Rachel’s P.O.V.

“I’ve tried calling Skylar to see if he’s left yet but she’s not answering,” I told Harry, once he had asked yet again if Ashton was still in my apartment.

“You can just stay here for the night if you want? You don’t have any early morning classes, right? You can just borrow something of mine to wear to bed and head back to your room in the morning to get showered and changed,” Harry offered. “That way, you can avoid running into Ashton, if he’s waiting around,” he added.

I mulled the idea over for a minute.

“You sure you wouldn’t mind? I don’t want to impose,” I said eventually.

Harry rolled his eyes.

“You wouldn’t be imposing, weirdo, we’ve together pretty much all of our lives,” he told me.

I laughed a little at that.

“And besides, I highly doubt Louis will have any issue with it,” he continued, his tone suddenly different. I froze immediately at his words, which were innocent but were laced with implication. There was no way Harry could already know what had happened in the bathroom? He and Louis hadn’t had a chance to talk at all since then and I certainly hadn’t told him.

I decided to ignore it. “Honestly, it would be great, thanks Harry,” I smiled.

He continued to look at me a little suspiciously, before nodding. “No problem. Anyways, I’m kinda feeling like pizza or something, you hungry?” he asked.

“Not really, I’m still stuffed from when we ate earlier,” I admitted. “Do you want me to order take-out?”

“Nah, I feel like a walk anyways. I’ll pick something up somewhere,” he told me, already standing up, looking for his jacket.

“Feel free to take something from my room to wear to bed, I’ll take the couch anyways so make yourself at home,” he added.

Before I had a chance to argue with him, he was already out the door with a simple “goodbye.” I watched tv for a bit, before heading to Harry’s room to find something to wear to bed. His pyjama bottoms were all far too big on me, but they were comfy all the same. I threw on one of his t-shirts along with them and went back to relax on the couch, wondering when the boys would come home.

I didn’t have to wait too long, as Louis arrived only seconds after I had sat on the couch.

“Rachel! You’re staying over?” he seemed surprised to see me still here.

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind?”

“Not at all,” he smiled, taking his jacket off as he spoke. “Tea?”

Within a few minutes, Louis had joined me on the couch and was eyeing me curiously as I sipped my tea. When I raised my eyebrows in question, he sighed.

“How are you doing?” he asked softly.

I shrugged.

“I’m fine, honestly. Seeing Ashton was really weird, though, that’s for sure,” I admitted.

“I’ll bet,” he agreed.

“You’re not – I mean, you wouldn’t – you know, consider…” Louis trailed off.

“Forgiving him?” I finished. When he nodded, I continued. “I don’t know. I really want to just be completely over it, you know? To just be able to see him and not feel anything, but I can’t. I’m still angry, and I’m still hurt. But most of all I’m disappointed that I lost one of my favourite people over something so cliché,” I began.

Louis took another sip of tea, silently listening.

“I mean, I know Ashton. I know he’s not a bad person, and yeah what he did was stupid and horrible and completely heart-breaking. But it was so out of character. Ashton’s sweet, and funny and so caring. He was one of my best friends, and I miss that so much. I hate that I can’t trust him anymore. I hate that I can’t look at him without feeling hurt. And if our relationship had to end then so be it, but it ended in the worst way it possibly could have,” I continued, avoiding meeting Louis’ eye for fear of sounding too upset.

“Sorry, I’m rambling. I just don’t know how I feel abut all of it. I should know, its been months and I should have my head straight by now and I thought I did, but seeing him, it really threw me off,” I admitted. “Maybe I can forgive Ashton, at some point. But I genuinely don’t see how I could ever trust him again,” I finished up, my eyes still on the mug I was nursing in my hands.

“And me?”

His question caused me to look up quickly, to decipher how he was feeling. Louis’ normally casual tone sounded hesitant and unsure.

“What about you?”

“Well, you’ve forgiven me, but do you ever see yourself trusting me again? After what I did-“

“That wasn’t quite the same Louis, we talked about this earlier,” I reminded him. “And I don’t need to see myself trusting you again, I already trust you. We both messed up, remember?”

He simply nodded in response. When neither of us spoke any more on the matter, Louis eventually broke the silence.

“A friend of Niall’s is throwing a party Friday, you should come along, it’s a bit away from campus but the house is huge, it’s his parent’s place, should be fun,” He told me.

“Bring Skylar and Lizzie, the more the merrier,” he added.

“That sounds great,” I beamed.

“Delia will be there though, although I can’t imagine Ashton would be,” he warned, and I simply nodded in response. It wouldn’t be too difficult to avoid Delia for the night.

“Perfect, it’s a wonder Harry didn’t mention it before. Speaking of, where is he? He went out to get himself food ages ago, he should be back by now,” I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I spoke, quickly trying to call him. When it rang out I sent him a text, asking him where he was.

Louis and I continued chatting about lighter topics, like classwork and the upcoming exams at Christmas. We had been talking for over an hour when at last Harry text back, saying he was fine, that he had gotten distracted with something and not to wait up for him.

“Well that’s not cryptic at all,” I muttered, showing Louis the text. Louis simply laughed, reassuring me that Harry was fine. After a while longer of watching tv and talking, I decided to head to bed. Since Harry decided to be wandering out late I figured I’d leave the couch to him, his bed was looking very comfy to me.

“Thanks again for today Louis, seeing Ashton was stressful, but having you there made it easier,” I told him, as we stood between the doors of his room and Harry’s room.

“Anytime Rach,” his response was short but the soft smile he was giving me made up for it.

“Well, goodnight Louis,” I stood on my toes slightly to press a quick kiss to his cheek, without releasing I was doing it until my lips had met his skin. I pulled back quickly, feeling my own face heat up with embarrassment.

I saw Louis cheeks colour slightly, and quickly shrank back into Harry’s room, after an awkward smile at Louis. Behind me, I heard a soft “Goodnight,”

Notes

Really hope you all like this chapter!
Please do let us know in the comments below what you think of this chapter, and of the story in general!
Do you ship Rachel and Louis or would you like Ashton to win her back?
Do you think Ashton belongs with Delia?
Where are Harry and Skylar doing that has him 'distracted' and out late?

Xox