" I pushed him for real this time, but he didn't budge an inch. He frowned. "Why?" he asked. "I don't have a curfew."

"Leave already!" I ordered, pointing at the door. "I hate you!" The confidence was seeping out of my voice, replaced by uncertainty. I'm supposed to hate you, I thought.

Louis didn't say anything for a moment, and just looked into my eyes. I felt like he was reading my soul, and I squirmed a little under his stare.

"You're enjoying yourself, aren't you, Renee?" he finally said. It wasn't really a question. "Nooo," I lied. I sighed, and just looked at the Wii remote in my hands. I couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Yes, you are," he insisted. "I think that if that accident had never happened, you and I would be friends. You wouldn't hate me. I don't hate you."

I frowned. I was tempted to look up, but I didn't. "Why?" I asked. "Why don't you hate me? I've been so... awful to you." It hurt to admit that, but it was true.

"I don't blame you for it," Louis said in a soft voice. "If I were you, I would be pretty pissed and annoyed, too. But I also would have moved on. No offense, but it was an accident."

I knew what he meant by that. He didn't mean for this to happen. It was kind of unfair on how I was blaming him for everything. I bit my lip.

"I'm...." My voice faltered, but I forced it out. "I'm sorry. For treating you like I did."

"That's okay," Louis said lightly. "But now I have to ask you a question. I'm sorry for everything. Can you forgive me?"

I had to force this out as well. "Yes," I muttered. "I forgive you."

"Really?" he asked in a surprised, shrilly voice and I looked up. His shocked expression was quite amusing. "You really do?"

I gave him a small smile and I nodded. He grinned back. "I have an idea," he said. "To put this whole thing behind us, why don't we start over?" My smile turned into a confused frown. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"I don't really know myself. But since we got off on the wrong foot, I want to do this again. Or something like it. Just to get to know each other better."

I saw what he was getting at here. "Sure," I said slowly, uncertainly. "I'm not sure if that will change anything much, but we can see."

Louis grinned again. "Thanks, Renee," he said, and gave my arm a squeeze. "Now I should probably get going. I wasn't supposed to be gone this long, and the boys are probably going to be pissed at me." Oh yeah, I forgot, he's famous.

"Well, um, okay," I said and stood up with him. "There's no way in hell I'm giving you my number, so just knock when you get back here." He rolled his eyes halfway, but nodded. "Stalker," I added as a tease.

"I'm not a stalker!" he exclaimed and I laughed.

"Get going, Tomlinson," I said and shoved him towards the door.

"See ya later, Renee," he said and left my flat.

I realized something as soon as the door shut. I was being friendly with Louis Tomlinson. I bit my knuckle to keep from shrieking out loud. What was happening to this world? I'm just going to blame the whole thing on global warming. Yeah, that's it. That was messing everybody up.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Author's Note:


Apparently you people have no sense of humor. Just kidding, you're probably hilarious. In your defense, you only had two days to come up with something funny before I posted this. Ah well.

Am I just humoring myself with these author's notes? The only person I know who's reading them is @deedstarr. So, SHOUTOUT to her! Or him, sorry if I've got your gender wrong.

Either way, I still love you guys, even if you don't love me. :)

I just got my second phase of braces in on my top teeth, and it hurts like hell! Seriously, practically the only things I can eat are applesauce and smoothies. I'm on a severe diet, and I DON'T LIKE IT!!


Stay Beautiful,
-Sammi <3