TWISTED ꜜ LOUIS PARTRIDGE

⟾ 28 | THE OFFER

LOUIS

Wednesday 7:34pm

_

SO, SHE WAS ALIVE.

She was still bleeding out, but I managed to get her to a hospital in time, where she was currently being attended to. To a stranger, she was delirious, making jokes about nearly dying instead of screaming in pain.

"Louis, it's hilarious!" She laughed from her hospital bed, "Millie stabbed me in the back metaphorically and literally!"

The nurses would look at me with utter confusion, and I'd just awkwardly laugh. I didn't want to be in their presence anyway. I was only there to wait for them to leave so I could be alone with [y/n], because I loved her and still needed the explanation for the stunt she pulled an hour ago.

When it was just us huddled in the small room, I pulled up a chair, sitting beside her bed and staring her down.

She stared back. "Hey Meat-Head."

"Hey," I said.

"Lou the Lemon."

"Mhm."

There was a pause, where she snuggled herself underneath her thin hospital blanket, the top-half of her head poking out to look at me.

"I don't suppose you'd still let me call you darling," she squeaked out, "darling."

I smiled softly. "I appreciate the names, [y/n], but you can't stall this time."

I knew her too well to miss her tricks. She was clearly trying to avoid the topic of conversation, but I wasn't going to let her get away with it, because she made me think she died. I just wanted the truth, that's all.

She gave me a nervous look, so I held out my hand, wiggling my fingers to let her know she could take it. I wasn't going to get angry at her. I was going to listen to her explanation and try to understand.

"You were being slow," she began to say, sliding her hand onto my palm, "so I decided to go to the South Tower to see if I could turn it off by myself."

I nodded my head, hanging onto her every word.

"But there were already people there, and I knew we wouldn't be able to take them," she sighed, "so on my way back, I devised a plan."

"A plan?" I asked.

She glanced away. "I was going to tell you to wait and let me distract them, but I didn't know Millie was going to show up."

Things were slowly beginning to add up, but there was still a giant piece of truth missing. I squeezed her hand, hoping she'd say it soon. She was clearly uncomfortable talking about it.

"And then that happened," she said, gesturing to her back, "so I knew I wasn't going to be able to do what I planned. So I had you do it. I faked my death, let you walk in first, so I'd follow after and catch them all off guard."

I blinked. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because I..."

She stopped herself, her eyes already starting to water with tears. Her lips quivering, she continued to speak.

"I just had to know you were telling the truth," she said, "when you said you loved me."

Oh.

"I know nothing about love, Lou, and it's made it so hard for me to trust you. My parents used to tell me they did, but when they thought I'd died, all they did was run away and live their lives without me."