[Louis]

"Louis, don't forget to make sure you've packed all your things. We're leaving at four in the afternoon, when school and work are finished, alright?" My dad reminded me when I was just about to exit the apartment and go down to the bus stop.

I didn't want to answer him because I honestly couldn't care less about this stupid move, but I didn't want to be rude to my dad either. He was the only one I had after all. "Okay," I muttered before closing the door behind me, jogging down the street to the bus stop that was around the corner.

The place was crowded with people once I got there, which wasn't exactly unusual. I lived in the center of Holmes Chapel, where almost everybody hopped on the bus that took us to the only high school around here. The place was practically bound to be crowded, although it didn't go more than a few hundred people to the school.

What was sad, though, was that none of my closest friends lived around here. They lived on the other side of the city, also the side I was going to move to today. That was honestly the only good thing about moving there. I was going to be closer to where my friends lived. Other than that, there was no good thing about it. At all.

"Oi, Louis!" Someone hollered when I was just about to come to a halt. I turned my gaze up to see Ed standing a few yards from me, a smile on his face. He was a guy on the football team who simply got along with everyone. I seriously didn't know anyone who had something against him. He was just that guy everybody liked, including me.

"Hey, mate," I greeted, plastering a smile on in return.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, probably to shield them from the cold outside. "I wanted to ask you when practice starts today since we switched times last week and all."

"Oh," I grimaced. "It's at four, but I'm not coming today. Unfortunately, I'm moving to this house across town in the afternoon..." I trailed off.

His eyes widened as if realizing something. "Right! I read your tweet last week. Man, I feel sorry for you. I wouldn't want to move to a family I haven't met before either," Ed said sympathetically, patting my shoulder.

"Yeah, it kind of sucks. However, I'm eighteen in about a year, so I don't have to stay there for long before I can move to my own flat or attend University or whatever," I shrugged. Really, I was just trying to point out the 'not so bad' things about the move, but I doubted I sounded convincing. I literally hated it with every fiber of my body. I didn't want to live in a house full of people I didn't know. Why couldn't they move to our apartment instead? I mean, then I wouldn't have to leave everything behind. Though, I didn't really like the thought of having a new step brother and sister, nor a mother for that matter. I liked it the way it was right now, with only me and my dad.

Ed gave me a small smile. "Well, I hope it turns out well for ya, mate," he said before walking back to his other friends. "And thanks for telling me what time practice is."

I just gave him a nod in return and let out a sigh. Running a hand through my fringe, I looked up to see the bus turning the corner at the end of the street, moving in our direction. The moment it stopped in front of us, I hopped on and started walking along the bus, fist bumping with the people I recognized from school before sitting down next to my girlfriend in the back. "Hi, love," I greeted, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.

Eleanor beamed at my touch, leaning her head against my shoulder as she took my hand in hers, threading our fingers together. "Hey. So, you're moving today, huh?" She hummed, her smile turning into a pout instead.

"Unfortunately, yeah. This will be the last time we're riding the same bus together, except for the times we're sleeping over at each other's places, that is," I told her, not wanting to meet her gaze. It was actually really sad because I enjoyed meeting Eleanor in the mornings and just have a long talk with her until we hopped off the bus at school. It was our daily routine, something I had grown used to, so it was nothing but sad to see it coming to an end.

"I'm going to miss it," she mumbled, as though she had read my mind.

"Me too."

For the rest of the ride, we stayed silent, enjoying our last bus ride together and just each other's presence, something we seemed to do quite often. Niall and Zayn had even pointed it out a few times, telling us how weird it was that we could sit in silence without it being awkward. The thing was, things were never awkward with Eleanor.

We departed with a kiss once we arrived at school, and I went to my locker to get rid of my jacket. On my way there, I stopped to have small conversations with students who claimed they knew me, although I probably only knew who half of them were. That was just typical for me, though. People always wanted to go around and brag about the fact that I knew them. Not that I complained. I liked the attention quite a lot actually. There were definitely no bad things about having people appreciating you like that.

I was just about to reach my hand out to put in my combination when I heard a familiar voice across the hallway, speaking to whom I presumed was his friend, Liam. "Yeah, they're coming today at four. Really looking forward to it actually, although the guy seems like an asshole."

Raising an eyebrow at his words, I shoved my jacket into my locker before slamming it shut. I started making my way through the hallway, purposefully bumping my shoulder into Harry's when I passed him. "Watch where you're going, loser," I muttered under my breath, sending him a glare.

He stumbled a little by the push but managed to catch himself before falling. "Speak for yourself," he snapped back once he noticed who it was.

