Under Coloured Trees || Larry Stylinson

16

"So... What should we do?" he hears Harry say behind him as a customer leaves the bookshop, making the little bell at the door make that pleasant ring Louis has come to love in the last few months. He likes how it sounds. It's so soft and familiar. It sounds a bit like home.

Louis doesn't even bother to stop what he's doing and turn around to look at the boy. And he wouldn't even bother to answer if ignoring people weren't as emotionally draining as it actually is. So his annoyed, bored voice is heard from somewhere in the labyrinth of shelves, filling the empty, quiet store.

"About what?" Louis innecesarily asks. He hears Harry take a deep breath behind the counter and letting the air out loudly.

"The project..."

The project.

The stupid ass motherfucking project Louis is so freaking tired of already even though it hasn't even started. It's honestly the last thing he wants to do. Not only because it would require working with Harry, that's a given. No. But because he finds it too exposing. Way to fucking go, Louis. You're literally studying to become an artist. Exposure is something you already knew about.

Well, yeah. But it's different. Making a shortfilm, a real one. One that the whole art school is going to see. One that the whole art school is going to judge. One that the whole art school is probably going to hate. He doesn't think he can do it. Because when he does, everyone will see that there's no place for him here. And it's one thing that he himself knows that. But it's a very different one when everybody around him does too.

"I don't care" he finally answers, reading the back of a random book he has never seen before.

He hears Harry sigh and he can almost physically feel him rolling his eyes, which Louis does too, by the way.

"Look, we should start thinking about like, the script and stuff, and-"

"Harry, shut up! I already said I don't give a shit about the fucking thing!" Louis bursts out, lifting his head from the books and turning around to look at Harry, who is staring at him serious, with a frown.

"Hey, I know you don't want to work with me, okay? I get it! You've made it clear" he says waving his hands in the air to emphasize his words, "but I really need to do well at this, yeah? So can we move past it?" His voice is lower at the end, like he's run out of energy.

Louis holds his gaze but doesn't say anything right away. Eventually, he shrugs "I don't have any ideas"

Harry throws his head back, rolling his eyes and covering his head momentarily with his hands before looking at Louis again. "C'mon, Louis, of course you do. How dumb do you think I am?"

"How honest do you want me to be when I answer that?"

"Shut up" Harry says, visibly starting to get annoyed, crossing his arms in front of his chest, looking at Louis with a hard glare.

Louis smirks smugly "Oh yeah, that's right, sometimes one has to shut up so the ignorant don't get offended"

Harry sighs, his cheeks filling with air as he lets out a breath. "Look, Louis, fuck off, okay? I've tried, I really have. But you don't seem to care, so I won't either. Still, we have to do the project cause it'd be grand to actually pass the subject, you know? So grow up and leave your problems aside, please". In the middle of Harry's speech, his eyes have started to get hotter and hotter until it's green flames that are looking at Louis, like some old Disney classic. And Louis doesn't feel comfortable under that sort of spotlight so he takes his eyes away from Harry's, looking down, as he hears the little ring of the bell once more. He turns around and disappears behind the shelves again while Harry takes care of the person that just walked in.