Snapshot » l.t.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28


Louis' POV


This was just great. I'd evolved from me, the god of awesomeness, to a girl, to Zayn, the ultimate insult. I blamed this whole thing on Renee, for asking me to this stupid dance and making me buy this tight suit.

Oh, who am I kidding, I was actually pretty excited.

Sure, the amusement park would be fun, possibly astounding, but that's not even the part I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to the pub, and meeting this supposedly wonderful Lacy person (though I doubt she's as amazing as me), but most of all the dance.

Don't get me wrong, I knew perfectly well that Renee and I were just friends. Renee didn't ever want to become a "Mrs. Tomlinson", and I was in total agreement with that.

Total.

Mostly.

Some?

Okay, truth is, I wasn't sure.

It was hard to explain how I felt about Renee. She was clever, beautiful, sarcastic, talented, utterly amazing.... There I go again.

Sometimes I just lost myself in Renee. That sounded really wrong, but you know what I mean.

I knew Renee would hate my guts forever and ever if I ever told her how I felt, so I tried to keep quiet about it. But it was surprisingly hard. Everything about her captivated me, even the way she bit her bottom lip when she was thinking.

It took all of my willpower not to do what my heart wanted me to do. That sounded really cheesy, but oh well. It's the truth.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked okay, I guess. Could be better. The white suit was good, and the green undershirt matched Renee's dress, and that was all great. But I felt uncomfortable. Serves me right for taking advice from a color-blind girl.

But I trusted Renee's judgement. That just occurred to me while I stood before her, feeling and probably looking like a ridiculous idiot. But she told me I was "breathtaking". I grinned. I liked hearing that from her. It felt good to impress her, for once.

A shadow passed over the mirror I was staring at, and I looked up. But it was gone. I shrugged it off.

But then a fluffy head poked its head in, and Harry's jaw dropped. "What the hell are you wearing?" he exclaimed.

I glared at him. "It's just a suit," I said. "What's so bad about it?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "You look sexy. But what the heck is it for?"

"Why, thank you for the sexy comment," I smirked. "But it's for... something."

Harry narrowed his eyes at me. "Quit lying to me and just say it," he said.

"No," I shot back.

Zayn passed by and glanced at us. He was drinking some water. He froze when he saw me, and the water sprayed from his mouth. I jumped back. "Watch the suit!" I yelped.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Zayn demanded.

"That's what I said!" Harry grinned, and they under-fived, since there wasn't enough room for a high-five.

"But seriously," Zayn persisted. "What is that?"

"What does it look like?" I asked rhetorically, rolling my eyes.

"A suit. But why are you wearing one of your own free will?"

"It's just for when a special occasion comes up," I said, turning away from them. "Now leave me alone."

"Is it for Alex?" Harry giggled. "Are you two gonna get down tonight?"

I swiveled around and slapped him upside the head. "No, you idiot," I sighed. "I have a confession to make."

"You already got down?" Zayn gasped, and I hit him next.

"No, of course not," I scowled. "Alex isn't real. I made her up."

They stared at me.

"Liar!" an Irish voice yelled, and a blonde head poked above Zayn's shoulder. He wasn't accusing me of lying now, just in general.

"Yeah, I know," I muttered guiltily. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it," Niall said. "I don't believe that you would get down already. But this Alex person is fake?"

I nodded.

"Then where were you the night you disappeared?"

I let out a long, hard sigh as everyone stared at me. "This is going to take a lot of explaining," I murmured, more to myself than them. "Let's get out of here and go somewhere else more comfortable."

We ended up in the living room. Zayn laid on the couch, Harry sat on his back, and Niall collapsed into a bean bag.

"I'm going to start from the beginning," I began. "Back when Renee still hated me and wanted to kill me."

"This is going to be good," Zayn breathed and they all leaned in.

I began the story.


*~*~*~*


When I finished, all of them stared at me. Now they all knew the truth, except for Liam, that is. Where was he, anyway?

There were some details I left out, like the blackmail from Harry and the slight feelings I felt for Renee. I didn't want anyone knowing about either of those just yet.

"Wow," Niall said in a voice just above a whisper. "What a nice story. You obviously fancy Renee."

"What now?" I exclaimed, my heart racing in my chest. "What? That's silly! We're just friends."

They smirked at me. Zayn even did the shame sign with his fingers. I scowled at them. "I don't," I muttered, but that was a total lie. And the boys knew it, too.

"When did it happen?" Harry asked.

"What?"

"The feelings."

I glared at him when he said "feelings" in a cheesy voice, but when he got a serious look on his face I told him.

"I think around the time I told her she was one of my best friends," I said thoughtfully. "I thought--no, rather hoped--she would say something different, but that didn't happen. She told me I was her best friend, too."

"You two friend-zoned each other?" Zayn exclaimed. "Well, that's that. I call dibs."

"Zayn!" Niall cried and slapped his shoulder while I nearly snarled at him. Wow.

"Whoa, calm down, guys," Harry said, holding up his hands. "Zayn, I get that Renee is hot--"

I whipped around to glare at him next, but he wasn't finished.

