flower crowns // l.s.

23½

Louis shook his head at Madeline and tried to give her the meanest glares he could. "I'm telling you, Donald Trump is secretly gay."

"That's ridiculous!" She shouted, the magazine she had in her hand flinging around in her hand. "He's married."

"Beard," Louis flatly said with a smug smile.

"You're a beard."

Louis gasped and placed his free hand over his chest. "As a gay man who is confident in his sexuality, I find that very offensive."

Madeline rolled her eyes. "No you don't."

He snorted. "You know me too well. You sure you're not still in love with me?"

"Will you ever let that go?"

"Never."

"Uh . . . guys? Can you do this later?" The man Louis was tattooing said. He was laid out on his stomach with his pants down because he wanted his girlfriends name tattooed on his ass.

"Rude," Louis muttered, focusing on the curve of the big "L" he was working on.

+ + +

After a few more people had come in (one being a drunk woman that wanted a turkey leg tattooed on her own leg), his shift was over. He had stayed for a few hours after his shift to clean up so his boss wouldn't be on his case on his days off. He wanted a drink. He hadn't been out in a while and was too cooped up in his apartment, so he needed a night out. He invited Zayn out, and he'd asked if Madeline could go, which he thought was strange. Zayn and Madeline were always together now, but this? Zayn and Louis liked their nights out, with just the men. It was weird, he thought. But the perk is that Madeline is a great wing-woman. Sometimes they would tag team, it was quite fun.

"I've never been to this bar," Zayn said, jutting his thumb up to the sign above the restaurant.

Louis shrugged and exhaled. "Me either, let's go. I'm tired of the regular places, they're too straight."

Madeline cackled and opened the door to Berrie's with a smile. As they all stepped inside and scoped the place out, they decided to sit at a booth beside the window. It was quite large and had dim lights dangling from each booth. Louis poked the chain and watched it sway back and forth.

"Two beers and a margarita?" Zayn asked, and when they nodded, he headed off to the bar to order the drinks.

Louis stared at Madeline with narrowed eyes, before he started looking in the direction she was, which led to Zayn. Then it hit Louis. He gasped and banged his fist on the table, making the salt and pepper shakers jump. "I know your secret!" He whisper-shouted. She looked at Louis with wide eyes. "You like Zayn."

She stuck her hands out to place them over his mouth. "Shut up!" She huffed and pulled her hands back in disgust when Louis licked her palms. "Ew, gross." She wiped her hands on her jeans. "You can't mention anything to Zayn, he wanted to keep it on the down-low."

Louis tried to stand but wound up hitting his head on the light above the table. He slouched back into his seat with a hand on his head, frowning. "You're both...? Together? Couple? What? Where have I been? Why didn't I know? Have you guys screwed? Ew. Ew! My friends doing it, no. I don't want to imagine that, I'm scratching my eyeballs ou—"

"He's coming!"

Louis sat up and placed his hand out towards Zayn's to get his beer, swigging half of it down before he could sit beside his girlfriend. Wiping his mouth off with his sleeve, Louis smiled evilly and decided he wanted to watch them squirm. He now wants Zayn to admit that he's dating Madeline, so he's going to squeeze it out of him. "So, Zayn." He saw Madeline tense. Louis looked around the room and spotted a blonde. Louis nodded in the girls' direction. "She looks about your type, right?"