concealing ➸ tomlinson

xlii

louis and kris came back noticeably different.

zayn was one of the first people to see them once they returned. both of them smiling, not even really talking all that much. that shouldn't have worsened the growing pit in zayn's stomach with every passing second.

just get it over with, he told himself, spit it out.

"i'll find you later." louis said to kris, smiling again as a goodbye. zayn smiled also, although it was much stiffer.

"so how was it?" zayn asked.

louis smiled, but not before giving zayn a brief look-over. "harry'd said that jacob had talked to you, just wanted to make sure... you know."

"yeah- no i'm fine. spotless." zayn forced a laugh that sounded a little more fake than he'd meant.

louis smiled again, a little softer, and he and zayn began to walk back towards louis's room.

"so. aside from that, what's been going on that i missed?" he asked.

zayn tensed, and he wasn't quite sure if it were noticeable. just come out; say it say it say it say it.

"not much." zayn shrugged, "just the same boring stuff that usually happens. had to help make sure the new guys didn't do anything stupid, but really nothing new."

he could practically feel the shovel in his hands as he dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole.

"all things considering, yeah, that's good." louis cracked his knuckles a few times. "so, kris and i are a, um, an official thing now."

of all things, that caught zayn off guard. "really?"

"yeah it was sort of spastic. we'd woken up and we were on the bed and-"

zayn cut him off with a raised eyebrow.

louis rolled his eyes. "no, goddamn it."

"you set the scenario."

"twat."

they'd already come up on louis's door, stopping once they'd realized so.

"i'll try and catch you later." louis offered.

zayn nodded. "yeah. happy to see you again."

once the door had been closed on him, zayn's smile dropped away and he let his shoulders drop. he wanted to scream at himself. he'd completely panicked; how was he supposed to bring the situation up to both he and harry at this rate?

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