Sorcery (Louis Tomlinson)

xviii. Freedom

I had been released from the hospital two days after I had been admitted, the doctors wanting to keep me for observation to make sure my weak heart didn't try and take a break again.

Louis had been in my room practically the whole time, trying to keep me happy by what ever means possible. We had played countless games of go fish and watched my favorite Disney movies three times each in the time I had been bedridden. Louis even went so far as to go out and buy exactly twenty-six colorful balloons and tying them to my bed as a way to light up the room. When I asked him why twenty-six, he said that was the most he could buy with the money he had.

He had even tied a few to a wheelchair the nurses had gotten for me so I could get out of my room, Louis thinking it would be funny to play Speed Racer and see how fast we could round the turns of the cardio ward hallways, our laughter the only thing echoing off the walls as nurses rolled their eyes and shook their heads as they let us indulge in our games until Dr. Ellington came onto the floor and made me go back to bed. Louis had only stuck his tongue out when the doctor's back was turned and whispered to me that we would try it again later.

When night fell and visiting hours were over, Louis would hide in the men's room until the nurses clocked out and the night-shift nurses came. He had calculated their change times to a precise second, always sneaking back in my room before the night-shift nurses could see just so he could sing me to sleep.

But my time in the hospital was up, and I couldn't wait to get back home to the cabin and breathe fresh air, explore the forest, and lay in sheets that actually belonged to me.

Needless to say, laying in sheets that were mine was apparently all I was going to do when we got home according to Dad. I had been fitted with a portable heart monitor (I didn't even know those existed) and sent home, being warned that I was to remain relaxed and calm all the time, or the doctors might be seeing me again soon. Therefore, Dad had ordered me to stay in bed all day, just as a precaution, once we got home.

The ride home was full of me grumbling and complaining to Dad in the back seat while Louis was cracking up in the front seat of the truck. I was so tired of being bedridden, my legs aching to stretch out and walk around the forest floor.

"Can I take this off now?" I asked my father, gesturing to the awkward and annoying heart monitor laying on my lap.

"That's mean, Mira, taking it off when it's grown so attached to you." Dad joked about the electrodes stuck to my skin, snickering to himself while Louis continued to laugh hysterically. I only glared at them.

"You'll break its heart, you meanie." Louis added on, giving me a delirious smile and a wink. My glare only continued.

"Mira is notorious for breaking hearts. She's made countless boys cry over the years." Dad said, making me roll my eyes. I'm pretty sure the only boy I had ever made cry was my father, who claimed he bawled his eyes out the night I was born while my mother watched on in amusement.

"Is that why she so willingly allowed me to be her boyfriend? So she could break my heart?" Louis asked, Dad only laughing. However, my mind was fuzzy with confusion after Louis called himself my boyfriend. He never asked me.

I soon realized his witty plan when he turned his head and mouthed the question to me, utterly ceasing any attempt on my part to say no.

"Be my girlfriend?" He mouthed, feigning hurt as I pretended to think long and hard over it. His smile was breathtaking after I nodded, my heart fluttering with warmth at the realization that Louis was technically my boyfriend now.

My boyfriend. Louis was mine, and no one else's. The thought that Louis didn't want anyone else in the world but me to have the honor of being his was awe-inspiring and touching.