My Life Is Worse Than Yours...

Chapter Ten

Something different turned into fewer and fewer interactions. Their daily coffee shop visits slipped quickly into weekly, then once a month and then they stopped altogether. Harry walked into Daisy and Phoebe's shop on his own once and was met with the sad eyes of the twins who searched around him in vain for their brother. Harry didn't know if Louis had told them, but he assumed he did, so he stopped going altogether. Harry missed Louis' family as much as he missed his best friend. He was no longer met with tackling hugs as he pushed through the doors of the cafe, no longer woke up to a message from Jay wishing him the best and no longer heard Mark in the background telling Jay to  "stop annoying Harry with your constant phone calls". They never annoyed them, in fact, he had saved them and listened to them all on particularly bad days.

Losing a best friend is much harder than losing a relationship. There was nothing Harry didn't know about Louis, almost nothing that Louis didn't know about him; this was not something that had ever happened before, even with Luke. He had even told Luke that his mother had died, for what purpose he wasn't sure, but he kept secrets for those four, five years. He didn't have to pretend when he was with Louis.

Harry walked the length of the park up and down, wincing as he crossed the spot where he and Louis had first agreed to become friends, officially. The autumn frost was thick underfoot as he wrapped his jacket tighter around himself, treading carefully on the iced over puddles on the path. He pushed the thought from his brain as he approached the small bridal boutique on just the other side of the park and pushed through the double doors. Before he had a chance to register his surroundings, a short girl with long ginger hair had wrapped her arms around his neck and released a scream of joy into his neck. He gripped her waist and smiled back. 

"Hi Lils." Harry mumbled into her neck. He looked up from her back while still clinging to her and caught Marienette's eye who grinned happily at her, but he could see a twinge of sadness in her stare. No, Harry thought to himself. This was their day, he was not going to ruin it with their problems; he was here as a friend to help out and dumping his problems on them was not going to help anyone. Lily let him go and Marienette wrapped him into a second hug; he didn't realise how much he had needed these hugs. 

He laughed as he pulled back and they guided him through the mass collection of dresses to a small private room with white walls decorated in green vines and fairy lights. Two purple curtains were drawn back across two dressing rooms with a large mirror situated between the two. Harry took a seat on the large grey sofa that faced the dressing rooms and pulled up his legs so he sat cross-legged and moved a silver cushion onto his lap to rest his arms on. 

"Okay," he said as he clapped his hands together and looked up, grinning proudly, at the women who stood before him. "Tell me how this is going to work." 

"So," Marienette began as she slipped her hand around Lily's waist. "Lily and I have both narrowed it down to five options each. You are here to help us whittle it down to one." 

"We don't want to see each other before the wedding," Lily said as she kissed the back of Marienette's hand and Harry's heart fluttered happily. "You are in charge. We will move when you tell us, so that one of us is in the fitting room and the other is out here. And we will take on board your opinion; your fashion sense is clearly superior to ours."

Lily gestured to Harry's outfit which was something that Louis had once referred to as a 'lesbian mum'; his hair was tied in a bun, a white turtle-neck jumper, black skinny jeans and a long black coat with his favourite brown Chelsea boots. He felt his face drop at the thought of Louis, pushed the thought from his mind and beamed widely at Lily's orders. Marienette and Lily disappeared into their changing rooms and Harry waited for one of them to be ready. Marienette was first and emerged in a long, sleek gown that had sleeves that draped off her shoulders and had a long slit down the side of her leg. Harry's heart skipped a beat as his eyes scanned her; he loved it, but something was missing.