Two Way Street

“Lou, can I have a word with you?” I asked through my teeth, pointing briefly at the door to his bedroom.

He nodded, giving me a confused look before leading the way. Once we made it to his room, I shut the door behind us.

“What’s up?” he questioned, a crease forming between his eyebrows as he stared at me quizzically.

“What’s up?” I quoted back at him in disbelief. “What’s up is that Mara is acting like…” I paused, not knowing how to put it without hurting him. But finally, I just settled with, “She’s kind of a bitch.”

Louis sighed, as if he was expecting I’d bring it up. Maybe because it was obvious that she was targeting me. Well, Harry and me, but I wasn’t trying to get into her pants. “She’s not a bitch,” was the only thing he replied with.

“Maybe not to you,” I countered. “But honestly, can’t you see that she’s being rude to the rest of us?”

He shrugged. “It’s just her humor, mate. You have to get used to it.”

Now, I glorified myself on being an open-minded bloke. A friendly one, too. But there was just something about Mara that I couldn’t get used to. Her personality was too off-putting for me to try to get around it.

So I just swallowed and said, “You know, I think I’m going to go home for the night. Everyone else can stay here and watch Lord of the Rings with you.”

“Liam, don’t do that,” Louis groaned. “You know that I want you here. I just want Mara here, too.”

“Hey, I get it,” I responded, smiling. “But you have me anytime. Mara’s only around sometimes. And if Mara’s around, I’m not going to be.”

He opened his mouth to protest again, but I turned around and left the room. In the living room, I announced, “I’m gonna head out. I’ll talk to you guys later.”

As I walked to the door, I heard Mara’s voice making some kind of a sarcastic remark, but I tuned her out, figuring that it was better to pretend she didn’t exist than to start a fight.

I made my way down the street, my hood pulled up over my head, nudging a stone down the sidewalk with the toe of my trainer. I felt kind of guilty about ditching Louis like I did, but I still maintained it was the right decision. Who knew how long I’d be able to deal with Mara before I flipped out on her?

And I really hated losing my temper.

Once I got back to my flat, I kicked off my trainers and settled down on my couch. For a few minutes, I searched around frantically for my remote before finding it squished between two of the cushions.

I flipped through the channels for a while, nothing really catching my interest, until I happened upon one of those celebrity gossip shows. I would have kept going if Louis’ face hadn’t stared back at me.

“Is there love in the air for One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson?” the woman announcer asked with a grin.

“No,” I replied, but she couldn’t hear me.

“He was photographed holding hands with a little brunette cutie leaving a popular restaurant earlier today. The rest of boys were in tow, but their expressions didn’t give anything away.” With that statement, the camera zoomed in on our faces in the background.

“Oh, how flattering,” I snorted, leaning forward in my seat to get a better look. Niall was making a really strangely contorted face, Zayn was in mid-blink, Harry was smirking like a creep at Mara, and I looked absolutely miserable, my hands shoved into my pockets.

“We tried to get a hold of Simon Cowell for a comment, but he refused to supply one. It all sounds very suspicious, doesn’t it?” She gave a dramatic wink at the camera.

“No.”

And then, they switched over to a story about Ed Sheeran.

I blocked it out, leaning back on the couch and crossing my arms over my chest. Even when I tried to get away from Mara, there she was, clogging up my telly. Granted, it was because they thought that she was with Louis (which was laughable), but still. I hadn’t even noticed any paparazzi when we were leaving the restaurant, so I had no clue where they’d been hiding.

After a while of trying to find something to watch again, I settled on an old episode of Doctor Who, even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the show.

God, I wished I was watching Lord of the Rings with the guys. It was way better than sitting on my arse at home, acting like a loner.

But there was no way I could stand being around Mara, not for another second. It made me feel sick inside, that I was kind of putting Louis in an uncomfortable place. He should never have to choose between two of his best friends. Normally, given any other circumstance, I would have tried to stick it out, but I knew that the suffering wouldn’t be worth it.

Sighing, I lied down, pulling one of the throw pillows under my head, and tried to watch the episode playing in front of me. As far as the episodes went, it seemed like a pretty good one, but I couldn’t focus.

The guilt was nagging on me like crazy. I didn’t like acting like a dick, and that was exactly how I felt I was being.

But I didn’t have time to do anything about it before my eyelids fell closed, shutting out the world. I was asleep in seconds.