Call Me Hopeless, But Not Romantic; h.styles

Chapter 17

"Wanna help me?" Louis asked, tossing the pair of black handcuffs to Marina. He caught her off guard and didn't give her enough warning -- the handcuffs hit her and fell to the ground. She quickly picked them up, acting as if nothing happened, and walked over to me and Harry.

"You gonna tell us what's going on?" I directed the question at Louis while watching Marina snap the fuzzy metal around Harry's and my wrists; my breath hitched and my heartbeat picked up. My question was left unanswered.

Louis snapped one side of the pink cuffs around Harry's right wrist and yelled.

"Now, Zayn! Move!" The next thing I knew, I was lying on top of Harry. My cushion let out a groan and started moving. Harry reached up to rub his head with his left hand and my right arm rose with it like some sort of fucked up marionette. He noticed the extra weight of my limb and looked at me. His eyes were quick to follow mine to see what I was looking at -- his right arm.

"What the actual fuck..." Harry said slowly and yanked his arm; he was stopped when the handcuffs extended to their full length. "This isn't a magic trick, is it?" He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.

"Nope," Louis chucked.

"Then you care to explain what's going on here, Lou?" Harry seethed, raising his arms. He shook his wrist, making the metal jingle.

"It's simple, really," Louis reasoned, "you guys are handcuffed together because you're making everyone else miserable. Your constant bickering is annoying as hell and we're all tired of it. This is our solution to that problem. If you're handcuffed for an unknown amount of time, you'll be forced to talk about your problems and figure some of them out. We'll be back tomorrow. If you guys haven't worked out your issues by then we'll reevaluate; this could go on indefinitely," Louis chuckled.

"Yeah, laugh it up asshole. You're fucking dead when you get back. I'll figure some way to get out of these damn things." Harry pulled at the fuzzy pink trap that connected him to the banister of the stairs.

"He who holds the key, holds the power," Louis grinned smugly, dangling the keys off his index finger. "Addie, any final words before we leave?"

"Fuck off," I growled.

"You guys will thank me later," Louis said and turned to Marina and Zayn. "So, what are you guys thinking for breakfast: Denny's, iHop, Perkins, Waffle House? "

"Yuck," Marina crinkled her nose, "you only go to Waffle House when you're drunk off your ass at 3am and it's the only place open."

"Well, what sounds good then?" Louis snapped, "'cause I'm fucking starving. I feel like my stomach's going to fold in on itself."

"Let's just go to the Aspen. They're better than any big chain restraunt," Zayn suggested.

"Alright. Yeah. Sounds good," Louis agreed and headed for the front door; Zayn and Marina followed.

Harry dropped his head back onto a stair and let out a hysteric laugh. I looked at him with a cocked brow.

"I'm gonna fucking murder him. He's gonna die. I'm gonna go to prison. That'll be it for me. I'll end up being the bitch for some big black guy named Jerome. I'm gonna rot in a cell. Never gonna marry. Never gonna have kids. My life's gonna be over before it ever really began and it's all because of Louis... Fucking twat."

"Wow. You're not one for optimism, are you?" I chuckled. It kind of eased me, knowing that Harry could make light of a situation like this.

"No. Optimism and I don't really go hand in hand," Harry laughed dryly, looking up at the celling.