All I Want For Christmas Is You * LS AU

Chapter 4

TW: attempted assault

August 20th - 126 days until Christmas Eve aka Louis' 22nd Birthday

As soon as Louis woke up Friday morning he should have already known today was going to go to shit. He had woken up late because his phone had died and missed Harry's practice and his first class. Harry had sent him a few snippy messages about it already that morning.

When he went through the lunchline with his favorite salad Noah had run straight into him and made the entire thing explode everywhere. Louis did not like him at all but this added yet another tick to his list. To add some fuel to the dumpster fire that his day was becoming, a couple had a love confession in the middle of the cafeteria and found out they were soulmates when their tattoos appeared. When he recognized the guy from Harry's frat he remembered he had to go to that god-forsaken frat party tonight with Fred. He was sincerely not looking forward to that.

As he glared forward hoping he could reverse time with his mind so maybe he could start this entire day over again someone sat down across the table from him. When he looked up he realized it was Asteria from earlier in the week. She had a salad in one hand and two forks in the other.

"I saw the lettuce explosion from over there. Want to split?" She asked with a small smile. Louis gave her a kind smile in return and nodded as she sat down across from him and began to make work of splitting the salad into the two sides of the container.

"So, the frat on campus is throwing a party tonight. Are you coming?" She inquired without looking up from her important work of making sure they both had equal parts tomato and crouton. Louis rolled his eyes and nodded slowly.

"Yes, sadly. My roommate is obsessed with this girl who is going to be there so he convinced me to ask Harry if we could come."  He said as he picked up the fork Asteria offered him and started picking at his half of the shared salad. She looked deep in thought for a moment then snapped out of it quickly.

"Oh, I see. I'm going because my brother is a part of the frat and said I could come. The frat guys are hot so who am I to refuse such an offer." She winked and Louis shook his head at her in amusement.

"Hot? The boys in that frat are disgusting. The smell of that place is what I imagine the pits of hell are trying to recreate for the worst of their inhabitants." He grimaced, recalling the rancid smell of the place. Asteria nodded but seemed as though she was holding back on something.

"Well if I can get a good lay I can just bring a nose clip. So you and Harry huh? Are you guys together?"

Louis almost choked on his salad at that. Over the years they had of course gotten that a bit from their closeness but no one had asked that in a long while.

"No no no. We aren't together. Harry and I have known one another since primary. Our mums are childhood friends. He's never felt that way about me ever." Asteria nodded at Louis' response but raised an eyebrow.

"He's never felt that way about you? What about you and him?" Louis' eyes grew big then.

"Well you see-" He was gladly interrupted by Sawyer coming up behind Asteria and messing up her hair on approach. She screeched and swatted his hand away from her head. He gave a hearty laugh and sat down next to her at the table. He picked up a cherry tomato from Louis' shared half of the salad and plopped it into his mouth before he addressed them.

"Hey, mystery man. Long time no see." He smirked at Louis'.

Louis' cheeks flamed up a bit because Sawyer was admittedly really attractive and the redhead remembering their little exchange from the other day had him slightly flustered.