Louis POV
I laughed while we talked about yesterday's game. This team was my family. We turned a corner and David nudged me.
"Look who's over there," he pointed out. I sighed but put a fake smile on my face.
"Let's get to work," Charlie said, leading the team over.
I hung out towards the back of the pack. I really didn't want to do this to poor Liam. He was so sweet. Not to mention hot. And toned. Oh shit, what was I thinking? I couldn't like Liam. It would totally kick me off the team. And I'd become like Liam, bullied every day. I wouldn't let that happen.
I pushed my way up to the front and slammed Liam's locker closed.
"Hey, pretty boy. Get a boyfriend yet?" I taunted. Quickly, I shoved an intruding thought out of my head. I didn't want to be Liam's boyfriend. I saw Liam shaking in fear. I smiled, knowing that it was my doing.
"Leave...leave me...leave me alone, Louis," Liam stuttered, still shaking. I sneered at Liam.
"Make me," I hissed and Liam shrank back even more.
"You want your mummy, you little retard? You gonna cry and tell her we called you mean names? You gay little baby, grow up," David teased. The team laughed, backing him up.
Liam didn't say a word. I saw him touch his wrist, almost imperceptibly, but I knew something was up. I didn't make another comment during the bullying session. I let David, Charlie, Daniel and the rest of the team have their hacks at him. After a while, Liam ran off and I saw where he was going. The team started moving again.
"Lou, you coming?" Alex asked. I looked up at him.
"I'll catch you later. I have to go do something," I responded.
Alex nodded his head and I practically ran to where Liam disappeared to. I opened the bathroom door slowly so it wouldn't creak and quietly slipped into the bathroom. I peeked my head around the corner, making sure Liam couldn't see me. I watched in silence as he rolled up his sleeves. I couldn't clearly see the inside of his toned arms so I snuck a peek at the mirror. What I saw scared me.
Cuts still red with blood covered his arms. Others were scabbed over and some were just scars. With a closer look, I saw the cuts made words.
FAG. I gasped at the new harshness of the word. It hurt me to see Liam like this. UGLY. This hurt more because I knew it wasn't true. It was just another word we used to describe Liam when we bullied him.
Shocked, I realized this was all my fault. Liam cut because of the bullying. I turned my eyes away from the mirror, but not before I caught a third word etched into his arm. GAY. My breath hitched in my throat when I read that word. Again, it was from the bullying. I suddenly wished I never came looking for Liam. I exited the bathroom slowly, making no noise. Liam never knew I was there and he never would.
I completely ditched practice after school. I'd tell coach that I wasn't feeling good tomorrow. My mind was more focused on finding Liam. I stayed a good distance away from Liam but followed him out of school.
After we left the school grounds, he didn't turn left and head the familiar way to our neighborhood. He turned right and headed towards the edge of town. I followed him stealthily, and soon he entered the woods.
Where Liam was sure footed and quiet in the woods, I was loud and clumsy. Liam obviously knew his way around here. I followed him and whenever he turned around, I quickly ducked behind a tree. We went pretty far into the woods; far enough so that I couldn't see any modern civilization anymore.
Suddenly, Liam stopped and looked up. Then he quickly scaled an average sized tree. I stayed hidden about 20 meters away behind a tree. I gasped as Liam pulled out a pocketknife and rolled up his sleeve. Before the blade could touch his skin, I ran over to the tree he was perched in and stood directly under where he was sitting.
"Liam, stop," I commanded. I knew what he was about to do and I didn't want him to hurt himself again. The pocketknife slipped out of his hand and I caught it skillfully. He looked down at me, wide eyed.
"L-Louis?" Liam stuttered, looking down at me.
"Never ever do that again," I responded.
Liam was frozen in his spot in the tree. I scaled the tree and sat down next to Liam. I kept the pocketknife stored safely in my pocket.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Liam asked cautiously. I took hold of his hand.
"Making sure you're ok," I responded. "I followed you into the bathroom earlier. I saw the cuts and I wanted to make sure you never did it again," I admitted. Liam pulled his hand out of my grip.
"Get away. I never want to have anything to do with you. You don't really care about me," Liam stated harshly.
"Please, just get out of this tree?" I begged.
Liam started the climb down without even answering me. I climbed down after him and stopped him before he could run off.
"Liam, wait," I said, grabbing his arm.
Before I knew what was going on, I pulled Liam close to me and kissed him. I felt sparks and after a while I released him. He looked at me, wide eyed. He pulled me in for another kiss and I felt the sparks again.
"Did-did you feel sparks?" I asked urgently.
He nodded his head, speechless. I kissed him again and we stayed that way for quite some time.
After about ten minutes, we started to walk back. We walked side by side, holding hands the whole time. Right before we were about to leave the woods, I reached into Liam's pocket and took out his phone. I quickly went to his contacts and put in my number under the name 'mine'. I slid the phone back into his pocket before he even knew.
We walked all the way to our neighborhood and I even walked him to his house. After a brief kiss on the front stoop, he went inside and I continued my walk home.
My mind wandered back to our kisses. They were urgent, wanted, and, honestly, I wanted more of Liam right now. Then I thought of the team. I would never let them find out. Liam would understand, right? I just wouldn't bully him; I'd let the other guys do it.
I walked into my house and pure chaos was going on. Like usual, Lottie and Fizzy were yelling at each other. Mum was talking on the phone to probably grandmum, who couldn't hear. No sooner had I shut the door, Lottie came running to me. I picked her up in a hug, but put her down quickly.
"Lou, I need your help," Lottie begged. I started walking towards my room.
"Sorry sweetheart. Lou has a lot of homework to do," I answered quickly.
"Aww, but you always have homework, Lou!" Lottie whined. I ruffled her hair.
"Sorry Lottie. I have to do my homework," I responded and ran up the stairs.
I slammed my bedroom door shut an instantly took out my phone. There were a lot of texts that I had missed. The first one was from Alex. It read:
'Hey Lou. Where'd you go? We're at practice and coach is pissed that u ditched...talk 2 u later.'
The next one was from David and said pretty much the same thing. It looked like the whole team texted me. I was going to have hell to pay tomorrow.
I started blasting music, trying to drown out the world. Liam was going to flip my world upside down, I just know it. Now I was just waiting for the apocalypse.
A/N: hey guys! Hope you're liking it as much as I do! I'm open to comments and suggestions, but no hate. Love you!
