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Epilogue

It was a quiet walk back to the car after rehearsal got out. The boys stuck around a bit longer for some chilling time, but Louis made some comment about being tired and I agreed so we headed out early; not before a abhorrent sigh from Liam that I couldn’t help but laugh at. 

Poor kid. That’s what you get for being smart.

Rehearsal was fun and the weariness of the boys about our amicable mend wore off about five minutes after our arrival and things were back to our roughhousing way. Though, hilarity ensued when Zayn went to tie a joke fuzzy tie around Louis’ neck and ended up with smudges of makeup on his hand. Luckily, everyone was laughing too hard, so no explanations were needed, just a smug look from me and a nervous glance from Louis.

Truly speaking, I missed the boys and all their craziness. You can only stay bolted up in a hotel for so long before you drive yourself mad from loneliness, but at the same time it did me a lot of good. I got to reflect about a lot of things about myself and my future and most importantly, what is happening in my life right now with Louis and the band.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Louis stealing a glance at me so I turned to meet his eyes which caused him to blush and look down sheepishly. I smiled at his timidness, given everything that transpired earlier that afternoon.

We got into the car and sat there silently for a moment. I could feel the childish air buzzing between us. Now that we were completely alone, I felt like a shy second grader who just held hands with their crush for the first time, and I’m pretty sure Louis felt something of the same extent.

“Ready to go?” He said suddenly, breaking me from my thoughts.

“Uh yeah, let’s go.” I laughed and reached to put the keys into the ignition only to realize I didn’t have them.

“My car, my keys, Styles.” He said as he pulled them out of his pocket and handed them to me. I hadn’t even realized I had sat myself in the driver’s seat. It was such a habit that I drove us around everywhere.

I felt my face flush and he laughed sweetly. Both of our hands were holding onto the keys, but neither of us were letting go, though there wasn’t much attempt to be fair.

I brought my free hand over and grabbed the keys from our hands, but kept my left hand on top of Louis’ as I started the car. I glanced down at our hands and arched my eyebrow as if to ask if this was okay to do.

To my relief, and to some extent, joy, he responded by interlacing our fingers and resting our joint hands on the console between us.

I cleared my throat to lessen the possibility of my voice cracking-which I was almost 99% positive that it was going to after Louis’ little move- and gave the keys a quick turn before looking at him. 

“Right, let’s get home, yeah?”

He nodded in agreement and we pulled out and headed down the street to the complex. 

The entire drive back, I could feel Louis’ eyes constantly looking down at our hands and then smirking contently at his lap before doing it again a few minutes later.

“I’m not going to magically let go, Lou. My hand will still be fitted right into yours. I promise.” I said with a grin, once again managing to channel that courage I had channeled what seems like forever ago when I wiped that silly pasta sauce off his mouth, even though on the inside- both then and now- I was scared shitless of what was going on because it’s just so surreal. 

This time, he was the one blushing. “Oh…okay, I know. It’s just kind of…cool, I guess?” He stumbled to formulate his feelings into words.