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LOUIS
"Lou, we need to talk to you." Liam tells me and my heart rate speeds up. "Just, like, not with you, Niall." That makes me even more nervous, knowing that Niall must feel like shit that his three friends are having an important conversation without him.
"Oh I-" Niall starts, then looks over at me. I just look at him and nod. I want to tell him to stay, but I know I need to tell my friends with Niall not around. "Yeah, sure. Why not?" He nods, now changing his gaze from me to Liam.
Niall walks away and I sigh, shutting my eyes tightly before opening them again. My friends look at me with concerned expressions.
"Why'd you guys skip? What happened?" Liam asks me softly. We sit down against the outside wall of the school building.
"He saw me, uhm," I fiddle with my fingers. "I was about to smoke and he started walking over here so I tried to get him away before he, like, noticed." I sigh and roll my eyes.
"Lou," Harry says. "You were gonna smoke?"
"No! I mean, yeah. I dunno. I didn't want to, but I also wanted to." I run my fingers through my hair.
"You mean you didn't want to." Liam tells me.
"What? How do you know if I did or didn't?" I cross my arms.
"If you really wanted to, you wouldn't have such big doubts." He tells me. He's right, completely right.
"Jesus, Payno, why're you so smart?" I mumble, crossing my arms and pouting. He laughs and then exhales deeply.
"Look, getting back on track, what happened after that?" Liam wonders.
I sigh and think of what to say. "We kinda started arguing. In short, he yelled that he just doesn't wanna see me get hurt and in the moment I was heated so, I yelled back that it's too late."
"Oh god," Harry sighs. "Did he find out?"
"No, I didn't tell him." I bite my lip. "But he just told me not to do stupid shit like smoke and drink, then asked if I wanted to just skip the rest of the day."
"So what'd you guys do?" Harry asks me nonchalantly.
"Just watched a movie and napped, then ate some snacks and chatted about stuff." I shrug, being honest.
"Okay," Liam says. "Why are you being weird around him again? You're just being weird. I thought that stopped."
"I dunno," I groan. "I've been understanding now that I'll never have Niall the way I really want him, so I got used to that and accepted that he's an amazing friend, then, I just, i don't know." I shrug my shoulders.
"Hm," Liam looks confused. "Well, try not to be so weird around him. I really think it makes him upset."
"And that makes me feel like shit!" I raise my voice, then speak calmly again. "Even now, when you told him to leave - I felt so bad because he must really want to help me, but he can't because it's all about him so he can't know anything about any of this." I ramble.
