Two Night Stand [l.s]

•Chapter One•

Louis lay back against his headboard, his laptop sat by his feet, far too many tabs open for it to function properly.

The TV is on in the living room. He listens vaguely as the presenters ramble on about the weather. Something about snow, something about traffic, nothing that really interests Louis enough to pay attention.

His eyes are focused on his phone at the endless list of boring girls profiles he's robotically swiping left or right to, ignoring the notifications anytime he gets a match.

He's only on here because he and Niall set him up a profile one drunken night last week. Both of them were tired of his moping around and figured it wouldn't hurt to get him back in the game.

He's pathetic. He's barely made it two weeks of Tahlia being gone before he's on the hunt for someone else's attention. He never did do well with being alone.

The day she left, he quit his job at her fathers company and moved into his best friends flat. Now he wasn't just alone, but he was jobless and pathetic. Living off his best friend with remnants of her clothes still amongst his stuff.

With a deep exhale he throws his phone down into the mess of covers by his feet. Just as it bounces off the mattress and onto the rug by the door, his roommate Zayn walks in.

"Whoa." Zayn laughs when he picks up Louis' phone and studies what's on the screen. "The fuck are you doing on here mate? Thought you weren't into one night stands.."

Louis sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Niall made it. Was just giving it a look."

Zayn walks into the room and sets himself on the end of the bed. Eyeing Louis' laptop, he glances over the open tabs on his browser.

"How's the job hunt going?" He asks, trying to remain nonchalant. Louis knows he's just trying to help but he can't help detect the hint of urgency in his voice.

"It's fine. Was just taking a break." Louis snaps the laptop shut and climbs off the bed, heading towards the door and into the living room.

"Look Lou. You know there's no pressure right? You told me you'd get back on your feet and I believe you.. I just- I hate seeing you like this."

That's exactly what Niall had said when Louis told him about his new relationship status. Only instead of a sympathetic smile, Niall had whooped excitedly and forced Louis out on a drunken bender to scout for girls. The last thing Louis had wanted to do the day after his long term girlfriend had left him.

"I'll be fine Z." Louis forced a smile as he made his way to the fridge, pulling out an old pizza box. "When did we get this?" He asks, sniffing a slice and scrunching his face at the sharp scent.

Without waiting for Zayn's answer he slides the remaining slices out of the box and into the trash. He doesn't remember having eating pizza this week which means it's been in there for nearly two week.

"I'll start applying outside of my realm of qualification. Somethings bound to come up."

"And what about the dating situation? You can't find what you're after on any of those apps." Zayn counters and Louis rolls his eyes.

"Who says I'm looking for anything more than a quick fuck? It's been months."

Zayn eyes him carefully. "Lou, it's not been months, Tahlia's only been gone for two weeks."

"Yeah. And we hadn't had sex in months. Remember, shes been getting it elsewhere." Zayn winces back at that like he'd forgotten the reason Louis was in this predicament in the first place.

"Shit. Sorry bud. Hey if you're having no luck on there maybe switch your profile to 'looking for men', there's plenty in our immediate radius."

Zayn was probably kidding and Louis was quick to laugh it off. But then Louis found himself actually considering it.