Scattered Words [Larry Stylinson]

Epilogue

Edward Stylinson was never good with words, so when he is asked to write a toast for his parents’ 20thanniversary, he isn’t exactly jumping on walls. He reckons Gorge would do better and he is glad that he is not going up behind him.

He sort of delays it till the day before the gathering. He gets that from Louis or at least that’s what Harry is always telling him.

Now Eddie never believed his parents had it easy like people say. He figures that its their sickening love for each other that had gotten through it all. He thinks back to a  story his grandmother Anne told him

It’s really strange, their little family. His fathers wanted children of their own, so on an October morning when they were having a walk in the park and a little girl glues herself to Harry’s leg, Harry sits on the ground and refuses to move till Louis finds a sergeant mother and gives him a baby with eyes as crystal blue as Louis’s. Louis was never able to turn Harry down so he does.

He hears from Grandma Jay that it was a rough time for the couple, because Harry is offered a job in London and Louis wants him to take it. Their plan of Harry sitting home with Edward till he is old enough for kindergarden while Louis work doesn’t work. They move into London, somewhere that they hated the thought of raising a child in. Harry is determinate to ensure this family’s future financially, which hurts Louis’s pride till Harry kisses it better.

They get back to town when Eddie is 5 and Louis insists that Harry has a child for the two of them. Because Harry is beautiful and his genes must not go to waste, so Gorge  happens.

Eddie loves both of his parents but doesn’t understand why he sort of connects with Harry better. Ironically, Gorge, who is a spitting image of Harry, is Louis’s spoiled little brat. They might not be biological related to both parents, but they are connected to them in a higher manner.

Darcy is adopted. So Edward has to give it to his parents. They had so much love to give. They weren’t less than the kids in school who had a mother, if anything they were more.

 Uncle Zayn once told him about a major fight that his fathers had. He doesn’t remember any tense time in their life so he feels gratitude to his parents for never providing the kids anything but love and security.

The story happens when Louis is out of town in a business trip when Gorege is just about two. Louis comes home to a broken Harry. Louis learns that what is going on under his curls.

It hit Harry that his children’s life is not as normal as it seems when he realizes that Gorge is being quite because when Louis is not around Gorge can’t hear words to imitate. Harry is wreck that month, because he is burdened by the thought that his disability is affecting his child.

When Louis is home, they get into a terrible fight when Harry brings up seeing a doctor. Louis knows that Harry was always against finding his voice. He grew accustomed to what he is. It didn’t make sense for harry to talk when he can’t hear himself just because his vocal cords can be saved.

Louis refuses to consider it, so Harry stays at Zayn for a week beating himself up for being a terrible father. Eddie vaguely remembers a week in second grade that  Harry isn’t home to tuck him in bed and he reckons it’s that one.

Zayn tells Eddie that one day he wakes up and finds Louis and the two boys lying beside a sleeping Harry in the guest room and it all sorts itself out from there. Eddie remembers Louis letting him skip school one day and spending the day with Harry in bed, but he doesn’t recall it was in Zayn’s guestroom.

His parents are sickly sweet and flirty, so Edward finds it really hard to bring his girlfriend Linda to have dinner with them but he does and he is happy that he did. Because when the two break up, Louis pokes fun of everything she did during that dinner, but it’s Harry that holds him in his arms when he is crying his heart out over his first heartbreak.

It’s March 3rd and Edward is picking up an outfit for  Darcy to wear in their parents’ anniversary dinner . He leaves her with Gorge because he has to go to work and his parents are out all day replaying the past.

Café Des Mots stands frozen in time while everything around it has changed, at least that’s what Harry tells him. Eddie greets Danielle and her daughter Taylor who are setting up for dinner. He stares at the all mighty table six and wonders if he’d find love in this café like his parents did while his eyes fall at Taylor.

There is a photo on the wall. Danielle’s wedding in which, Louis was her maid of honor. It still can make Eddie laugh. This will never grow old. He wonders for a second why would his dad falls in love with Louis, but it actually all makes sense to him. There is a photo of his parents when they are young sitting on table six. Louis in an apron smiling at Harry who is smiling back. There are a couple of tickets of Ed Sheeran’s gigs taped there and restaurants’ receipts and bunch of notes there he knows belong to his dads.

He ties the old navy apron that belonged to his dad around his waist, and begins mopping.

It’s 6:00 pm and his parents finally arrive. Lip swollen and hair messed up. Eddie makes a mental note to have Gorge and Darcy watch a movie that night with the volume turned up. He is used to cleaning up his parents’ mess, but he doesn’t mind it.

It’s like an evening at home with family. They have dinner and talk about the most random things. At the end of the evening Nick raises a toast and Eddie and Gorge have to hold back a laugh at their father is as annoyed as ever. He is still not fond of Nick after all these years.

Harry reasons him one day that Nick has been seeing the same person for the past 3 years so if Louis doesn’t trust that Harry loves him more than anything in the world enough to get over this, he can at least stop worrying because Nick is taken. It’s Louis’s time to reason that “taken or not the whole world is in love with Harry so he is allowed to be on guard”.

Gorge tells Eddie one night that Louis isn’t really insecure about their relationship but he likes to act that way so Harry would show him more affection. Eddie wonders if there is more love in the world for Louis to have because he thinks that if they loved each other an onus more they’ll explode.

Nick ushers Eddie to go ahead, when he is done with his toast. Eddie raises a cup of apple juice; because Danny is mean and wont let him to have champagne even though he is turning eighteen next month.

There is no need to say anything really. He saw his parents communicate without saying or signing a word of years, so he tells Harry a secret that Louis and Eddie had kept.

Louis is worried. All the things about letting Edward drive around with friends behind Harry’s back, are running through his head. Especially, with Edward being all hard to read, he gets that from Harry. Not in the manner than Harry can’t speak, but in the manner that when Harry is being secretive, he is being really secretive.

“Dad. You know when I was young and dad used to read me bedtime stories?” Harry nods worried.  “He never really stuck to the story book you’d give him. Every night he’s start with once upon a time there was a sister and brother named Hansel and Gretel and ends with and your dad said he loved him and he’d raise my kids and then you came along.” Louis shakes his head embarrassed as his sisters and mothers awe at him.

“The thing is the story is always changing. Every time he’d tell me that he fell in love with you at a different time. Behind the café, in front of the bar, on your first date and I reckon he can’t pinpoint a moment in time because he falls in love you once a day every time he wakes up”

The room grows silent except for Darcy giggling for no apparent reason.

“Happy university and thank you for finding each other and letting the three of us be a part of your life” Edward ends it. Grandmother Anne ruffles his hair while trying to keep herself for tearing up.

He meets Harry’s eyes. It’s as if his dad fell in love all over again. And he does in the way that he meets Louis eyes, like he is a little boy who was just approached by his crush. They kiss. It’s short, shy and sweet and Eddie wonders for a second if they are the same people who just came through the door two hours ago with swollen lips and naughty glances. There is an airplane ring rests on Louis’s ringfinger, Eddie vaguely remembers hearing that it was a necklace that belonged to his other dad. He catches Harry kissing Louis’s ring, after Louis tucks his middle and ring fingers in while the rest are extended. Forever.