Unbelievers

Chapter 4.5

By the time Louis makes it home, he's got several missed calls and texts on his phone. He's had it shut off for the entire day, not wanting to hear from anyone. Greg was amazing all day, distracting him with lame dance moves and singing in a weird falsetto, and he didn't ask once about Louis' bad mood. Louis spent the day goofing around, letting himself forget about the troubles just for once. He does feel a bit anxious about skipping practice and Coach will most certainly have a talk with him tomorrow, but he'll make it up to the team somehow.

The first text message is from Harry, only displaying several question marks. It's quite on point, considering Louis' not missed a practice session all season. There are a few from Niall and one from Liam, too. The next one is from his mum, asking if he's okay and telling him that she's sorry. He knows she's at the hospital right now, but he sends her a thumbs-up emoji anyways, knowing she'll check her phone as soon as she's on break. He absolutely despises fighting with her, and he doesn't want her to think he's pissed at her. He's not, but it's just – never mind.

He takes off his shoes, leaving them by the door and goes to his room, preparing to go to bed and hide underneath the covers and pretend to be asleep so that Lottie won't interrogate him. He's not in the mood in the slightest.

He opens the door and instantly wishes he didn't come home at all. On his bed is not only his sister, but also his best friend, both of them blinking innocently back at him. If it weren't for the multiple pizza boxes placed between them, Louis would have thought they were staging an intervention.

"Hey," Lottie says, smiling.

"Hello," he answers warily, eyeing the two of them suspiciously.

"Hey, mate," Niall greets. "Heard you had a bad day, so we moved pizza night up a date." He grins and holds up one of the boxes.

"That's... that's actually really nice," Louis sighs, even if his room is going to smell like food for the next three days. Niall loves garlic sauce on his kebab pizza.

He flops down on the bed, stretching. His back cracks pleasingly and he closes his eyes, inhaling. The only thing he's eaten today is oreo toppings and half a sandwich that Greg offered him.

"Where were you all day anyway?" Niall asks once Louis' got half a pizza slice into his stomach.

"Just...out."

"Okay..."

"I don't know," Louis shrugs. "Didn't want to be home. Spent a few hours in the park playing footie..." Fantastic lie.

"You could have called me," Niall says, eyeing him slightly from his side of the bed. "You could've stayed at my place if you didn't want to be home with Jay. My parents work till six, you know that."

"Yeah, sorry," Louis mumbles. "Didn't want to bother you." He grabs another slice of pizza, chewing slowly so that he won't have to answer any more questions. He feels Niall's eyes on him a bit longer, but his friend seems to let it be for now.

"Won't Coach Abrahams be angry you missed practice?" Lottie wonders, though.

He shrugs. "Haven't missed a day all season. I think it'll be okay."

"Styles must be thrilled." Lottie grins, ribbing him with her elbow.

Louis scoffs. "I wonder if he can handle even a day by himself." He's pretty sure he can, but he doesn't correct himself. Lottie's got garlic sauce on her upper lip and Louis teases her about it, changing the subject.

"Do you know what the main topic was all day at school?" Lottie says when the empty cartons of pizza have been relocated to the floor and all three of them are spread out on the bed, stomachs aching and Niall's burping is a mildly disturbing background noise.

"What?" Louis asks. Her tone is quite disbelieving and even though she's only in eighth grade he's a little bit intrigued.

"You."

On the other hand, he might not be.

Niall's laugh is a loud cackle. "Why the hell would he be interesting enough to talk about? He does nothing but play footie all day."

Lottie shakes her head. "Trust me. I wish I understood the appeal, but – no, no I don't."

Louis rolls his eyes. "Sorry, sis. I'm the most attractive Tommo around."

"Actually, they were saying that you're the last one on the footie team they'd date."

"What?" he scoffs, eyes closed and hands locked on top of his chest.

"Yeah, like Niall said, they think you're too into football. Wouldn't be attentive enough."

"Hey! I would so be a good boyfriend! And – no, ew! You're all eighth graders. Aren't you all, like, fourteen? Why were you even talking about this?" He scrunches his nose in distaste.

Lottie shrugs. "Well, don't ask me. I'm not the one discussing your bum."

"What?" Louis opens his eyes. The only one who's ever dared mentioning his bum to his face is Harry, and he's only allowed (not that Louis doesn't slap him at least once when he does) because Louis is shagging him.

"Never mind," Lottie deflects. "Anyways, one of the girls' sisters goes in your year and apparently she dated Styles. She said that from what she's heard he's not such a good choice of boyfriend either. Her sister –"

"Woah, woah," Louis says, holding up a finger in the air above them. "Hold on. Say that again."

"Her sister dated Harry Styles in sophomore year...?"

"No, yeah. I got that. Who is this person? Who dated him?"

"Why are you so interested?" Niall grins, and Louis elbows him in the gut, turning over on his side towards Lottie, efficiently blocking Niall from the conversation.

"This Jasmine girl. Jasmine Parks." She arches a brow at Louis' face.

What.

Wait. Hold on. What.

He rolls over, kneeing Lottie in her thigh in the go. "You knew about this?" he asks Niall vehemently.

"Well, yeah?" he shrugs. "Everybody knows. They were like a thing two years ago. Don't know why you didn't. Wasn't that the year you constantly had sharpened pencils in your pocket so you could stab him if he came too close?"

"Not relevant," Louis says curtly. "Wait. That girl keeps talking to me about stuff. Like, at practice."

"You're gonna shag Harry's ex?" Niall raises an impressed brow. "That'd be the ultimate, bro." Then he makes a face. "I think he'd definitely break your face, though."

Louis makes an indignant grimace at him, lying back down again.

And, no, he's not going to shag her. He hadn't even thought about her that way. She just seemed to pop up everywhere, especially at practice. And Harry used to date her? That's gross. Ew, the both of them have had sex with the same person. He's never shared anyone like that before. Although, he hasn't actually slept with anyone but Harry so... but let's reiterate that we shouldn't talk about that.

Wait. Hold on. Those times Harry was angry with him? Both times at the pitch when he literally attacked him, was that Harry being on his merry way to destroy his face? Because he was talking to a girl he used to date? On the other hand, Harry did not seem especially fond of her.

Louis groans, hands covering over his face.

"What are you doing?" Niall asks.

"Nothing," Louis answers, sighing. "Let's just sleep for half an hour okay? I'm too full of pizza to think." The only answers he gets are content hums, and he closes his eyes.