Swing (A Louis Tomlinson Fan-Fiction)

Chapter 2: You Might Be On To Something

Author's Note: If you're reading, please comment and review! It will really help me out :) Thanks so much!

Also, this chapter is dedicated to plaid_ for making my lovely cover!

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Louis’ P.O.V.

I had so many plans for my day off, but they were all snatched from me before I could enjoy them. Management called us all up the other day to let us know they’d scheduled us at this benefit, and not only that, but that said benefit was all the way over in the States. At the damn White House no less. How in the world did they think we were supposed to give a proper performance with less than twenty-four hours’ notice and no preparation whatsoever? This isn’t some random rich guy we’re performing for. It’s the President of the United States, and if we aren’t any good, who knows how that could reflect on us?

“What’s got ye so down, Lou?” Niall asks. His thick Irish accent and bubbly personality have always been enough to cheer me up. But the past few months, even my mate’s energetic presence hasn’t been enough to distract me from what’s going on with my family.

My baby sister Phoebe is sick. Not just a simple cold or flu, but sicker than she’s ever been before. I can’t count the number of times my mother has called me on the phone in the last several weeks, worried sick about how much weight Phoebe is losing or how her bruises never seem to go away. My mom just took her to the hospital a few days ago, and the doctor said that she’s got an enlarged spleen and even swollen lymph nodes in her neck. The doctor was really concerned and sent her off for a lot of tests, where they poked and prodded at her and did all sorts of things to make her uncomfortable. And their reason?

“We want to rule out every possibility of cancer before we diagnose her.”

Every possibility of cancer.

Cancer.

Never in my life have I been so terrified of a word. But now that Phoebe could be so sick because of it, the word ‘cancer’ strikes fear in the deepest part of my heart and shakes my bones so violently I’m afraid they might shatter. What has my little sister done to deserve something like this? How is it fair that such an innocent, angelic little soul could be cursed with such a monster? I feel tears welling in my eyes and I want to slam my fist against one of the tiny windows of this plane. But the guys and I are on a commercial flight, surrounded by hundreds of other people that would have me carted off to jail if I were to do what I want. So I break down and just let myself cry, but keep myself as silent as possible. I shut my eyes and wipe away the tears with the sleeve of my sweater, because I don’t want Niall to see. He is right next to me and I trust him with my life, but I still don’t like him seeing me so weak. The only people in this world I would ever cry in front of on purpose are my mom and my little sisters. The five people in the world that I know for a fact will never judge me.

I wish that was the only thing I had to deal with, but I suppose it wouldn’t quite be my life without multiple complications at once. When I was younger, my biological father got divorced from my mom and moved over to the United States. We went years and years without talking, because quite frankly I had no use for the man. But three years ago, a little while before I auditioned for The X-Factor, he got in contact with me again. He apologized to both of us and said he wanted to try and be a proper father to me, if my mom was willing to allow it. To say she was furious at first would be like saying Michael Jackson only sold a few copies of all his albums. She didn’t want any part of it and was actually quite pissed off that he had the nerve to ask something like that. After that initial phone call, we didn’t speak to him for several weeks.