Mystery Buyer (L.S)

Eight

Louis had reached home and immediately headed to his wardrobe. What the hell was he going to wear?! His wardrobe pretty much consisted of jeans and tshirts. He had been sitting on the side of his bed, staring at the open-doored wardrobe for at least an hour, trying to piece together an outfit of some sort. Just anything that looked a little more outgoing than his usual sense of fashion. Getting nowhere he ran his hands through his hair just as his phone chimed with a text message. He lay backwards and stretched to reach his phone from his bedside table.

*I'm glad I didn't cross any lines. I wouldn't wanna scare you away so soon. You don't have to explain anything, don't worry about it. And it's really up to you whether you pay me back but just know that I don't expect you to. Since I didn't have the guts to message you first, I'm gonna leave my number here. Feel like it would be a bit easier than messaging over Artsy. I'll leave it with you how you want to respond though of course, or if you even respond at all. Hoping your evening goes well, Louis.
P.S. I very much hope you do choose to respond. No pressure. X*

As he read the message his phone had chimed again with another message, this time from Fran. He smiled to himself about Harry's. Damn, this boy gave him all sorts of feelings. Of course, he again didn't know how to respond properly, though wanted to do it himself this time, so gave himself time to mull it over. He checked Fran's message in the meantime.
*Call me Louuuu*
He called her, putting the call on speaker realising he still hadn't come close to choosing an outfit.

'Hey Louuu! I'm just wanting to make sure you're not bailing on me?' Fran said down the phone. She was speaking louder than usual and Louis thought she may be drunk or at least a little tipsy already.
'Heya, no no I'm not gonna bail, I'm just getting ready.'
'You're not ready yet?!' Fran seemed to louder making Louis laugh a little.
'Dude, its only 5pm.. I thought you weren't coming till 7.30? Besides, I have nothing to wear...'
'Lou, you always look good, why are you stressing out?! Imma come over now and help you, okay? Okay! '

Before Louis could reply, Fran hung up the phone.

About 30 minutes had passed before Louis' buzzer went off. He knew it was Fran as no one ever came over any other time. He buzzed her, unlocking his door and opening it ready to greet her.
Fran came into his view, jogging up the stairs and had obviously started the drinking already. She joyfully hugged Louis as she came inside, then headed straight to his bedroom to route through the wardrobe, dropping he bag onto the sofa as she passed.
'Okay, so what do we have in here, what are we dealing with?'
Louis followed her a little reluctantly. He had no idea what she would make of his clothing choices. She was wearing a cute dress. Not to dressy but not casual like he work clothes. Although, she dressed it down a little more with converse. Fran always looked great in whatever she wore though!
'Oooh, these is nice!' Fran squealed, pulling out some light grey skinny jeans. They had small rips in the knees and little doodles/writing in random places. She handed him the jeans and told them to put them on while she kept looking. Louis went to his bathroom to change into the jeans and came back to around 15 different tshirts on his bed, as well as a few checked shirts.
'Those jeans look so good Lou, honestly! Really love those!'
Fran made Louis feel happy about himself pretty much everyday. He's never had a friend like her before and he had never had a friend come over to his place before. He liked it.
'These two are my favourite tops...' she said, holding them both up. '..which do you think?'
Louis pointed at the white one of the two. Fran grabbed a green and navy blue checkered shirt and hung it on the same hanger as the tshirt.
'There we go, outfit competed' she smiled as she spoke, handing the hanger to Louis.

Louis headed to the bathroom again to change, checking the outfit chosen for him in the mirror and he liked how it looked. He found himself wondering if a certain person would like how the outfit looked, and more importantly if they would like how Louis looked in the outfit. He stopped his own thoughts as he remembered he hadn't replied to the text from earlier. He decided to do it now before he went back to Fran to save any embarrassment. He copied and pasted the number Harry had given him, creating a new contact and saving it as HS.
*Hey, its Louis, um Louis Tomlinson. I'm sure you may have more than one Louis texting you. Texting is definitely easier, my internet isn't the best at times. I'll pay you back, I promise. And you couldn't scare me away, I don't think. It would be more the other way around. My evening should go okay, spending time with a friend. I hope yours goes well too!*

