Vindictive

8

    The atmosphere was thick, it was almost as if you couldn't breathe, and you could hardly hear your thoughts through the sound of everyone crying. Louis was laying in his casket, and he only looked like he fell asleep in a black suit and tie. Louis' mother was gripping onto the casket bawling her eyes out, and screaming at the cieling.

    Ally and Niall walked up to the casket next, and she was rubbing his back. This was the first time Lauren's seen her short best friemd since the pool gathering at the cabin."I need to go to the ladies room.." Lauren exhaled, Camila gave Harry a kiss on the cheek, and followed Lauren.

    "Are you okay?" Camila asked Lauren. She was splashing cold water onto her face. "He was just alive a few days, and now he's laying in a casket..." Lauren breathed. A toilet flushed, and out of the door walked Perrie. She ignored the girls as she washed her hands. "How dare you show up here! You murdered him." Camila shouted at the frayed blonde. Perrie held her hands up, and started to laugh. Camila lunged at the girl and Lauren had to pull the girl away. "What the hell is so funny?" Lauren sneered.

"You two. You come in here thinking you're some private detectives. I spoke with actual police, and my alibi was cleared. I went out to the pool saw Louis was there, and left. I called my galpal and told her I'm coming over. I didn't fancy the guy but I would never want someones blood on my hands. Give me some credit, geesh," she brushed past the girls and toward the door.

   Before she walked out she turned to the angry girls, who were standing there dumbfounded. "And I don't know how it works in America, but accusing someone of murder at the deads funeral is very tacky." then she was gone.

   Camila turned to Lauren. "Do you believe her?"

"We have no choice, the police cleared her alibi." Lauren threw her hands up.

"You're right. Maybe we should have figured out the whole story before we attacked her.." Lauren was quiet. "What are you thinking about?" Camila questioned.

"Unless... that isn't the whole story. Maybe Perrie's alibi was cleared, but I think there is more. What if Perrie hired someone to do her dirty work while she snuck away to her friends house. Maybe she was using her drinking her problems away at the pool as her excuse to scope the place out..." Lauren's eyes were un-focused as thoughts started piling in.

"Oh my God, and when she saw the place was empty excluding Louis, she had the dirty work done, and boom she had the perfect alibi," Camila gasped.

"We need to get to the bottom of this. For Louis, Liam, Zayn, Harry, Niall, and all of those grieving people out there. I refuse to believe Louis drowned like that... there has to be more. Theres gotta be."

"Then let's strap on our detective hats and snoop for clues," Camila said.

///

    "Can you pass me that ketchup?" Harry asked. Lauren nodded, and slid him the ketchup bottle. His hands were unsteady as he squeezed it onto his chips. Lauren, Zayn, Harry, Camila, Niall, and Ally all decided to go out for comfort food after Louis' burial service. Liam still couldn't face anyone, so he went back to the lonely apartment.

   

   "Do you guys think Louis' death was accidental, or you know..." Lauren suddenly questioned. She could feel everyones gaze go from the food up to her. "Are you trying to say you think Louis was murdered?" Ally gasped.

"Louis was piss drunk and went for a swim. It was already determined, so can everyone just drop it and let the boy rest in peace?" Harry snapped. Lauren held her hands up and got silent.

///

   It'd been a month and three weeks since Louis' death, and things were starting to go back to normal, it atleast the way they were when the girls had arrived.

    "I never want you to leave," Zayn whispered to Lauren. He rolled over and kissed her collar bone. In five weeks Lauren was going to be headed back to Florida with Camila and Ally. "It'll be back to long distance, we made it work already," Lauren kissed Zayn's nose, and he let out a long sigh at the words "long distance"

"Let's run away together," Zayn suddenly suggested. "Just me and you, and a location of your choosing. Maybe South Asia, I know you want to go there some day."

"Some day Zayn we will. Don't worry about that babe. Let's just live in the now. We have eachother, and no one can get in the way of that,"

"I'll make sure of that," Zayn kissed his girlfriends lips.

    There was a knock at the door. Zayn let out a groan, and rolled out from beneath the covers. He slipped into jeans, and walked over to the door. Lauren couldn't hear what was being discussed, but she could see blonde hair and she knew that it was Niall. Zayn nodded a few times,.and then shut the door. "I am so sorry, but we were supposed to go help Louis' mum with with something at seven. Can we continue this later?" Lauren nodded. "Do you want me to drop you off at the flat--" Lauren cut him off. "No, I'm fine here." Zayn nodded, he finished slipping into his shoes and then he leaned down to place a kiss on Lauren's lips before walking out the door.

    Lauren got out of bed herself, and slipped into some clothes and Zayn's sweater. She made her way to the backyard for some fresh air. She stood by the pool, and stared into it. Images of Louis floating inside of it made her a bit queasy, and thinking that Perrie could have had something to do with it didn't help.

   "Are you the only one here?" Lauren was startled by the voice until she saw that it was Liam. She placed her hand over her heart. "You scared the shit out of me," she breathed. Liam laughed.

"Sorry about that."

"And yeah, I'm the only one here. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be helping Louis' mom with something?"

"Helping his mum with something?" Liam raised confused eyebrows.

"Yeah, that's where Zayn and Niall went."

"Really? That's strange," he shrugged. "Maybe I wasn't invited because she knows this is all still so hard on me." Lauren looked at the pool, and then back to Liam. "And being out here probably isn't helping.. maybe we should head inside." Liam nodded in agreeance.

    The second they headed inside there was a loud crash out front. "What the hell was that?!" Lauren panicked. Both Liam and Lauren rushed outside where they saw Ally and Camila standing outside of Niall's car. The shorter girl was pacing back and fourth muttering "he's going to kill me" and the taller of the two had her hands over her mouth.

   They can imply that Ally crashed Niall's car into the mailbox because the entire post was laying on the ground beneath the car. "Niall's going to kill me." Ally exhaled.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths, just tell me what happened? Why do you have Niall's car in the first place?" Liam questioned.

"I..." Ally couldn't even make a coherent sentence, she tok busy staring the huge dent in Niall's fender. "I was back at the flat, and Harry wasn't there, and so I called Ally to see what she was doing and she told me that Niall left yesterday to Zayn's cabin in a cab so he left her with his carkeys, and I was like wow okay let's just go to Zayn's cabin and that's what we did, but that mailbox came out of nowhere honestly." Camila explained.

    "Again. I repeat, Niall's going to kill me." Ally panicked.

"Kill you is such an exaggerated term. He might be pissed but I don't think the anger will last long." Liam said giving the worried girl a squeeze.

    "Wait, did you just say Niall came her yesterday?" Lauren asked finally going over everything in her head. Ally nodded. "I was here yesterday and I can honestly say that Niall just came today in a cab.." Ally looked at Lauren as if she said something wrong. "Niall wasn't here last night Ally, and he was only here today for like three hours."

"What are you implying?" Ally sneered.

"I'm not implying anything, I'm just saying he should maybe get his lies straightened out..."