Like A Hole In The Head → [Lilo] ✔️

Chapter 18

It's all sorts of noise and mania and everyone's jumping on Louis at once to hug him and clap him on the back and shove him up towards the stage. Liam just stands up and stands back, because he's only in the way here, and Louis blows past him in a blur of tan and gold and smiles and then he's onstage, taking the statue with shaking hands.

"Thank you," he says, his voice amplified times a thousand, booming through the theater. It's so weird to see him up there, looking both tiny and impossibly large. "Thanks to, uh, Jim, my director, and to Kate and Anna and Aaron and everyone else who worked so hard to get this movie made the way it was. Thanks to my mum, and my sisters, God, I love you all so much. Thanks to my agent, Leigh-Anne, you've been so bloody patient with me. Yeah, that's -- it's such an honor to get this award, but it's because of so many people, and I," he blinks, his face slipping into a sun-bright giddiness that's Liam's only seen the once before. "Thank you all so much," he says.

He takes a half-step and then ducks back, grabbing the mic stand as the beginning bursts of applause flicker and die.

"Liam," he says into the overwhelming hush. "I was never the husband you deserved."

His eyes find Liam in the crowd. There are cameras trained on them both, Liam's sure, but he wouldn't know what to do with his face even if he could control it.

"I'm not even the ex-husband you deserve," Louis continues, "but, for the record, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

He gives the gold statue a little shake, and then he lets the mic go and walks offstage.