Liam: Crickets had never been so loud before… or maybe you and Liam had never been so quiet. The silence felt heavy and painful though as words were aching to get out inside your throat. You breathed in deeply and tried to keep still since Liam seemed to be so deep in thought as you both sat out in the cold grass by the lake, the moon reflecting in the water’s ripples. “Oh please don’t cry, (Y/N).” Liam looked up from his joined hands between his knees and let his eyes plead at you in the darkness. You hadn’t been as quiet as you thought and your sniffling had caught his attention. As soon as you two locked eyes, the sniffling turned into full-fledged rivers. “Don’t do this. You don’t even want to do this.” You sobbed out, choking around your words as your throat croaked. You had spent so many nights crying lately and your voice was starting to wear out. “I don’t want to, but I think it’s the right thing to do.” Liam didn’t really know if he believed what he had said, but he just wanted to be of some comfort to you. He gently put his hand on your back and rubbed it, trying to be soothing. He knew how to be, usually he would wrap you up in both his arms and rest his head on top of yours when you were this worked up, but now he was holding back. “If you don’t want to break up then don’t!” You shouted, jumping away from his touch and standing up to find your feet. “Don’t listen to them! They don’t know what they’re talking about!” It seemed like since you had brought Liam home for the first time nearly six months ago; your parents had been trying to put a stop to the relationship. They were always cordial and allowed him into their home with placid smiles on, but when he was in the next room or in your backyard, they dropped their act and let you know how against the union they were. Liam had lost count of how many times he had caught your father telling you that he simply was not good enough for you. He could never forget hearing your mother tell you that he wasn’t going anywhere though, that stuck and echoed in his head constantly since she had mentioned it to you at your birthday dinner. Liam slowly stood up, your voice was warbling so much it could have shook the ground he had been sitting on. He approached you slowly to wrap his arms around you, but you pushed your hands into his chest and kept crying, knees weak and mascara down your face. “Don’t let them do this! Liam, I love you!” You looked up slowly, gasping for air as you wailed. Liam held you still for a moment, a hand on each of your wrists and kissed your forehead like a father would his child before he began to walk away. He slid his hands into the pocket of his ripped blue jeans and stared at the dead grass under his feet as he left you and started to go towards his car.
Louis: You had never been hated before. The bully in your junior high was even nice to you as well as the meanest teachers. People seemed to naturally like you and you never gave anyone a reason not to. The last thing you ever expected was your boyfriend’s parents to dislike you. While you and Louis hadn’t been together very long, you were both highly infatuated with one another and enjoying your relationship so far. You hadn’t been the slightest bit worried about meeting his mother or father, you were excited actually, but that all changed when they right away started to grill you with questions. You had barely had a sip of water at the dinner table before the questions started to be fired at you everything from your religious beliefs, future aspirations, your home life, to why you liked Louis. You stared like a deer in the headlights for a moment and after rattling off your answers and trying not to notice the judgment on their faces (which was impossible to ignore), you excused yourself to the washroom. Once you calmed your nerves and washed your hands, you turned off the washroom lights and went to rejoin Louis and his parents, but the whispering voices in the kitchen stopped you in your tracks. “Do you really trust her, Lou? How much do you really know about her?” His mother hissed across the table. “It wouldn’t be unlikely for her to be looking for a little fame, she is young.” His father pointed out and you were instantly insulted. While you weren’t sure if you should take it personally or not, you did. They went back and forth and while Louis was defending you, you could hear a little uncertainty in his rebuttals and it was unnerving. You were about to re-enter the room, realizing you had been gone a while, when Louis appeared right in front of you. “Hey, I was just coming to look for you. Thought, maybe, you got lost.” He chuckled, sliding his hand down your bare arm. “You okay?” Very quietly, he whispered. You swallowed what you wished you could say and just nodded, taking his hand and letting you lead you back to the table that you really didn’t want to be sitting at.
