I Don't Love You (And I Always Will)

Chapter Twenty

Louis

Snow beat against the window of the small café where Louis was set to meet Niall and Liam. Louis felt weirdly distant from the two boys recently, even though he lived with Niall and saw Liam every day.

"Tommo!" Niall's booming voice called from the doorway, not a care in the world for being judged by the other people in the building. Niall walked over to where Louis was waving at him from a small booth in the corner, right by the heater. Louis hated being cold, so he did what he had to do.

"Nialler," Louis greeted while Niall shook snowflakes out of his hair. "You didn't come home last night." Niall didn't even have the decency to blush.

"You know, I could say the same for you a couple days ago." Niall leveled Louis with a look that weirdly reminded Louis of his mother. "And I was at Barb's, so don't even start."

"How is she?" Louis asked, begging whoever's up there in the clouds to let him off easy this time.

"She's great! She got a promotion, always being badass." Niall replied, a proud smile overtaking his face. "But who did you hook up with?" They did not let Louis off easy. Screw you, All Powerful Being.

"Wait, Louis hooked up with someone?" Liam's voice came from behind Louis, making him jump and spill his coffee on his pants. Great.

"I don't think that's either of your business." Louis sniffed, wiping at his pants with a napkin furiously. "I don't kiss and tell, unlike some people."

"Yeah right," Niall scoffed with a mouth full of the bread on the table. "One time you described a guy's dick to me in vivid detail. It felt like an audiobook Fifty Shades."

"He's got a point." Liam said, sitting down next to Niall. They were ganging up on Louis now, and he'd definitely cave soon. "So, it has to be someone we know."

"Well, you hooked up with Eleanor!" Louis shrieked, making a last-ditch attempt to take the attention from himself. Also, he was curious about that, since El had been weirdly casual about it. Eleanor didn't hook up with many people, it just wasn't her style. She'd been a relationship girl the many years Louis had known her.

"We're dating, idiot." Liam retorted, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of the water the waiter brought to hide the small blush blooming on his cheeks.

"Since when?" Niall exclaimed, a betrayed expression playing on his face.

"Three days ago." Liam said, "You've been too busy with Barbra, and Louis has been too occupied mooning over Harry to notice."

"Oh my god!" Niall shouted, looking across the table at Louis. "You slept with Styles!"

"No! No, I didn't!" Louis shook his head violently because they seriously couldn't find out about this. Ever.

"You totally did." Liam gaped at him. "How? How did this happen?"

"It didn't." Louis denied them, narrowing his eyes.

Louis wasn't embarrassed because he slept with Harry. Embarrassed would be pretty low on the list of adjectives one could use to describe how he felt about that night. The next morning however, embarrassed might be number one on that list.

Of course, Louis made the idiot decision to ask Harry out on a date. Just because Harry slept with him doesn't mean he actually likes Louis. Also, Harry was right. They worked together, and the only time those relationships worked was if you were like Liam and El, who have danced around each other since they were fifteen.