Without thinking twice, I pushed him against the wall of lockers, trapping his body between it and myself. "Maybe you should shut that pretty little mouth of yours, huh?" I taunted, raising my eyebrows as if waiting for an answer.

He merely narrowed his eyes, clenching his jaw together. "Maybe you should just stop picking on me, seeing as it's to no avail anyway?" He tried to push me off of him, but I tightened the grip on the lockers behind his head so he couldn't move me anywhere.

"How about no?"

"How about you let me go so I can get to first class?" He fumed, pressing his books tighter against his chest as if to refrain some of his anger.

Rolling my eyes, I leaned in so close that my lips were brushing against the curls by his ear. "That won't be necessary because I'm out of here anyway," I whispered in his ear before departing from him, turning on my heel to walk away without looking back at him.

That annoying son of a bitch. I fucking hated him. He was the only one at our school who even dared stand up to me. Not that I usually picked on people, but if it were to happen, I was sure no one would have the guts to defend themselves, which was probably because most of the people here looked up to me and kind of feared me, in a good way.

Harry was an exception though, and I guess that was because of our past or whatever. However, he was still annoying, and I hated him for trying to look cool and impress people by defending himself. Of course I hated him for other stuff too, but that wasn't very important. Him trying to act cool was what bugged me the most nowadays.

The minute I stepped into Math class, the bell rang. I walked over to Niall who was sitting alone at a desk, his attention focused on his phone in his hands. Plopping down in the seat next to him, I put my hands over my face, already wanting the lesson to be over. "Hey, mate," I mumbled, slowly but surely getting his attention.

"Louis," he smiled before turning his eyes back to the screen.

Raising an eyebrow, I leaned over to get a view of what he was doing. Apparently, he was texting someone, and I assumed this someone was a hot girl, otherwise he wouldn't have ignored me like he just did. "Getting some, eh?" I asked, nudging him in the side teasingly.

"Shut up, Lou. And I don't know, to be honest. I've been texting this girl for a while now, but every time I try to hint at something, she acts like nothing. She's so oblivious it's freaking creepy, I swear," he said, shaking his head with a dry laughter.

"Don't worry about that, mate. Before you know it, she'll be on her knees, begging for you to fuck her."

Niall rolled his eyes. "We'll see," he chuckled.

Before I could open my mouth to say something else, Mr. Storm opened his annoying mouth and cut everyone off. Just his voice made my eyelids go heavy, so it didn't take more than a few minutes until I could feel myself zoning out, thinking about other things like football and girls or whatever was more interesting than Maths, which were quite a few stuff, to be honest.

"Mr. Tomlinson?"

Feeling someone wave a hand in front of my eyes, I snapped my head up to meet Mr. Storm's brown, stern eyes. "Excuse me, what?"

"I see you weren't listening like usual, Mr. Tomlinson," he hissed, glaring at me.

"Of course not. Why should I listen to something I know won't be useful in the future anyways? You know people don't need Maths once they've graduated, right? I mean, not all of us are going to become successful scientists, doctors, architects or whatever, you know? And I certainly won't, if you haven't figured that out yet," I winked, earning a few 'ooh's from students in the classroom.

Mr. Storm's face went pale as he gritted his teeth together. "I don't want to hear a single word from you throughout the rest of the lesson, is that understood?" He snapped, pointing a finger in my direction.

Raising my hands, I sent him a smile. "Believe me, that won't be a problem."

Zayn, who was sitting at the desk in front of me and Niall turned around to give me a high five. Feeling rather proud of myself, I gazed around the classroom to see the other people's reactions to what I had just said. Most of them were smiling encouragingly, but one of them stood out from the rest, and of course that someone was Harry Styles. Instead of smiling, he was glaring at me as if what I had just said pissed him off.

Well, too bad I didn't care about his stupid opinion anyway.

_____

I was standing in the doorway of my room, looking at the emptiness that remained of it. There were no furniture left, just a shell with the same dark blue walls I'd had since I was five. My bed was in the moving truck that dad had driven to Anne's place in the morning to get everything fixed until we arrived in the afternoon, along with all my other stuff.

It was a rather emotional moment for me because this was the room my mum would always wish me goodnight in at nights when she was still around, and also the room she had once organized along with my dad.

Taking a deep breath, I forced the tears back and smiled weakly at the sight of my empty room. This was probably for the best though. Dad was happy, and that was all that mattered, right? What I felt about all this didn't really matter to anyone. I was just the son that dad would bring along, who didn't really have a say in anything.

