concealing ➸ tomlinson

Lii

five days passed.

and everything seemed to implode in a short amount of time.

if one were to draw the exact moment when the metaphorical fuse was lit, one might trace it back to louis. which, in some retrospect, was rather fitting, in a matter of speaking.

so, not quite a week after kris and jacob had spoken last, louis ran into jacob outside. he was smoking, and louis just wanted to ignore him like they'd been doing. but luck wouldn't have it as such.

"how've you and kris been doing?" jacob asked.

louis froze in place and winced, a mere few steps from getting inside. "fine...?"

"just fine?" jacob turned his head to look back at him. "come on, i'm genuinely curious here."

louis turned around fully, giving him a long, hard look. "what is this?"

"what's what?"

"this, act." he started walking back over. "you go from relentlessly harassing me to ignoring me on the turn of a dime. you're not just giving up on using me, you're planning something and you just don't have the time to be bothered with me."

jacob laughed, seeming amused. "can you ever just keep your mouth quiet?" he asked, letting the smile die down a bit. "or do you just have to be balls-deep in any situation that strikes your fancy and expect no consequences from it?"

the smell of smoke was an assault on louis's senses as they stood there. "i'm just saying, whatever front you're putting on isn't tricking anyone into think you've changed or whatever. you're going to snap back to the way you always have been in the blink of an eye."

"maybe i enjoy the idea of being a patriot for our kind."

"you're a sadistic militant at best, i fucking doubt you want to do anything good for anyone but yourself."

louis began to walk away again, but he hadn't gone two steps before a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him back. the familiar angry glow had returned to his eyes, and louis sort of (read: extremely) regretted doing that.

"worry about your own problems, okay?" his voice had dropped low, despite the fact of no one else being around. "you're going to have plenty coming pretty soon."

jacob let go of louis in a rather distasteful manor. for the third time, he was almost to the garage when something landed against his back. louis frozen, then turned around to question just as something hard crashed against his upper lip. on instinct, he jumped back and put his hand against the spot of impact.

jacob glanced over at him in an amazingly fake look of ignorance. practically begging him to retaliate. feeling the skin scream underneath his touch, louis instead did what he thought was the smart thing and hoisted the garage door and slipped under it.

when the room finally started moving, louis checked himself over. there were a few stains of red on his fingertips, but the area would probably just be bruised for a few days. rather angry (at himself or at jacob, he couldn't tell), a few layers of ice began to form on the ground beneath him. hardly managing to notice, louis took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. it was just a small bruise, not the end of the world.