You Again? » l.t. au

Chapter 12

“It's a cute place you've got here,” Harry said as I walked past him in the hallway, mentally agreeing with his statement. Louis' apartment really was cute; it wasn't particularly neat, but nothing like the messy dorm that I remembered he had in uni.

“Goes with your girl,” I frowned as I turned on my heels, once again face to face with the popstar. If he wasn't one I'd surely have a rude comeback but this way, all I could do was glare at him. Or stare at him. Either way, I couldn't take my eyes off him.

“Relax, I'm just joshin' with ya,” He said as he took a few steps forward, a smirk evident on his lips as he chewed on his gum with his mouth open. “Tell me, do you have a friend as cute as... this apartment?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “Yes, but she's old,” I said monotonically as I remembered his words from the street – you're old, you should get married. It was creepy how much he reminded me of Caitlyn, which is exactly why my answer was yes. If I didn't know better, I'd think they're either related or perfect for each other.

Harry raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised by my answer as well. “Really, now?” He smiled again. “I could make an exception.”

“I don't think so,” I gave him a sarcastic smile and turned away from him, thinking of what Caitlyn would do to me if she knew there was a possibility for her to meet Harry Styles and I just ruined that. Strangling or pushing me off a bridge doesn't sound painful enough.

I walked further down the hall, spotting an opened door and when I peeked inside, Louis was looking through some boxes. They looked a lot like shoe boxes... probably because they were shoe boxes.

“Louis?” I called as I stepped in, but took a step back when he started walking toward me—well, the door actually. He smiled at me as our eyes met, and I couldn't help but notice that it was a bit of a nervous smile. I could only imagine why he would be nervous; what kind of songs did he write about me? Hateful? Did he blame me for everything? I haven't had a chance to think about his songwriting, but now that it crossed my mind, I was becoming quite nervous too.

"You know, you never told me your name." Harry was leaning against a wall when Louis and I came into sight.

“I’m actu-“ I was just about to tell him that I’m Lorena, the girl Louis has been writing songs about, but he beat me to it.

“Grace.” Or didn’t exactly. “Her name is Grace,” He repeated as he put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it again, but for different reasons from before on the street.

Harry nodded, a small smile on his face, and walked into what I supposed was the living room, Louis following him, while I stayed in the hallway, confused out of my mind and nothing has even started yet. I lightly shook my head as I walked in the living room as well, but that didn’t help me clear my thoughts. I wanted to ask him why the hell did he use my middle name to lie, but my slight shock kept my tongue tied.

Harry was sitting on the two-seater and Louis was on the couch in the middle of the room, while I sat on an armchair across from Harry, a small coffee table between us. I raised my legs and hugged my knees to my chest, not fully prepared for whatever that was going to happen.

“I’m sorry, would you like something to drink?” Louis looked up from the box full of papers for a second, and while I slowly shook my head, Harry did it frantically.

“No, find them already!” He was obviously impatient, leaning over to Louis to take a look in the box. He looked just as nervous as Louis, only in a completely different way.

“Okay, here it…” Louis stopped in the middle of his sentence, as he pulled a few papers out of the box. A minute later there were four sheets of paper on the coffee table in front of him, which Harry snatched away, the look on his face like a child’s on Christmas morning.