Larry Stylinson short story

Louis’ POV:

            He had his arm wrapped protectively around me as we walked through the crowd of people outside of the farmhouse. The dark looming figures intimidated me, with their rolled cigarettes hanging out of their mouths as they passed around a jar of clear liquid (moonshine, I guessed). I felt entirely out of place here. But I felt safer with Harrys’ arm wrapped tightly around me. There were several fires lit along the path we walked, with a large amount of older men and women standing around each of them who were all laughing and yelling. The crowd was incredibly rowdy. Many of them were constantly spitting on the ground from the chew tobacco in their mouths. The darkness made it so that I couldn’t clearly see their faces, making it more frightening walking through the much older crowd of people. I looked up at Harry with wide eyes. He looked down at me and smiley softly, “we’re almost there,” he gestured towards the medium sized barn a few meters away from us. The anxiety in my stomach did not fade, for I had no idea who was inside the barn. We passed two large men in cowboy hats punching each other out of drunken stupidity and we were soon at the barn door.

“Ready?” Harry asked me, serious curiosity in his eyes.

My mind went blank and I shook my head to clear my thoughts, “yeah, it’s alright… let’s go.” I looked at the barn door. He carefully slid the large door to the side and allowed us access to the inside.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. I tried not to gag on the smell of hay, strong liquor and marijuana. I coughed quietly and Harry chuckled beside me. I looked up from my feet and saw a huge amount of teenagers crowding the barn. The barn was also filled with couches placed randomly around where people some people sat. Some people were standing up in large groups of people, with red cups in their hands. Every few seconds a large group of people would start laughing loudly. The air was filled with smoke from the many cigarettes and pipes that were being smoked.

“Are you okay?” Harry whispered in my ear. I must’ve looked shocked at the sight in front of me.

“Uh, yeah,” I whispered, barely hearing myself over the loud laughter, the steady bass from the music playing and the talking.

Harry let go of my shoulders and grasped my hand in his and let me into the thick cloud of smoke that was the barn full of drunken teens. In one of the quieter corners of the barn, there were couples making out on some of the couches. We ended up in the middle of the barn where there was a large circle made out of about six couches.

“There he is!” one of the boys sitting on a couch beside a –very drunk looking- girl yelled towards Harry and I as we walked towards them. I looked at Harry and he was smiling, “hey Travis, how’s the party? We just got here.” He squeezed my hand reassuringly as he spoke.

The boy –Travis- gestured for us to sit as he talked, “it’s great, man! We’ve got everything; good music, good weed, good people!” He was incredibly enthusiastic and grinned widely as he spoke. “Hey Jake! Get these guys some drinks and a blunt, hey?” He called to another boy who was walking away out of the circle of couches as we took our seats next to him.

“You okay with that?” Harry murmured in my ear as he put his arm around my shoulder. My throat closed up. I had never tried marijuana before. I’ve hardly even been drunk before, but I nodded my head anyway, not wanting to be a party-pooper.

A few minutes later, the boy Jake returned with two red cups in his hands and a joint between his fingers. Harry and Travis chattered away as I took the drinks and joint from Jake, giving him a small smile and a polite “thank you.” Jake then took a seat next to me on the long couch. The noise in the barn was still so loud, possibly even louder than when we entered.

I nudges Harrys’ arm with my elbow to get his attention before he turned to me, still laughing at something that Travis said.

“Here,” I said as I handed the cup of whatever it was to Harry. He took it was well as the joint with a smile and a light peck on the cheek for me. I blushed slightly.

“Do you want to smoke this with me?” Harry asked, sincerity in his eyes. I knew that he would be fine with it if I said no, but I didn’t want to seem like a drag, so I shrugged my shoulder, trying to seem as calm as I could, and said “sure.”

“That’s some good weed, you know,” a voice from my right side chimed in, I turned to see Jake, his eyes were red and glazed. I smiled a little bit at him and turned back to Harry, who now had the joint pressed between his lips while he held a lighter to the tip of it as he held it in place tightly with his forefinger and thumb. The end of the rolled joint caught flame and he moved the lighter away from it, returning it to his back pocket. I watched as Harry inhaled deeply, taking as much smoke into his lungs as he could, and held it. A few seconds later, he exhaled, letting the bitter-smelling smoke out of his lungs. He then turned his head to look at me and smiled, holding the joint out for me to take from him.

I hesitantly took the burning joint from his fingers and held it in front of me.

“You don’t have to, you know,” Harry said in my ear and rested his chin on my shoulder, looking at my face from the side.

I shook my head, “no, it’s fine.” I slowly lifted the joint to my lips and copied Harrys’ previous actions, breathing in the bitter smoke and holding it. My eyes burned from the smoke and I stared coughing. Releasing the smoke from my lungs. My eyes watered and I was sure that my face had turned red, half from the smoke and half from embarrassment. Harry patted my back as I coughed while he chuckled quietly at my side.

“Breathe, babe, you’re okay,” he said, rubbing my back softly.

My brain went fuzzy; everything was soft around the edges, but sharper than anything I had ever seen before. The music sounded like magic and all the people were beautiful. I giggled and looked at Harry, my eyes crinkling at the corners. Harry smiled at me with pink eyes and beautiful, perfect lips. I lifted my hand and pressed my fingers softly to Harrys’ lips, feeling the soft skin. I wanted to badly to just devour them, to wreck those perfect lips with my own. I slowly leaned forward and-

“Harry!”