"--but Louis got her first," he concluded. "It's only fair he haves her. At least for while," he muttered under his breath.

I gaped a little at my friends. "What is wrong with you?" I snapped. "You guys are acting like Renee is some toy meant to be passed around! She's not! She's a real person!"

"Then what if she chooses one of us over you?" Zayn challenged.

My heart skipped a beat, admittedly. The thought had occurred to me more than once. Yeah, Renee didn't know them, but there was always that term "love at first sight". What if she liked one of them more than me? Not to mention, she had said that Zayn sounded pretty sexy....

I gritted my teeth.

"You don't know that," I growled.

Zayn raised an eyebrow. "You sound pretty possessive of her," he said.

My face felt hot. Way to betray me now, stupid face.

"Zayn, lay off him," Harry ordered. "It's true, we don't know how Renee feels. She probably hates all of us."

"Probably," Zayn pointed out. "Not definitely."

"Hey, what about that term that if you truly love someone, you'll let them go?" Niall spoke up randomly.

I glared at Niall. "I will throw you into a woodchopper," I threatened.

He skittered away.

"Ooh, love?" Zayn mocked me. "That escalated quickly."

"Niall brought it up, not me," I reminded him.

"I saw that look on your face. You REALLY fancy Renee, don't you?"

Just the look on his face and the tone of his voice made me want to strangle him. Harry stood slowly, like he got the feeling he was going to have to hold someone back soon.

"Guys, remember that we're friends," he said, his eyes sweeping over us. "Remember the bro code."

"Screw the bro code," Zayn scowled.

"Of course you would say that," I smirked. "Pretty boy."

He glared at me.

"Okay, we're done here," Harry said, sounding a little frantic. He grabbed my arms and dragged me away. I struggled against him, but somehow he managed to keep a tight grip on me.

He practically threw me into his room and shut the door behind him, standing before it so I couldn't escape.

"What?" I snapped.

"I swear, if you were a dog right now, you would be foaming at the mouth and infected with rabies," Harry said calmly, shaking his head. "You need to calm down."

I wanted to yell at him, but I realized I was kind of overreacting. I took deep breaths to calm myself, and before long I was breathing normally again.

"There," Harry said, satisfied. "That's better, isn't it?"

"I still want to kill Zayn," I muttered.

"Understandable. But you have to remember that it's kind of in his nature."

"But can't he just let me have the girl for once?" I asked in a pleading tone. "I had her first."

I grimaced. Here comes that toy analogy.

"I saw this coming a mile away," Harry said, with a small, knowing smirk.

I frowned. "What?"

"I knew this was going to happen."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Face it, Lou," Harry said smoothly. "You and Renee were kind of going to become something."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't like Renee before."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!" I yelled at him, then took it down a notch. I was getting ahead of myself again.

"Why are you so sure you didn't like Renee?" Harry asked. But he wasn't asking like he wanted to know. He was asking like he already knew the answer, like a teacher. It annoyed me.

"Because she hated me," I said coolly. "How am I supposed to like someone like that?" I paused. "And why are we even talking about this?" I exclaimed, exasperated.

Harry ignored my last question. "I nearly know you better than you know yourself," he said, sounding pretty proud of himself.

"Oh, really?" I asked, putting a slight taunt into my voice. "Then tell me something I don't know!" I blinked. I kind of just went Selena Gomez there, but there were bigger things to worry about.

Harry chuckled. "I saw the way you looked at her after you committed the accident," he said, ignoring my wince. "I saw the way you looked at her, talked about her. Everything clued in."

I stared at him. This guy was more insane than I thought.

"You were going to keep going over to her flat, even if it meant she would call the police," he said.

My face felt hot again. Was I really that obvious? Er, I mean, I don't know what shit he's talking about.

"Am I right?" Harry finished.

I looked away from him. "Maybe a little," I admitted.

Harry let out a small laugh. "I just helped you along the way, whenever you were close to giving up."

"Why would you care so much about me getting Renee?" I demanded.

"You're my best friend," he said sincerely. "I want to see my best friend happy. Doesn't that include Renee?"

"I want to say that you sound so gay right now, but that would be rude," I said, struggling not to smile.

"Yet you say it anyway," Harry pointed out and I laughed.

"Thanks, Haz, for your help," I said.

"No problem," he replied with a smile.

"But you know what I'm gonna do now?"

He frowned at my tone of voice. "What?"

"Throw you in the woodchopper!" I shouted and proceeded to chase him around the room in my best suit.

Just a typical day at the One Direction residence.


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


Author's Note:


I'm really starting to wish I named my chapters. I would've named the last few "Death By Trunkies", "Mrs. Tomlinson My Ass" or "Mrs. Tomlinson?", "The Pillow Fight of Friendship", and "Possible Feelings?". Should I name my chapters? That would be fun.

Now, the next chapter or two are going to be the AWESOMEST!! You've been warned ;)


Stay Beautiful,
-Sammi <3