I observed the room one last time before walking to the hallway where dad was waiting for me with his suitcase in hand. "You ready, son?" He asked sweetly, knowing this was hard for me, but he didn't know just how hard it really was. I had always been pretty good at hiding my true feelings, and I assumed this was no exception.

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered, walking past him, out of the apartment that I would never see again, ever. "I'll be in the car."

Dad nodded and walked into the flat to check so everything was as it was supposed to one last time, while I walked down to the vehicle and slammed the car door shut behind me before fastening my seatbelt. I then plugged my earbuds into my iPhone and turned on my Spotify list to block the world out.

A few minutes later, dad joined me in the car and put the key in the ignition. "Lou?" I could see him say by the way his lips were moving.

I pulled out a bud of my ear and turned to him. "Yeah?"

"Everything will be alright, okay? I'm sure you're going to feel at home at Anne's place in no time. The house is really great, and I know you'll get on with her kids. Obviously it's going to be tough at first, but I'm sure you're going to make it, right?" He smiled encouragingly.

Despite the fact that I didn't agree with any of that, I nodded my head. I didn't want to disappoint him or make him feel bad for doing this. He was my dad after all, and although I didn't always agree with his decisions and could snap at him at times, I felt like it would really break him if I didn't even try my best to make all this work. Presumably, he deserved this chance with Anne after everything that had happened in our family.

"Thank you, Louis." He placed his hand on my thigh, giving it a few taps before retrieving it again.

During the rest of the car ride, I listened to music without uttering a single word to him. I mean, even though I wanted him to be happy, I still wanted him to know that I wasn't very fond of this decision. I didn't want to move in with this family, and I wanted to show him that somehow.

"Lou, we're here. You coming inside to meet your new family?" He asked once he'd parked the car in what I assumed was the driveway of Anne's house.

The place was quite huge, to be honest. It was bigger than my dad and I's old apartment, probably multiplied by at least five. The house was white with grey frames and doors, and you could see from even in here that the place had two floors and a large garden. "Yeah, I'm just going to have a quick smoke, alright?"

Dad scowled at my words, but in the end just clenched his jaw together and gave me a curt nod. "Make it real quick if it's so necessary. They have all been dying to meet you," he muttered, opening his door to get out of the car.

Once he shut it behind him, I was left in silent, something I had longed for ever since he joined me in here. Pulling my earbuds out of my ears, I exited the car as well and walked over to the porch before pulling out my cigarette packet from my jacket pocket along with my lighter.

I had been a smoker for about a year now, something I wasn't exactly proud of. I always told myself I would never try it out seeing as it was really bad for your body and you could die from it. Yet here I was, seventeen years old and addicted. If it weren't for Zayn though, I probably wouldn't have even tried it out. He was the one who had urged me to do it at one of the many parties we'd been to, and eventually I couldn't refrain myself. However, I knew it was wrong to blame it all on him because it was my own decision after all. He had just been there to push me to do it.

Taking one last drag of the cigarette, I dropped it to the ground and stomped on it before opening the front door and stepping into the foreign house. The first thing I was met with was the smell of a freshly cleaned home. It was so strong it almost made my nostrils tingling. The next thing I was met with was a rather high-pitched voice I had been getting quite used to hearing lately.

"Louis, I'm so happy you are finally here!" My so-called step mum entered the entryway where I was standing, my hands stuffed in my jeans pockets. Before I could process what was happening, I was engulfed in a tight hug, her arms wrapped around my torso. "Oh, don't tell me you just had a smoke, young man. That kind of stuff is bad for you. Haven't your dad taught you better?" She scolded as she pulled away, scrunching her nose up a little at the smell.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "Uh, no? He doesn't really mind," I muttered awkwardly. Maybe having a smoke before entering my new home wasn't the best idea I had ever come up with...

"Oh well, we'll talk about this later. Now, my two kids are so excited to meet you. They're waiting in the kitchen along with your father," she told me, giving me a small smile.

Nodding, I took my jacket off and slipped off my shoes. Then, against my will, I followed Anne to the kitchen only to be met with a sight I could never have guessed I would see. There, at the kitchen table, my dad was sitting opposite a brown-haired girl who looked just like the woman behind me but a few years younger, and beside her was none other than the person I hated most in the entire world sitting.

I let out a loud gasp, and he did too once he caught sight of me standing in the doorframe.

"Louis?"

"Harry?"

______________________________________

Kind of a cliffhanger, huh? I'm sorry.

What do you think is going to happen?

Pauline .xx