Eleanor and Louis : together.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Eleanor was discharged from the hospital later that evening. As Louis drove the car home in silence, he tried to turn the radio on to a low volume to try to break the uncomfortable silence.

The radio blared, loudly, "So tell me girl, if every time we touch--"

Louis shut the radio off.

Eleanor was sitting in the backseat, hesitant at sitting in the front with Louis. She had been sitting with her hands primly folded in her lap, chewing her lip and, now and then, tugging at the wisps of hair that had escaped her messy dark brown bun. Thinking.

"Eleanor, do you want me to drive you to your mum's house so you can think everything through? Would that help at all?" Louis mustered the courage to turn around and say.

Painstakingly, he thought to himself, if you love something, let it go, and if it loves you, it will come back. He waited for what seemed like hours for Eleanor to speak up and say, "Please, if you wouldn't mind. Could we stop somewhere first? It's been almost a month since I've gotten into that hospital."

Uneasily, Louis's thoughts jarred. Two months had already passed since they had officially set the wedding date. Their marriage was to be held September 27th at a cozy little chapel in Oxford.... Louis bitterly thought of how ironic it was. September.

He shook his head, dispelling his memories and keeping negative thoughts at bay. "Where do you wanna go?" he asked nervously, his eyes on the road. He decided to take everything gently for the time being, seeing as Eleanor was a little feeble-minded as of late.

"To be honest, I've been missing McDonald's LOADS," Eleanor confessed sheepishly.

Louis smiled in spite of the situation and started turning the car around. Feeling his mood beginning to lighten, he mentioned brightly, "Now that's the Eleanor I know!" He heard her giggle in the backseat.

It didn't take him too long to turn down two quiet roads into the McCafe between the tiny strip mall.

With a pang, Louis remembered all the places he had gone with Eleanor in that strip mall; all the things that they had done together before he went and screwed it all up. He remembered being surrounded by flashing cameras and bright lights as Eleanor and he went to the Topshop inside to look for a pair of high-waisted millennium shorts for the second V fest at Leeds, and then finding a studded pair at Urban afterwards and how Eleanor positively glowed when she wore them.

He remembered the one Starbucks inside where Eleanor would almost always order the same thing: a tall white chocolate mocha frappe, no whip, with her name in curlicued script Sharpie-d down the side.

He remembered how he proposed to her in the Italian restaurant on that fateful evening.

"We should go," Eleanor said, barely audible over the tension. "I-- I can tell you want to. And I want to--"

Louis faltered. "If you don't want to, we don't have to. I mean, I can take you to your mum's house no problem..."

"Louis, you're being ridiculous," Eleanor laughed. Louis's heart leapt up at her laugh. "I'm not, like, afraid of you. I still think you're a stupid idiot most of the time, but I do love you--"

'I do love you', Louis thought. That's what Harry said.

"I do love you. And I think we should just put what happened behind us and get over it because there's no use in me being mad when I know how harmless it is. I mean, I had my fair share of drunken embarrassments when I was younger."

Louis's neck snapped around so quickly it was a wonder he didn't get hospitalized for whiplash.

"Well come on then," he nearly yelped, "this is cause to celebrate! You don't hate me!" He hummed excitedly as she groaned good-naturedly and grasped her Tory Birch bag from the backseat, her keys jingling in her hands as she shoved them and her phone inside.

From behind them, cars were starting to honk. "Eleanor!" Louis laughed, but Eleanor was still looking for her compact.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," she grabbed her compact and a lipstick tube from the seat-back pocket and ran around the car to the front seat just as Louis helped her close the door and pulled the car forward.

"Hi, could we get two shakes and a mc--"

"Oh my god," the girl in the window cried, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm SUCH a huge fan of you guys, you have no idea! Can I please have a picture?"

Louis rolled his eyes.

"Oh my god," the girl repeated. Her sparkly iPhone was poised in front of them and Louis smiled halfheartedly. "Eleanor, you're so gorgeous and you and Louis are perfect for each other. Can you be in it too?"

"Um, sure, thanks," Eleanor leaned forward and rested her head on Lou's shoulder, smiling wide.

The girl's phone made the shutter sound and flashed, making Louis cringe. After she profusely apologized for this and that and blah, blah, blah, Louis was able to order for both of them and drove to the strip mall parking lot while he and Eleanor ate.

"Do you wanna go inside?" Eleanor asked, gesturing with her head towards the mall.

Louis shook his head. "It's getting late. Maybe we can come tomorrow, but we should get home so you can check in with your mum and stuff."

Eleanor crumpled her wrappers up and pecked Louis on the cheek before settling back into her seat and turning up the radio with a cheerful "okay".

Louis carefully backed out of the lot and drove home, trying to suppress his glee at being forgiven.

I'm not gonna mess this up again, he thought.

I can't mess this up again.

When they came to the front door and shrugged off their outer layers, Eleanor and Louis went to their room and snuggled up to the sheets, turning the tv on and getting cozy.

It wasn't long before the tv was being disregarded and Louis was kissing up and down Eleanor's neck and shoulder, leaving bright love bites in his wake. Eleanor giggled and squirmed, kissing him back.

"Is this your idea of an apology?" she breathed in between their kiss, and Louis chuckled.

"It's the closest I can get," he mumbled, shifting over her and lifting his shirt over his head. She quickly unbuckled his belt and threw it off the bed, and in seconds they were both undressed and Eleanor was underneath him, kissing alongside his cheekbones and nuzzling her nose into his hair.

"Ugh," she recoiled, "you smell like hospital sheets,"

Louis rolled his eyes. "You probably do, too."

His and Eleanor's eyes lit up at the same time and they scrambled for the bathtub, Eleanor only beating Louis to it because she deftly caught his ankle in hers and tripped him.

Once inside the bathtub they fumbled for the warm water knobs.

Eleanor laughed as warm water splashed on them and Louis laughed, too, because he was so happy for her being happy. Then again, the fact that he was going to bring her intense satisfaction under the running water probably had a play in it, too.

Stepping out of the steamy spray of water gushing from the shower head, Eleanor shook the wet strings of hair out of her face and pulled Louis in for a deep kiss.

"I love you so much," she whispered. Her eyes started to well up, and Louis pressed her body against his and they hugged.

"We're a train wreck," Louis squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating on the feel of her body silhouetted against his, "but we're gonna make this work. I love you too."

Eleanor dimpled and reached her hand out, squeezing Louis's left butt cheek firmly and giggling.

Louis felt her grip tighten and he lowered himself to the ground, getting on his knees.

Positioning himself in front of her, he started sliding his tongue alongside her inner thigh.

"Get comfortable, El," he groaned as he tasted her sweet skin,"We're gonna be here awhile."