With a Lack of Wanderlust

Louis’ POV

Following Isabelle’s departure from Liam’s house, I’d gone to take a rest. It had been a long, stressful day, and I was just glad it was over and everything had turned out for the best. However, I was woken up, nearly jolted awake, by the slamming of doors and the loud, blaring music coming from the room beside mine.

I turned to the clock at my bedside to see that it had only been a few hours that I had been asleep. It was only five in the afternoon. I figured the boys must have been celebrating my relationship without me, along with Joy. It was something they’d done twice before, so it wouldn’t be a surprise. When I had a girlfriend, I was less bothersome, I guess.

But my assumptions seemed false as I looked up to see Harry at the bed beside mine, on his laptop. I raised my eyebrows at him, signaling for an explanation. He only shrugged and went back to clicking away at the keyboard.

I decided to figure it out myself, as frightfully confused as I was. I’d gotten up and hurried over to Liam’s room, knocking on the door that seemed to be shaking along with the music.

“I’m just practicing for tour,” He yelled.

“That’s not even our song,” I told him, referring to what seemed to be The Wanted coming out of his speakers. Within moments, the lock clicked and Liam opened the door a crack, poking his head out like an arse.

“What do you want?” His eyes were like that of a puppy and his voice was tiny. I gave him a look annoyance and he closed the door more. His nose and a bit of his mouth were the only things showing as he continued to speak, “Did you bring spoons?”

“Why the fuck would I bring spoons?” I pushed the door open as forcefully as I could, and he jumped back. Standing before me in his entirety, he looked absolutely ridiculous. He was disheveled and his face looked the way it did each time he sang: like a dog watching its owner leave him at the pound. The panda hat that was placed on his head added to the appearance.

“Took the girl I liked, might as well cause me even more pain!” He lifted his arms up and out for dramatic effect. I rolled my eyes and took him by the shoulders. He flinched, jumping in time with the drums in the song playing before speaking again, “I don’t get it!”

“What?” I asked, getting frustrated and cocking my head to the side.

“I met her first, I should get her!” He exclaimed, “It’s not fair, Lou.”

“Are you kidding me, Liam? Is that really your argument?” I laughed aloud and watched his face drop a little as he awaited my next words. I hated talking this way to a friend, but I couldn’t help being annoyed. My eyebrows raised, I pursed my lips. “If you wanted to date her, then you shouldn’t have wasted so much time being an idiot and actually spoke to her.”

“I tried!” He looked down, “It’s not fair.”

“Yes it is! Are you seriously trying to tell me that just because you bumped into her at the airport, everything was supposed to work out like a fairytale for you and you should be at the greatest advantage even though I’ve stayed up with her so many times and know more about her than you ever will? That’s bullshit, Liam. Bullshit.”

“Shut up, Louis.” He was looking up now, angry, “If you hadn’t spent so much time with her and then proceeded to butt in every time I was with her, maybe I’d be in your place.”

I took my hands off his shoulders and spread my arms in defense, “I’m sorry that I like her and I like spending time with her. I can’t help that she feels the same, okay.”

I really didn’t want to fight, not at all. This was incredibly stupid and I knew he had been this way with other people, but I’d never seen it first hand. I felt bad for him, but not guilty. Nothing Liam could do or say was going to cause me to change my relationship with Isabelle. Absolutely nothing.

Liam opened his mouth as if he was going to yell back at me, but surprisingly let out a breath instead. He seemed to be thinking the same, but not at all. He shook his head, “You know what, I’m overreacting. I’ll write a song or something. Sorry. Go on, go back to sleep.” With a pressing smile, he pushed me out of his room and slammed the door shut right in my face.

Something had to be going through his head to have caused such a sudden change in feelings. Knowing Liam, he had something up his sleeve that he would most likely carry out in the near future. I rolled my eyes and turned, quickly coming to the realization that Liam’s pranks were usually miniscule anyway.

Zayn appeared in front of me before I could leave where I had been standing, looking just as angry. He put a finger over his mouth as if to shush me before speaking in a whisper, “You guys are going to wake Joy up again, stop yelling!”

I laughed a little, realizing how tired I really was as my own anger emptied my body, “Tell her you like her already, man,” I said, patting him on the shoulder. He only sighed with a hint of a frown and turned back to his room, so I headed to mine as well.

“You okay?” Harry was still on his computer as I made it back into the room. I nodded and glanced down at it curiously. He rarely spent this much time on the internet, even during our breaks.

“Liam’s been gutted since finding out about me and Isabelle. But I guess he’s okay now…” I trailed off as Harry chuckled to himself.

“Yeah, he’s gutted all right.” He was looking straight at his laptop, still laughing.

I hurried to sit beside him to see that he was sitting on twitter, checking his replies from fans. I was still confused, “Is this what you’ve been on all day?” He nodded and I leaned in to see what they had been saying to him that would keep him so enthralled all day, “Is that the girl Liam likes, too?” I read aloud, and Harry continued to scroll. It was all basically the same thing with different wording.

I pushed him over, and he tipped off the bed with a shriek as I grabbed for his laptop, “What was that for?!” He whined, but I ignored him, clicking to look at his profile. He had tweeted various fans earlier in the day, but none recently. He must have just been reading all that time. I tilted my head and continued scrolling, waiting for the replies to stop and the actual tweets to begin.

As Harry climbed back up beside me, a post that was accompanied by link to a picture showed up. The caption being ‘Aw Louis and his newfound love,’ there was no guessing as to what the picture was. I clicked on it despite this, and surely enough a photo of me and Isabelle kissing loaded upon the screen.

“What would compel you to do this?” I pushed Harry again, but he caught himself this time. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. I had shoved him out of surprise, but as I got my judgments straightened out, there could have been a better reason for violence.

We turned toward each other at the same time as Harry spoke with a shrug, “I just thought that the fans would want to know.”

“Yeah, but now we’ve got a gutted Liam and gutted fans…” I tried explaining to him as I was still attempting to comprehend it myself, “Do you see the problem here?”

Harry let out a sigh and took the laptop from my lap and placed it onto his own, “No, because the upset Liam turned the gutted fans into curious fans,” He now had a smile on his face and continued typing away.

I had sunk down to the point where I was laying and looked up at him, “What do you mean?” I felt myself drifting in and out as I let out a yawn.

He laughed at me before speaking again, “It’s exactly what you read. They want to know if the girl Liam is tweeting about is the same that I did.”

“Do you know if Isabelle has a twitter?” I questioned wearily, my eyes snapping open now, as much as they wanted rest.

“I’m not sure,” He didn’t seem to understand what I had been getting at.

“Keep it that way. You know exactly how cruel the fans can get, judging by all the hate they gave Danielle and Hannah. If they get to understanding who Isabelle is, they'll murder her with their words.”