Starry Starry Night

Chapter 06

Louis's POV

I was waiting for Kiwi's response, casually sitting on the concrete floor outside the locker room. I didn't realize that about ten minutes had already passed since I last got a message. I was staring out into the distance, distracted by the fall leaves dancing around in the breeze, landing on the concrete floor.

"Hey, you there?" I sent.

I started walking since I had no ride home today. The walk would help me clear the clutter inside my head anyway. By the time I reached home, it was almost dark. I sat on a porch chair instead of walking inside. I didn't realize anyone was home until I felt someone sit on the arm of my chair. It was Lottie. I smiled at her.

Even though she was two years younger than me, there were times when I felt that her emotional maturity was far superior to mine. "Are you okay Lou?" she asked me. I looked at her and smiled again. I just didn't know what to say. Not that I would mind telling her. It was just that, not even I knew what exactly was bothering me.

"It's just one of those days Lots. Thank you though, thank you for asking me". I reached out to ruffle her hair. She giggled, making me wonder if I'd ever see her as a grown-up girl because in my eyes, she was forever my baby sister.

"Is Mom home?" I asked Lottie. "Not yet, late shift today", she said, walking inside with me trailing behind her.

My phone chimed just then, and I almost dropped it trying to unlock it within seconds to see if it was a response from Kiwi. It was just Niall. "Can I come over?".

"Since when do you need my permission to?" I replied, to which I got a simple tongue-out emoji as the response from Niall.

Within ten minutes I heard Niall park his car outside and he walked in with two large pizzas.

"I came to see my two favourite people and brought their favourite pizza!" he hollered.

 "Pepperoni and jalapeno?" asked Lottie, to which Niall nodded yes. "Oh Niall, aren't you the best?" she said, giving him a hug.

We ended up watching a movie on the couch while eating pizza. After some time, Lottie decided to go to her room to do her homework and it was just Niall and me on the couch.

"Lou, you okay mate? You seem.. distant". I looked at Niall and smiled. "It hasn't been a good day mate" I replied, fiddling with the drawstring of my sweatpants. "Anything you want to talk about?". Niall scooted closer to me on the couch.

I just smiled and sighed.

Just then, my phone vibrated. "Kiwi_x", with the small white ghost icon on the yellow background. I opened the snapchat message. "Hey, got distracted with all the math problems. Sorry if I sound a bit off. It's been a rough day".

I smiled as soon as I got the message, but it was wiped off of my face soon when I saw that Kiwi had a rough day. But Niall had noticed the smile before it vanished. He was my best friend after all and has been for quite some time. It would be weird if he didn't notice every little thing about me.

"Since when do you hide your love interests from me?" Niall asked, giving me a smirk. I knew he wasn't offended; he was just joking. I chuckled.

"Mate, if I tell you, you wouldn't believe me", I said. "Yeah? Try me", Niall laughed. He was on his ninth slice of pizza. I wonder wear all the food he gobbles down goes to. Surely not just his stomach. Maybe all his other organs too were holding parts of food until his stomach digested the first lot of food.

"I don't know", I said. Niall was looking at me, expressionless, chewing on a pizza crust. He waited for me to continue, but looked very confused when I didn't. "That's it? You don't know? What does that even mean?" He was laughing now.