Under Coloured Trees || Larry Stylinson

4

After Niall and Louis have been properly introduced -Louis was right, he is indeed Irish- Anne Marie, accompanied by another guy Louis assumes is the tour guide, asks everyone to pay attention and all the new students start following the pair.

"My roommate couldn't come today. Said he was busy, but he'll join us afterwards" Niall says as he starts walking along with the other three. Louis feels a little bit out of place. He's the outsider in the group, after all. "He's a cool guy. A little quiet, doesn't talk much, but cool..."

Pffff. What is that supposed to mean? What does 'quiet' mean to Niall? What does 'not talking much' mean to Niall? For all Louis knows this roommate of his could be the next Quentin Tarantino because everyone seems quiet in comparison to this lad.

Niall and Liam spend the whole tour chatting about random stuff while Zayn and Louis stay behind walking side by side and listening to the guy who's explaining and showing every part of campus. Zayn doesn't talk, but unlike Louis, he doesn't look uncomfortable about it, he looks like he's really enjoying the walk, like he's deeply paying attention to what this guy, whose name is Ben, by the way, is talking about. However, Louis doesn't know for sure. Because Zayn seems to always have this look, like he's incredibly interested in what you have to say. Now obviously it could all be a facade and maybe he actually doesn't give a shit, but it doesn't feel like that. Good listener, Louis assumes. He now understands what Liam meant when he said he's used to doing all the talking.

Then Ben announces they'll be checking out the library, which is something Louis is actually looking forward to.

See, Louis likes books. He likes books better than people. Reading is like a breath of fresh air among all the chaos. It's so quiet, and Louis likes it quiet. He never feels more at peace than when he's reading or drawing. But it's not the same as drawing because sometimes Louis gets so frustrated with himself he wants to rip every single page of his notepad out. He wants to tear them all apart until they become tiny little pieces of paper and throw them all into the ocean in a rain of failure and frustration and defeat.

That doesn't happen when he's reading, though. Because the words aren't his. Him.

It's an evasion. An escape from reality. From the real world, from the real people and from the pages of that notepad that tell him "no" in bold capital letters every time he flicks through them. Because he's not good enough.

When they get to the doors of what he supposes is the library, Louis notices there's something different about the graffiti in this building. The portraits are not historical figures or musicians anymore, they're classic authors, writers from different time periods, mainly the 19th and early 20th century. And the quotes are book quotes. Louis recognizes a few.

But the inside... the inside is amazing. Louis was expecting a few shelves with some books scattered around, mainly a space destined to study, with tables and computers and such. It isn't. Yes, there are tables and there are computers, but what Louis is looking at is three floors worth of books. Everywhere. Even a bit messily organized, at least the ones around the dark corners. Louis kind of likes it like that.

He takes a look at the signs in each section. There's everything. Yeah, the classics, English literature, the Russians, all that. But also art books, graphic novels, music books, cinema books. There's a whole section dedicated to the feminist movement, a whole other one to the LGBTQ+ one. Louis had never seen so many books at once. He feels dizzy.

That's why, at this very moment, he decides this library is gonna be his favourite place from now on. First the library, then the blue tree under which he added one more sketch to his collection on his first day here.