Beautiful Nightmares (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 12

LOUIS’ P.O.V

I stared at the glass window facing the west end of the room, not quite looking through it, but instead focusing on the way the rivulets of water streamed down its transparent surface. The water droplets appeared to be having a race, leaving wet streaks of moisture behind as gravity pulled them downwards. The rain outside created a soothing noise, drowning out all my unwanted and negative thoughts. I leaned back in the woven chair and sighed.

It had been exactly one week since I had been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, and in that brief period of time I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. It was inevitable really. To honestly try and go back to living my regular life would simply be impossible. It just wasn’t the same; Eleanor and I’s relationship wasn’t exhausted - hanging on by a thread - and she wasn’t that huge part of my life anymore. Even the boys had changed slightly due to this, always being more cautious and dancing around the subject ever so unconvincingly whenever it happened to come up in a conversation.

The door creaked open slightly, revealing the distinctive blonde tufts of hair belonging to the lone Irishman of the group. Niall slipped into the room quietly, as if not to disturb my intense concentration focused on the raindrops rolling down the window. He gave me a half-hearted smile, but I refused to meet his eyes. Instead, I resumed my stoic posture, with my eyes set straight ahead and my lips formed in a straight line.

“Hey Louis,” he greeted me tentatively, his voice unsure, yet sincere.

I didn’t even blink, let alone force myself to open my mouth and reply. It seemed like everything took too much effort these days.

Niall padded across the maple hardwood floors of my flat, his socks softly scraping the ground. He ran a hand through the gelled strands of his quiff, tugging and releasing the blonde hair as if he was in pain. His mouth opened and then closed just as quickly. He sighed, and his eyebrows stretched downwards to fit over his eyes in a pondering way. “The boys and I are downstairs with a bit of Nando’s…I reckon you’re a tad bit hungry huh? Have you been eating Louis? Please tell me you have.”

The sharp pains of hunger that had started some previous days before had all but ceased, and continued to torment my stomach with knife-like stabs. I wanted to tell Niall no - that I wasn’t hungry - but the sickly sweet smell of chicken wafting up the stairs through the slight crack of my bedroom door made my body decide otherwise. My gut growled menacingly.

Niall laughed, the worried atmosphere he had brought into the room with him dissolving immediately, “How about some chicken then?”

I nodded slightly and retracted my gaze from the rain to Niall standing before me ever so hopefully, offering him a brief smile. My knees cracked as I stood up from my seat, the muscles contracting in protest from being positioned the same way for such a lengthy period of time. Shaking out my left leg as angry needle-like tingles shot up the sore limb, I followed Niall down the stairs. We travelled into the kitchen, being met by three figures crowded around my marble-countered breakfast bar. On the smooth grey surface of the island sat various paper bags, with the logo that we were all so fond of printed on their sides. The delicious smell drifted from the takeaway and entered my nose, making me emit a low groan that resulted in the three dark-haired heads to whip around in my direction.