Chapter Nineteen

Jumping out of his bed, Louis strolled into the bathroom next to his bedroom and turned the shower on while he began brushing his teeth. Louis took his time in the bathroom, staying in the shower for close to thirty minutes. It was relaxing and the water was hot for most of it, and it felt to Louis like he was washing off all the pain and anger from the past few days.

When Louis finished, he shut the water off before jumping out and drying himself. He stepped over to the mirror, observing his jaw. The bruise he had there was still prominent. It was a dark shade of purple, and Louis could see it that had swelled up. He gently touched it with his finger and winced in pain.

"Smart move, dumbass," Louis mumbled to himself before he moved his attention to the rest of his face and saw the dark circles under his eyes. While they were still there, they were much less visible, and he noticed that he looked like a functioning member of society.

Smiling to himself, Louis made his way out of the bathroom and back into his room, grabbing a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt out of his wardrobe. Heading out to his small kitchen, Louis decided to make some pancakes for breakfast; though not before making sure his aunt wasn't home, not wanting a repeat of the other night.

Once he saw it was all clear, Louis got to work, and it wasn't long before he was eating his freshly made pancakes in front of the small television. Louis had just finished his breakfast when his phone began vibrating again.

"Hello?" Louis asked as he answered his phone.

"Hi!" Sarah's voice came through the speaker, and Louis made a mental note to save her as a contact in his phone.

As Louis heard Sarah's voice, he heard another voice come from outside of his apartment. It was muffled and faint, and it was followed by a separate, much quieter voice, which Louis thought had come through his phone, too.

Louis shook the thought away quickly and focus on Sarah's voice, and smiled into the receiver.

"Sam told me you weren't coming in today or tomorrow?"

"Sam would be right." Louis snickered.

"Well, today doesn't bother me because I'm not there, but tomorrow? I thought we were walking partners!" Sarah faked an offended tone.

"Sorry." Louis dragged the word out. "Get Sam to drive you. He loves the company."

"Maybe I will," Sarah replied with a chuckle before she started yelling. "Oh, okay, Mr Fancy-School! Just because you have a private bus, doesn't mean everyone else gets one!"

Louis, once again, heard a muffled voice outside of his apartment, though it was much quieter now, and he knotted his eyebrows.

"Sorry about that, Lou. My brother is being a dick. The one time I'm actually home for the night, and he's done nothing but annoy me."

"It's fine," Louis said with a chuckle, though, he couldn't stop concern for Sarah circling his mind. "Are you okay?"

"That's what I was going to ask you! You do sound better," Sarah said, and Louis took it as a hint that she didn't want to talk about it.

"I am. Thanks, Sarah," Louis replied, feeling even more concern for Sarah, though not pressing her. "I'm just taking some time for myself."

"I think I'm going to talk to the principal tomorrow," Sarah said suddenly, seemingly ignoring the last bit of what Louis said.

"Please, don't get yourself in trouble," Louis pleaded, suddenly feeling worried.

"It's okay, Louis, I won't. I just want to make sure you're not expelled," Sarah reassured.

"Okay..."

"And I'll get Sam to go with me."

"Oh, God." Louis let out a groan. "Please, keep him in check. I know what he's like."

"Will do." Sarah let out a small laugh. "Alright, Louis, I gotta go. My brother is being a bitch and I need to knock him out. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, if you can catch me!" The muffled voice from before had become much clear through the phone, and Louis couldn't help but think it sounded familiar.

"Damn it! He's running. Bye, Lou!"

"Bye, Sarah."

Louis pulled his phone away from his ear, finding himself smiling again. He had been doing that a lot since he woke up, and he couldn't complain.

The thought that something was wrong with Sarah that she wasn't telling him still played on his mind. Not only that, but the voice he had heard come through the phone sounded like someone he knew, though, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Knowing that it was best to not think about it too much. Louis tried to focus his mind on something else and decided to get up and deal with all his dishes before checking the time.

Seven-forty. Louis decided to head down to the bookstore, thinking that by the time he walked there, it should be eight o'clock and it would be open. Grabbing his canvas shoes, Louis walked out of his apartment and locked the door before making his way down the stairs and out of the building.

The closest bookstore to Louis was about a twenty-minute walk, but Louis didn't mind. It was one of his favourite places to go. It was always so quiet and peaceful. Louis would often sit in there for hours at a time. It had always felt magical to him. Another bonus of the bookstore was that it was almost right across the road from the library, another one of Louis' favourite spots.

Twenty minutes soon passed, and Louis was setting foot into the bookstore. The girl behind the counter must have been close to Louis' age, and she gave a small smile as Louis entered the shop. Louis returned it as he walked past her and grabbed a book off one of the shelves, heading up to the little reading coup the shop had. It was right near the back wall of the shop, tucked away in a secluded corner.

