flower crowns // l.s.

8½

"Bitches come and bitches go, sadly. But we are the new face of tomorrow—of today! We can stop this from happening, this—this pathetic judging of one another." Louis stood on the table with a fist in the air, saying, "let's fight! Let's burn society to the fucking ground! Are you with me?"

The little kids looked terrified. One was crying and cupping their ears, saying "stop yelling!" And a little boy was standing and dancing in his own little world, shouting, "bitches. Fucking bitches. Fuck bitches!"

Madeline was so angry at Louis that Louis imagined her with smoke shooting our of her ears like a cartoon characters would when it was angry. That was Louis' cue to go, because then the teacher came in and had seen the kids going bonkers, so Louis just grabbed Mads' little brother and ran. Left Madeline behind, because it's always going to be boys against girls (and she's really pissed so maybe he'll just drive off and leave her). 

Sadly, though, Madeline caught up to Louis right when he was putting Zeke in the backseat, pulling his seatbelt safely over him right before Louis was grabbed by the back of his shirt and tugged away from his four year old pal.

"Louis William Tomlinson!"

"Oh, no," he said to Zeke unenthusiastically. "Satan used my full name."

"Louis! Stop that! All you had to do was read The Ugly Duckling to those kids and you couldn't even do that without flipping your shit!"

Louis scoffed sarcastically. "One is never too young to fight society." Louis snapped his fingers, shoved Madeline out of the way, shouted shotgun, and hopped into the passenger seat quietly. 

"You are annoying, Louis. So annoying. You act like a child and I'm sick of being your babysitter."

Louis turned in his seat and looked at Zeke, feigning hurt. "Did you hear that? Do you see how mean she is to me?" He wiped at a few tears he worked up from his amazing performance. 

"Fucking annoying!" He shouted. 

Louis laughed, turned back around, and pointed an accusing finger over in her direction, waving it around. 

"No, don't swear, Zeke," she said after pulling out of the parking lot with a sigh. "Bad words are bad and we are not bad, are we?"

"Fucking bitches!"

Louis gasped and turned to face him. "Don't drag my quotes in to this one!"

"Fuck annoying bitches, mhm. Fuck annoying bitches, oh yeah, uh-huh," he sang.

"Louis! You made him put into a song, now he'll go around singing it at home, I hate you. I literally hate you so much."

"But, Madeline," Louis pouted. "Bad words are bad and we are not bad, are we?" He mocked, snorted, and turned to look out the window, mentally saying, "I'm so good."

The rest of the car ride was silent because Madeline was too angry to talk to Louis and Louis was too stubborn to try and break the silence himself. Something about hanging around children make him act like them himself. He likes kids, likes making them laugh and turning them against everyone but himself. Kids are great and cute and innocent. Sometimes Louis wishes he was a kid because it was all so much simpler then. He didn't have to try to get over a boyfriend or ignore phone calls purposely or worry about paying any bills. It was nice then. So, so nice and Louis is actually jealous of Zeke and his friends. He would never say that aloud, though. 

"All right, Zeke. Stay good," Madeline said to him. Louis didn't realize they were already at Mads' parents house until now.

He shifted around in his seat to look at the little kid and give him a thumbs up, winked at him, and said, "good luck fighting society." Zeke laughed (even though the kid didn't know what society was) and nodded, hopping out and slamming the door closed behind him before running up to his house. 

"Not walking him to the door?"

"So my parents can shout at me for teaching him is first bad words? No, thank you."

Louis' top lip lifted up slightly. "I told you not to swear in front of the kid, Mads. Jesus."

"I—"

"Aye, captain! There'll be a storm a brewin', ya scallywags. Best be storin' the rum down in the basement, eh? Aye! Aye!"

"Louis, what the—"

"That's Captain Louis, to ya, lassie."

"Oh, Jesus, Louis. Seriously?"

Louis gasped and Maddy shook her head. "Did you just take Jesus,  our Lord and Saviour's name, in vain?"

"I hate my life," she muttered to herself.

+++

Louis was possibly drunk and crying and alone outside on the cool grass. He ran outside because more people were coming inside, so much to the point that Louis couldn't even inhale without it feeling like he was inhaling someone else's breath instead of his own. Okay, he's really drunk and doesn't know what to think and he really is crying. 

"Louis!" That was definitely Zayn. 

Louis just rolled onto his side on the cold grass and whined and whimpered, shaking his head at Zayn even though he hadn't said anything but his name. 

"Jesus, mate, you a'ight there?"

"No," is all Louis could say. He heard Zayn plop down beside him, so Louis fully rolled onto his stomach and rubbed his nose into the dirty, cold ground. 

"Why're you crying?"

Louis just shook his head, which had him rubbing his nose in the dirt even more. He's probably going to look like a chimney cleaner from Mary Poppins when he gets up later on. 

"C'mon, bro."

"Bro! Bro?" Louis shouted, turning his head so that he could look at Zayn. "Stop going to L.A., that places lingo is rubbing off on you." Louis started crying even more.

Zayn sighed, shook his head, nudged Louis with his foot, and sighed again when Louis whined and told him to stop. "You say it, too, don't act all innocent."

Louis choked out a sob.

"Okay, just tell me what's wrong. I've never seen you cry so much before."

Louis decided that turning on his back and looking up at the sky will calm him down. So he did that, inhaled and exhaled, placed a hand behind his head and placed a hand on his heart, and then sighed contently. "Wanna know why I'm cryin'?" Zayn hummed out a yes. "Because . . . Because . . . Female ferrets . . . they just . . . they die if they go into heat and can't find a mate!" Louis yelled out the ending, and a new wave of sadness crashed onto him and he started crying again.

"Wha—?"

"They just . . . die," Louis sobbed out. "Don't you get it? The ferret is me! I'm in heat and I'm going to die without a mate!"

"Dear God—"

Louis cut him off again. "This is so unfair, so completely unfair."

"Lou—"

"I just want someone."

[hiiiii!! okay sorry if you don't like authors notes, oops. i dont really do them because i feel like it disrupts the story's world but im just !!!!!! exclamation marks is me rn. thAnk you for all the love and support youve given this story!! gah i love seeing the comments nd votes and the title of the reading lists u guys put it under either make me laugh or make me go "awWw." just wanted to say thank you wonderful ppl for takin the time to read this and i'll try to update when i can/once a week???? maybe??? idk i'll see how it goes ok srry if this is long bless u if youve read this far i gotta blast, jimmy neutron outie]

p.s. is the new cover okay??