My Life Is Worse Than Yours...

Chapter Five

Harry met Louis for either a meal or a drink at least once a week now. He enjoyed Louis' company and was suspected Louis enjoyed his, though he would never admit it. One evening they had chosen a small restaurant where a band was playing and due to a few drinks, they had given in to the urge to dance; Louis twirled Harry around as he bent his arm awkwardly behind his back until he spun. They used to rate different restaurants and pubs they went to, but that dropped off when they couldn't keep track of the number of places they had visited. Harry cringed at the memory but smiled as he cleared up the dirty plates and mugs from the kitchen side.

They went on walks during their lunch breaks, Louis was becoming increasingly angry with his job and Harry spent these hours trying to convince him to quit and find something he liked. He thought Louis liked whining about his work because of how much he would do it, but it was painful for him to see Louis in this state. Their friendship had grown drastically in recent months. Harry had even met some of Louis' sisters.

One afternoon during their lunch break, Louis had steered them towards a coffee shop in the centre of the city which had a queue outside the door. Louis had assured him it was worth it so Harry agreed to wait in but not with out complaint as he moaned about the number of other shops around. Harry's hair had grown longer, an awkward length below his ears that he was unsure how to style; he tried on his John Lennon hat recently but threw it off when he opened the door and Louis had burst out laughing. He liked it longer, but hated the stages between it being short and being a length he could do something with it. At the moment, he just had to leave it alone and let the wind deal with it. When they finally got to the counter, Louis was greeted by squeals as the two women behind the glass screen reached over to grab at his hands; one ran around and jumped into his arms before returning - they were very busy.

Harry looked around the room as the two embraced. It was a quaint place, but extended much further back than Harry had originally thought; there was even a staircase at the back which indicated a second floor of seats. It was crowded with people of all sorts, families with small children and large pieces of cake, business meetings with cups of coffee and folders with loose sheets of papers exchanged, students with piles of books and scribbled notes. There were large armchairs, small stools and every possible variation of chars in-between; Harry had guessed that they had bought what they could and accepted any gifts from others or taken whatever deals they could scavenge. Somehow, it worked and everything looked as if it had fit.

"Harry," Louis said as he turned to face him. "These are my little sisters, Phoebe and Daisy."

"Ahhh," Harry gasped in realisation as he smiled pleasantly at the two behind the counter. They waved at him quickly before looking back at what they were doing. "So this is why you wanted to come here."

"Well, I have to support the family business."

Harry chuckled as he turned his attention to the girls. They were both beautiful, identical twins with long dark hair, Phoebe had hers pulled back into a ponytail, while Daisy had hers in a single French braid down her back. Harry spoke to them about how he knew Louis and if their business was always this busy; they were swamped so he didn't get the answer immediately. Daisy handed them their orders and they turned to leave the shop.

"Lou!" One of them called and Louis turned on his heel. He caught a small brown package that had been thrown at him and held it up in the air as a sign of a thank you as he pushed on the heavy glass door. "It's on us, see you later!"

Harry took a swig from his cup as Louis dug through the paper bag; he could see why the queue was that long. It was a fantastic drink but his attention turned to Louis quickly as he made a noise of delight as he pulled out two pastries from the bag and handed one over.