if you want me to write a poem (about you) [e.c]

chapter 4

There are dark purple stains on Eleanor's fingers from the berries she's been eating and the sun is bright yellow and hot in her hair.

Louis doesn't think he's ever been quite this brand of happy.

"The air here smells amazing," Eleanor says, and Louis has to hold back a laugh. The farmer's market smells like a lot of people and food slowly warming up in the sun, but if Eleanor thinks it's amazing, then sure it is.

"Sure, babe," he says, and she punches him lightly in the arm."Shut up, it's about atmosphere," she says, and then, "Where do you think you'll be in five years?"

"Uh," Louis says, caught off guard.

Eleanor laughs. "I don't mean, like, serious business. I mean, in five years I want to have dyed my hair some crazy colour just because I could, and I want to have seen as many countries and taken as many pictures of flowers as I can fit in, and I want to be squishing my toes in sand somewhere, and I want to smile a lot." She looks at Louis expectantly.

"I want a cat," Louis says because it's the first thing to pop into his head. "I want to play football somehow, and I want to have one of those expensive as shit fountain pens. And I want to smile."

"Is that it?" Eleanor asks.

Louis shrugs, then says, "I want to actually see as many sunsets and sunrises as I can."

"I like that," Eleanor says."I like you," Louis counters. They're words that could have a weighty meaning, but here, in the middle of a crowd of people, hands interlinked and the sun beating down on them, they're light and teasing.

Eleanor grins. "Come on, I want to check out the crafts section and then maybe get more berries.""You're the boss," Louis says, letting himself be dragged along.

Eleanor Calder @EleanorCalder
I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair. x
10:34 PM - 7 Apr 13 -

Eleanor Calder @EleanorCalder
sick of boys.. @Louis_Tomlinson just marry me? .x
8:01 PM - 25 May 13

Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson @EleanorCalder
Sure, babe, but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you pertaining to the first part of your tweet...
8:08 PM - 25 May 13-

Louis hadn't known it was so hard to find specialty flowers or whatever, but after an entire afternoon of travelling from flower shop to flower shop looking for one specific flower that Eleanor wanted to see in person and take a picture of, he's well enlightened.He'd spent the requisite amount of time complaining at Eleanor, but he definitely doesn't mind spending time with his best friend, watching her click the heels of her flats together impatiently when they stand in queues and silently stare over her sunglasses at him on the bus.

Besides, she'd let him drag her into various thrift shops and gamely thrown every brightly coloured piece of clothing she found at him.

(Not that he'd specifically requested she find brightly coloured things, that was a conclusion she'd come to by herself.)

They hadn't ended up finding the flower, but Eleanor hadn't really seemed that bothered, cheerfully suggesting they get McDonald's for dinner and then head out to the lake.

"I took a picture of the sunrise that day at the beginning of the summer when we all camped out here," Eleanor says in the car, McDonald's takeaway precariously perched in her lap. "So now I want to take a picture of the sunset in the same place at the end of the summer. It's ridiculous, but--"

"No, it's cute," Louis says, glancing over at her. "It's a good idea."

"Yeah?"
"Yeah."

They spread out a blanket on the sand to sit on. Eleanor crosses her legs in front of herself primly, which Louis thinks is hilarious. It doesn't really go with anything else about Eleanor, especially the way she's devouring a packet of chips and licking salt off her fingers.