After The End: Book 2

6. Run Away

Naomis POV

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I snapped. "Absolutely not."

Louis held up his hands in surrender looking alarmed. "Woah woah wait! I'm not asking. I'm just telling you about it. I already said no to him!"

I exhaled, visibly relaxing.

"I'm not trying to leave the country. Of course I know it's a bad time. I'm just telling you because he'll likely ask me again and I want you to be prepared that eventually, if it is a better time, it's something to talk about," he said calmly.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "A better time? When exactly do you think it's going to be a better time for you to up and leave?"

Louis studied me for a moment. It seemed like realization was dawning on him. "Naomi, traveling was always part of the deal."

That wasn't news to me. I'd always assumed that eventually Louis might have to be gone sometimes, but I hadn't considered the actual reality of it. In my head, I'd always known that eventually Louis would need to travel to meet the needs of his work. I'd been fine with it because I'd envisioned that I could just go with him if he was needing to be gone a long time. I loved traveling. I'd stayed out of University for the sole purpose of having time to travel. That had been optimistic thinking. Those thoughts existed before Oliver had been born a real living baby. He complicated things. I couldn't cart him all over the world. I could barely take him out of the flat without having a heart attack.

"What about us?" I pressed. "We're just supposed to sit here and wait for you to come back?"

Louis looked pained. I hated doing this to him. I was tired of being angry and exhausted all the time. I was tired of taking it out on him like living his life was somehow a crime against me. "It's not like that," Louis said softly. "You guys could come sometimes or you could stay here. We can cross those bridges when we get to them."

I nodded and took a deep breath trying to push the irrational feelings down. What was it Harry had told me to do? He used to have a major problem filtering his thoughts after his last overdose. He'd said the best thing to do was say the thought in his mind first and ask himself if it made sense. Did my anger at Louis make sense? No. Could I stop it? Maybe?

Louis risked stepping into my space and put his arms over my shoulders. "The last thing I want to do is make you think that you and Oliver aren't my priority. I'm never going to do something without talking to you first."

He had the worlds most calming voice. I wanted to just melt into his arms and pretend that everything was fine and that we weren't ripping apart at the seams.

I let him hold me there for a moment. I was saved from pulling away because the baby monitor started blaring. Oliver had woken up from his nap. I sighed. I'd hoped for more time.

Louis popped up. "There's bottles in the fridge. I'll handle it."

He sped off down the hall, seemingly thankful to be out of the conversation. I followed him. He had only just scooped Oliver out of his crib when I heard the familiar ding of the elevator.

I'd previously found the fact that everyone lived so close to be charming. On days like this, it felt difficult to know that we had a doors open policy. Lux and Harry could come and go at their leisure. Even if we were trying to have a proper fight.

Harry came rounding the corner looking disappointed to see we had beaten him to the babies cries. Louis waved him off in a silent 'not now' and he made a pouty face before moving out of the way so that Louis could leave the room with the still crying baby.