By Now

Jobs and Invites

Ten Months Ago

Throw. Catch. Throw. Catch. Thr-

"Dude. Go fuck Lou or something. Just stop doing that."

"Give me back my ball, Zayn." I say spinning in the main room chair to face him. He give it back giving me a look that says "Keep doing that and I'll castrate you."

Instead I start bouncing it off the floor. "Dude!" He grabs it back and throws it into the corner. "I'm trying to finish this sketch."

I huff and cross my arms pouting. I spin the chair so I'm looking at the back of the room.

Lou and I had met about a month and a half ago. We had continued to hang out with each other. There had been several more make out sessions over that time. But lately I was thinking of asking him out. And not just to sleep with him. I truly liked him.

"Hey Zayn?" I ask, still not looking at him. He grunts in acknowledgement. "You think if I ask Louis out he'll say yes?"

"If he doesn't then my whole life has been one big lie."

"I think you should ask Louis out. I mean he's pretty hot. And you're... you're okay I guess." I hear a familiar voice say. I spin around nearly falling out of the chair.

"Lou! I didn't hear you come in!" I blush heavily.

"That's probably because you told Anthony that you broke the bell on the door." He says coming and sitting down in my lap. I wrap my arms around his waist so he doesn't fall. He lays his head on my shoulder with his face in my neck.

I push my feet against the ground so that the chair rolls in the direction of my tattoo room. I miss aim though because we crash into the door frame.

"Dumbass."

"You shush." I say sticking my tongue out at him. I correct myself so that this time we make it through the door.

"Make me." Lou cocks head daring me to do just that. I tickle his side which makes him flail his arms out and start sliding off the chair. I grab him just enough that he doesn't though.

Briana sticks her head in and smiles at us. "Have you seen Tony?" She asks in her rough, smokers voice. I shake my head. "Well, if you see him can you tell him I'm looking for him?"

"Yea. Sure. Did something happen?" I ask sitting up straighter. She nods hesitantly.

"Uhhm.. Miranda was fired. Because of her sexuality. And I was kind of hoping that he'd give her Zayn's old job? She doesn't want me to support her on my own even though she knows I would."

I nod, "He loves her. You know he'll give it to her."

"Yea. But I'm not supposed to ask. She says she's going to change her name on the application so that he doesn't know it's her. And I just wanna make sure she gets it." She says smiling. Lou and I both laugh.

Zayn calls from the other room, "Yo Bri! Anthony is here!" She perks up and scurries off to go talk to him. "Yo fat ass. Get out here." I roll my eyes and help Lou stand up before doing the same myself. I interlock our fingers before making my way out of the room.

"Yea?" I raise an eyebrow.

"My sisters getting married in like a month." He says not looking up from his phone.

"And I care because...?" I ask. I pull Lou in front of me so I can lay my chin on his head and wrap my arms around his waist.

"Cause you're invited."

"Can I bring a date?"

"I don't see why not."

I remove my head from Lou's and spin him around before rewrapping my arms around him again. "So princess, wanna be my date?" I wiggle my eyebrows.

Lou giggles, "Can I bring my babies?"

Zayn whips his head around to look at us. "Babies??" His voice uncharacteristically high.

I laugh, "His dogs. They're named Arno and..." I pause for effect, "Banana." I loved that he named it Banana. I had never heard of Assassin's Creed Unity before so I didn't really understand that one but it didn't really matter I guess.

"Wait! Omigod! Arno! From like Assassin's Creed?" Zayn says excitedly dropping his phone on the table. Lou turns around equally as excited. I tuned them out once they started talking about the game. Instead I thought about the upcoming wedding.

I wasn't looking forward to going back to Iowa. Zayn's family was extremely accepting regardless of their faith. He and I had grown up together because our families had been friends since before we had both been born.

When I moved out, they had taken me in. And I would always be extremely grateful.

"-ry. Harry!" I jump almost knocking over Lou. I feel my cheeks starting to get warm.

"I- Uh, yea?" I cough lightly.

"Let's go get lunch. I'm hungry." Lou smiles.

"Okay." I nod and feel my back pocket for my wallet. I lead him out the door and listen to him as he gives ideas for what we could get. I, of course, let him decide.

***

Are the chapters to short? I write this on my phone so I have no idea if it's a good length or not.