So Wrong, It's Right (Louis)

Chapter 2

Unedited. 

I finished carrying that damn water gallon back and forth up that hill after the third time. It doesn't sound like much but once you mix in all the hard work I had done practising, picking a fight with the water boy, and getting knocked on my own arse, I was getting rather exhausted. I was just glad that nobody was around so that I could act and show my tiredness.

I was never allowed to complain about feeling tired or being sore at home. If I ever did, my father always knew how to throw it back in my face, figuratively. Apparently, even mentioning those words meant that I was weak. In a way, I already felt that but I buried that feeling away until I just didn't respond to it much. The insults about being scrawny worked on my for awhile when I was younger. For some reason I was happy to prove to my father that I was just as strong as he was. I began working out more by the time I was thirteen, which is where I learned that I was more angry than I was determined. I found a different outlet once I joined the football team. 

I didn't join the team for my father. To me that would just show that I'm desperate and pathetic for any form of approval from the man. I didn't want that. I always had the game in my life, using it just to entertain myself but, as I grew older, I found that I needed football in my life. It was something I actually found enjoyment in. That's all that it was and that's all that it should be.

The outlet I had found wasn't in the sport. It was in that scrawny water boy I knew my father would have picked on if he got the chance to ever see him. I wasn't protecting Niall and I wasn't protecting my former self. 

Now, I was walking up the hill on my fourth time to put the gallon back where it actually belonged. If I really wanted to be an arse I could have just gave the gallon a swift kick down the hill and never look back to it as I left. I could let a certain someone else take the fall for that, but then there was the possibility of Liam putting the damn pieces together and calling me out on it in some secretive confrontation. 

Once I was back in the car I unlocked my doors and got into my car, checking the clock to see what the hour was. I knew when I arrived back to mine that I wouldn't have much time before my dad would be home from work. 

With a long sigh I started my car up and drove back to mine, rolling down my window some so I could feel the cold air, hoping it would relax me somehow. Even though the cold caused me to sniffle, I felt comforted by it; something I'm not too found of, probably because I'm not used to it. 

When I got back to mine and walked through the door I could already smell my mum preparing the night's meal. As long as it was ready by the time my dad was back then it didn't matter how late I was. I just had to be there before he was, so I learned how to manage my time after school and even practice. I'd rather have spent it with my friends but I had other things to tend to instead. It was types of things that made me wonder if my parents noticed the similarities of my behaviour.

As I usually did after a long I walked right into the kitchen and went over to the fridge to grab myself two small cans of Red Bull and whatever else I could grab. I tucked the cans under my arm as I reached back in the fridge to find some green grapes. They would just have to do. Then I closed the door behind me and stopped to take a quick glance at my mum. 

Her back was turned to me and I could hear the sound of a knife loudly striking her wooden cutting board. I was about to ask her what she was making but I didn't want to startle the woman and I didn't think she would answer me. She had become more and more silent as I seemed to get older, not that I was the "World's Greatest Son" but she didn't have the "World's Greatest Husband" either. 

Communication in the Tomlinson household wasn't normal and I'm actually glad that all but one person knew what happened within these walls. 

After I snatched myself up a snack I walked out of the kitchen and then up the stairs that led to my room. I closed the door behind me with my foot as I grabbed on of the Red Bull cans, preparing to open it before I  was briefly interrupted.