Princess » l.s ✔️

The One With All The Pacing

Chapter Nine: The One With All The Pacing.

Louis chuckled at his phone screen, his thumb typing away with a huge grin on his face. The TV was on in the background, it now only being muffled noises as he was so focused on the device in his hands. The lad got comfortable on his bed, the springs creaking with every move. He'd started to text Harry another joke that he knew would get him sending those cute laughing-crying emojis, when Zayn spoke up.

"Are you really texting Harry? You just talked him before, after, and during work." Zayn said when he walked into the room with two cans of beers in his hands. His friend seemed exasperated, practically shoving the can into Louis' face.

Louis frowned heavily, locking his phone and sitting up on the messy bed. "What crawled up your arse and died?" He popped the can open and took a sip.

"Nothing." Zayn told him quickly, settling down next to Louis. But the scowl on his face proved that it wasn't 'nothing', as he said. Louis knew his friend enough to know that 'nothing' almost always was always something.

Louis pressed. "Honestly, what's up? Don't you like Harry?" He asked, leaning his body teasingly against Zayn's shoulder, which Louis could feel was all tensed up.

"It's not Harry I don't like."

"Then..?" Louis cocked an eyebrow.

The hazel eyed boy sighed, blinking as he, too, took a sip of his beverage. "I don't like the amount of time you spend with him.

That almost made Louis snort out loud. He did, though, scoff a little, pushing himself off the bed to the small TV right across it, reaching down for his movie cupboard.

He still hadn't responded to what Zayn had told him, even when he was popping in another movie for them to watch, and took the remote back to the bed.

Only after he was comfortable again, having increased the volume of the TV, had he answered.

"Why do you even care?" Louis asked, not taking Zayn seriously at all. It wasn't something to take seriously because to be quite honest, Zayn's opinion on this didn't matter.

It wasn't in his right to tell Louis what he should do with his time and his friend.

And that's exactly what he told Zayn.

"It isn't but-"

"You haven't answered my question. Why do you care?" Louis asked. He was a little irritated but tried his very best to keep things calm. It didn't need to be turned into an argument, he thought.

Zayn exhaled, shaking his head and murmuring something to himself. "I wouldn't say I care, exactly. But, it's just strange."

"Zee, don't start, please. Enough with this strange thing. I like him now, get over it." Louis could feel his irritation increase with each growing second. He really didn't like the route this conservation was taking.

"You never did, though. Remember, when we would laugh at him and shit, because I do." Zayn said, sounding extremely accusatory.

"Things change, if you didn't notice. I like him, okay?

"You like him?"

"Yes." Louis exhaled himself.

"Like him?" Zayn's voice was laced with urgency, as if he needed the answer that very, very second.

Louis frowned deeply, fully turning his body to face Zayn. His expressions contorted from its once neutral one. "The fuck do you mean?" He said.

For some reason, the question felt like a personal attack. It was just a question, a simple yes or no question, and Louis was aware of that, but there was something about the way Zayn posed it, something about the way he looked while asking and the way he wanted Louis to answer that made him feel uneasy. It felt like a slap.