There wasn't a lot in the small coup apart from a table and chairs as well as some bean bags to sit on. But Louis loved it, and he sat on the farthest chair, propping the book up in front of him. Louis hadn't paid any attention to the book he had picked up. All he knew was that it was some sort of science fiction novel and that he hadn't read it before, and it wasn't long before Louis got lost in the words on the paper.

Louis wasn't sure how much time had passed when his phone started ringing. He scanned the small reading coup and saw there was, thankfully, no one there. Louis wasn't too sure how his phone had managed to get off silent but guessed that he bumped the volume and decided not to dwell on it. He put his book down next to him and pulled his phone out, seeing that it was Sam ringing him. Looking up at the time on his phone, Louis saw that it was getting close to midday and that Sam must have been at lunch.

"Hello, Samuel," Louis answered his phone.

"Hey, Lucifer," Sam responded. "How's the day off?"

"It's good, thank you. I'm just at the bookstore."

"Of course, you are." Louis could sense that Sam rolled his eyes. "So... don't get mad, okay?"

"Sam, what did you do?" Louis' voice began to rise as Sam's words played over in his mind. Louis knew what Sam was capable of, and knowing the fool, and what had happened the other day, there was a lot of things he could have done to make Louis mad.

"I just had a chat with Ryan," Sam said.

"Sam..."

"I didn't hurt him in any way, Louis. I promise," Sam's voice was filled with honesty, and Louis believed him.

"So, you just talked with him?" Louis asked.

"Yes. That's all." Sam paused before adding, "By the way, they're terrified of you now."

"What?" Louis asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you did quite the number on them. Even Jonathan is freaked out." Sam snickered. "As soon as I arrived at school, he asked me if you were coming today, and when I said no, he looked really relieved."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not," Louis replied, but he couldn't help chuckling lightly.

"I'm not sure either, but do you want some good news?" Sam sounded excited.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"A ton of the kids at school think you're a total badass. Especially the younger ones."

"Well, they're not wrong," Louis joked.

"No, Louis, I'm serious," Sam said. His tone was indeed serious. "They think you're awesome."

"Wait, really?" Louis' voice cracked in surprise.

"Yeah! There are some rumours going around, but rest assured they're all good." Louis could almost hear Sam smile. "Well, most of them," he added with a laugh.

"I don't really understand..." Louis said slowly.

"I don't either, Lou. But I think this is a good thing."

"I hope so." Louis sighed.

"Also"—Sam's voice became excited again—"I went up to the office, you know, to defend your honour, or whatever you nerds say, and when I got there, we saw Mrs Carter giving Ms Clarke a piece of her mind."

"What?" Louis sat shocked. Mrs Carter was never one to do anything like that, especially to other teachers. "What about?"

"You."

"Me?" Louis asked.

"Yeah, apparently the rumours travelled around to the teachers, too, and Mrs Carter wasn't impressed at how Ms Clarke handled it and just went in on her."

"Holy crap," Louis mumbled.

Louis' mind raced as Sam's words echoed around his head. While it wasn't the first time Mrs Carter had done something like this for Louis, it had never been for something this big, nor to a principal before.

Louis could remember when he first started high school and a few kids had been bullying him and another teacher hadn't been doing anything about it, Mrs Carter stepped it and gave everyone involved a piece of her mind.

One of the perks of having a family friend as a teacher. Though, Louis had also found it could be a downside. While the other teacher involved showed Louis a little more respect, the bullies only teased him more.

Still, Louis couldn't believe Mrs Carter would go toe-to-toe with the principal for him. She definitely had not been lying when she told Louis she promised his mother she wouldn't let him get into too much trouble.

"I know, right?" Sam laughed. "By the time I got in to speak with the principal, she pretty much told us not to worry and that you'd only get detention. I did jump the gun though... Sarah wanted to go tomorrow with me, but oh, well."

"So, I'm not expelled?!" Louis could have almost jumped up in excitement.

"No, you're not expelled!" Sam practically yelled, causing Louis to pull the phone away from his ear. "I almost started a riot from pure happiness! Now go and celebrate!"

"I am celebrating."

"Reading isn't celebrating, Louis!"

"You're not my mum!" Louis chortled.

"Whatever, you weirdo. I gotta go. I just wanted to tell you all that," Sam said, calming down a bit. "I'll see you at the café tomorrow. You're still having tomorrow off?"

"Yeah, I'm still having it off," Louis replied. "I'll see you at the café."

After a quick goodbye, Louis hung up the phone. A wide, bright smile spread across his face. He couldn't remember the last time he was this happy. He didn't know how long it was going to last, but he was going to savour it while he could. Digging around in his pockets, Louis pulled out his wallet and managed to scrape some money together.

As a celebratory gift to himself, Louis bought the book. He didn't care what Sam said. For Louis, that was a marvellous way to celebrate. Louis paid for his book and walked out of the store, starting his twenty-minute walk home. The throbbing in his jaw became barely noticeable as he bathed in the warm sun.

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A/N: The only purpose of this Authors Note is to tell you there is no question for this chapter... You can still comment, though. You can still comment.