Infinity //1D AU ✓

Chapter 19

~How many nights does it take to count the stars?,

That's the time it would take to fix my heart~

Everyone began walking back to the hotel, when the four of them pulled Zayn back and away from Luke. "Think we could hang out for a bit? We have some stuff we want to talk about." Niall told him.

"Of course." Zayn said, looking back at his man and blowing a kiss.

Luke gave them a panicked look, and stood next to Zayn. "So this is about that, then."

"About what?" Zayn asked.

"I don't want him in the room." Louis said to Harry, acting very scared and not at all like his normal self.

"Louis has some things to say, Luke." Harry said, stepping in front of Louis. "He doesn't want you to hear them. It's pretty personal." He guessed on that, of course, but it had to be personal if Louis was acting this weird about it.

"I'll be right outside." Luke said, as they walked up to Zayn's room.

"You guys are scaring me." Zayn said, taking off his suit jacket. He sat on the bed, fidgeted with his hands. Then he pulled out a smoke and opened the balcony door. Harry handed one to Lou, who was shaking. He lit the cigarette, and then took a drag before started to talk.

"So, I already told you that Luke was a member of my first group." He said, in a very low tone. Liam stood by the doorway, wanting to leave. Zayn nodded, and Louis continued. "I was put into the group with Luke, Perrie, and Palmer late in the game, as Simon overestimated their skills, and they needed a fourth member. But they were already the best of friends." He started talking faster to get through it, and Harry held onto him, even though he couldn't stand the smoke. "Perrie and Palmer despised me. Still do. I don't know why. I was nice to them. But I was an outsider."

His breathing got especially ragged. Harry held onto him tighter. Niall raided the mini fridge. "Luke was the only one, who, after a while, was openly nice. He was also really flirtatious. I was a baby gay back then, baby...whatever. I thought he liked me, maybe."

Zayn's face showed confusion, and Harry watched it closely for any signs of anger or aggression, just in case he needed to protect Louis against Zayn. "I finally got up the courage to, you know, ask him out, and he shot me down. He told me that he wasn't gay. That I misinterpreted everything wrong and-"

"He's changed that standing." Zayn laughed in a small voice.

Louis flinched like the sound caused him pain. "Oh my god, I'm gonna start crying." He said, taking another drag. "He didn't turn me down nicely, though. He freaking persecuted me. He called me gay, even though I don't want to put a label on anything, and he started bullying me. Like actually bullying me. My self-esteem couldn't handle it back then - my mom was dying, and I had no friends." Louis was sobbing now, and Harry turned him away from Zayn, who was trying to process this, as was everyone else.

"Louis, it's okay." Harry said. "Please stop crying, baby."

"They started excluding details of the mission from me, even though Simon said that if they tried anything, he'd have them all kicked off of the mission." Harry tried to cover his mouth so he would stop talking, and Niall grabbed his cigarette, put it out, and then threw it into an ashtray. But Louis squirmed and kept talking. "And on the day of the heist, they locked me in the closet so I wouldn't help, and they wrote a really mean message to me. And I broke out, and saved them. And after that, Simon said that he wanted to keep me on call for more jobs. He also wanted Perrie, but not Luke or Palmer, so the three of them parted ways with Simon, while I stayed."

Niall jumped in now, from what he knew of what happened next. "The three of them went to work for All Star Security. When the three of them arrived in London to start planning your guy's wedding, he took a visit to Louis' house, and told him about their company business, trying to be friends with him."

"He told Louis about how the security business is all a front for money laundering. They protect and then rob celebrities, and no one has ever suspected them. Louis tried to fight him, but I stopped him from killing him. And Louis found a computer guy to hack into their systems and find evidence of this. And we broke into the office to find physical evidence, and there was so much."

Luke finally came into the room. "So, you're 1D. The guys that robbed that bank in Vegas, and trashed Paul's office. If you try to turn us in, I'll tell them that. I'll tell them that."

"You have no proof!" Niall yelled, face turning red and getting nervous. "No video recordings."

Louis was still sobbing and Zayn was now crying. "Is this true, Luke? All the stuff you did to Louis? And the money laundering?"

"I was just givin' Louis a tough time. Not a big deal."

"He's a human being! The sweetest person I've ever known. Did you ever ask him about his life while you bullied him? He was put onto that team to get money to help him mom, who was dying of leukemia." Luke's face went pale. "And now you're stealing money?"

"You did it too." Luke fired back.

Zayn suddenly turned his anger away from Luke and towards the rest of them like flipping a switch. "I see. This is all part of some elaborate plan to get me to not marry Luke. Who's idea was this? Liam's? Had a sudden change of heart after your head was knocked into that shelf? Oh wait. That was my head."

"It wasn't a scheme!" Louis cried out. "We just wanted you to see exactly who you were marrying? Does Luke even know who you are? Why you got kicked out of MIT?"

"He knows everything about me. And now I know everything about him. But apparently I know nothing about any of you." Zayn wiped the tears off of his cheeks and pointed out the door.

"Get out. Now."