Charade

I hate waking up in the morning especially from a hangover. My head is pounding and the room is spinning. It especially doesn't help when someone is banging on my door like a damn cop.

“Morgan! Wake up it’s almost noon!” My mom knocked hard on my door over and over.

“Okay. I’ll be down, just quit banging on the door Jesus Christ.”

I lazily hop out of bed and open the curtains and the sunlight blinds me. I hop into the shower to get rid myself of the strong stench of alcohol. How much did I drink last night?
When I finally make it downstairs I find that my dad is gone.

"Where's dad?" I ask with a mouthful of banana

"He had to go down to the Salem Sheriff's Department."

"Wait why?" Confusion and concern cloud my thoughts. When did he leave? When will he be back? Is he ok? Why did he need to go there?

"How much did you drink last night?" She questions

"It doesn't matter, why did Dad have to go the sheriff’s station?"

"Mr. Mallard’s ..." She trails off

Once her voice fades out the events of last night start to come flooding back to me. They found Mr. Mallard’s body. Mr. Mallard was my dad's boss when we lived in Salem. My dad used to write the sports column in the 'Salem Daily' which was the daily newspaper in Salem. Mr. Mallard was the head editor of the newspaper. He would always brag about it at the work parties and say how he’s “Mr.Bigshot”. The room is silent and the only noises I hear are my thoughts. A few minutes pass before my mom speaks again snapping me back to reality.

"While you were sleeping a boy stopped by, I think his name was Liam. He said he should be here around one thirty or two to pick you up to go to the soccer game. Which is in...?" She stops to look at her watch "In about an hour."

"Uhmm ok. I'll go get ready I guess."

She nods and walks away to do who knows what. I didn't really question the whole Liam thing I mean he kind of intimidates me, so I’ll just go with it. I know Louis will be there and at the thought of him my heart rate picks up just a little, and I don't know why when he's not the nicest person to me.

After I’m finished getting ready I sit in the living room scrolling through my phone waiting for Liam to show up. I'm getting a glass of water when there's a knock on the door. I make my way to the door and open it to reveal Liam wearing the school's soccer uniform.

"You ready?" He asks a smile on his face

"Yeah. Mom I'm leaving!!" I shout up the stairs for her to hear

We get in his car and he starts to drive to the school. We don't talk much the whole way there. The only noise to be heard was the screeching of the tires on the asphalt and the radio.
Once we finally made it to the school Liam and I part ways, he goes to the field and I go to the bleachers. There aren't very many people here to watch the game which is surprising due to the fact that it's the first home game of the season but after all it is a Saturday afternoon. I don't recognize any of the people that are here. Melissa and Emily aren't here either so I find a seat towards the front by myself. I spot Liam and Louis stretching together and I can't bring myself to look away from Louis' biceps as he stretches out his arm. I look away as the coach blows his whistle and yells out

"Tomlinson!" Louis looks confused but he jogs over to his coach anyway. I curiously look on and try to read their lips. The conversation seems to be getting intense because Louis starts to throw his arm sup around in the air. The coach point to the locker room and Louis walks off towards it. I sit there confused as to why the coach made Louis go to the locker room, but then my confusion clears as I see Louis come out in his regular clothes and his equipment bag slung over his shoulder. He angrily makes his way to the bleachers and sits next to me.

“What are you staring at?” He snaps at me making me realize that I was staring at him.

“Sorry. Just odd that you’re not playing. Aren’t you supposed to be the star player? “I ask him defending myself from his rude tone.

“I am! My stupid English teacher told my coach that I didn't turn in my essay and so I can’t play since it was a big grade. Which is absolute bullshit because i gave it to Liam to turn it for me?” He puts his head down from the disappointment of not playing the first home game. I would feel shitty too if I didn’t get to play my first home game of the season. But it is his fault for relying on someone to do your shit for you.

“Maybe he just forgot to turn it in?” He picks up his head after what i said and the realizing something when Liam is on the field.

“THAT FUCKING BASTARD. HE DIDN’T TURN IT IN BECAUSE HE FORGOT HE DIDN’T TURN IT IN SO HE CAN PLAY MY SPOT ON FIRST STRING!” He shouts making me jump a little. I doubt Liam would do such a thing. They are best friends right?

“Come on Louis don’t be silly. He wouldn’t do that to you. You guys are really good friends after all.” I try to make him relax so he wouldn’t cause a scene.


“Trust me this is typical Liam. Plays all innocent so he can get what he wants. He’s just exaggerating. He’s just mad he can’t play the stupid game. Liam is really sweet which does make it suspicious. I clear my thoughts and try to focus on the game ignoring Louis ranting on about how he and Liam were four and how Liam took his Legos away from him.
I see Louis stand up in front of me crossing his arms.

“Come with me.” He demands.

“What no.”

“Oh come on don’t be such a prude. You're just going to keep watch for me. Like you’re interested in this stupid game.”

“Actually I am. So if you'll excuse me I’m watching a game here.” I push him to the side so I can focus on the game. After about five minutes of Louis' eyes burning holes into the side of my head I give in.

“Fine I’ll go but if we get caught I’m telling them you threatened me.” I stood up and followed him to the boy’s locker room.

“What are we doing actually?” I ask him having no idea what i agreed on to do. I really hope it’s nothing bad like snort crack or even worse give him a blowjob.

