The Girl With The Red Lipstick

Chapter 49

(This may or may not be the epilogue)



"I can't" she breathed, her eyes wide and if he was right, scared.

"You can" Louis replied calmly, watching her wide eyes flicker over to him. "-you have to" She nodded quickly, and he smiled softly. "-it's either one or the other"

~.~


After all this time...

After all of that, everything I had put myself through.

She chose me. Well... that sounds cocky. She picked me? Sounds braggy. She made a decision? Makes me seem like an item on a shelf. I dont know. Well... I guess I know I have every right to be an asshole and gloat, because I won- but it felt wrong to think of it that way. 

So I guess, in the end it was purely and gloriously simple.

I was the one she wanted as she was the one I needed.

It didn't take much time for him and I to see Louis lead her out that door, it took a second for us to both glance at eachother before rushing out to them. Liam told us to stop, he told us to stop being "blithering idiots" but we didn't listen. 

We ran.

And I'm really glad we did.

We got there just in time to hear Louis telling her it was either him or me.

Maybe it'd be too cliche to say time stopped, to say we both halted and just stood there listening to the words we both wanted to hear her say. But, we did and she had heard us. She looked up and her normally fierce gaze was wavering, she looked torn.

It was amazing how a perfectly normal day, could be altered by a perfectly normal question from a perfectly abnormal and sometimes insane Louis Tomlinson.

I had wondered in that moment if it'd be like a movie, she'd walk up to him or me and say in a quiet but warm voice, "I'm sorry, but we can still be friends" and maybe he'd stare down at her quietly with his eyes filled with empathy and some type of truly heart breaking sadness and she'd grasp his hands in her much smaller ones and promise him that she meant it, that they "really could just be friends" and she wasn't being insincere in the least, but she didn't.

She whispered something in Louis' ear and calmly walked past us both.

Into the lobby, into the elevator, and out of sight.

It was madness.

~.~


After all that time, I finally got the sense to ask Louis what she'd said that day.

He met my eyes and smiled, the corner of his eyes crinkling in happiness as he told me that she had whispered, "I know, and I have" before walking away. I watched him wide eyed as he spoke, wondering how he kept that from me, from us.

It made me wonder.

After all those days waiting to hear from her, I had no idea in the end it would've been me. Louis swears he did, he swears he could tell that even though the other would have been just as good for her, in the end it would've been me.

Always me.

There have been better days though.

I could've been the one to return her bag that day but I was scared, and so was he, so neither of us offered when Liam pointed out that she had left it behind. Zayn had rolled his eyes and quite poorly hid his enthusiam to leave us four and see her and Kiara personally and quickly voted himself the one to do so. But, of course luck wasn't on his side- Uncle Simon protested. He persisted that we finish up the whole album's rehearsal that day and also a few side tracks we'd perform on tour later in the year, so we did. Obediently and quite normally. The next day, Saturday, Zayn said he was busy (busy being on his phone all day because Kiara had finally texted him back) and Sunday was a no go. 

After all those days, Hailey hadn't asked any of us to return it nor had she been in contact with any of us unless through Zayn from Kiara. Although, Liam had suggested once or twice that he could go drop it off, that maybe she might need it beause it really wasn't a big deal. Louis had countered that if she had needed it, she would've called and she hadn't, so maybe all she needed was time.

Monday, we were busy. Tuesday, we were busy, Wednesday- he finally went.

And just before dinner he finally came back smiling widely. I hadn't spent the whole afternoon wondering what he and Hailey had said to eachother, and it was tragically uplifting and depressing at the same time to watch him practically radiate happiness. Liam had asked him what caused it, and he unblinkingly met his tired eyes and then glanced around at the rest of us, "Ziara did"