He checked himself out in the mirror once more, styling his hair a little, before heading out of the bathroom. Fran was standing in his kitchen area on her phone, probably texting someone and behind her was two glasses with about an inch of what looked like water in them.
'There he is! Look how great you look!' Fran squealed as Louis walked over to her. 'So... Good luck shot?'
Fran handed Louis one of the glasses and he now realised it was Vodka.
'Uhh, I don't really drink. I'm most likely the biggest lightweight you'll ever meet.' Louis mumbled.
'Even better!' she said, handing him the glass. It's good to have a good time Louis. You don't have to drink alot and I PROMISE I'll look after you!' Fran stared at Louis with a grin, waiting for his reply, ready to shot the alcohol as soon as Louis gave the go ahead.
'Fine, fine...' he sighed, smiling a little.
As soon as he finished speaking, Fran brought the glass to her lips and drank the shot, Louis following in her footsteps. He screwed his face up at the taste while Fran pretty much didn't react at all.
The pair spent the next hour chatting and Fran took a few photos/selfies which Louis didn't have a say in. Fran practically forced another shot on Louis before it was time to leave. After that it had reached 7.30pm and the taxi with Fran's friends had arrived to pick them up.

-

The car ride was loud. There was 4 girls including Fran plus Louis. They played music through the AUX cable with permission of the taxi driver and were singing and dancing the best they could whilst being sat down with seat belts on. All of them were really friendly towards Louis although that didn't mean his anxiety or shyness was any better. Fran could tell and gave him a reassuring smile every now and again.
When they arrived at the party, Louis offered to pay for taxi fare since he had a little extra from selling the drawings, but they had already paid prior to picking him up.

They all headed to the main doors, Louis at the back following Fran. The building was a block of apartments, really nice ones, and it seemed that two of them were holding the party. The doors to both apartments had been left open, as if to let people go in and out as they liked. Louis followed Fran around, not really knowing where to go since he didn't know anybody else. She got them both a drink, not telling him what was in there although Louis could tell it was a mix of a few different things and it smelt strong. She also gave him another shot of vodka.
'Relax' she whispered to him, nudging his side gently with her elbow.
Louis smiles at her. She was right. He was so awkward in social settings, no wonder he didn't have real friends or know how to make them.

Fran managed to convince Louis to join her team for beer pong , even though he warned her that he wasn't going to be very good. They played two rounds then Louis headed to the bathroom, checking his phone whilst there. His sight was a little blurry at this point but he noticed he had a text from his new favourite notification. He hesitated before clicking to read the message as he new he was feeling tispy at this point. However, the tipsy feeling made him feel brave and he decided right now was the best time to read and reply.
*I only have one Louis texting me, believe it or not. And even if I did have more I'm sure you'd be my favourite. You're not going to scare me away, I assure you. I hope you have a good time with your friend. X*

Louis had started typing his reply almost immediately. Alcohol made him brave and his anxiety faded away.

*Oh, your favourite? I don't think I've ever been anyone's favourite before. I'm really glad I won't scare you away. Fran is making sure I'm having a good time, so is vodka.*

Louis left the bathroom and wandered around the two apartments looking for Fran. He was drunk at this point. Not a messy falling over kind of drunk but his vision was definitely effected now and all his worries about not knowing anybody had finally left. He headed to the kitchen and grabbed himself another serving of alcohol from the pre-mixed punch. He still didn't know what was mixed in there but it didn't taste bad anymore. He then sat on one of the sofas where their were a few people hanging out. It was around 11.30pm at this point. He chatted with them and they played some drinking games, then Fran ran over to him. Finally! She ran towards him, jumping onto him to sit in his lap and gave him a huge hug.
'Where have you beeeeen?!' she shouted over the music. 'Come on, come! We're having some shots then you're dancing with me!'

Again, Louis couldn't answer before he was pulled up and dragged towards the kitchen. He downed the shot much easier this time and they ended up having another one straight after before going to the space where everyone was dancing. Sober Louis would have never had the guts to dance in public, not ever. But hes glad his worries had disappeared and he was so glad that Fran was here with him.
'You're the bestest friend I've ever had!' he shouted to her over the music.
She leant up and kissed his cheek with a huge smile.
'You are by far the cutest and most adorable friend I have Lou. And definitely my favourite.' she replied.