boys don't cry. [h.s]

twenty eight

September

Isabel's head was buried in a box, rifling around for some more leaflets with her fringe falling into her eyes. His voice made her jump so much that the hand she'd been resting against the cardboard edge slipped and she nearly tumbled forward.

"What do you want?" she snapped when she stood up, trying her best to ignore the fact that he was laughing.

"Do you really think I would pass up the chance to come and see my favourite girl?"

Louis was grinning at her, wearing a baggy orange t-shirt with the university's name plastered across the front, and she had an overwhelming urge to slap him.

"This is embarrassing," Louis said, pointing at her identical t-shirt. "We match."

She ignored him, clutching the leaflets to her chest. "Are you here to sign up?"

He sneered at her. "What, to this?" He looked around the cluttered stall, at the posters pinned behind it and at the leaflets, his eyes coming to rest on Rory who was chatting to a couple of freshers animatedly. "Nah, you're all right."

"Well fuck off then," she said. "You're putting people off."

"Me?" he asked incredulously. "Babe, I'm drawing them in."

She tried not to make a disgusted noise when he called her that. "Don't you have stuff to attend to?"

"Well you see, when you're boss you can delegate," Louis grinned. "But I guess you'd know that, wouldn't you?"

Louis was helping to organise Freshers' Week again this year, which explained why he and Isabel both had the fluorescent orange university t-shirts on. The difference between them was that people thought Louis' job was something to be admired, especially seeing as he wasn't an elected head of the Student Union but an unofficially appointed leader due to his universal popularity, whereas Isabel's one as head of Film Soc was just plain lame.

"You wouldn't believe the surprise when I found out you were head of this thing," Louis continued, gesturing around vaguely. "I didn't even know you were in it. But then again, you did a lot of stuff behind my back, didn't you?"

She rolled her eyes, not taking the bait. He shrugged.

"Fair enough," he added falsely. "This is... it's pretty cool, yeah?"

She smiled slightly, pretending she didn't get the sarcasm. "Yeah, I think so."

He scoffed, and she turned away, bending down to get more leaflets out of the box. When she straightened up again he was still there, standing there with a smirk.

"So, Scarlett told me you broke up with the boyfriend," Louis said, and Isabel swallowed. "Sucks."

She knew it was coming, but it hurt all the same, like Louis had punched her straight in the chest. She tried to take a deep breath, but she felt the familiar rush of blood to her ears, her heart accelerating like she was falling, tumbling fast towards the ground, and it was trying to remind her that she was alive, that if she kept in the air and didn't reach the ground she'd stay alive. She didn't have to hit the ground if she just tried to stay up.

"He wasn't my boyfriend," she mumbled, avoiding Louis' eyes.

"Oh, it was like that?" Louis said, letting out a low whistle. "Got to hand it to you, Isabel, you put on that cutesy innocent little girl act well, I'll let you have that."

"Hey, fuck off," Rory said from over Isabel's shoulder, and she turned to find him glaring at Louis, his glasses sliding down his nose. "Leave her alone."