Innocent (Louis Tomlinson)

Chapter 39

*KATHRYN'S POV*

"I didn't realize Christmas was so close..." I mumbled, taking in all the bright gleeful lights sprawled around the outside of the shopping center.

There was a lot of bright, cheerful decor all around, and there were many families walking around. They were most likely Christmas shopping.

"Well yeah, it's a week away." Louis stated, "I was gonna do some Christmas shopping as well."

"I don't really have anyone to buy gifts for... I never really do." I began.
We started to walk into the shopping center, and Louis shot me an offended glare.

"Are you serious?" He questioned.

I shrugged slightly, and his rant began.

"You can buy gifts for Olivia, Harry, Jessica, me..." He rambled on, "You need to stop thinking so less of yourself. There's a lot of people out there who care about you. I don't know why you think you have no one. Especially when I'm right here."

I was quiet for a moment, my cheeks a slight pink color from what he had said.
It took me a little while to come up with a response.

"Y-You're expecting me to buy a gift for Jessica? Are you saying that she cares about me?" I laughed, "That's bullshit."

"Okay, even if she doesn't... She's letting you stay in her house. It's the least you could do." He told me.

"I don't have much money, Louis." I began.

"It doesn't need to be something big." He explained, "You don't need to buy me anything, I don't mind."

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

.
.
.

Seeing all these families together made me feel empty.

"Louis, what are you doing for Christmas?" I asked him.

He gave me a confused look as he answered,
"I'm gonna go to my mums house. You can go also if you want, but Jessica is going too."

His family.
Of coarse he was spending Christmas with his family.
That was what all normal socially acceptable human beings would do.

I couldn't spend Christmas with my family, not as long as my mother was still around.
If she still hated me like she has all those years, then why should I go over there?

"No, it's fine." I declined, "I'm fine with spending Christmas alone. I've done that for the past 2 years, I can do it again."
I faked a smile, but he didn't seem convinced.

"Are you sure?" He asked me.

"Yeah. Let's just go." I told him, "We have 3 hours to shop."

.
.
.

"I have a lot of presents to buy, so let's stop here first." Louis suggested, pointing to a store I had never heard of. I never went out, so it made sense I suppose.

"Sure." I agreed.

Louis had 27 presents to buy, which was quite a lot in my opinion.
I was to buy maybe 3.
One for Olivia, one for Jessica or Harry (maybe) , and one for Louis.
I had no clue what they were into, so I was basically hopeless in this situation. It's not like I was going to ask them what they wanted for Christmas, I mean how unoriginal would that be? And besides, I wouldn't be able to afford whatever they asked for anyways.

"Hey Kath, what do you want for Christmas?" Louis asked me, separating me from my thoughts.

"What?"

"What do you want for Christmas?" He repeated, leaning on the shopping cart as he gazed at my disapproving expression.

How ironic.

"Aren't you supposed to figure that out? I'm supposed to be surprised for Christmas!" I scolded him, "You simply asking ruins the mood."

"It ruins the mood?" He laughed, "Alright fine. I guess I'll figure it out on my own then. Geez."

"Well that's what I used to do with my family. We'd sometimes hint on about we wanted, but we would never say what we wanted straight out." I explained, "I don't know, it's more fun that way."

He simply nodded, a smile radiating off of his features. I couldn't help but feel fond of how cute he looked when he smiled.

"What?" He asked me, obviously referring to my creepy staring.

My cheeks turned red as I thought of a logical response.
"Why are you smiling?" I asked, a little to quickly.

"I just think it's funny how you have a special tradition, I would expect that you didn't care enough to have one. That's all." He answered.

I nodded, not in a proper condition to respond as I usually would.

Damn it, why did I have to make my staring so obvious?

"I have an idea." Louis stated.

"Oh?" I questioned, tilting my head in curiosity.

"Why don't we split up so we can get each other our gifts?" He suggested, "Or I could at least get yours."

"I'm getting you one. That's my first priority." I told him.

He smiled again, his eyes squinting, and his white teeth showing.

God -- why was he so -

"Brilliant. We'll split up then. I'll call you when I'm done." His voice cut through my thoughts.

I agreed, nodding looking away to stop him from looking at my tinted cheeks.

Why was I thinking of him in this way anyway? He was in a stable relationship for god's sake -- and I was his best friend. Nothing more.

"See you soon." He said, waving me off.

I watched him leave, not in a creepy way, but in a platonic way.

I only had some cash with me, and I was prepared to spend most of it on Louis, because that was what he deserved from me after all.

I decided to stay in the store I was in, because it was quite large. Since I had absolutely no clue what to get Louis, that was a good thing.

What did he even like anyways?
We never really talked about that... All I knew was that he was obsessed with FIFA.

Eventually, I settled on getting him a 25 pound blender -- assuming he didn't already have one. He most likely didn't because Louis wasn't the type to spend extra money on something like that.
Subtracting 25 pounds left me with 40 more pounds to spend. I wasn't planning to spend anything on Jessica; she didn't deserve anything from me, I think.
I had thought of maybe buying Harry something, due to him being somewhat nice to me. He also talked to me more than most people did, mostly through text. Also, I would feel terrible if he would've bought me something and I didn't give anything back.
And since Olivia and I had finally made up, I was surely going to buy her a gift.
I still hadn't gotten a call from Louis, so I proceeded to get their gifts next.

{soz I've taken forever to update. I have been working on the story though. I've come up with more story lines, and I've come up with a face and specific personality and more for a lot of the characters in the story :)

It took forever. There was 20 of them, and I made them all very specific so forgive me for taking forever on this chapter.
Look foreword to more story conflict soon !! Ily bye}