branching out l.s.

four

"Thanks, Ben," Louis grinned. "Merry Christmas to you, too. Do anything fun this year?"

"Yeah, Meredith and I are up in Maine to see her family for a few days. It's cold as shit up here, though."

Louis laughed out loud. He switched the phone to speaker out of habit and put it on the table in front of him.

"What did you do this year?" Ben wondered.

"Just saw family. All day, every day. On my birthday, Lottie and Fiz took me out to breakfast-"

"-as usual-"

"-and I saw the twins – both sets – in the afternoon and my sisters and I went to see my dad that night. And yesterday, I just hung around my mom's place. Today, I'm just hanging with Zayn."

"Hey, Ben!" Zayn called, getting settled into his seat.

"Hey, Zayn," Ben greeted. "And what about the boyfriend, Lou? What's he up to?"

"I wouldn't know," Louis pouted.

"Uh-oh, what's going on? Lover's spat?"

"Well, no," Louis started to explain. "Harry and I sort of broke up last week."

"What? You've got to be kidding me!"

"No, he just said he needed space from everything that was going on."

"After all that work I did, he seriously just broke up with you?"

Louis scoffed. "What work did you do, Ben?"

"You know what I mean. I got the paparazzi off his back so he could have his privacy again."

Louis sat up straighter and he noticed that Zayn did, too.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you acting confused? With Steven? I got him to hang out with you for two days so the paparazzi would think you're dating him and not Harry?"

"You what?!" Louis roared.

What the fuck was Ben thinking?

"Yeah, did you really think one of the most popular male models of the year didn't keep up with the news and see that you were kissing some other guy just two weeks earlier?"

"Shit, I thought you two were together. And I asked about that, too, but he said not to worry about it."

Steven's words were coming back to ring in Louis' ears.

"Ben, you dick! Harry broke up with me because of you! He thought I was cheating on him and trying to screw him over."

"No, that wasn't the plan! You and Steven were just supposed to be photographed for those two days to plant suspicions, because obviously no 'dignified gossip magazine' would print a story based only on suspicions. Harry would get some peace and you two could spend time together away from the public eye."

"Well that's not what happened, you asshole! I can't believe you!" Louis wasn't holding back on how betrayed he felt.

"Steven didn't tell you?" Ben questioned. "He was supposed to tell you at the end of the night so you could tell Harry what was going on."

"Well he didn't tell me! And he shouldn't have had to. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It had to look real, Louis," Ben said slowly. "You're terrible at acting like you like somebody when you're being forced to. Your facial expressions always give you away."

"But why would you do that? You had to know that would upset Harry."

"Of course I did. That's why Steven was told to tell you what was going on after he was sure enough pictures were taken. But I solemnly swear that I was up to all good."