Just a little bit of your heart ⎢Larry Stylinson

chapter 3

"You need to smile", Eleanor whispered into his ear and Louis shook his head slightly, trying to focus back on reality. Ever since his fight with Harry this morning, he'd been moody and all he could think about was Harry, Harry, Harry...

Eleanor softly nudged his arm, and he gave her a short apologetic smile. "Sorry, I'm focused now."

She frowned slightly. "What's wrong?"

Louis sighed and looked around. He was in a café with Eleanor, his "girlfriend". Since he signed the contract, Michael, his manager, made him do paparazzi shoots with her to make it seem like they were in a relationship.

"It's just... a lot going on right now."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Louis smiled slightly. "It's fine, I guess. Let's just get this over with."

He grabbed her hand that was lying on the table and continued to drink his coffee. He didn't even like coffee that much, it was just a habit he picked up because Harry used to measure it wrong, so there'd be way too much coffee left and Louis wasn't one to throw things away. Also he could sit at the table with Harry, so. It just kind of happened.

After half an hour, they were getting ready to leave and Louis got a text from Michael with a thumbs-up emoji. A couple seconds later there was another.

Maybe try to look like you're actually in love with your girlfriend... just a thought ;)

Louis pressed his lips together and turned off his phone, shoving it in his back pocket. Oh how he hated Michael sometimes. But without him, there'd be no band, no One Direction.

"Louis", Eleanor said as they sat down in the car, on their way to bring her home. "You know if there's something going on, you can talk to me, right?"

He sighed heavily and rested his head on the black leather of the car. "Yeah, I know, thanks El."

"Is this about Harry?"

He turned to look at her. "How do you know?"

"Just a feeling. So?"

Eleanor was the only one who knew the whole truth. After Louis signed the contract, they assigned her to be his fake-girlfriend. And because he couldn't talk to any of the boys from the band, least of all Harry, she was the one he turned to in comfort. It was hard in the beginning to open up to her but now she was the only one he could truly talk to.

"You're right", Louis said after a while. "But I can't talk about it, not now."

He shot a quick look at the driver, who seemed to be listening to their conversation. Eleanor nodded and pulled out her phone, quickly typing something. Only seconds later, Louis received a text.

E: So what's wrong?

He shot her a quick glance, but she just raised an eyebrow, so he typed in a response.

L: I told Harry about the contract, I couldn't take it anymore.

E: But isn't that a good thing?

L: He wants to be with me.

Eleanor looked up at him and a smile spread across her lips before she looked down at her phone again.

E: Really?? I'm so happy for you!

L: I told him we can't be together

E: Why not? I mean you can, no one has to know..?

L: I can't do that to him. He's always been a very open person and he would hate that he has to lie. Besides, it's too much pressure for him.