Chapter Fifty-One

(Trigger Warning)

The rest of the week dragged on, and after his talk with Mrs Carter on Monday afternoon, Louis, surprisingly, was riding on a slight high and even taking some of Mrs Carter's words to heart.

One thing in particular that he found himself doing was opening up to Isaac more; only Isaac. He wanted to start off small, and he thought letting the person he trusted most in first was a good place to start. Though saying that Isaac was the person Louis trusted most was strange to him as he had known him for the least amount of time. But, somehow, Isaac had managed to sneak his way into Louis life and slip through his walls. Was Louis complaining? No. He hated to admit it, but Mrs Carter had been right. It felt like the right thing to do.

There were still some things that Louis wasn't telling Isaac, of course. But Isaac was very patient with Louis, and Louis couldn't have been more grateful. Doing this was hard for him, so having someone there who wasn't pressuring him or forcing him to open up was a huge relief.

But as the days continued to pass, Louis could feel the high he was riding on slowly start to come down as his aunt had begun falling into her bad habits again. Isaac had been coming over to Louis' apartment a lot more frequently; Louis had let it slip that he was still scared. He still felt it was a very odd thing to say aloud to Isaac, but it was all a part of letting him in.

As Friday afternoon came around, Louis and Isaac were cuddling closely on Louis' bed, trying their best not to fall off the small space that they occupied, when Louis brought up their 'not-date'.

"You know, that actually totally slipped my mind," Isaac said with a cackle.

"Slipped your mind? It's a 'not-date'; how could you not remember?" Louis tried to have a serious tone, but he failed horribly.

"My bad, Lou-Lou." Isaac lifted his head up from Louis' chest and looked up at Louis, giving him a smile. "Anyway, what about the 'not-date'?"

"Let's go tonight." Louis returned the smile, but as he did, he saw Isaac's waver.

"Are you sure?" he asked, and Louis could tell that he was concerned.

Louis hadn't been coping the best with what was happening with his aunt, and Isaac had noticed. Not only because Louis had told him, but because he had seen how Louis' aunt got some nights.

After the night Louis had found the drugs his aunt had brought home, he had tried to talk to her again. Tried to get her to go to the group he used to talk to on her behalf. Nothing worked. She only seemed to get worse.

"I am." Louis nodded. "I want to. I need to."

"We're not doing something that'll embarrass me, right?" Isaac grinned as he asked. He obviously agreed with Louis in some way and decided to try and lighten the mood.

Louis was always thankful for that quality in him. He never pressed too much, and he was able to read the mood very well, which made him an expert at knowing when to drop the subject.

"If I'm being honest with you, I haven't planned anything," Louis mumbled, feeling guilty for not being more organised.

"Hmm," Isaac hummed, gently playing with Louis' fingers as he thought.

Louis looked down at him and saw his face was pulled into a very concentrated look.

"Don't hurt yourself." Louis found it in himself to snicker.

"Bowling?" he finally said, turning his head to look at Louis.

"I've never been." Louis blushed, and Isaac's mouth gaped open.

"You've never been bowling?!"

"Lawn bowls or tenpin?" Louis chuckled.

"Have you done either?" Isaac laughed.

"No..." Louis mumbled, and Isaac laughed harder, shaking his head.

"Well, I meant tenpin bowling," Isaac said. "Which I think would be a great thing to do."

"But I'll suck," Louis moaned.

"They have bumpers you can use." Isaac laughed. "And a ramp! Just for children like you!"

"Oh, screw you, Mr Maine."

"I don't think your bed is big enough for that." Isaac winked at Louis before leaning in for a kiss, which Louis allowed, pressing his own lips against Isaac's.

"Do you want to leave now?" Isaac asked as he pulled away from Louis, questioningly tilting his head.

Louis nodded. "Yeah, I just need to get changed first."

Isaac nodded before pushing himself up from Louis' bed and holding out his hand to help Louis up. Louis took Isaac's hand and let himself be pulled up until he was standing chest to chest with Isaac. Louis was just about to say something when a voice from outside Louis' room interrupted them.

