My Imaginary Friend | l.t au

19: Distractions

He looks at me in astonishment. "W-wha-" He stammered, "H-how? Wait. Did one of the boys put you up to this?" He asked bitterly.

"What are you talking about, Louis? Of course not-" 

"I bet they did, though. Tell me.  Who was it? Harry? Zayn? Niall? Liam?" 

"None of them, I swear," I held my hands up in surrender. "I remember now, boobear." 

"Wait, are you serious? You really remember me?" 

I nodded. I gave him a wide smile, and he hugged me again.  But me, being the weakling that I am plus being caught off guard, I ended up falling down on the ground, landing on my back, Louis on top of me. My eyes immediately found his lips, and before I knew it hus face was gradually getting closer to mine.  

I gulped. Was he going to kiss me?? My eyes widened. No, that couldn't be right. He doesn't like me that way.  And in addition, I just broke up with my boyfriend - who happens to be his roommate - so I don't think kissing him would be the smartest move on my part.  

Instead of kissing me, though, he spoke, pulling away slightly, "Hey Wendyyyy?? Guess What?"

"What?"

"I got my best friend back! I got my best friend back! I got my best friend back!" He said in a sing-song voice over and over, making me giggle. 

"Hey Louis?"

"Yeah?"

"I got my best friend back, too."

He grinned even more. "You know what this calls for?" He asked, getting up. I gave him a blank look. "A celebratory, week-long adventure!" He offered his hand and I took it, now standing.

"A week?!" I glanced at him suspiciously.  Normally, I probably would have wanted to hang out with him some more, but now I'm not so sure.  What was I going to be doing with him that will last a whole week? If I agreed, what would I do about classes? Surely all of my professors would kick me out of their classes, forcing me to basically drop out and give up on everything I worked so hard on to end up here.

"What do you say, Wendy? Run away with me? For old times' sake?" He had a knowing smirk on his face, as if he expected me to say yes.

"I..." I was at loss for words.  What would you do if your imaginary friend came into your life, and asked you to run away with them? 

"Don't you trust me?"

"Well, yes, but I have school to focus on.  I need to study for finals coming up, a huge exam I have next week, and plus that project for psych and then-"

"Now where's the fun in that?" I just stared at him. He looked at me as if he couldn't recognize me. "Since when does Wendy Noble want to do homework instead of having fun?  What happened to the girl I used to know?"

I shrugged. "I guess she grew up."

His gaze fell to the floor. "Remember what Peter Pan said? Your favorite Disney character?"

I tilted my head. "He said a lot of things."

"'Once you've grown up, you can never come back'," He quoted, his words laced in venom.

"What if I don't want to come back to you?" I argued.

"Then I guess I'm not the only one who's changed since we were ten," He muttered, slamming the door behind him. 

~*~*~

  Two weeks had now gone by since Louis proposed the outrageous idea of an adventure in the middle of the school year. Every time he'd try to contact me through phone call, text, or social media, I would ignore him.  He made me realize that I was starting to lose track of what I came to New York for in the first place: To get a proper education in order to get a degree so that I could have a successful job and bright future ahead of me.