Public holidays have always been pretty bittersweet for Louis. On the one side, he was free of school for a while and could enjoy this peaceful time. But on the other side, he was reminded of his lonely life. Celebrating Easter alone and seeing everyone else with their families was like a cold and hard slap in the face. So yeah, bittersweet.

"What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be heading to the airport?" wondered Louis as he spotted Maria in the kitchen.

"I'm not going anywhere, Louis" stated Maria.

"Why? Are you taking a different flight?" asked Louis confused.

"We are gonna celebrate Easter together, my love. And now stop standing there and help me" informed Maria him.

"What? But didn't you planned on celebrating with Gemma and her family?" was Louis shocked.

"Plans can be changed".

"But not because of me. Go and have a great time with your girlfriend. I'm gonna be okay" assured Louis her.

"And that's what I'm afraid of," said Maria with a sigh.

"You make it sound like I'd do something stupid like drinking myself into the hospital" snorted Louis.

"Don't even joke about that. I'm staying and you can't change it" made Maria clear.

"And I thought I was your boss" huffed Louis.

"Maybe but not today. So, please do something to the living room while I make us some delicious food" asked Maria of him.

"Can I help you cook?" looked Louis at her with big eyes.

Normally she would sass him off and tell him how bad of a cook he was but not with that face and look in his eyes. "Sure, Darling".

Surprisingly Louis didn't set the kitchen on fire and they created an amazing meal for the two of them. The Easter Sunday afternoon was spent with a lot of laughter and great conversations. Louis was really grateful to have Maria in his life. She was family to him and she made him feel less lonely. Something not many people were capable of.

"M, what did you tell Gemma and her family why you're not coming by?" wanted Louis to know.

"I simply told them I'm staying with you because it's more important and they directly understood" answered Maria.

"There's something you're not telling me" eyed Louis Maria with mistrust.

"I hate you" glared Maria at him. "They offered to bring you with me and all celebrate together like a big family at the Styles' house but I knew that would've been the worst idea ever. I hinted at this when I talked to Gemma and she understood and the rest is history".

"I ruin everything" pushed Louis his plate away.

"No, Harry ruined everything. You're just trying to cope with it. This would be hard enough without your past and your former relationship to Harry which was horrible. Your behaviour is totally normal" contradicted Maria surely.

"Did I mention that I love you?" smiled Louis at her.

"I love you too, Louis" smiled Maria back at him.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. They shared a confused look and stood both up to open the door. To Louis' big surprise he was met with Niall and his family all smiling at him.

"Happy Easter, Tommo" fell Niall into his arms.

"What's going on, Nialler?" was Louis fighting for air.

"What does it look like? We're storming your house" joked Niall.

"If you're okay with it we'd love to spend the evening all together. You're practically family for us" let Maura them know. Louis knew that also meant 'we know you're alone and we want to be there for you' and he loved them for everything they did. Niall's family was like his second family besides Maria and his sisters.

All six of them together, which included Niall, his mother Maura, his father Bobby, his brother Greg, Maria and Louis, situated themselves on the living room couch and decided on watching that weird comedic movie of the animated Easter bunny because it was funny and wouldn't ruin the mood in any way. And they were right with it. Laughter was the only sound in the house for the time being. 

"Maria, you should have seen this. Niall and Louis really were some strange personalities when they were kids" remembered Maura after the movie. 

"I'm not sure they're not anymore" chuckled Maria.

"We're pretty special. Thank you very much" huffed Niall offended. 

"Sure, Honey" winked Maura at him. 

"The two always barked into my room just to jump on my bed, pretend to be superheroes and annoy me. You didn't have your own bed, huh?" told Greg them. 

"What kind of a bad little brother would I be if I didn't annoy you all day long?" grinned Niall. 

"Nice one, Niall. What's your excuse, Louis?" faced Greg Louis now. 

"Peer pressure" replied Louis innocently. 

"Of course. You never put weird ideas in my brother's head" snorted Greg. 

"No, never. I don't know what you mean" denied Louis. 

"So, when you jumped off the roof into the hay bale when we visited this farm it wasn't your idea because you thought you were a mix between Peter Pan and Spiderman?" challenged Greg him with a smirk. 

"I AM Peter Pan" exclaimed Louis.

"That's true. Tinkerbell is always around him" nodded Niall his head wildly. 

"I wanna try your drugs". 

"Greg" admonished Bobby his son playfully. 

"They're not any better nowadays. I've seen things people wouldn't believe me" laughed Maria entertained. 

"How funny" rolled Louis his eyes. 

While Maria started to tell Niall's family a story, Louis took out his phone to check if his sisters had texted him again. But when he stumbled over a post of his sister Daisy on Instagram Louis' whole world stopped moving. Apparently his father and his sisters were all celebrating Easter together in London and nobody had told him about it. No, they didn't even think about inviting him like he wasn't part of their family. 

"Excuse me" mumbled Louis before he stood up and went upstairs into his room. He let himself fall down on his bed and buried his face into a pillow and just wanted to die. 

"Talk to me, Louis. Let it out" whispered Niall into his ear, who had followed Louis upstairs immediately. 

"They're celebrating without me. They don't want me anymore. Never did in the first place. I'm alone" hiccupped Louis brokenly and handed Niall the phone. 

"Sh. I'm sure there is an explanation" tried Niall to calm him down, drawing small circles on his back. 