"Louis..." it was faint, but the two boys still heard it, and Louis' eyes widened.

"I didn't hear her come home," Louis whispered to Isaac, knowing that it was his aunt's voice that they had heard. Isaac shook his head.

"I didn't hear anything either."

Louis heard some more muffled noises coming from outside of his room and moved away from Isaac.

"Stay here, okay?" Isaac nodded, and Louis went into the living room.

The sight he was met with made him freeze.

Monica was lying on the floor, surrounded by her own vomit, which was laced with blood. Her body was convulsing as sweat poured out of her.

Suddenly, everything seemed to kick back into motion, and a surge of adrenaline swept through Louis. Rushing over to his aunt side, he yelled for Isaac, who ran out of Louis' room, widening his eyes at the sight.

"Call an ambulance!" Louis shouted, and Isaac nodded, hurriedly pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialling.

Louis' eyes scanned his aunt before rolling her on her side. Louis could feel her trembling under his touch and occasionally spasming. His heart was pounding in his throat as he picked his brain, frantically trying to remember what to do in a situation like this. He tore his jumper off and used it to clean around his aunt's mouth, wiping down her face. He rested it under her head, so she didn't hit it on the floor if she spasmed again; which she did, but this time she stopped moving straight after.

"An ambulance is on the way!" Isaac almost yelled, but Louis barely heard him.

"No, no, no, no, no..." he muttered to himself as he rolled his aunt onto her back, leaning in to hear her breathing. She wasn't.

He then moved his ear down and pressed it on her chest. Still no heartbeat. Thinking quickly, Louis pulled away and knelt over his aunt, placing his hands on her chest, and pressing down hard over and over again.

"One, two, three," Louis counted with each compression, trying to keep the same tempo as he went.

As he reached thirty, he removed his hands from her chest and held her nose before giving her two rescue breaths. Louis had no idea if what he was doing was working, if he was helping, but he knew he couldn't do much more, so he pressed and pressed.

Isaac had left the apartment at some point and gotten other people to come back with him, but Louis didn't know who they were. He didn't look at them. He heard them talking and whispering, some even trying to get his attention, but he didn't listen. He just kept following the procedure he knew. Every time he pressed, he felt tears rolling down his cheeks, and, as he looked down at his aunt's face, he saw his mother.

"Come on, come on!" Louis screamed as he became more frantic.

He couldn't lose someone else. He didn't know if he could handle it. To Louis, it was like losing his mother again. But he could see it happening this time. As more tears rolled down his face, Louis started to slow down his compressions, tiring out a bit. He felt a strong hand on his shoulder, which pulled him back, and a female paramedic took his place at his aunt's side.

Louis fell backwards onto the floor, and the hand that had pulled him back remained on his shoulder. For the first time since he had walked out of his bedroom, Louis looked around his apartment. A lot of people he didn't know stood around, watching. Some had tears in their eyes, while others watched with horror in their eyes. A paramedic cleared the apartment to stop it from being congested.

As Louis continued to scan the room, his eyes fell on Sarah, who stood next to Isaac. Both of them had tears streaming down their face, and as soon as Isaac's eyes met Louis, he rushed over, beckoning whoever was standing with Louis to give them some space. As he knelt down beside Louis, he didn't say anything; he just wrapped his arms around him and held him, and they sat like that as the paramedics worked.

Soon, Louis' aunt was swiftly being wheeled out of the apartment, and Louis was being asked if he wanted to ride with them to the hospital, but he couldn't find the words to respond. He didn't know if he could see her like that again, so he just shook his head as he choked up even more. As he did so, he caught another glimpse of Sarah, who was looking at him and Isaac, frozen on the spot, tears still streaming down her face. Louis looked away and fell deeper into Isaac's embrace, and time moved on; like it always did.

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A/N: I am so sorry. I wrote this over 5 months ago and may have forgotten about this.

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Question Time:

Do you think I should have put trigger warnings? Serious question. (I did :))