ambivalence ❣ larry

2

Louis sits in his mum's car. He feels like shit. No, fuck that, Louis feels like death warmed up. He barely slept. His brain kept replaying his interaction with Harry all night. Every time he closed his eyes he could hear Harry's stupid voice. How on God's green earth is he supposed to be nice to Harry? He hates that boy with every fibre of his being. He's never met a more petulant brat in his life. Louis comes back to reality when his mum pulls up outside the school, the sound of her handbrake interrupting his thought process.

"Lou? Are you listening to me?" Her calm voice draws him out of his thoughts. He looks at her blankly. 

"Honestly? No. Didn't hear a word you said."

His mum just tuts and playfully slaps his arm. "I told you to have a good day. But, Lou, you really need to get your head down. You've only got six months until exams start. You can't mess this up, this is your future."

Fuck exams and fuck the future, Louis thinks. He's relatively open with his mum but he would never tell her about his pessimism about his future. She thinks too highly of him and works too hard for him to feel so hopeless. So, Louis bites his tongue and smiles a tight lipped smile. "Bye, mum." She presses her hand to her lips and then places her hand on his cheek. Louis grimaces dramatically and gets out of the car, the cold air sending a chill down his spine.

He doesn't even need to look for Niall and Zayn because he can hear Niall a mile off. Sometimes Louis thinks that Niall should make a career out of being a human fog horn. Just stand him in amongst some fog and make him laugh. Ships would hear him a mile off. Louis suppresses a laugh because, come on, who laughs at their own jokes?

"Mornin' mate." Niall's chipper tone makes Louis recoil slightly. Why the fuck was he in such a good mood? It's 8:30 in the morning. Maybe if Louis wasn't so tired, he would be able to prevent himself from rolling his eyes. But he feels like shit so he does it anyway. "Morning."

"Zayn's told me all about our little plan." Why does he seem so excited about this? The thought of this 'plan' is plaguing Louis' mind so deeply, he wants to rip his brain out of his nose with a teaspoon. A sigh escapes Louis' mouth. If there was a world record for the most sighs, Louis has definitely broken the record. "You mean Zayn's ridiculous plan?"

"I think genius is what you were meant to say." Zayn says, his voice slightly muffled by the cigarette resting between his lips. Louis can't hide his smirk. "Sure, whatever you say."

"So, are you gonna be nice to him today?" Niall says, wiggling his eyebrows. He looks like a twat. Louis can't help but release yet another sigh. "Yeah, for the time being."

Zayn takes a drag of his cigarette. "Good boy." Louis promptly slaps his arm. "Shut up, I'm not a dog." 

Zayn laughs as he exhales, smoke flowing out of his mouth and swirling around them.

"Nice to see you've accepted your fate, Louis." Niall smiles.

"Dick," Louis mutters, "You guys are gonna be nice to him, too. Ain't doing it on my own."

Zayn puts his arm over Louis' shoulder, his cigarette balancing between his teeth. "Of course we will, we're all in this together." Louis reaches up and takes the cigarette out of Zayn's mouth and takes a drag. Zayn laughs. "Lighten up, Louis. You look like you're on your way to a funeral, not school."

Louis takes another drag of the stolen cigarette. "Basically the same thing." He murmurs. He looks up and sees the devil incarnate himself, sauntering over with a challenging smirk on his face. Oh, he's looking for trouble. Little does he know, he's not going to get any. Maybe this plan might be quite fun, Louis thinks.