Shift ☆ Louis Partridge

5 | Tewks

☆
[y/n]

_

"LOUIS, YOU'RE STEPPING ON MY FOOT."

Well, no, he wasn't stepping on my foot, his bicycle was. The ratchety thing with barely any air in the tires was pressing down onto my toes as the bus drove down the road a few blocks away from my destination.

I wish I could say the majority of the journey was romantic, with him sweeping me off my feet with his flirtatious remarks, anecdotes, and overall charm, but that would be a lie. He stood in the aisle with his bike, eyes trained onto the window awkwardly.

Well, until his bicycle rolled onto my foot.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry," he said, eyes widening when he noticed, "are you okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I can buy you some ice, if you want."

I froze.

Not because he offered ice, but because that sentence was oddly familiar. He asked me that the first time I shifted. I vividly remembered rushing off a train, having him follow after me, and him asking me that very same question. It was like getting slammed by a truckload of déjà vu.

I panicked.

"Louis, we're on a bus," I said, "where would you get ice?"

He smiled, pushing his bike to rest against the wall of the coach, and swinging off his satchel in one swift tug. He dug through it, pulling out a small, white pack. I widened my eyes. He held it out to me. I was simultaneously confused, impressed, shocked, and in awe all at the same time.

"I bring ice packs in my bag for emergencies," he grinned, tilting his head to the right cutely, "sometimes skating can leave a bruise."

Is it possible to find someone any more adorable?

I took the pack from his hands, giving him a good smile in return. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to keep it on my foot, so I slid a hairband off my wrist and held the ice pack over the bridge of my shoe as I flicked it on. I nearly lost my balance on the bus as I did so, but I managed not to fall.

Physically.

I managed not to fall physically.

Emotionally, I already did that. I've been falling for Louis Partridge since September, and I didn't see it stopping anytime soon.

"Smart," he remarked, staring down at my ice-pack-shoe-hairband contraption I had made, "I would have just stuffed it down my sock."

I laughed. "That works too."

He opened his mouth to respond, but the bus came to a pulling stop, sending us leaning towards the right and back again. His bike nearly fell off the wall, but he caught it with his left hand—sometimes I forgot he was left-handed.

"Here we are," he said, jutting his chin out towards the door of the coach, "Abbots Lane."

Nodding my head, I made my way to the front, exiting the bus with an icepack tied to my foot. #newstyle? Louis followed after me, his bicycle nearly whacking someone in the leg as he stumbled off the bus. He mumbled a few sorrys, and managed to make it out without a possible lawsuit.

"Queen's Bouquet," I said to him, pointing at the shop behind me, "best flowers in all of London."

Louis shrugged his shoulders. "I hate to disagree, but I don't think that's true."