cuddle, cheat, repeat // larry

xi

weeks passed and louis didn't get better.

all he did was lay in his bed, cry, and cut his wrist up. he legitimately hated himself, and no one was there to fix him because he had screwed all his relationships up.

the only time he got up was to get food from his pantry, which was slowly decreasing in supply, and piss. he didn't even take showers because "how could someone like me deserve to be clean when my heart isn't?"

on the evening before his twenty-second birthday, when he was, of course, crying, he heard something he hadn't heard since "the niall-rape-you-stupid-fucking-bastard-louis-i-hate-myself incident", as he liked to call it.

he heard a knock at his door. as much as he didn't want to get out of bed that morning, he knew he had to.

he sighed as the knocks turned into persistent pounds.

"i'm coming, god damn!" he yelled, rolling out of bed and groggily making his way towards the door.

he opened the door to a fuming liam.

"li, what's-"

"YOU LITTLE FUCKER!" liam screamed, tackling louis onto the floor and punching him mercilessly.

louis was absolutely shocked, to say the least.

he spoke between punches. "liam! what? what are you-"

"you raped niall!" liam gave one final blow to the middle of his nose before stumbling off of him, and sitting on the floor beside him, trying to calm himself.

louis grimaced in pain as he sat up, knowing very well that he deserved that beating.

seconds turned into minutes, and the two remained in tense silence.

it wasn't until minutes were about to turn into hours when louis whispered, "sorry...?"

liam sighed and got up. "it's.. okay. i know you didn't mean to."

louis took liam's outstretched hand and stood up, feeling a sharp pang of pain from his nose before seeing blood dripping onto the floor.

he quickly pinched his nose and craned his neck upward "oh god, liam, could you get me a paper towel?"

"oh my gosh yes, i'm sorry..." liam rushed to the kitchen speedily.

liam ran back into the room with a handful of paper towels, immediately taking as much as he could hold and pressing them gently against the grimacing boy's nose.

"i forgive you, mate." liam said with a soft tone.

louis let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding in. "thank god, li... i'm so so so sorry... i can't apologize enough."

"just... try to get niall to trust you again. he feels completely and utterly betrayed right now."

after the bleeding had stopped, louis threw the towels into the trash in the kitchen before saying, "i'll try."

-

*two weeks later*

"niall... this is the 32nd time i've been sent to voicemail... please just let me explain... call me back, love. i will forever be sorry for this."

louis hit end call and threw his phone onto the floor, collapsing onto his bed with a grunt of frustration. would niall ever forgive him? or had he just lost one of his best friends?

he knew that he could always appear at niall's doorstep and make niall let him enter, but it was 2 in the morning and creeping up to niall's house wouldn't exactly help the situation.