five days passed.
and everything seemed to implode in a short amount of time.
if one were to draw the exact moment when the metaphorical fuse was lit, one might trace it back to louis. which, in some retrospect, was rather fitting, in a matter of speaking.
so, not quite a week after kris and jacob had spoken last, louis ran into jacob outside. he was smoking, and louis just wanted to ignore him like they'd been doing. but luck wouldn't have it as such.
"how've you and kris been doing?" jacob asked.
louis froze in place and winced, a mere few steps from getting inside. "fine...?"
"just fine?" jacob turned his head to look back at him. "come on, i'm genuinely curious here."
louis turned around fully, giving him a long, hard look. "what is this?"
"what's what?"
"this, act." he started walking back over. "you go from relentlessly harassing me to ignoring me on the turn of a dime. you're not just giving up on using me, you're planning something and you just don't have the time to be bothered with me."
jacob laughed, seeming amused. "can you ever just keep your mouth quiet?" he asked, letting the smile die down a bit. "or do you just have to be balls-deep in any situation that strikes your fancy and expect no consequences from it?"
the smell of smoke was an assault on louis's senses as they stood there. "i'm just saying, whatever front you're putting on isn't tricking anyone into think you've changed or whatever. you're going to snap back to the way you always have been in the blink of an eye."
"maybe i enjoy the idea of being a patriot for our kind."
"you're a sadistic militant at best, i fucking doubt you want to do anything good for anyone but yourself."
louis began to walk away again, but he hadn't gone two steps before a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him back. the familiar angry glow had returned to his eyes, and louis sort of (read: extremely) regretted doing that.
"worry about your own problems, okay?" his voice had dropped low, despite the fact of no one else being around. "you're going to have plenty coming pretty soon."
jacob let go of louis in a rather distasteful manor. for the third time, he was almost to the garage when something landed against his back. louis frozen, then turned around to question just as something hard crashed against his upper lip. on instinct, he jumped back and put his hand against the spot of impact.
jacob glanced over at him in an amazingly fake look of ignorance. practically begging him to retaliate. feeling the skin scream underneath his touch, louis instead did what he thought was the smart thing and hoisted the garage door and slipped under it.
when the room finally started moving, louis checked himself over. there were a few stains of red on his fingertips, but the area would probably just be bruised for a few days. rather angry (at himself or at jacob, he couldn't tell), a few layers of ice began to form on the ground beneath him. hardly managing to notice, louis took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. it was just a small bruise, not the end of the world.
the room stopped moving. louis checked himself again- no more blood flow, if one could consider it having gotten to that point- and walked into the ugc. he planned to, anyway; today seemed to be the day when everyone seemed to track him down. at that moment, it was harry. who looked pretty happy until he took notice of the mark. on a dime, his face shifted.
"what happened?" he demanded, stopping louis in his tracks.
louis exhaled. "it's nothing, okay? ju-just drop it."
"will you just fucking tell me what happened so i can help?"
after a moment, louis closed his eyes, exhaled, then opened his eyes again. "can we do this somewhere else?"
harry didn't even say yes, he grabbed louis's arm without word and started to drag him back down the hall. he didn't want to have to deal with any of this, but there was no other way to get out of it unless he were to freeze harry to the ground and run, which would certainly be the dumbest choice he could make that day.
a few moments later, harry opened the door to a room- empty - and put louis inside before closing the door. frowning in confusion, he opened the door again and looked out.
"don't move until i get back or i'll meld the door to the wall."
louis could take a hint. he rolled his eyes and started to close the door when something caught his eye. he held the door open again and glanced to his left. kris, of all people, was standing there, looking a mix on confusion and worry.
"oh, hi." louis leaned up against the door a little and smiled.
"what's going on?" she asked, looking down the hall harry had gone down.
louis looked as well, then shrugged. "just a friendly argument, nothing new with us. you want to come in while i await to have my ears inevitably talked off?"
he fully intended to shoo kris out once harry came back with whatever or whoever he was getting. exposing her to the situation wouldn't go well or help anyone. of course, once the two were inside the room, kris asked about the mark. and louis said he'd tell her later; depending on how easily he'd be able to weasel out of the conversation with harry.
"it was jacob, wasn't it?" kris guessed.
louis shrugged. "it's not reoccurring like it was before, it's not a big de-"
right at that moment, harry opened the door. he, practically dragging, really, had brought in zayn, who looked confused as hell and frankly pretty terrified; although an angry harry seemed to create that reaction with anyone. kris started to stand up and leave, but harry held up his hand.
"no one leaves until we talk this out." he said, " no more bullshit."
kris sank back down. she wasn't involved with any of this, which aggravated louis further, but he kept quiet, held her hand and squeezed it.
harry pointed at louis first. "alright, talk. exactly what happened."
louis exhaled. "i ran into him outside, he threw a fucking rock at me, and that's it. we good?"
"no." he was met with that blunt response and a glare of sorts. "i thought we were doing better with this situation?"
louis scoffed a little. "until recently."
"well i need to know about things like this okay? i don't want there to be another-"
"another what?" he cut harry off and stood up. his face was set in anger. "you didn't give enough of a shit to do anything when this was all physiological. but the second you could actually see what he was doing to me you're up in arms and that is so much bullshit."
"i'm trying to help you."
"no!" louis became louder. "no, you cannot pick and choose when you want to step in and care about my well-being."
"can i step in with my opinion on this?" zayn raised his hand half-heartedly.
harry responded with a harsh "shh" before returning to the argument. "look, i'm sorry i wasn't calling the army every time something happened. but we all have to deal with him quite a bit, and i try and look out for you the best i can."
"did he beat you up in the park and leave you there overnight? does he go out of his way to make you specifically a target? i don't expect any royal treatment but i expected you to care when he was mentally tormenting me."
kris was only able to sit there in shock. she didn't know what to do, if she was supposed to do anything at all.
"stop!" zayn finally got in between the two. "can you two just fucking settle down and talk? not yell?"
he gave kris a look that pretty much translated out to "if they try anything i'm going to need you to do something really fast". she was okay with being able to do that.
louis exhaled and pushed past both zayn and harry.
"we're talking this out, lou." harry said, lowering his voice but keeping an otherwise bitter tone.
"i'm not dealing with this right now."
"you can't run away from every problem that comes-"
louis spun around and angrily spat, "i am not running away from shit. if i try and do this now i will end up doing something stupid that'll make this worse. and i'm not going to do that to kris and zayn and you. so leave me the fuck alone right now."
with a soft slam (or as soft as a slam can be), louis left. zayn blinked, then exhaled.
"do you want me to go get him?" he asked harry.
harry shook his head. "if he wants to be alone, we'll leave him alone. we'll talk to him tomorrow."
"i thought you wanted me to talk about-"
"we'll do it tomorrow, okay?"
it was more statement than question. kris didn't say anything either. when they left to go wherever else, she hurried the opposite direction to try and find louis. which, at first, seemed pretty difficult. but a few lucky turns brought kris to a small sheet of ice on the ground. which soon turned into a miniature path of sorts. kris trusted herself to do this and followed it outside. it had gotten dark quickly, but the steps of ice glistened under the moonlight. hurrying her pace to a run, kris kept to the sidewalk as she continued to pursue louis.
--
sorry if the updates are worse than usual i've been struggling a bit and i want to get checked for depression but i'm scared to ask my parents and life just isn't fun right now. i'm trying to get through it but if updates are of a lesser quality just know that i'm trying?
stats;
date- november 5th, 2014
words- 1,702
reads- 3,587
comments- 16
votes- 69