Hold Me Close (Sequel To Take Me Home and Keep Me Safe)

Chapter Sixteen

Louis would have been lying if he'd said that he wasn't anxious about his first day back at school since the car crash. He knew there would be a lot of questions about what happened to his leg, and he hated the thought of having to answer them...he also knew he had missed out on a lot of school work and would be piled under homework and revision in no time. Plus, he would have a lot of catching up to do with his friends.

But as much as he was worried, he also felt ready. Well, ready in the sense that the thought of spending one more day trapped inside the house with nothing to do made him feel about ready to burst.

It was clear that Dad was anxious too, though Louis had a feeling it was for a different reason. Of course his father was concerned about him going back to school and pushing himself with his bad leg - but the man was obviously nervous about the fact that he was going to have to drive the twins to school since Papa was at work again.

So, after breakfast and the hectic rush of getting everything ready to go; Louis, Niall and Dad climbed into the recently repaired car and drove to school. It was very reminiscent of the day of the crash, the cold weather, the icy roads, the three of them. It bothered Louis too, and he imagined it was the same for Niall - but their Dad looked terrified and he was driving so slowly that they may as well have been walking.

The only difference to the day of the accident was that there was no bickering between Louis and Niall. Lou felt a little bad, since he hadn't intended to push his brother away by being so snappy and he really did intend to apologise...it just felt a little awkward and stiff so he thought things might get better on their own, like they so often did.

Their Dad seemed to pick up on the atmosphere though, and it seemed that it was a good distraction for him because he glanced up at them in the rear view mirror with a small frown.

"You two okay back there? I'm not used to it being so silent," he said softly, and Louis shrugged, glancing across at Niall, whose gaze was focused on outside of the car with his cheek rested on his hand, not even realising their father was talking to them. "You two aren't fighting over something, are you?"

Niall glanced up at that, seeming to snap back to reality. "I'm not fighting about anything, Dad," he said softly, and Louis was relieved that his brother wasn't holding a grudge against him for being so rude lately.

Louis shook his head. "We're not fighting, we're fine. Right?" he looked across at his brother with a hopeful smile, and Niall stared at him for a moment with an unreadable expression before he managed a small smile back.

"Yeah. Twins?" he murmured, lifting up his fist, and Louis grinned as he bumped their knuckles together.

"Twins," he replied, thankful that at least he now had one less thing to worry about. Dad seemed a little more easy about things too then, because he smiled in the mirror at them both and nodded.

"Good, I'm glad. You two look out for each other today, yeah? Make sure your brother doesn't push himself to much," he said toward Niall, who nodded.

"Okay Dad," he murmured, and Louis refrained an eye roll.

"I'm sitting right here, and I'm not a baby you know?"

Dad chuckled at that, any unease leaving the atmosphere. "Yeah, Lou. Believe me, we know."

#

Louis could sense the strange atmosphere between his friends once the initial 'welcome back' charade was over. It was lunch time and they were sitting at their usual table in the canteen.

Luke and Will were arguing over which sandwich filling was best, Holly was rolling her eyes and crunching on a packet of crisps, and Louis sat beside Niall on the opposite side of the table in silence. His brother was just staring down at his hot lunch with a blank expression.

Louis had noticed pretty soon on that Holly and Niall weren't talking to each other - they would usually be speaking quietly amongst themselves, getting all embarrassed when Will started making kissing noises. Now they were barely even looking at each other.

Luke and Will weren't much different. They seemed fine with him, but a little...off with Niall. Louis wondered what he had missed while he was away, but mostly he was a little agitated that his brother hadn't made an effort with their friends whilst he was gone. Now it felt all awkward when all he really wanted was for things to be the way they were before.

He cleated his throat and spoke up eventually. "So, did I miss anything big?" he asked, hoping the tension in the air would blow over.

Luke and Will stopped bickering, and Luke shrugged. "Not really. Missy Williams got excluded for throwing a plant at someone at break. Apparently some other girl was flirting with her boyfriend or something," he explained briefly, giving a shrug.

Louis wasn't really interested in what Missy Williams was doing. He wanted to know about their circle. "Okay...what about you guys?" he attempted again, and Luke looked confused and gave a shrug.

"Nothing," he said, sounding bored.

He raised an eyebrow at that, glancing around at his group of friends. "Really? Because something feels different," he said honestly, and Will looked confused.

"Do you think? I guess it is kinda strange that we're all here for once. It's been weird without the twins," he said, and Louis frowned at that.

Obviously, he hadn't been at school for the past few weeks. But Niall had, so why wasn't he around?

"Yeah. It is pretty weird having you guys back. Ni kept disappearing on us for a while," Luke said, and Louis didn't miss the quick exchange of glances between his brother and Holly.

He turned to Niall with his brows furrowed. He couldn't help but feel a little frustrated that Niall hadn't made any effort to keep things stable and normal for when he came back to school. He hated how strange things felt, and he really missed how they were before.

"Well, where'd you go?" he asked, accusation creeping into his tone without thought.

Niall looked a little uneasy, then gave a small shrug and looked away. "Nowhere. Just, outside mostly. It gets too crowded in here now it's cold out," he explained in a voice that could barely be considered a whisper.

Louis sighed at that, wishing his brother would be honest with him. He could tell that wasn't the truth. "Yeah, right. You're telling me you just decided to ditch everyone to go sit out in the freezing cold? Now I'm back and everything feels weird and different when all I wanted was for things to feel the same," he hissed, and their friends awkwardly carried on their conversations, not wanting to be an audience to the brother's argument.

Niall looked hurt by the words for a moment, but then that mask returned and his feelings were hidden all over again. "I know. Sorry," he said softly, and Louis just turned back to their friends and tried to join in with the light chatter.

He hadn't meant to lose hie temper with his brother again. Deep down, he knew he hadn't done anything wrong really - it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And Louis was finding it difficult to be back at school. Teachers looked at him with pity, his old school team coach had come by his class room to wish him luck for the future with football early which had only made him feel worse about everything. And to make matters worse, he had just had PE, where he had been forced to sit on the bench and watch all of his classmates run around and he active and play sports like he loved to do. It had made him feel useless and terrible, but he knew that there wasn't nothing he could do except wait for his leg to get better. Even then, there was no saying for certain whether he'd be able to play the way he used to...

He was done with lying to himself, especially when the doctors and his parents and even his brothers had made it very clear to him that he had a long way to go before his leg was fully healed. It was a difficult truth to face, and it came with a lot of frustration. And he felt guilty that Niall seemed to be the one constantly facing the brunt of that frustration, he truly did.

So he knew he would eventually apologise. He just felt a little too angry right now, and his pride was getting in the way.

And so he ignored his brother for the rest of the day, because what was the worst that could happen?

EDITED 24.12.21