Snapshot » l.t.

Chapter 38

Chapter 38


Louis' POV


I have to admit, after a while waiting for Renee, I started to get impatient. I wandered around with nothing to do. Nobody was in the halls. I was alone.

I heard a door open, and I spun around towards the sound. I made sure my hoodie was up before taking a closer look at the person.

It was a male, with those average tanned muscles and stuff. He looked a bit like a surfer. He had ragged blonde hair and shiny white teeth that should've come with a warning label.


WARNING: Do not look directly at teeth. Blindness is consequent.


Yep.

He turned and spotted me, and he headed towards me. I stiffened slightly, but didn't try running off. Maybe he wouldn't recognize me. After all, he was a dude.

"Hey," he said. That was it. I relaxed. "Hey," I echoed. "Sup?"

"Nothing much. You?"

"Same."

We stood in silence for a bit. I shuffled my feet.

"Um, why exactly are you here?" the surfer dude asked.

I shrugged slightly. "I'm just waiting for my... um, friend to come out of her boss' office," I said uncomfortably.

I didn't exactly want the guy to know that I had a girlfriend. If he did find out that I was Louis Tomlinson, I didn't want him blabbing to all his Twitter friends. Like he would care, but whatever. Better to be safe then sorry.

"Uh huh," the guy said. He sounded doubtful. I bristled slightly. What, did he think I was lying?

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Leo." He extended his hand towards me. I grasped it and shook it firmly.

"I'm... Bradley," I said, hesitating half-way.

Leo raised an eyebrow. Of course he wouldn't be convinced. I'm a horrible liar.

"Who's the friend that you're waiting for?" he asked.

I didn't see why he wanted to know, but at the same time I didn't see why it mattered. "Renee Wilson," I replied.

Leo stiffened up. "You know her?" he asked.

I frowned and narrowed my eyes. I didn't like the way he said that.

"Yeah," I said slowly. "Why?"

"I used to work with her. We were really good friends."

I noticed he said "were", and he also sounded a little wistful. I didn't like the sound of that.

"Huh," I said. "Renee and I are really good friends, too. In fact, I'm her boyfriend."

Okay, I probably shouldn't have pulled that card, but I was suspicious of this guy. I didn't like the way his eyes had glowed when I said Renee's name. I didn't like a lot of things about this guy.

"Hey!" a female voice exclaimed, and we both turned.

Renee was running towards us, her hair flying behind her, and her camera bumping against her chest. I averted my eyes from that area. Whoops.

"What's going on here?" Renee asked nervously.

"Nothing," I said, glaring at the Leo guy warily. "We were just talking."

Leo ignored me and turned to Renee. "Renee!" he gasped. "What are you doing here?"

She took a step back, away from him. "Leeann hired me again," she said. "I'm now the new old photographer for Teen Tiger."

"That's great news, Renee!" Leo and I exclaimed at the same time. We glared at each other.

"Um, Louis, let's go," Renee said, tugging on my hand.

"Louis?" Leo repeated, looking confused. I cursed mentally. "I thought his name was Bradley."

Renee paled. "Oh, um, I meant Bradley," she squeaked, and I literally face-palmed. Nice coverup.

Leo narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked me.

I was SO tempted to play the famous card, but that wouldn't do any good. "Just Louis," I said. "And you're right, Renee, let's go."

"Wait," Leo said, and put a hand on Renee's arm. I tensed. "Renee, can I talk to you?"

She shot me a worried glance, but she nodded anyway. I bit my lip to keep from protesting. She could fight her own battles.

They walked away a distance, and I edged after them until I was just in earshot.

"...forgive me," Leo was saying. "I was wrong. I was wrong about everything. You're perfect the way you are, Renee. Please forgive me."

My heart raced in my chest. Oh no, he didn't! Was he trying to make a move on my girl?

"I would love to forgive you," Renee said in a sweet voice. She had tried this on me before. I knew it was a trick. "But do you know how much you hurt me, Leo? I thought you were my friend. Clearly though you couldn't handle someone who had a 'disability'." She hissed the last word.

"I was wrong about that, too!" Leo exclaimed, sounding exasperated. "Color-blindness is not a disability! Please believe me, Renee. I still want you."

My blood boiled. Okay, that was enough. I spun around and stomped towards them.

"I think we're done here," I growled. I grabbed Renee's arm. "Come on, Renee."

Leo shoved me off. "No, I don't think so," he argued. "Don't butt in."

I glared at him. "What my girlfriend's business is my business. Now bug off." I shoved him back.

"Stop it!" Renee cried, and stood between us.

"Renee, you know I'm better," Leo told her. "I made some mistakes. But he did, too. He made you color-blind!"

"How do you know?" I retorted, even though it was the truth.

Leo stared daggers at me. "Oh, please," he snorted. "It's not rocket science. Anyone can piece the words 'Louis' and 'color-blind' together and get the result."

I felt like he had sucker-punched me in the stomach. I nearly staggered. Was it really that obvious? How many people knew?

"Boys, stop it," Renee snapped. "Leo, I'm through with you and all your tricks. Louis and I are together now. Now leave us alone."

She stomped off, and I hurried after her.

