Will's POV
Quietly I twisted the doorknob and pulled it open just enough for me to slip through it. I held my breath, praying that it wouldn't creak.
Luckily it didn't and I walked through the crack I opened and began walking towards the front door.
I stopped for a minute in the living room when I saw Chance asleep in Louis's arms. They seemed so peaceful, it was actually quite cute. I smirked to myself and made a mental note to joke about it with Louis later.
As I got closer to the front door, I grabbed the coat I must've worn last night that Louis had hung on the coat rack, and pulled it on. Then I walked towards the kitchen and grabbed Louis's keys to his car. I'd return it later anyways.
I reached for the doorknob to leave, but just then, I heard a shifting sound and Louis's voice.
"Hey, where are you going?" I sighed, but turned around to look at him from across the room.
"Somewhere," I mumbled, setting my hand on the doorknob again.
"Well, aren't you going to stay for breakfast? You haven't eaten anything since yesterday." Louis looked up at me and then back at Chance's sleeping body again.
"I'm good." I pulled the doorknob open, but Louis kept talking.
"Will, tell me the truth. Where are you going?"
"It doesn't concern you." I said simply. I could've left then, but for some reason, I wanted to stay to hear his reason for asking all these questions that I didn't want to answer.
"Will, will you sit down, please? I just wanted to-" I cut him off with a snort-sounding sound.
"What are you, Louis, my fucking therapist?"
"Well, then," he looked at me and then nodded his head towards the kitchen, "If I say yes, will you sit down and tell me what's wrong?"
I shook my head disbelievingly, but found myself surprisingly agreeing to what he had asked previously. I closed the door again and walked towards the kitchen, dropping the keys back on his table.
Louis smiled a little and quietly moved out of Chance's grasp to come sit with me.
"Want some water?" Louis asked as he moved into the kitchen, taking out two glass cups and setting it down underneath the water dispenser without waiting for an answer from me.
When the cups were filled, he slid one against the table to me as he sat down on the stool across from me.
A few minutes passed with nothing between us but silence, until Louis asked, "Will, what happened yesterday? At the coffee shop?"
I gripped the glass cup of water tighter. "Nothing."
Louis nodded once and brought the cup up to his lips to sip. When he brought it down, he tilted his head at me and said, "Don't lie to me, Will. I know you better than that."
I didn't know how to respond to that.
He sighed and glanced around the room. "Will, I know I swore that I would never bring it up again, but I'm honestly worried for you. Ever since Natalie came back-"
"What makes you think that any of this has to do with her?" I growled.
Louis avoided eye contact when he said, "I have every right to believe that she has everything to do with everything that's happened since she's been back." Then he looked at me. "She's dangerous, Will. That's why I don't understand why you still want her around. Don't you remember-"
I cut him off angrily. "I think we're done here." I stood up, already knowing where Louis's conversation was going to take us.
"No, Will, we're not done. Will you just please tell me the real reason why she's still here? It's been years since we've last seen her, and now that she's been back, everything is just..." he trailed off.
"You don't understand."
He nodded, tapping his fingers on the table. "Maybe I don't understand, but you still haven't answered my question. Why is she still here?"
"I need her."
Louis shook his head sadly at me. Wrong answer.
It was a while before any one of us spoke up again. I should've just left when I could've. The silence between us the strangest of all the silences we've had. And it left me feeling uncomfortable, even if this was my best friend we were talking about.
"Fine, Louis. You want to know why she's still here?" Louis slowly turned his attention back to me. "I need her here because I can't lose to her like the way I lost everyone else. I've already lost..." I felt my voice crack, but I ignored it. "I-I..." I felt tears rising but I brushed them away quickly and turned away from Louis.
"I miss her, too." Louis said softly.
I forced a laugh and shook my head at him. "No you don't." Louis stared up at me. "You know what?" I threw my hands up in exasperation. "I don't even understand why you care so much in the first place. Natalie's my problem." I rocked back and forth on my heels.
"What about Kaylee then?" Louis asked quietly; he played with his fingers.
I stopped the rocking of my heels. "What about her?"
He sighed. "Nothing."
I furrowed my eyebrows, not understanding what any of this had anything to do with her. And last time I checked, Kaylee knew nothing of Natalie. Did she even know she existed? And besides, we were just friends.
"No, I want to know." I found myself saying.
"Will, you are so stupid sometimes. And selfish, too. You don't give a fuck about anyone but yourself, or about anyone who cares about you, do you? You throw all of it away and then wonder why no one can get close to you. You want to know what I meant about Kaylee? Are you that blind? I don't be-" Louis ranted.
"What the fuck are you even worrying about? I'm the only one who's getting hurt because of this. It's not like you even have anyone to protect-" I seethed.
Louis stared at me as I gripped my cup tightly in my fist. He looked at me with a crazy look in his eye.
