The airport had a deathly chill floating around, slipping in between different people, young and old. The air was stuffy with emotions: excitement, anticipation, emotional farewells, fear. It was hard to piece together when you had been sat there for hours, watching one child bouncing up and down in happiness one second and then watching a wife cling onto her husband with tears streaming down her face the next. The contrast was astounding. It’s not often realised, but people watching was somewhat underappreciated. Especially during times of trepidation and worry.
Louis was bunched up on the cold, metal chair with his legs brought up to his chest. He hadn’t been on the chair for too long, three quarters of an hour at most, but his backside was starting to go numb from the hardness of the seat. He wished that the airport could have been a little more helpful in times like so, maybe have more comfortable seating, however, he doubted that they had many wayward young adults moping around the airport for long amounts of time. He probably could have stayed at home for a while longer and stayed curled up on his sofa like he had the past however many hours.
Because Louis hadn’t done anything during the time between his departure from Harry and the present moment. Well, he had been to the toilet and slept a lot, but the thought of doing anything else just brought a thick lining to his throat and a curdling in his stomach. Not only did he have no energy to move from his foetal position on the sofa, but he didn’t have any motivation either. It was hard to find that little something inside of you which makes you do things when everything around you seemed so bleak and provided no light to help you find it.
The whole day was excruciatingly difficult. Time ticked by slower than usual, however cliché that sounded. It was like every minute was multiplied by ten, making the time he was awake drag on more than it ever had.
What made it worse was the feeling of the unknown. If he knew what was coming, if he knew what was going to happen, then the time would have gone quicker –however slight it was. He didn’t have anything to look forward to, or anything to not look forward to, more like. Of course, Louis didn’t have high hopes for that Monday. Half of him knew that the chance of Harry actually turning up was next to nothing, a quarter of him refused to believe that, while the other quarter was still in disbelief. He didn’t want to face up to what had happened the night prior because even skimming over the top of it made his heart crash down in his body and shatter into shards of torment.
As he curled in on himself defensively, at whatever time it was during the day, Louis wondered what Harry would be doing. Usually, on a Sunday, he would have Sunday Dinner with his parents at either 2pm or 7pm, depending on the activities of the day. He never normally did anything on a Sunday, using it to catch up on schoolwork or just laze around. If everything hadn’t happened like it had, Louis wondered if Harry would be packing his suitcase for their trip.
Wait–no, Harry had packed on the Thursday night because he had nothing better to do, so it probably would have been final checks that he had everything. Louis had packed at the same time, just so they could experience the task together. They texted back and forth about certain bits and bobs which they weren’t too sure whether to bring or not, clothing, toiletries and miscellaneous items included. It was fun, exciting, lots of anticipation swirling around. Harry had commented many a time that he just couldn’t wait to be alone with Louis, that it was a chance he wouldn’t let slip through his fingers. Louis wondered if that still applied, most probably not.
Instead of that, though, Harry was probably acting just as Louis was, although a lot more hurt and with a lot more thinking to do. Louis thought it was fair, giving Harry the option to either turn up at the airport and continue their relationship or not turn up and it all be over. He was doing it for Harry’s benefit; after all, it would only hurt Harry more if the fiasco was prolonged for even longer. Harry had more than a day to consider everything which Louis had told him, add on his opinions about his explanation to the base ones he made in reaction to finding out. Louis thought that that was enough; after all, Harry could be determined about things once he had set his mind to it. It wasn’t too complicated for him; he just had to decide whether Louis’ mistake was forgivable or not. Okay- so maybe it was complicated. But still.
