Truth or Dare [Larry Stylinson]

.:Chapter Five:.

“Harry? Harry wake up…”

“Haz? Hazza? Please wake up…”

I slowly open my eyes and rub them; yawning and looking at the dark surroundings. I can barely see a tall shadow standing up beside my bed. I frown and mumble in a sleepy voice, “Lou, is that you?”

“Yeah,” he gulps nervously, clutching what seems to be a teddy bear.

A teddy bear?! No way there’s no way that he’s holding a – oh my god; it is a teddy bear! Louis looks so fragile with it and he looks so cute and cuddly. I just want to hold him tight and never let him go!

“Um, m-mind if I sleep with you tonight? It’s just there’s thunder and lightning and…,” he sighs, looking down at the ground, “I’ve always been afraid of it ever since I was young and I never got over it so do you mind…?”

I stare at him in utter shock and my eyes go wide. Louis is scared of thunder and lightning?! How come I have never heard of this before?! Why wouldn’t he tell me this? It doesn’t make him any less manly than before and I find it rather cute actually.

“Never mind, sorry to bug you,” he mumbles and starts to turn away.

“Wait,” I cry out and grab his wrist gently.

He turns back to me with a sad and hopeful smile on his face. I smile softly and open my covers; letting him in. “Come on in Lou, I’ll protect you. You don’t need to be scared anymore; I’m here for you.”

Louis quickly hops into the bed and I wrap the covers back over us. It’s funny because I hadn’t even heard the thunder or the lightning. I knew it was raining when I went to bed but I didn’t think that it would end up this bad.

Lightning goes off and the thunder quickly follows after it; making a very loud boom. Louis jumps and buries his face in my chest; cuddling close to me. My cheeks flush and I find myself looking down and blushing hardcore. Louis feels so warm against my skin and he’s so vulnerable and scared . . . I’ve never ever seen this side of him before.

I gently wrap my arms back around him and hold him close to me. Thunder goes off once more and Louis whimpers. I look down to see his face and it’s hard to tell in the darkness but I can tell that he’s tearing up. I frown and hold him even tighter than before.

“Why are you scared Louis?” I ask in a gentle voice, slowly caressing his hair with my fingers.

“I don’t know; it’s always been scary for me. I think my parents had their first fight ever during a thunder storm and it was really bad. Back then there was only me, Lottie and Georgia. Lottie was only two years old so she didn’t know what was going on and came into my room. Georgia was only a year old and she was fast asleep by then.

“I didn’t know what to do because I was scared too. They were yelling at each other as if we weren’t even there. Lottie was so young and innocent and asked me what was going on but mind you I was only eight back then. Mum was already pregnant for Fizzy at the time and I don’t remember what they were fighting about but it was bad.

“In the end; my dad ended up slamming the door and storming off somewhere. I was so scared and then Lottie asked me if he was going to come back . . . and I had no idea if he was or not. That scared me so much and I started bawling and of course that set Lottie off and we were silent so my mom couldn’t hear us.

“Lottie fell back asleep a few minutes later so then I put her back to bed and crept downstairs to make sure my mom was okay. Well, she wasn’t. She was on the floor silently sobbing to herself. Her makeup was everywhere on her face and she had tissues all over the place. It was awful so I quickly went back upstairs and cried myself to sleep like Lottie did.

“And that’s why I’m afraid of thunder and lightning. I guess it just reminds me of how bad it was and how it only got worse from then on. I could never fix it or help them and since I was the oldest, all of the girls came to me and I had to comfort them when all I wanted to do was cry. I had to tell them everything would be fine and lie to them because I honestly had no idea…”