"I beg to differ!" Leo shouted after us. "Back at the bench outside your flat, you seemed content enough to cry your worries into my shoulder!"

Renee and I both froze. "What?" I yelped, the same time Renee cried, "That was you?!"

Leo smirked at us. "I'm closer than you think I am," he told us. "Renee, you belong with me. You told me that yourself. Everyone woman your age in this building has a crush on me." He seemed pretty proud of that fact.

I shot Renee a questioning glare. "That was before I met you!" she said to me, sounding like she was begging. "Leo, stop it! I feel nothing for you, not after I saw your true colors!"

Leo laughed, sounding slightly bitter. Yeah, I definitely didn't like this guy.

"True colors," he echoed. "That's ironic, considering you're color-blind."

Now Renee looked like she'd been sucker-punched. Her eyes misted over. I knew that look.

"Shut the hell up, surfer dude," I growled. "You heard the girl. Stop picking on her."

"Or what?" he mocked me. "You'll destroy my life and my career, too?"

I really wished he would stop with the sucker-punch words. He knew where to hit right where it hurt.

"Shut up," I mumbled.

"I hate you!" Renee suddenly screamed at Leo. Tears streamed down her face. "You bothersome bastard! Why do you care? Just leave us alone!"

She stormed off, and I hesitated for only a second before following her. I glared at Leo angrily. "Stay away from her," I said.

I found Renee sitting on the steps outside the studio. Her face was buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs. I sat next to her and rubbed her back.

She looked up, sniffing. "I didn't know he was so cruel like that," she said hoarsely. "I thought he would just ask for forgiveness and then leave." She bowed her head again.

I bit my lip. What the heck do I say? I must've paused for too long, because Renee looked up and stared at me. I winced. Her eyes were bloodshot. Too much crying.

"I'm sorry, Louis," she murmured. "I didn't mean for you to be dragged into this. It wasn't your fault. It was his."

That was like saying he was the one that caused the accident, and not me. I still felt pretty burned about that, like he had literally held a torch to my skin and set it on fire. Excluding the heat, just the pain.

"Don't listen to him, Renee," I finally said, even though I was just saying the first words that came to mind. "You don't belong to him. He was lying."

I was hoping she would agree with me on that last part, but my wish was not granted.

She shook her head slowly. "Some of what he said was true," she said, sounding like she wished it wasn't. "I told him once that every woman in the studio liked him. And truthfully, I was one of them." She lowered her head again. "He wanted me to be his girlfriend, but then he himself rejected me when I became color-blind."

I felt like there was this large, cold lump of concrete sitting in the pit of my stomach. I silently willed for her to stop, but whoever was looking down on us seemed to hate me today.

"When I was first fired from Teen Tiger," Renee continued. "I had sat on a bench and cried my eyes out. Then a stranger came and sat next to me, and they let me cry into their shoulder. That was Leo."

I REALLY wished she would stop talking now. I felt like I had been missing out. All those times I could've helped her, and I wasn't there. Instead, I had a knack for making things worse. Thank you, oh so great ones.

"Renee, stop," I told her. "Please."

She hiccuped and looked up at me. She looked miserable. I hated that. I wished I could whisk it all away with a magic wand, but I wasn't magical. I couldn't even comfort my own girlfriend.

"He doesn't matter," I told her. "He's cruel, mean, and pathetic. He's a liar. Don't listen to him. Forget him."

I wanted to add, And you have me. I'm way better. But I didn't want to stoop down to surfer dude's level. It was one thing to joke about it. It was another to actually believe it.

Renee didn't say anything for a while, and she wouldn't look at me. Just when I'd figure she'd push me away and go alone, she said, "You know you just sounded like Taylor Swift."

I sighed, smiling in amusement. Good, my old Renee was back.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice," I replied.

"What say we go back to my flat and watch 'The Hulk'," Renee said slyly. "I believe I haven't seen that movie before."

I chuckled. "Alright," I said, and stood. I offered her my hand. She took it, and I heaved her up. "We can have candy, right?" I pouted.

She laughed. "Of course, Tomlinson," she said, giving me a playful nudge.

The previous matter was to the side. But I felt like it wasn't settled yet. Like Leo was still watching, still sneering, still going to try and steal Renee away from me. He could try.

I realized something, though. If Renee and I were going to broadcast our relationship to the world, we would encounter many more Leo's. Thousands of Leo's. Maybe even millions. It wasn't going to be easy, but we could handle it. Together, we could conquer anything. I had faith in Renee. She was strong. What didn't kill her made her stronger.


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Author's Note:


I literally have five summative assessments/tests this week: one in Algebra, two in US History, one in Health, and one in Spanish 2. I swear, it's like these people hate me on purpose!

But I love high school. It is probably the best school I have ever gone to. I literally have to learn how to play the banjo in three weeks for Health. I mean, how awesome is that?!

On the brighter side of things, I downloaded "Tennis Court" and "Royals" by Lorde, and "I Wish" by Cher Lloyd ft. T.I. Cher is just one of those artists where you can listen to her songs over and over again like twenty times and still love them. I love her!


Stay Beautiful,
-Sammi <3