“I just need you to keep watch outside while I look inside Liam’s bag for my essay. I know he has it in here. “I roll my eyes. Why can't he be a normal boy and just get over it
He goes into the locker room and I try to ignore some dirty looks thrown my way from people passing by. I can only assume because I’m standing outside the boys locker room.

The other team scores two goals and the half time of the game is about to end. I should probably warn Louis that there is only five minutes remaining in the first half, so I peek my head in through the door.

"Louis, there's only about five minutes left in the first half. If you haven't found your essay by now the teacher probably lost it."

"Morgan... come here...'' His voice is laced with concern

Before I enter I check around to make sure nobody sees me go into the boy’s locker room. He's sat on a bench in between a row of lockers. Liam's bag is in between his legs on the ground. The bag is literally overflowing with papers. I go and sit next to him to help him look for his essay but once I see what's on the papers, I regret coming in here.

Pictures. Every single paper has a picture of me on it. Some of me at the grocery with my mom, or my dad and I watering his fruit trees in the back yard. My hands start to shake with the sudden realization that Liam has been stalking me. I started to get this ache in my stomach. I can feel Louis staring at me.

"Are you okay?" Louis asks

"No, why does he have one million pictures of me? This is scaring me.”

"You don't need to be. I won't let anything happen to you." His hand now rests on my shaky
shoulder.

I tear my eyes away from the plethora of photos to look at him. The look on his face is serious, he's not messing around. He is 100% serious. In a million years would I have thought that Louis actually cares about me? He then moves closer to my face and I thought he was going to kiss me but he just rests his forehead on mine.

"I promise." He whispers

We cleaned up the mess Louis made and headed out back to the bleachers. The game ended by the time we were out. i kept my distance from Louis so it wouldn’t seem like we did something together because two people just don’t go into the locker room to find out that you have a stalker.

I see Liam walk towards me. I really don’t want him near me. I feel so awkward knowing that he tracks all of my moves. I avoid eye contact with him knowing he has his eyes planted on me.

“What’s the matter Morgan?” Oh nothing just that you take pictures of me every day and know what I do every single day.

“Nothing. Just uh.. I’m not feeling well. It’s the weather it gives me stomach aches.” Lies.

“Oh if you want I’ll take you home?”

“NO! I mean no, it’s okay I’ll walk. Either ways long walks make my stomach aches heal.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a ride it would be a dick move if i just let you walk?”

“No its okay Liam. I need the exercise anyways. Thanks anyways.” I give him an awkward hug and started to speed walk so I would be in the same area as him.

No way was I going to be in the same car with that stalker. Who knows if he already collected strands of my hair so he can make a duplicate out of me? But why does he have this weird obsession with me? I’m not cool nor am I interesting. Why me?

I heard a voice call me making me snap out of my thoughts. i turn around and see Louis jog towards. Part of me was relief that it was Louis. If it were Liam I would have ran my ass off and moved to Alaska.

“Morgan. God you walk fast.” He said trying to catch his breath

“Well yeah I didn’t want to be near that psycho.”

“Me neither. That’s why I was trying to look for you. Do you need a ride because I'm not letting Liam near you. God knows while you're walking he might pick you up in a rapist van.” I’m surprised that he cares so much. I recall him not giving me the friendliest greeting when I first arrived here.

“Um yeah sure.” I follow him to his car. He owned a red 1996 Toyota Celica.

“Nice car.” I smile.

“Thanks. It was my dad’s car but now it’s mine. Since he has a way nicer one so why not give it to me.”

We made small talk throughout the ride. It seems like we have a lot more in common than I did with Liam. He's really funny and he helped get all of this off of my mind for a little while. When we pull up to my house my mom I saw my mom carrying a luggage bag to her car. I'm confused on what she’s doing. She doesn’t travel by herself unless it’s some business trip which rarely happens. Louis and I get out of the car and walk towards my mom.

"Where are you going?" I ask grabbing the luggage handle from her.

"Salem. It's just overnight, nothing to worry about. I left you some money for pizza or something. It’s on your dresser. I gotta go, I love you!" She kisses my forehead making her way to the driver’s seat. Off she went to that bloody town.

"Well that was" he thought about the proper word to use "strange...”

"Yeah. I know, well any way do you want to stay and order a pizza or something?"

"Um …I would love to." He smiled

After we ate the whole large pizza Louis suggested that we watch some movies on Netflix. Around the middle of the second movie I started to drift off into sleep, and not noticing that my head leant against Louis’s strong shoulder. I realized what I just did when I felt Louis shift uncomfortably.

"You should probably get some rest." He says starting to get up

"You're leaving?" I say disappointment audible in my voice.

"Yeah, I mean you’re obviously tired. You were starting to fall asleep"

"Well, uhm... I was uh wondering if maybe you could stay a little bit longer. I mean only if you want to.” “It's just that I would feel a lot safer with you here." I say looking down rubbing the back of my neck

"Well if you insist." He says smirks.

I shake my head at him and lead him upstairs to my room. Not what you‘re thinking. I arrange a make-shift bed out of multiple fluffy blankets so the hard wood floor will be a bit more comfortable for him. We both crawl into our beds and it quite for a while. I'm not sure if he's still awake yet but I still break the silence first.

"Thank you for staying. I really appreciate it."

"No Problem. Now go to sleep, it's been a long day."

I roll over onto my side and slowly drift off to sleep but something stopped me from sleeping. My phone screen lit up. It’s probably my mom just checking on me. I reach for my phone from my night stand. I drop it as soon as I read the message.

ANONYMOUS:

Stop hiding. It's not going to work,

Notes