best kind of bad something » l.s.

part four

The annual carnival pulled up into town toward the end of July. Harry was excited, planning a big night of meeting up with all of his friends, and he was also bringing Louis with him. Louis wasn't a fan of these things. He used to be when he was younger, but it was the same shit every year and he was bored of it at this point. The rides never changed, the games were always annoyingly hard to win, and they still wouldn't serve him beer at the beer truck, so he always had to settle for lemonade.

Harry was still insistent that Louis came with him this year because he wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with him and make out when they got stuck at the top. And who was Louis to deny a perfectly good makeout session? Harry was timing it exactly during sunset and it endeared Louis how much Harry ate up all this romantic shit.

They walked hand-in-hand to the carnival, the smell of cotton candy and popcorn in the air while people shrieked from the Tilt-a-Whirl and laughed while running from one part of the carnival to the other. Louis stayed close to Harry, who led the way inside toward where his friends were. When they found them, they were next to the stage as some lady sang country songs. She had a cowboy hat on and everything.

Liam was the only one of Harry's friends who gave Louis a proper greeting. The rest ̶ Sophia, Jenna, Ian, and Dylan ̶ kept their distance, watching him warily. Fucking nerds. The group of them walked toward the food stands to grab something to eat first. Harry got hot dogs for both him and Louis and a plate of fries to share. Once they finished, they all grabbed iced drinks (lemonade, of course) and walked toward the game booths. There were still two hours to sunset, so they weren't going to venture over to the rides yet, per Harry's request.

The first game booth they went to they found people shooting water into a hole, propelling rainbow-colored bears upwards, racing each other to get to the top. Louis sat it out as did Harry, keeping close to him and holding onto him while watching the crowd. Liam sat on the seat beside them, getting ready to hold his water gun at the right angle. They were still waiting for the other seats to fill, though, and Liam turned to the two boys to chat.

"Hey, Louis. I heard about what happened at the mall," Liam said conversationally.

Louis' eyes snapped over to him, heart rate picking up. He could also feel Harry leaning in to hear what Liam was saying.

"My mom works at Macy's, so the employees were talking about it. It's a good thing they didn't press charges. That could get so messy, apparently," Liam continued, oblivious to what he was saying and in front of who. He probably didn't know that Louis didn't tell Harry. Louis was hoping not to have to do it at all. Little did he know that the employees at the mall were fucking gossips and the word was spreading pretty quick.

"Press charges?" Harry asked, voice quiet as he looked between Liam and Louis.

Liam nodded slowly, suddenly aware that Harry didn't know, and he eyed Louis warily as he answered. "They didn't. They decided to just give community service. But they usually do press charges when it comes to stolen items. That's the policy as far as my mom knows."

A loud, shrill ring came from the game, signaling that they were getting ready to start. Louis stared at the ground, wishing it would open up and swallow him whole because he was not looking forward to whatever it was that was about to happen with Harry. He knew he would have to explain and he really didn't want to. He looked at everyone playing, laughing and cheering as they did, and then felt a tug on his hand.

Here goes nothing.

Harry didn't take him far. There was a tiny opening between two tents where vendors were selling homemade goods and it was private enough for them to slip away. Harry stood in front of Louis, letting go of his hand and looking at him with a firm gaze.