Back To December

twenty-eight

"Right, that's it, done," Sophie huffed, shutting the boot of her car. "How much stuff do you have in there, it's so heavy!"

"A lot," I shrugged my shoulders, turning round to look at Polly who was smiling weakly. "You'll… You know if you need anything, you can call Liam or something, right? I'm sorry to drop you in it like this, Pol…"

"Don't be silly, I'll just miss you!" she cried, jumping forward and wrapping her arms around me.

"You'll see me in a few weeks," I laughed quietly, patting her back.

"You're not even saying goodbye yet, you're coming with us you fool!" Sophie told her, tutting and rolling her eyes. Polly giggled quietly, nodding her head as she stepped away from me.

"SHOTGUN!" she called, hopping into the front of Sophie's car. I rolled my eyes at her and laughed, slipping into the backseat and clicking my seatbelt in place and Sophie pulled away from the pavement. I leaned back in my seat as Polly and Sophie chatted excitedly about the next few weeks – Sophie having agreed to move to into the flat while I was away.

I'd ended things with Louis a week ago. I was still to give him a reason, but we both knew why. He was never going to fully forgive me for cheating on him, and I was never going to stop feeling guilty about it.

After meeting Harry at the café and ringing Liam for help, it hadn't really been a hard decision at all.

I was leaving.

Liam was paying for it, for me to go to America with Vada.

And now, all I had to do was say goodbye.

***

I took a deep breath, tapping on the door and feeling my heart beat quicken as I heard shuffling on the other side. It opened a couple of minutes later and Louis frowned as he looked at me, his hair messy and his eyes tired.

"What do you want?" he mumbled. I didn't say anything, instead grabbing his hand and letting my fingers link with his as I pulled him from his apartment. "Cassidy-"

"Just come with me," I told him, reaching behind him and pulling the door shut.

"I'm really not in the mood for-"

"Louis, for once in your life just shut the hell up and do as I say!" I groaned. He raised his eyebrows at me, but allowed me to pull him downstairs to Liam's flat, pulling me to a stop when he saw Harry knocking on the door. "Please, Lou," I turned to him pleadingly. "Please. For me?"

"You have no right to ask me to do anything for you!" he snapped, pulling his hand out of mine. "What is this, some kind of ambush so you can announce you're back to sleeping with him?!"

"Louis, it's not-"

"The fuck are you two doing here?" Harry grumbled. He looked up as Liam opened the door and glared at him. "Why are they here? I thought we were hanging out?"

"Just come inside, Harry," Liam mumbled, shooting me a sympathetic smile.

"No."

"Harry."

"No, Liam. Not if-"

"Listen to me!" Liam hissed, making me and Louis jump and Harry immediately shut his mouth. "My patience is slowly wearing thin with all three of you, I swear to God if you don't act like adults and get inside this fucking apartment right now then I will bash all of your heads together and I will ship Cassie off to fucking Alaska and make her stay there until she marries an Eskimo!" he snapped, Harry's mouth dropping open in surprise. "Get inside. Now."