concealing ➸ tomlinson

ix

"alright, we're going to start now." niall stood up and directed the attention towards him. "and then we get to see what it is that our lovely new friend can do."

kris tensed. louis noticed.

"just... push one of the dummies." he suggested, "you don't need to worry about impressing anyone, no one's going to clearly remembering any come morning." he blinked. "i think i've drunk more than i realize."

she smiled, nervously playing with the slightly revealed plastic of her gloves. one kid in the crowd began talking, and everyone quieted down to listen. then, someone sat down on the other side of kris, which gave her a good enough reason to be distracted. it was the boy from the entrance, liam, "our guard for just in case" as zayn as put it.

"hi." she smiled softly.

he glanced up, looking slightly surprised she'd spoken to him. "hi."

"you're not drinking like everyone else."

"oh- no, i hate alcohol."

kris smiled. "same, i suppose."

"did anyone explain to you what was going on?"

"not exactly."

"well," liam moved slightly closer and raised his voice slightly higher than a whisper. "every few months, we all gather in the ugc. people tell stories about where they've been and what they've seen or done. then they go to bed at some ungodly hour drunk off their asses and don't end up remembering much of anything."

louis leaned forward to look at him. "say what you will, mr. mood-killer, but this is the best night of the month."

"it's better when you're sober and remember the stupid shit that they do."

kris snuffed a giggle. louis rolled his eyes, but he wasn't in the mood to care.

they listened more or less attentively as the droopy-eyed boy told everyone about an encounter down in argentina. after that, he looked over at kris.

"alright, kris. let's see what you can do."

she didn't like how he said her name. it sounded bad, that was the only way to say it. still, she stood up and forced herself to the front of the people.

something her mom once again to her, way back on her first first day of school, came into kris's head: "if you want people to like you, just smile and act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. people respect confidence."

feeling her hand slightly shake, kris took a deep breath. "does anyone have an empty can?"

a kid launched one, and kris barely managed to catch it. then she put it on the ground, took two steps back, and took her gloves off. she wasn't going to send this one flying back at them.

kris had only done this one other time, when she was twelve, and it had been a total accident. she'd shattered her mirror, just by lifting her hand and willing it. hopefully she could do something to that effect again.

heart pounding with the knowledge that everyone was staring at her, kris straightened her shoulders and lifted out her right hand. the can trembled slightly. then, kris closed her hand into a fist; the can crumpled in on itself with a sickening noise.she glanced up and noticed louis's eyebrows raised.

suddenly, the droopy-eyed boy stood, walked over, and picked up the can. he smiled, then looked up at her.

"impressive." he said.