Uncovered

Chapter 11

I went to bed that night with my head whirring. I was so pissed off at Izzy for coming in when she knew I was in here, but still, why did Louis have to leave? I was only going to tell Izzy to go away, surely he could've stayed. Or was he just embarrassed by the fact that he was almost caught kissing me?

I couldn't think straight. I plucked some ibuprofen from the bathroom draws to calm my head, giving me a chance to get some sleep. As I lay staring up at the dark unpatterned ceiling, there was just one image that I couldn't get out of my head.

His eyes.

I swear it wasn't my imagination as I don't believe myself possible to come up with such a distinct colour. They were like pools of swirling crimson, and his pupils were a hollow black making them hungry looking. The thing is though, I wasn't scared-and I'm not just saying that.

He didn't scare me, and I knew that he should. Everyone else seemed to be scared of him, or at least creeped out. They all avoided him in the corridors and he was always alone. The only time I'd actually seen him with someone was when I was out after dark and he was with that girl. I hadn't seen them together since then though, and in fact, I haven't seen the girl at all.

"I'm sorry if I've annoyed you Soph" Izzy whispered, halting my looping thoughts.

I sighed. "It's ok, I guess I can't blame you for coming into your own room"

"No, I knew you were in here. I was just coming to wind you up a bit. I just didn't expect you're study session to have, um, progressed like that"

"Seriously Iz, nothings going on between us. I would tell you if there was"

"It didn't look that way though" she mumbled.

"He was leaning into me!" I said, barely above a whisper now.

"It takes two to tango, that's all I'm gonna say" I heard her yawn, and her duvet rustled as she rolled over to face away from me.

"That's so cheesy" I scoffed.

"Uh huh, night Soph" she said with a certain finality. That was her ending the conversation.

I knew what she was trying to tell me, I needed to do something. And soon.

"I need a Louis intervention" I spoke suddenly, scaring myself with my own voice in the bleak silence.

"Uh huh" Izzy murmured, absentmindedly agreeing with me.

*****

I spotted Louis sitting in his usual corner of the Coffee Hut, and just my luck, he was with her again.

"Izzy, I can't do it"

I'd spent that morning planning out roughly what I would say to him with Izzy, missing out the red-eye part because I really didn't want Izzy to think I was going insane.

"Yes you can, come on, balls to the walls or nothing" she said, banging the table with her fist for effect.

"Balls to the what?" I asked her, once again confused by her choice of words.

"It's a quote, I don't know. Just go!" she began shooing me away until I gradually stood and turned towards the far corner.

I got closer to him, one long, supposedly-confident stride at a time. As I reached the table, neither of them looked, they just sat in silence intently staring into their mugs.

I cleared my throat. "Excuse me". No reply. "Louis!"

"Huh? What?" he questioned looking up and shaking his head as if to escape a trance.

"I need to talk to you" I tried my best to sound forceful, but the girl sitting next to him was shooting daggers at me, making the atmosphere very uncomfortable and intimidating.

"Not now Sophia, can't you see I'm busy" he sighed, gesturing to the girl who gave me a sly smile.

"Hello, I'm Elin, but I'm sure you already know that" she said to me, smirking as if she knew something I didn't.

"Actually, I didn't know that. But I also don't care" I replied with a sudden surge of confidence and hatred towards the girl. "Louis?"

"Not now" he repeated.

"Yes now!" I shouted, surprising him and the other people around us who began to give me questioning looks. I turned my head to catch eyes with Izzy who gave me a thumbs up, I took a breath and looked back to Louis.

"What's your problem? Like seriously, is it me? And you're mood swings literally drive me insane. Like one minute you're being rude and vulgar and the next you're sweet and shy. Don't try to deny it either, because no matter what you say, you tried to kiss me yesterday. Like, what the hell was that about? It wasn't the almost-kiss that I'm annoyed about, it was the fact that you just left without saying anything after Izzy walked in. Are you embarrassed because Izzy saw or do you just regret it? If you want to be friends, or more, then maybe get your damn emotions under control first and then I'll consider it. And if you don't wanna be friends then fine, please tell me so I don't waste any more time and effort on you. Jesus, I thought leaving high school I'd be rid of piggish cavemen live you, but evidently not. And I know I'm not insane, I've been thinking about it all day and I what I saw was definitely real. Why the fuck are you eyes-"

"Enough!" Louis shouted, cutting off my lecture.

He jumped up from the table, grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the café leaving Elin sat alone staring at me, her eyes narrowed. Izzy shot me a warning look as we passed her but I just shrugged, who knew where he was taking me.

"Where are we going?" I asked, growing increasingly cautious of him. I was pretty proud of myself to be honest, and I was quite disappointed that he cut me off just as I was hitting the finale. I guess it had the desired affect though, I thought, glancing at the anger exploding from his face. His grip on my arm was gentle so as not to hurt me, my strong so that I couldn't break free.

Within moments, we were amongst the trees about a kilometre away from where we had previously been. Louis released my arm and I cradled it, rubbing the red mark that his hand had caused. There was no noise, just the hum of nature around us and my breathing.

"Louis, I don't under-" but before I could finish, he was in front of me. I tried to step back and found my back forcing itself into a tree.

"Don't ever talk to me like that again" he hissed, his eyes narrowed and steely.

And then his lips were on mine. I kissed back as his hands moved to my waist, holding me in place.