Young & Beautiful

“And this was after their mum died?”
“Yep.” Niall reflects for a moment, clear blue eyes cutting through the shadow of the room.
“Yeah, no, I remember when their mum passed. Harry didn’t seem too upset about it.”
And Louis starts at that because—what??
“He didn’t seem too upset when his own mum died??” Louis repeats, perplexed. “What the fuck?
What am I dealing with? Is this a monster? Is this an actual monster? I feel like I’m Little Red
Riding Hood and I’ve just encountered the big, bad fucking wolf.”
Niall rolls his eyes, but his smile is wide. “You’re going to be fine. Harry’s all right. Maybe he’s
not all there, but he’s not dangerous or anything. Besides, you don’t even have to see him ever
again.”
“Well. Not necessarily. I actually quite like Zayn and Liam,” Louis explains thoughtfully. “The
other lads were good, too. It was just Harry that set my teeth on edge. If they offered, I’d be happy
to hang about again.” He heaves a sigh, dropping his head onto Niall’s shoulder. “What should I
do? They seem like good friends, so I doubt I’ll be able to completely avoid him.”
“Oh, they’re definitely good friends. Zayn and Harry used to be step-brothers.”
And the plot thickens.
“What?” Louis asks, his head shooting back up.
“I told you that already.”
“No you did not!”
“When you asked about Zayn—I told you his mum married Des Styles for a bit.”
“Well I wasn’t listening. How did that happen? Mira is too classy of a woman to sign up for that
mess!” And no, Louis doesn’t actually know her, but he’s seen all of her movies and that’s the
next best thing to a personal relationship.
Niall shrugs. “Dunno. It didn’t last very long. Two years, tops.”
“Shit. I suppose they’re pretty close, then. Seeing that they’re essentially brothers. Or ex-brothers.
Or whatever. Fuck.” Louis’ head drops back onto Niall’s shoulder, closing his eyes in despair.
“What’s worse is that Zayn was actually pushing us together.”
Niall’s shoulder stiffens ever so slightly. “Really?” And he does not sound impressed.
“Yeah. I think he thought it was funny or something. Are these people bad seeds?”
“All I know,” Niall says, but his voice has already returned to its normal joviality, “is that Zayn’s a
good bloke. He’s rich and powerful as fuck and his father’s a cunt, but he’s good. Liam Payne—“
“Oh, is that his last name?”
“Yeah. He’s Zayn’s boy and a good enough bloke as well. Not too sure if I trust him all that
much, though.”
At this, Louis is genuinely startled. “What? Why? He seemed so kind and welcoming. He was the
nicest person there.”