Rollercoaster

Ducks

Louis shoved the rest of his breakfast bar in his mouth and stepped out of the door, putting the wrapper into his jacket pocket. He locked the door and started making his way down the stairs, eyes glued to his phone.

One thing that Louis despised about being on the top floor of the apartment (apart from the hell of a long trudge every time he left the house) was that he would have quite a high chance of meeting another neighbor along the way. Five floors of overly jolly and forever excited neighbors that somehow found Louis' business to be their most important concern. The only way to avoid their overdramatic cheerful waves was to leave so early in the morning, before anyone had even woken up.

Of course, that didn't always stop the other, younger people from getting in his way.

"Good morning!" came the enthusiastic call from that one dreaded person on the third floor. Louis had to stop himself from rolling his eyes so far back into his head that he would see the inside of his brain.

"Morning, Eleanor," he said, faking a bright smile. He continued walking down the stairs, hoping that their little conversation was over. It was not.

"You headed to the gym?" Eleanor asked, skipping down the stairs to catch up with him.

"No, er, I'm going off to meet my Mum, haven't seen her in a while," he improvised, trying not to look at the girl.

"All the way to Doncaster? No wonder you're up early," she giggled. "Well, I'm off to the gym, apparently the pool's finally been fixed."

"That's great," Louis nodded.

"Though I think its a bit stupid, I mean, who would go swimming in October?" she continued. "Then again, one of my friends sent pictures of her at the beach, but I still think it's crazy."

"Yeah, it's crazy," he mumbled, getting more and more irritated by the second. Eleanor's blabbering continued all the way down the long flights of stairs that seemed to last a mile.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later, Louis," she said sweetly when they finally stepped out of the apartment. The violent October winds slammed into their faces, blowing the girl's hair all over the place and whacking Louis straight on the face.

"Oh sorry!" she laughed, stepping away from him. "I'll be off now, bye!" Louis smiled and waved, finally rid of the annoying minion.

He wasn't going to see his Mum, not today anyways. Jay was a full time midwife and hardly had time to be a full time mother, but Louis never seemed to mind. At least that's what he told everyone.

He was heading to the lake, a nice walk and a coffee before his morning shift was an ideal, relaxing morning. He walked down the usual route to the park, listening deeply to the soft music in his ears. There were no lyrics, just soft, peaceful tunes that set the scene for his relaxing nature park.

He smiled once he arrived at the lake; he was always one to admire nature's small wonders. The park was pretty much deserted, there was only one couple sitting on one of the benches by the lake. Louis' plans for a coffee were smashed when he noticed that the small café wasn't open yet, but was happy to wait for half an hour to be their first customer.

He walked around the lake's perimeter, hands dug deep into his pockets and music at full volume. The winds were quite violent, but Louis didn't care at all. He didn't have long hair that whacked him in the face or anything, so apart from his stinging cheeks and reddening nose, all was good.

By the time he was back at the café, it was open and was already serving the couple he had seen before. He bought himself a chai latte and sat on a bench, watching the ducks dance across the surface of the lake. His hands felt blessed against the hot drink, and he pressed one of them to his cheek after it had warmed up.

Finally he felt the relaxation he had wanted to feel since that morning when he made the plan. The hot drink complementing the shivery weather, the ducks swaying across the lake leaving small ripples behind them, the soft and melodic music in his ears, sweet coffee on his tongue; it was perfect.

For about three and a half minutes.

"Alright there?" came a voice from his left. It was muffled due to his airpods being in, but he could still hear its delicate deep drone.

He turned to see a man, more like a boy. Louis tried not to crease his eyebrows. He was stunning, of course, maybe even make it to the front page of a fashion magazine. Only if he hadn't put himself together like that. His brown curls would look stunning if he let them fall onto his face, swept towards the side slightly; rather than slick them back with a bandana. He could remove the piercing in his lip and ears and actually get some sleep to make those dark circles disappear, and he'd easily get a modelling contract. Louis scrunched his nose.

"Yeah, I'm good," he responded irritatedly, turning back to the lake. Why should he talk to an obnoxious stranger anyways? It was polite, but unnecessary.

The boy sat down on the other end of the bench, and Louis found himself forcing his eyes to stay on the lake. He could see a glimpse of him shuffling around and pulling things out of his bag from the corner of his eye, and it completely knocked him from his gentle, peaceful mood he was in.

"Not brilliant weather, is it?" the boy murmured awkwardly, which Louis chose to ignore, pretending not to hear. He was having the time of his life till this prick showed up, and he's not going to bother to hide his irritation.

The stranger stayed silent after that, sitting a couple feet away from Louis on the other side of the bench, scribbling something down on a notepad. Louis was still irritated by his presence, but was grateful that he didn't need to have an Eleanor-level discussion about her grandmother's new cookie recipe or something.

After about five minutes or so, Louis downed his remaining coffee and got up, ready to head to the library for his shift. The nearest bin was right next to the boy, and although Louis had no intention of looking at what he was scribbling, he couldn't help but snatch a glance as he tossed his cup into the bin.

His eyebrows raised when he caught sight of a drawing, a sort of sketchy line-y drawing of a skeleton's hand, holding a very well-shaded rose. It was quite great, perfect shading and the scribbly texture gave it a great tonality. Louis could probably write an essay about its every detail, and by doing so, he didn't realise that he had been staring.

A/N

Heyyyyy how u doinnnnnnn

Well i know i barely update this but i promise i will do it more often, it gets hard with school and stuff coming in the way but ill try my best.

This is sort of the real beginning to the story?? Idk the other chapters were sort of an intro that gave context to the characters just so theres equal points of view. I'll probably be switching povs a few times but yeah

Anyways bye i hope ur having a good day if ur not then i hope tomoro will be better anyways ily bye