Through The Dark // Larry Stylinson

Chapter 4

Louis' POV

     Harry and I met the security team down the hallway and made our way to the tour buses. They would take us to Vancouver while our crew would take down the stage and move it over the next few days.

     The head security guy, Will, took one look at our hands and shook his head in disapproval. Harry was the first to drop my hand so none of the fans would see us holding hands.

     "Sorry." He whispered. It was loud enough so only I could hear.

     Just then we walked into an area without a roof. Loads of fans were leaning over the fence that separates them from us and we had security guys lined up on the perimeter of the fence. 

     The screaming was deafening. This happened everywhere we went now but that didn't make it any less startling. The girls held signs, some of which I had seen during the concert, but most of them just looked exhausted from the show they had just seen. My ears seemed to be fragile from the show so the extra noise didn't exactly help me very much. I usually was able to block out some of the noise when I was singing with my in-ears.

     There was one girl who caught my eye. She was yelling my name and screaming and yelling Harry's name and doing some more yelling. We both saw the sign she was holding over the waist high fence. It was a massive neon yellow poster board that read "WE ARE READY FOR LARRY". The bottom portion was decorated with drawings of Harry and I's matching tattoos. Every one of them we had had to get at different times because management didn't want us to be seen together in public.

     Suddenly, I filled with a really warm feeling. It seemed like another weight was lifted off my shoulders whenever I saw one of these signs. It made my heart and soul feel warm. I wanted to thank the girl with brown curly hair like my boyfriend's for making such a sign for me. I was surprised I hadn't seen it during the show.

       Maybe Harry had seen it. I hope he saw it. If he hadn't seen it earlier, he was definitely seeing it now.
    
       I looked at the girl, right into her pretty eyes. Maybe if I wasn't gay, or had more time to take with the fans, id ask her for her number. But you know, we always keep on the move and this girl was screaming in my face. So yeah, maybe not.

       I mouthed a quick and subtle "thank you", hoping she saw it. She immediately let out a big shriek that confirmed she saw my gesture. I felt my heart flutter so I began to grin and wave at the fans. The true fans could actually see how Harry and I felt, that's what made me the most happy.

     Then my heart sank again when I looked back at Harry. The big smile on my face gradually faded when I saw what he was doing.

     He had a small half smile on his face, he face he made when we had meet and greets or he took pictures in public with fans. He blew kisses and waved politely despite his eyes being puffy and red. He acted like he hadn't just been crying his eyes out on his shoulder. He acted like he hadn't just broken a dressing room mirror.

     I guess that was what struck me most about him. He was able to put on a happy face for the fans all the time. He was always able to stay calm. He was an incredible actor to be fair.

     I suppose I was a proper actor too. I had pretended to have a beautiful, nice girl named Eleanor, a former friend of Harry's as my girlfriend. We had "dated" for about 4 years.

.....
2 Months Earlier

       "Louis I can't do this anymore I'm sorry." She said. Her face was full of sadness and pity.

       "I'm really sorry I got you into this mess in the first place El."

       With that, she stood up from the bench we were sitting on and sighed. Looking around at the ducks in the pond and kids running around, she grabbed my hand and pulled me up into a tight hug. We stood there for a long time, taking in all the beautiful scenery of the park and pondering over our strange history.

       I pulled away after what seemed like a really long time. "Thank you. I don't know what Harry and I would do without you. I know you never ever wanted this so thank you." I said with a small half smile. Being the same height, I could look right into her pretty hazel eyes.

       "I just can't deal with Modest anymore and the Twitter hate. It's getting pretty old, you know? We're not even in a real relationship and I still get the same amount of hate as Sophia. It's ridiculous."

       "Okay, I'm not asking you to deal with any of that lame shit anymore. We'll go talk to Harry later and see how he feels about it. I'll take you down to the Modest offices today."

       Just like that, they let her go. They let her roam free. Free to be herself while Harry and I were still trapped. Not trapped. Trapped isn't the right word. I wouldn't trade this life for anything. Not even my relationship. We were just keeping a huge part of ourselves out of the eyes of the public. Yeah, that's better.

       In some ways I was jealous of Eleanor. She was able to become an actress in the real life role of her dreams whilst pretending to love me. In my opinion, she was pretty convincing.

       Then I took a step back and looked at the situation. She had been asked by her friend to play a famous singer's girlfriend. What's more sad and untruthful than that. She was my beard and she had had enough.

.....

     I was stilling staring at Harry waving to the fans when I flashed out of my memory. Harry was now taking some pictures with fans who threw their phones down to him. Some of them, the ones who turned their attention away from Harry, were yelling at me and asking me to do the same.

       I saw a girl with a pretty funny tee shirt on; It read "LOUIS SLAYS AGAIN". I immediately started cackling because I had seen this hashtag on Twitter when Naughty Boy and I got into a fight on social media. I looked at the girl, walked over to the edge of the ramp, below the fence and asked her to throw her phone down.

     The girl dropped her silver iPhone right into my hands, a perfectly soft landing. I took one peek at her One Direction phone case and smiled. When I opened her phone to the lock screen, a picture of me on stage revealed itself. The whole thing was quite strange so I slid up for the camera and snapped the picture. I could see from behind me that about two dozen other fans had jumped in as well. I tossed the phone up to the girl carefully and watched in horror as she almost dropped it on the concrete ten feet below her.

      Then I turned to Harry again. "Time to go Harry." I said quietly. Even with him being fifteen feet away, he couldn't hear me over the screaming.

       I waited until he had finished taking a picture with a fan to walk up behind him and grab his arm. The muscles tightened as he turned around sharply to see that it was only me. He smiled faintly and asked, "Time to go?"

     "Yeah, let's get outta here." I winked.

       With that, I had unleashed the pack of wild dogs. The girl I had taken a picture with took out her phone again and started snapping a million pictures of us. The group of girls around us had grown in size and they all let out louder shrieks than usual.

       Sensing Harry get more tense, I starting dragging him towards where I knew the tour bus was waiting. All I could hear was screaming.

       We were actually touching. In public. That's a first in the last three years. I felt a sudden surge of joy so waved my final goodbyes to our wonderful, dedicated fans.