"Damn it, damn it, Will." he muttered. "Are you fucking serious? You think you're the only one who's getting hurt by this? I spent years watching you get hurt. I've watched your sister die when I was with you. I've found you barely breathing at your house. And you think I don't have anyone to lose? Are you fucking serious..." Louis repeated again. I backed away from him; his face was red, and because he rarely got angry and cussed, it was strange watching him turn into this other person. "You've dragged everyone into this mess you created. Kaylee, she doesn't know it yet, does she? I have Chance to worry about as well. And you, you," Louis shook his head crazily, pointing his finger at me, "I've already lost you so many times. I can't lose you again."
I interrupted him. "Well, that's just too bad, because you've already lost me."
"You're insane!" Louis shouted then, scaring me. "I'm going to call the police. We're going to end all of this right now-" He stopped talking when he heard the glass shattering on the wall. Slowly Louis turned his head over to look at the missing glass cup in my hand. Then he turned to look at where Chance laid surprised, with glass parts covering him.
"You don't understand what I'm going through!" I screamed.
"Fuck you, Will." he cursed and ran over to Chance, kneeling next to him on the couch, and pulling the glass pieces off of him. I didn't even realize that I had let go of the cup. And thrown it that far. "Are you alright, Chance?" Louis mumbled, continuing to carefully pull the glass pieces off of Chance.
Louis turned over and looked at me.
"I'm sorry," my throat felt hot and dry even after drinking all that water as I apologized to Chance. Chance nodded, still surprised to be awoken like this. I couldn't even believe he slept through most of the fight.
Louis shook his head at me, and said quietly, but loud enough for me to hear from across the room, "I think you should leave, Will." I nodded, but not before I apologized again.
Ignoring the fact that I probably should've just left immediately, I grabbed Louis's keys off the counter again, opened the door, and closed it loudly behind me. Running over to Louis's car, I opened the door and slipped the key into the ignition. But because my hand was shaking so much, I dropped the keys on the car floor.
"Damn it," I slammed my hand down on the steering wheel, missing the horn by a few centimeters.
I sat there for a while, breathing heavily for a minutes, before I picked up the keys and turned on the ignition, stepping on the pedal.
My hands shook as I most likely drove over speed limit. But I could care less. Police almost never came close to this town.
It might've been hours of driving from me, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't even sure where I was driving to. My head was hurting and my hands still haven't stopped shaking. And now I was getting paranoid that someone was following me.
I stopped the car and pulled open the door when I reached where I should've gone a long time ago. Jack's Bar.
The smell of alcohol hit me as soon as I opened the door.
Looking for a place to sit, I found myself walking towards an empty stool by the counter. Immediatly after sitting, I put my head down on my arms and took a deep breath.
"What can I get for you?" a boy walked by and wiped his hands on his white apron. He leaned on the counter, waiting for my answer.
"Whatever you got." I mumbled with my hand still down, hidden in my arms.
"Alright." he pushed himself off the counter and leaned down, before coming back up with a glass cup. Turning away from me, he walked over to the other counter, pouring some sort of liquor in.
"Will this work?" he asked when he sat the drink down in front of me.
I barely looked up. "Sure."
I could hear the frown in his voice when he said 'okay' and walked over to the next customer.
"Bad day?" a voice said next to me. I turned my head on my arms to see a boy with short brown hair staring back a me. His eyes were bloodshot but he seemed to not mind.
I ignored his question and turned back around.
"Just asking." he said and shrugged, as he turned back to his drink, already losing interest in me.
I sat up, taking the drink in my hands, and noting the huge pile of emptied bottles next to him. I nodded my head at the bottles. "That's a lot to drink. Bad day?" I smirked at him. I took a sip of my own drink before quickly putting it back down and shaking my head at it because of the burn it left in my throat. The smell was strong, too.
"It's not going to help." he ignored me. I looked at him confused. "The drinks, I mean. I would know. It makes things worse, I would think. It won't help you forget any of your problems." he explained.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." he turned back away, gulping down what was left of the rest of his drink. He sighed.
It was a while before he spoke up again.
"So what's your secret?"
I almost spit out my drink. "Secret? What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "You seem like a person with a lot of secrets." He drank again.
"Yeah? And why do you say that?" I replied.
He chuckled. "No one comes here from out of town. The closest town here is three hours away maybe. And if I guessed right, you're not from that town, are you?" he raised his eyebrows at me, daring me to say yes.
"No..." I said slowly and he grinned. Did I really drive that far without myself knowing?
He spinned on his stool and turned to face me, a new bottle in his lap, when I had just finished my first one. "Look, it's not that hard to tell. No one comes here without a secret. Whether you want to share it or not, it's your choice. I was just saying that I could trade you one for one."
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure him out. He waited for an answer from me. I waved the bartender over and asked for another drink.
"Will you be here next time?" I finally decided to ask. He stood up and walked over to the rack, pulling his coat off of it.
He grinned. "I'm always here." he said and pulled open the door.
I looked over my shoulder at him and called out, "Hey, I don't even know your name yet."
He smirked. "Logan."
"Will." I answered.
~A/N: So I had a major writer's block. And sorry this was a suckish chapter. But I hope you enjoyed it. :) Don't forget to COMMENT, VOTE, and FOLLOW, though! :P
~Forever_Yours_Too