Defenceless l.s

Twenty Three

Louis rushed into the restaurant, he was running late since the meeting took a lot longer than anticipated, he just wouldn't stop talking and now it was 12.13 and Zayn was waiting for him.

He immediately spotted his friend in a booth in the far back, the one they always used to get. Louis smiled a little at that as he walked over to him. Zayn looked up from his phone when he heard the chair being pulled back.

"Hi, I'm sorry I'm late. We got stuck in a meeting and-" he started to explain but Zayn interrupted him.

"What happened to you?" He asked completely horrified, his eyes scanning over Louis' face. Louis looked at him confused so Zayn continued, "your face." And realization washed over him.

"Oh, that. It's nothing, I just fell" Louis brushed off. Zayn looked at him skeptically.

"On your face?" He questioned.

"Well, yeah" Louis said and blushed. "You know how I am, super clumsy" he said and chuckled awkwardly and picked up the menu, "anyways, we should probably order now," he said and quickly flipped through the pages. 

"Did Liam do this?" Louis' head snapped up to look at Zayn, his voice had dropped an octave, he almost didn't recognize it.

"What? No!" He immediately denied. 

"Because if it was, you can tell me," and he had this look in his eyes, Louis couldn't quite tell what it was but it was starting to scare him.

"It wasn't! It wasn't him, okay! I told you, I fell" he said, sounding very upset. 

"But Louis-" 

"No! Will you stop it!" He almost yelled and Zayn could see the tears in his eyes. But the thing was Zayn could tell when he was lying, and now was one of those times, but he also realized that it's best to let it go, for now at least. He knew he had to find a different approach because this clearly wasn't working. All it did was upset Louis and that's not what he wanted at all, but he was torn on what to do, all he wanted to do was to help him because Louis was his best friend and he knew that Liam wasn't good for him, that he wasn't happy, but Louis couldn't see that and it broke his heart every time he thought about what his friend is going through. 

Zayns demeanour softened when he saw how upset Louis looked, but it wasn't just that, Zayn realized that he was scared and his heart broke once again. He just wanted to reach out and hug his best friend but he figured that it probably wasn't the time. Zayn let out a little sigh and slumped back in his chair, "of course, I'm sorry Lou."

He wiped at his eyes before picking up his menu again, "it's fine" he said quietly as he scanned over the menu, Zayn doing the same. After that the mood was kinda awkward, but as the food arrived the awkwardness kinda faded away which they were very grateful for. It wasn't ever like this before, Zayn thought. They used to be able to tell eachother everything, even though it was a sensitive subject, Louis never reacted like he did when he brought up Liam.

It was past midnight and Liam still wasn't home, Louis had called and texted him all afternoon but hadn't gotten an answer. He had been coming home late quite a lot lately but he always texted or called. So Louis assumed that he got stuck at work or something and his phone died, because he would've called. 
He was lying in bed trying not to fall asleep while he waited for Liam to get home, but his eyelids felt like lid and it was nearly impossible to keep them open, so he decided to rest his eyes for a little while, just until the ad was over. 

Louis startled awake by the loud music from coming from his laptop, he quickly shut it close before closing his eyes and falling back asleep.

Mr.Styles had asked him to come in an hour earlier today since they were going to meet someone for a breakfast meeting. He couldn't quite remember at the moment cause he was still really tired from the mere five hours of sleep he had gotten. When he woke up he realized that Liam still wasn't home, he checked his phone for any missed calls or texts from him, but there was none. Louis sighed before getting out of bed and did his normal morning routine. He decided to call Liam in the car. The phone rang a couple of times before Liam picked up.

"Hello?" He said in a groggy voice.

"Hi Liam, where are you? You didn't come home last night." He asked, worried.

"Erm, uh. I had to work and when I was done it was very late so I stayed with a friend," he explained.

"Oh, why didn't you call?" 

"I turned my phone off and forgot" Louis sighed quietly.

"Alright, see you tonight then"

"Yeah, bye" he said and hung up. Louis frowned at his phone before chucking it to the driver's seat. He was probably just tired, he did sound like he just woke up.

Louis pulled up at the office and waited by the front desk where Mr.Styles had said they would meet.
A couple of minutes later he saw Mr.Styles coming out of the elevators so they made their way out to the parking lot where a car was waiting for them. 

Louis leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather some energy for the meeting. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before looking out the window for the rest of the ride. 

After a while Louis started to recognize the roads they were driving. He had driven these roads a thousand times before and Louis suddenly realized where they were headed. 

They soon arrived in front of the tall black building Louis thought he had walked out of for the last time.