Play for Keeps.

Chapter XIV.

~ L o u i s ~

I drive to school on Monday happy to see Niall. Even though I want to see him, I go to my usual spot by the back entrance where Zayn and Harry are already waiting. I sit down on the steps next to Zayn. Before anything, Zayn says,
"Do you like him?"
I'm taken aback.
"What do you-"
"You know who I mean dumbass."
I just stare at him with hard eyes.
"Sure. He's cute, yeah?"
"But do you like him?"
"I mean I guess so."
"You guess so?"
"Z, what do you want me to say? Just ask me already."
"Oi! He just wants to know if you're in love? Shut up already." Harry cuts in.

I roll my eyes and swallow hard.
"You know I don't do that."
"Could've fooled me."
"Zayn."
"You seem to really, really like him."
Harry sighs heavily and storms off inside. I guess he didn't care too much about this conversation.

"I don't believe in 'love,' Z."
"Then why are you flirting so much with him?"
"Okay! Yes. We're dating. Call us boyfriends, whatever. No. I'm not in love."
"Then what are you doing Lou?"
I take a shaky breath.
"I'm just messing around for a bit. I keep the feelings to a minimal, you know that."
He looks at me for a long time.
"Just remember that this stuff is the reason you stopped feeling all together. You're on thin ice, Lou."
"I'll step lightly."

~ N i a l l ~

Blue.
Monday's are my favorite class. At first, I hated the assignment over descriptive writing, but it's only made me feel things more than just a surface feeling.
I write quickly, making notes about Louis and our weekend. Blue.
It's not hard to write about something that you can almost always see. It was more than just the color of his eyes. It was the lack of color. Like they were drained. Everything that people should feel wasn't in him. His eyes had a wall.
But it was also everything that came after. There was blue in the way he breathed. The way his lips grazed mine. The way his bed felt without him. It was a periwinkle. But when he was in the bed with me, it was a deep, royal blue.
It wasn't just his eyes.
It wasn't just his stuff.
It wasn't just what came after.
It was him.
Louis is blue.

After class, Liam greets me by my locker.
"Oi, mate! Where ya been?"
"What do you mean Li?"
"I didn't see you Thursday, and you weren't home Friday night. So I was just-"
"You came by Friday night?"
"Oh." He looks a little pink. "Yeah. It was really late, but I couldn't sleep so I tried to come over."
"But how wou-"
"I know where you keep the spare key Ni."
"Oh okay."
We walk in silence to lunch. It's comfortable. At least, it's only silent for a while.
"You really like him?"
"Go ahead."
"What?"
"Tell me you told me so."
"Ni-"
"But yeah..." I blush. "I like him."
"Well are you guys like... dating?"

At that point, I start telling him about Friday night and Saturday.
"That's why I wasn't home."
"Oh. Okay."