Adore You [Larry AU]

Twenty Two.

It had been a couple of days since Lou and I had been on our date. But no-one knew that. All they knew was Louis and Eleanor had just broken up and it was causing a lot of tension around our lunch table. It was mostly divided between boys and girls, as if there was now some silent war between all the couples. It was unspoken but I guess most of the girls were blaming their boyfriends, as if they were to know any details of why Louis did it. None of the boys seemed too bothered, and were enjoying their time talking about football or what they wanted to do on Friday night.

Then there was me. Sort of an outsider to both groups. At least until Kendal appeared, perching herself next to me. I was writing away in my journal, another poem about Louis, specifically about our date. I was desperate to fill this journal up so I could start a fresh clean one. So I barely noticed Kendal appear.

I felt a pat on my thigh, my eyes darted to it, then to the person sat next to me, seeing Kendal and her sympathetic eyes. We hadn't spoken about the elephant in the room, I guess we didn't need to. She was the one person who knew all the scandalous details.

"How's things?" She spoke first, looking between the two groups at our table.

"Just peachy." I replied and she giggled, an elegant chiming noise and I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Where is Louis?"

I shrugged. It had been hard to locate him the last couple of days and I was worried maybe he was avoiding me as well as Eleanor. I had this constant sicky feeling in my stomach that maybe he regretted what happened between us.

"Are you two okay...you know after everything?" She was speaking quietly but we both knew no-one would be listening. At least not while Eleanor was crying for the 10000th time today alone. All the girls had their arms around her and were cooing and awing. In my opinion she was milking it. I didn't even think she liked Louis that much. Just any chance to be the centre of attention.

I rolled my eyes and turned to face Kendal again. "Yeah I think so. Think he's just..." I didn't need to finish my sentence because I saw Louis walking towards our table. He threw his bag on the ground and climbed over the bench to sit next to me. He squeezed my thigh quickly and I could smell his aftershave wafting over me. His eyes were on the girls pandering to Eleanor and he looked sadly back to me.

"We can go eat somewhere else?" I offered and Kendal nodded next to me, finishing that thought. "Yeah, the quad should be empty today as first years are doing mocks." He smiled a small smile at her offer and stood up. "Okay." All three of us got up and walked away. Louis edged closer to me and I felt his fingers loosely intertwine with mine, when we were out of eye line of the group. 

We found a quiet spot in the quad and Louis fished in his bag bringing out an apple. He was the only one eating, the crunching sounds he was making were breaking the silence around us.

"If it is any help, I think you did the right thing, breaking up with her." Kendal's spritely voice cut through the tension. 

Louis lowered his apple, looking sadly at it. "If this is how everyone is acting now, what will they do when they find out about me and Harry?" 

I reached over the table and squeezed Louis' free hand in mine. "Well...we only have a couple of months left. We don't have to say anything and then we can be more open after college, when we aren't as close with everyone."

He looked thoughtful at my suggestion and took another bite of apple before answering me. "If I can keep my hands off you for that long." All three of us laughed but his was cut short as he looked sad again and carried on speaking. "Besides, I've known nearly everyone there my entire life, I don't think they'll just stop being my friends after college. And some of us are planning on going to the same Unis." 

My mouth formed an 'o'. "Oh...I didn't know you were all planning on sticking together...going to the same places..." I felt a pang of sadness ring through me. Louis had this whole life and future planned out, and I wasn't in it. He hadn't even mentioned it to me. I withdrew my hand from him and placed it under the table.

No-one could really say anything else as the bell rang for classes. I stood up and looked down at my bag, that was open.

"Ohhhh no! I've done it again. I've left my journal in the canteen." Louis tutted me, probably sick of hearing me utter those words by now. He got up and threw his backpack over one shoulder before starting to sprint back in the direction we came. I said goodbye to Kendal before jogging to catch up with him.

He made it to the table first and stopped. I came up behind him seeing what he saw...an empty table.

"You sure you left it here Haz?" I walked around the entire table, checking on the seats and the floor. My heart was pounding in my chest realising it was gone. Someone picked it up and walked off with it.

"I am sure Lou. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Someone is reading it. Someone is reading everything I wrote and....everything about you. Louuu." My hands were shaking as I ran them through my hair.

"No...maybe...maybe Liam or Zayn picked it up for safe keeping. Wait...you wrote about me?" Suddenly I felt my cheeks reddening with embarrassment. I looked across the table to him and he was smirking at me.

"Only...a little."

"Oh yeah? What about?" He checked around the room making sure we were alone before walking over to me. He put his hands around my waist and stood looking into my eyes. My cheeks were getting redder with every moment and it only made a devilish glint appear in his eyes.

"Just stuff." He chuckled and nodded before closing the gap between us and kissing me.

"Look, I'm sure it will turn up I will speak to the boys and see if they have it. Don't worry okay?"

*

Classes had finished and I was stood waiting for Louis by his car. Well stood was the wrong word, I was pacing and hopping from foot to foot with nerves. When I finally spotted his messy hair in the crowd of people I started pacing faster, anxious that he would have news about the journal.

But when I saw his expression, I knew instantly it wasn't good news. It was like a dark thunder cloud had sprouted over his head, he looked moody. I stopped still on the spot and felt all my muscles deflate. He checked over his shoulder before walking towards me and resting his hands on my arms.

"I spoke to Li and Z. They didn't even see it, or someone picking it up."

"Oh noooo."

"It's okay, maybe it's in lost property we can check tomorrow okay?" I nodded sadly at him and he moved around me to open the car door for me.

We stayed in silence the whole way back to mine. I was replaying all the worst case scenarios in my mind, scared that every last word would be found out be everyone and I'd be an out cast again.

I hadn't even noticed we had stopped until I felt Louis' hand stroking over my forehead. I turned to face him and he gave me a sympathetic smile. "You'll get worry lines if you carry on. It will be fine, worst case scenario it ended up in the bin okay? No-one will read it. Although I am quite sad I didn't get to read it. I would have loved to have known what you wrote about me." His face lit up and I couldn't help but laugh.

"If you're nice I may remember one or two and recite them." His eyes sparkled and I could tell he would do anything for that opportunity.

"I will be extra nice then." He chuckled then chucked me under the chin. "Hey, it's your birthday soon, maybe you can get a new journal and start again?"

"How do you know its my birthday soon?" I couldn't remember ever telling him as I hated it, I just wanted it to be like any other day.

"Gemma."

I nodded but sighed. "Of course it was Gemma. Don't tell anyone else though. I don't want people to know."

"Okay." He agreed but his face became unreadable and I had a feeling it was too late.