Love At War - Book 2 of Secrets Within

Lie to My Face

The next few days were hard for the boys, putting extreme pressure on the couples with another 6 days of constant public appearances, shows, interviews, "necessary photo ops", signings, tv shows and more, along with a few meetings about their new album (as if they had had time to register the one they recently released) and other media stuff, with little or no private time apart from sleeping, and the now usual separate hotels or management on the tour bus with them. Although Zayn seemed to have believed and forgiven Liam, he was constantly now worried whenever he was around her alone, which seemed to be 90% of the time at the moment, and due to their unexpected 6am wake up and 7am leave from the hotel the night after it happened, they never got to properly talk and sort things out, leaving Zayn feeling insecure, and Liam feeling vulnerable to her attacks, knowing that in public, he couldn't get away from her without causing a scene. Harry was up all hours looking after him and calming him down, as Louis kept being called in for "meetings", which Harry believed thoroughly, even though the other boys had their suspicions.

And in fact, the other boys with right in their silent thoughts and glances when Louis sped off, as although some of these "meetings" we're actually with management, about how he and Elenor needed to act more like a couple now that Perrie had to drop out for Zayn, most of the time he was sneaking off to see Cassie, the girl from the night club.

After asking for Cassie's advice, he had given her his number, and after he texted him hers, he had been texting her constantly, asking about little things that he could do for the proposal, even though she really couldn't help much, and her role was really more as a sounding board for his thoughts. At first it was only texting, but when he found out Cassie was in the neighbourhood as them for a few weeks, and given he had the money and the means to travel, he was now meeting up with her in person about things on a regular basis, usually once every 2-3 nights, just for an hour or two, and conveniently, she always got the same hotel as Eleanor, so he had a coverup for the meetings when the other boys asked.

But, after his 4th meeting with her, he realised he couldn't get out of the hotel unseen, and Eleanor was in Paris with Daisy and Lottie on a "family holiday " , so he had no coverup for being there either. He refused to answer the boys constant phone calls, as answering them meant that they could see his location, so he turned his phone off, and played dumb, after texting Paul to come get him, saying he hid in the hotel to get a drink. Paul came to fetch him, and returned him to the boys, who immediately recognised the smell of perfume on him, and demanded to know who he had been with. Luckily for Louis, Harry was none the wiser as he was out clubbing with Ed Sheeran at the local gay bar that night, with a "drunken" phone call to Nick on the radio to keep up appearances. He finally gave in, telling them who he had been with and why, saying it was just a one time thing, but said they couldn't tell Harry. They reluctantly agreed on the term that he stopped meeting her, and also limited texting her unless it was essential, especially given he only knew her because he cheated on Harry with her, albeit unintentionally, and they all agreed that they would help him plan instead and would ensure it was kept secret from Harry . Louis agreed, showing them all the plans that he had made, quickly hiding them when Harry turned up early and nearly uncovered everything, and by the time he went to bed with Harry, they all felt a lot lighter, hoping that was the end of this weird arrangement which threatened to derail Harry and Louis' relationship, which they had worked so hard to build.

Yet, the next night, Louis broke his promise and snuck out to see Cassie again, claiming that he had to go for a photo op with Eleanor, and making sure Harry didn't worry, telling him that he would try to avoid getting papped if he could. Harry sulked off to bed, shoving his headphones in and moping for the whole time Louis wasn't there, meaning that he wasn't in the common room with the others when Eleanor turned up at the hotel.

"You guys look like you've seen a ghost" said Eleanor, hanging her coat up and sitting down, feeling comfortable around the boys.

"Erm yeah, sorry we didn't expect you to be here" said Liam

"Yeah I got here a bit earlier than expected, caught an earlier flight, I guess Harry and Louis are already in bed?"

"Well Harry is, but Louis isn't here"

"What? Why not? We don't have anything booked tonight, and he's always moaning how he never sees Harry"

"Well he told us he had a photo thing with you, but obviously not"

"Nope, I refused to do late night photo shoots when I signed my new deal. Separate hotels I had to agree to, but Louis never actually is with me, I just post a tweet of a picture we took earlier to make it look like he is. I thought it would make it easier so that he had more time with Harry"

"Wait, so he hasn't been to your hotel room at all this last month?"

"Nope, he walks me into the lobby and then he leaves me at my floor. Why? Surely you know that? Hasn't he been here the whole time?"

"So wait a minute, if he's not been with you...?"

"Am I missing something here?"

"Well Louis has been disappearing most nights, claiming that he has a meeting with management or that he has been asked to go to your room to take a picture, which we assumed was true with the photos "

"No we usually take loads in one session and gradually post them"

"Which means he must be with someone else"

"Someone else?"

"It's Cassie. He lied to us. He's been seeing Cassie the whole time and tricking us."

"But why would he cheat on Harry?"

"I didn't think he would... But why else would he go and see her every night and lie about it?"

"Well he said she was helping him plan his proposal, said he wanted a woman's point of view. "

"Why didn't he ask me? He hardly knows her?" Said Eleanor, completely baffled by it all.

"Unless they haven't been planning at all..."

Liam's final comment silenced them all, and then their thoughts were interrupted by the ding from the lift and Louis' loud voice.

"Quick Eleanor, hide. Let's see if he lies now?" Said Zayn, and Eleanor hid, sitting behind the thick floor length curtains on the window ledge, totally hidden but able to hear everything.

"Hey guys. God, so glad that's over, they wouldn't let me out!" Louis moaned, collapsing on the sofa, looking completely worn out.

"Really? What were you doing?" Questioned Liam.

"Oh the usual. I went up to her room, we took a picture, she posted it, we sat there talking, I got some more ideas for the wedding, and then they finally came up and said that the coast was clear, and then I came back here!"

"Oh really? Because she didn't post a picture tonight?"

"She didn't? Well she tried to anyway, the hotel wifi must be messed up"

"What hotel were you at?"

"I can't remember, I'll ask Paul"

"I'll ask Eleanor, she'll know"said Niall tactically

"Yeah sure, but she'll be asleep now, best not bother her"

"Well she's got to be here tomorrow morning so yeah okay I'll leave her be"

"Yeah, anyway I better get off to see Harry, I just hope he's awake this time!"

"Okay then, night louis" they all shouted as louis walked off, and as son as they heard the door open and close, Eleanor came out of hiding as they all sat there shocked.

"He blatantly lied to our faces"

"He's up to something, there's something going off with that Cassie"

"What is he up to?"....