Friends.

Chapter 37

Louis had insisted he come with me to my apartment, and the thought that he didn't want to be apart from me for only an hour makes me happier than I could even explain. 

"Marius?" I call through the apartment as we step out of the lift, the tiny ginger cat is sleeping on the couch and jumps up excitedly when he sees me. 

"Come here. Are you okay? I'm sorry." I pick him up and scratch behind his ears as he purrs. 

I look over to see Louis' scrunch his face up as he looks at Marius and I laugh. "Not a big fan of cats?" 

"No...they're creepy." He shakes his head. 

"Marius is the exception though, here hold him. He's so cute." I say, a pang of sadness hits me when I think about New York and what I'm going to do with Marius. I could take him, but I don't know if it's going to be alot of trouble and if he would be okay in quarantine and on the plane. He's so little, I don't want to put him through all that. 

I hold Marius out for Louis to take him and he eyes Marius sceptically. Just as Louis is about to take hold of him, Marius hisses and jumps out of my arms, causing me to errupt in laughter and for Louis to scowl at him. 

"He hates you!" I giggle. 

"Stupid cat." He mutters. 

"It's okay, I still like you. Marius just doesn't want to share me I think." I wink, stepping closer to Louis and pressing my lips against his cheek, feeling a smile spread across his face as I do. 

"Alright, what do you need?" Louis asks as we walk into my bedroom. 

"Lots of things." I say grabbing my Louis Vutton carry bag from the bottom of my wardrobe and then putting it back down when I realise it was a gift from Harry. I sigh, picking up a plain black bag that I never use and filling it with some clothes. I pack an outfit for work on Tuesday, just in case I stay at Louis' tomorrow night as well. 

"What's this....?" Louis asks from where he's standing in the bedroom, his voice full of curiosity and my eyes widen at the thought of what it could be. Oh God imagine if it was Harry's underwear...or worse, Niall's. Would that be worse? Just as bad maybe. 

"What's what?" I ask, walking out of my wardrobe to where he's standing, pointing at the pile of shattered mirror remnants that are swept into a neat pile on the floor, next to the blood stain on the carpet. 

"Oh...um, I fell against it when I was yelling at Harry that night..." I tell the truth. "I just haven't cleaned it up yet." It's been a week, more maybe, and I just can't bring myself to get rid of the mess.

"Why haven't you?" He asks, I can sense he's trying to find some hidden meaning here that just isn't there. 

 "I don't know...honestly, I think I kind of like the reminder of what went down, and how much he hurt me..." I say quietly, I hate even mentioning him around Louis.

"Yeah fair enough." He gives me a small smile to ease the tension so I put my bag down on the bed and take his hands, pulling him towards me. 

"Thank you for being so understanding. This isn't going to be easy, is it?" I ask, wrapping my arms around his waist. 

"Nope." He says. "I'm gonna go see if Marius likes me yet while you get the rest of your stuff." 

"Okey dokey." I am practically ready to go, except for my tablets which I grab before heading back out to the living room and filling Marius' food bowl. 

"Whats in here..?" Louis asks, opening the door to the study. Oh no. 

"Nothing, I don't really go in there." I lie, well it's not a complete lie, I don't normally go in there, or I haven't since I ripped all the pictures of Harry off my picture board and threw them around the room.