Color Outside The Lines (l.s)

Chapter Three

Louis was sitting at his table, clutching a mug of quickly cooling tea, the steam rising up in his face, warming him while his bloodshot, sleep deprived eyes remain locked on his phone. He hasn't heard from harry in a week and he was beyond worried. He wasn't sure what was wrong, he didn't know what he had done wrong or if it had even been him at all. All he knows is that he has called and texted Harry over and over to no avail, only receiving voice mail each and every time he tried to call, and none of his messages going through. Louis has barley slept in three days and he was ready to pass out. Then his door bangs open, and louis jumps about a mile in the air before dropping his tea, the mug shattering on the floor in his attempt to get to the door. He turns the corner into the hall and nearly screams in frustration, because its only his friend Quinn, blowing her short mousy hair out of her eyes, which looked at him with concern.


"Lou, you look terrible!" She says and he just turns around and begins to walk away, feeling a sharp pain in his foot. So he sits down right where he was, leaning against the wall.


"Your feet are bleeding" She says stepping over him, kicking her shoes off behind her, looking into the kitchen "Did you step on broken glass?" She asks him and he shrugs. She sighs, walking past him towards the bathroom, emerging moments later with a pair of tweezers, a wet washcloth and a couple bandaids. She walks over to him and crouches down, taking his feet into her lap and picking out the glass, wiping off the blood away with the cold cloth before applying the bandaids and standing him up and sitting him on the couch, tucking him in with the blanket from the back of the couch

"Now, sleep you need it" She says walking carefully into the kitchen, grabbing the broom from by the garbage can, sweeping up the broken mug, dumping the shards into a milk carton in louis garbage, so it wouldn't shred the bag or hurt anymore dealing with it. Then Louis phone rings on the table and Quinn moves to answer it, but before she can reach it louis out of the living room, and snatching the phone off the table before Quinn can get to it leaning onto the table, one hand on the chair, his elbow on the table before speaking


"Hello?" He answers breathlessly, then "Oh, Hi mom" he says, sounding almost disappointed and let down.


"Yeah im okay, how are the girls?" He asks and goes silent, listening to his mom ramble on, he move and sits in the chair he had previously occupied, resting his chin on the table. Quinn is working on the dishes in the sink when she hears Jay faintly speaking louis name and turns to find Louis had fallen asleep, so she takes the phone from him gently putting it to her own ear

"Hi Jay, Lou kinda fell asleep"

"He fell asleep?" Jay questioned


"Yeah when i got here he came to the door like he expected someone else, he had stepped on glass, and he looked like he hasn't slept in day." She says

"Oh my" Jay whispers "Do you need me to come up?" She asks

"Yeah, i have to get to work soon and i don't feel right leaving him alone, id say he'll be asleep long past when you get here, ill stay as long as i can though" Quinn says

"Thanks for telling me Quinn" and she sounds so relieved, yet scared and worried "Ill leave the girls with Lottie, she can watch them for a few days" Jay tells her

"Okay, ill move Lou the couch, because right now he's at the table" Quinn chuckles light


"Okay, Bye love" Jay say, hanging up the phone. Quinn places the phone down, and scoops louis into her arms, heaving him up bridal style, and he doesn't even stir as she moves him to the couch, tucking him back in. She returns to cleaning the pile of dishes in louis sink, the weeks worth of things he had haphazardly throw in, some of it in pieces so Quinn had to gently pick each piece out, placing them with the others in the milk carton inside the garbage can. When she was done she checked her watch, she was pushing it, she had to work in an hour and she still had to go home, shower and change. She sighed and walked into the living room, walking over to the couch and kissing louis gently on the forehead, smoothing his hair back from it gently before straightening up and making sure Louis was tucked in and heading towards the door. She slips on her shoes and leaves the house.

Meanwhile louis is dreaming, his dreams for once are in full colour, which has never happened to him before. Him and Harry were lying in the field they had visited a week back. The flowers were all blues, purple, pinks and whites. The sky was a beautiful indigo colour, speckled with stars, the mountain range in the distance dominating the skyline, trees raised up before it the dark green of them almost black in the night. Louis sat up, unaware he was dreaming, not knowing what was going on, the full colour a shock to him. Harry looks at him confused, bringing himself up on his elbows eyebrows furrowed as he looked at louis.

"Whats wrong?" He asked and louis continues to look around, plucking the flowers from grass, brining them up to his face and examining the colour with a shocked awe


"The colour, its so beautiful" He says and harry smiles at him

"Yeah, it is" harry says and they lie down in the grass again. The scene morphs and louis suddenly sitting in a room, he cant even see his fingers in front of his face because its so dark. He's completely blind, unable to see, unable to move and unable to speak. He hears something growl, footsteps echoing around him and then harrys voice sounds out

"Louis!" He calls and the footsteps stop, the thing growls again "Louis?" Harry says again, asking more this time and then he screams

"Louis!"

"Louis!"

"Louis!" this one comes out exasperated and much more feminine

"Louis!" He shaken awake by his mother, who's standing over him looking worried. "Wake up Lou, you've been out for hours" she says and then he sits up, leaning against the armrest of the couch, the blanket Quinn had tucked in had fallen to his lap. Jay pushed louis legs out of the way before sitting down, louis pulling his feet up to his chest. She turns to him

"Ok, start talking why did Quinn have to tell me you had fallen asleep talking to me, looked like you hadn't slept in days, and you had glass in your feet?" She asks concerned


"I met someone" He says and she falls silent,

"Why does that merit me having to come down here to take care of you" She says and Louis blushes

"Mum, since i met him colours have been coming back to me... First his eyes, they're a beautiful colour of mossy murky green that i could get lost in, then his lips, they're so pink mum, and he took me out a grocery shopping and he was crawled in the cart and made me push him around, then he brought me to a beautiful field, the flowers were gorgeous colours, blues and purples and white, just splotched not the full flower then we spent the night in the field in the back of his pick up, he had a mountain of blankets and pillows and mom he's amazing..." Louis says a tear running down his face

"Oh darling thats amazing, but what in that is bad" Jay asks prompting Louis on


"The last time i seen him was that night we spent the night in his pick-up, its been a week, I've called and texted and I'm so worried, because he gave no indication of not wanting this..." Louis says "He seemed so happy, i don't know what i did wrong" Louis spoke softly

"Well darling its not your fault, things like this happen sometimes" Jay sympathizes "Your okay, maybe he had an emergency or something" Louis nods and sniffles Jay leans forward and hugs him, and he buries his face in her shoulder, gripping her back tightly and he drifts off back to sleep again.


Another few days pass and no word from harry, his mother stays with him, making sure he eats and sleeps, and making sure he doesn't become a hermit or go stir crazy by dragging him out of the house every once and a while. Eventually she has to go home though, she has work and her other children so calls Quinn, making sure she can check on louis until he comes out of this. So she leaves, making sure louis is okay before she does. Later the same night he's sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, holding a steaming mug of tea staring off into space when theres a knock on the door. He stands, clutching the blanket around his shoulders with one hand and carrying his mug with the other, walking over to the door and swinging it open, to reveal harry, in sweats and a t-shirt, swaying slightly his eyes bloodshot. He reeks of alcohol, and there are tears streaming down his face and he looks distraught.

"Please let me explain..." he slurs slightly at louis who's standing there shocked, his blanket fluttering from his shoulder, pooling around his ankles.