"They just don't care about me. I'm not part of the family anymore. There's your explanation" sniffed Louis. 

"Oh, Louis" sighed Niall sadly. 

"I'm really jealous of your family, Niall. Your parents get along so well even though they're divorced. Your family is happy and love each other. You're very lucky" sat Louis up in bed. 

"I am, that's true. I love my parents. I admire how they manage to still be friends and be there for Greg and me whenever we need them. That's rare" smiled Niall fondly. 

"Very rare. Just look at my biological father. He doesn't give a shit about me. My stepdad neither but I'm not his real son, so are we surprised? Not really. At least he cares about my sisters" tried Louis to sound indifferent but failed. 

"Mark cares about you and I'm sure there is an explanation. There has to be" patted Niall Louis' knee. 

"Life just simply hates me" shrugged Louis. 

"I see where you coming from. Life was hard on you these last months. How are you holding up with everything?" Niall wanted to know. 

"An honest answer? Sometimes I feel like I'm falling apart, some days I'm just madly pissed off and other times I feel nothing. That outweighs most of the time now" answered Louis honestly for the first time. 

"You feel nothing?" hooked Niall worriedly. 

"Yes. I'm just numb and really really tired. I don't have the energy anymore to keep that perfect act up and pretend I'm okay. I don't have enough energy to argue with Harry 24/7 about nothing. I don't wanna anymore. I want it to stop but I don't know how" explained Louis to him how he really felt. 

"I didn't know you felt like this. I barely see you outside of school nowadays and it feels like I'm letting you down. As a friend, as your brother, as family" said Niall sadly. 

"You're not letting me down, Niall. I'm pulling myself back because I can't handle to see Harry that much. I'm sorry I'm hurting you with this. I never attended to do so" replied Louis ashamed. 

"I understand, Louis. It's hard to see Harry. We can just do something alone like we did before all of this stuff happened. Just you and me" offered Niall to him. 

"Sounds like a plan" smiled Louis thankfully at him. 

---

The rest of the short Holidays Louis spent mostly with Evan and Josh after he had that Nouis day, which was strongly needed. The three of them had become quite close friends by now and Louis loved them to pieces and had to laugh when he thought about how they all met. 

Right now he was sitting in the living room and read a book when he heard a rustling sound outside. He knew it couldn't be Maria because she was gone for the night and nobody else would sneak around the house in the dark. He stood up to grab for a baseball bat nearby and walked to his backdoor. Carefully he stepped outside and looked around but he saw nothing.

Suddenly something moved above him and the next second someone was directly in his face, hanging from the roof. Louis screamed automatically out of fear but the person screamed back.

"Niall, what the hell are you doing?" snapped Louis at his best friend.

"You weren't answering your phone" replied Niall as if it was normal to hang off a roof.

"He was whining for hours and here we are now but he was faster on the roof than I could react" appeared Zayn next to Louis.

"What are you guys doing here?" wondered Louis.

"Its the last day before school starts and we wanted to see you. Haven't seen you in a while" explained Liam, who now came over too.

"Yeah sorry. Come in" scratched Louis his neck.

"In what?" cackled Niall like a child.

"Niall, I swear I'll hit you" threatened Louis him with the bat.

"Do you even play baseball?" asked Niall but he was ignored.

Inside they sat down on the couch and the boys told Louis what they did over the holidays in detail. He also noticed how they left Harry out of everything even though he knew they had met up probably.

"And what did you do? We tried contacting you but it didn't work out" Zayn wanted to know.

"Oh, umm nothing special. Just reading and stuff with Evan and Josh. Sorry, I didn't answer my phone" cleared Louis his throat.

"You spent every day with them?" hooked Liam.

"Almost".

"Sounds like you're good friends," remarked Zayn.

"Zaynie, I may spend a lot of time with them but you guys are still my best friends" Louis let him know.

"But you pushed us away for weeks now" frowned Zayn.

"I know and I'm sorry. I just kinda needed that space and time away from everything" mumbled Louis.

"From Harry?" asked Liam knowingly.

"Mostly but also everything else. It was just too much. I felt numb and wanted to change that. With Evan and Josh, I had a lot of fun and no deep talks about Harry even though they know. They simply distracted me and I really like them. It felt good to be away and don't keep you from being friends with Harry" explained Louis himself and his actions.

"You don't keep us from being friends with Harry" claimed Liam.

"Would you have dropped everything for me after he fucked up again?" checked Louis knowingly.

"Ummm yeah I guess".

"See? And that's great but unfair to Harry. He needs you too, especially Liam. Don't push him away because he fucked up once again" said Louis.

"You know I haven't seen Evan and Josh in a while" smirked Niall at him.

"Next time you guys are in too if you want" smiled Louis.

"Sure" smiled Zayn back.

"And don't worry. I get what you mean. I'll be there for Harry. I promise" assured Liam him.

"Thanks but from tomorrow on I plan on being me again and just leaving Harry and my feelings for him behind and be his friend again. It's over. I was hurt but I'm okay now. He already fucked up. He can't do anything worse".

-------------A/N--------------------------------------
I really wanna apologise for being so forcedly funny in these last few chapters. I hate it but I tried to find a contrast to Louis' broken mental state and decided on humour which only works when I don't try... I hope you can endure it...

Question of the Chapter: Did they really forgot about Louis?

Please vote and comment on what you think. Love you guys ❤❤❤