Brokedown Palace

The door opened after a few minutes, just before I was about to turn around. I was met with the green eyed boy from the pub almost a month ago.


"Is Louis here?"


My voice came out strong, I wouldn't let anybody see any sign of weakness in me. Not anymore.
Before he could answer, I saw Louis appear at the top of the stairs.

He didn't say anything and neither did Harry, he just stepped aside and let me in.
I awkwardly walked into the beautiful house and took in my surroundings.

It was nothing like the house Louis used to live in, and it was strange to think of how far he has come since.He looked down at the luggage in my hand and motioned his head to follow him down the long and dimly lit corridor.


He lead me to a door, and opened it.


"Dylan, I need you to know that I don't need you to talk to me right now. You can stay here as long as you need, but please nothing you're doing is fooling me and eventually you're going to break and I will be there for you when you do. I love you no matter what."
He turned to leave when I didn't answer,
"How can you tell?"


My voice slightly smaller than I had meant.


"Your eyes, they used to be blue, and now they're grey. It's like when the clear blue sky is hidden by clouds. You know that it's there, but it needs to rain before the clouds can go away and the blue sky can appear again."


He said without turning around, his words always were more beautiful than anyone's which is probably why he was so good at his job.


I was shaken from my thoughts when I heard the door lightly close, I unzipped Cat's bag and let him out to only scoop him up and lay him on the dark blue comforter.


I stripped my clothes off leaving me only in my underwear, feeling the events of the day weighing me down.
I climbed into bed, and my mind went blank when my eye lids grew too heavy to keep open.
*****************************************************
I was awoken by a soft knock on the door, and it slowly opening.

My heart rate increased and I quickly grabbed the covers to cover my exposed body.

Louis poked his head in, "I just wanted to talk to you about a few things." He said quietly.


"Yeah of course" I hoarsely replied.
"Do you wanna talk a little bit about why you're really here?"
I sighed, thankful that he was talking about this instead.
"The man that I was renting my house from, he uh- he passed. He didn't have a will or anything so I wanted to leave before it was foreclosed. I don't have enough money to keep it. I just need somewhere to crash until I find a new place to stay I guess." I said not wanting to get too deep into what my life was like now, especially when the death of him was still fresh in my heart.


Louis seemed skeptical but he simply nodded his head, "Okay," He breathed. "I want you to stay here permanently. And since you came here and didn't run off again, clearly a part of you does too."

"I couldn't do that to you Lou, I don't deserve that."

"Like hell you don't. You're staying and that's final. I want to work on this friendship more than anything and I feel like we need a fresh start."

If only it was that easy, I thought to myself.

"Yeah, I'd like that." If I was going to stay I needed to pretend like it was possible to become who I was before, who we were before, for all he knows I'm just still in mourning and I will never let him think anything else but.


"Now get up and shower you smell quite terrible, and I'm bringing you to the studio to meet the lads, can't let them think I'm living with a bum." He said with a smile.

The same old Louis, " I don't smell that bad..." I said when I thought he was out the door,
"Yes you do!" his childlike attitude could be hears in his masculine voice.

I laughed and grabbed a towel making my way to the bathroom.

I let the hot water rinse over my tense body reddening my skin, my scars lining my stomach standing out looking like ivory against in contrast.

I shut off the water, and stepped out and grabbed my towel. As I wrapped my body in the white fluffy material, the door flung open.


"Hey Lou, do you know how long it takes for cherries to go bad?"
My loud yelp interrupted the low and raspy voice,
"Jesus I'm sorry I thought you were Louis, I'm Harry." He reached out a large hand.
My face bright red, "I know who you are, but maybe nows not a great time for formal introductions." I glanced down at my towel.


"well there's nothing to be embarrassed about love," he said back with a grin.

"Harry leave her alone you can meet her, CLOTHED, at the studio. Remember I want her to stay, so let's not try to scare her away on the first day."

"Well looks like I'll see you later then Freckles," he winked at me and walked out of the door.
My face was still hot from embarrassment, from the awkward encounter and the nickname Harry had called me, as I kept my head down and walked past Louis.

He just chuckled and grabbed his keys off of the counter, "I'll be in the car!"
I threw my long hair up in a pony tail, and put on a black tank top that doubled as a dress with my old beat up white converse.

The fierce beeping that came from the driveway caused me to neglect makeup. I grabbed my sunglasses off of the floor where I had left them the night before, said a quick goodbye to cat and ran out to the car.

My heart skipped at the smiling boy in the drivers seat.
I knew that I couldn't live this lie forever, but to see him happy was all I wanted right now. I couldn't hurt him. Not again.

Notes