not in love || l.s. ✔︎

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to @1FICouldFly who keeps me motivated by looking forward to the next chapter. Thank you!

Part of this chapter makes reference to Harry and Louis' first kiss when they were baby boyfriends. It's CHAPTER SIX if you need a refresher (or if you just wanna read about them kissing).

Disclaimer: EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT (I feel like this chapter might divide people, but I'll explain why I wrote it the way I did at the end.)

LOUIS

We were in Liam's neighborhood. I could tell from the rows of tidy brownstones, the prams and ice cream trucks. Not a bar in sight. What exactly was the point of living in the city if you couldn't indulge in its vices?

Niall stopped the car in the middle of the street. "You guys can catch a cab from here."

"What a gentleman," Eleanor groaned. "Can't Louis at least say goodbye to Harry?"

We'd been arguing about this the whole ride over. "Please let me come with you. I have to make sure he's okay."

"He's with family and friends. We'll take good care of him," Niall assured me.

"Don't you think he'd want to see me? Doesn't he need ALL the support he can get right now?"

Niall raised his blonde eyebrows. "If you just experienced the most humiliating moment of your life, would you want to see you?"

He had me there. I wasn't the best in a crisis, mainly because I was usually the cause of it.

As Eleanor stepped out of the car a cab happened to be driving around the corner.

"Have a good flight," Niall chirped. "I'll text you and let you know how he's doing in the morning."

Niall circled the block to find a parking spot and Eleanor loaded her giant suitcase into the trunk of the cab. She was tiny but mighty. I stopped her and grabbed her hand.

"Come on."

I dragged her onto Liam's front stoop and pressed the buzzer until a muffled voice barked through the brassy speaker. "Hello."

"It's Louis. Open up."

Eleanor pulled down her micro mini dress and tried to make herself decent.

Liam appeared. He opened the door just a crack, his tie loosened, his deep brown eyes filled with sorrow. Besides Harry, Liam had been the closest to Darby out of all of us. He was already an empathetic person but because he had been so close to them as a couple I knew he was in a lot of pain himself.

"I'm sorry, Louis. I can't let you see him."

"Liam! He's my friend as much as he is yours."

Liam looked over his shoulder. Someone was saying something to him.

"I'm sorry."

He began to shut the door and Eleanor grabbed it. "We're not going anywhere."

She pried the door open with her tiny manicured hands and we pushed our way past Liam and ran inside only to be stopped by Harry's father in the narrow Victorian corridor.

"Get out! Get the hell out of here!" His face was bright red and he was swirling a tumbler of scotch in his heavy hand.

"No! Harry's hurt and I need to see him."

"You're the one who caused this mess! You're a snake, Tomlinson! You've been poisoning my son against Darby since the minute you got here. I'm not letting you anywhere near him!"