Eccedentesiast || Larry

5. Disconsolate

L

Louis sits on his bed, staring out into the open space in front of him. His room is big, much too big, and Louis finds himself staring at the large gaps between his furniture more often than not. He has limited furniture; a dresser there, a couch here, nothing too extravagant. There's not much to do at the moment, anyways. Zayn is taking a phone call in his own room and Louis can hear his murmurs through the wall separating their bedrooms.

Eventually he hears the voice behind him come to a halt, and once again, he's left in complete, utter silence. He's used to it though. Besides the fans screaming when they spot him at the store, or when he goes to the theater, or when he travels, everything is always silent, and Louis likes it that way. He likes the feeling of serenity and calmness when everything isn't moving around him like a race. He just likes being able to breathe.

But, his peace doesn't last long, because there is a soft knocking at his door, and it's opening a second later. Zayn's head pokes in his room and when he realizes that Louis is decent, he fully steps in. Louis moves over so Zayn has room to sit.

"Just got off the phone with Harry number twelve." Zayn sighs.

"And?"

"It's not him. I've got it narrowed down to seven Harry's. One of them is yours." Zayn says, smiling at Louis so he feels better about the situation.

"I swear, this kid better be worth the trouble." Louis mumbles under his breath, bending his knees and hugging them to his chest.

"I hope so. Fought with an elderly woman over the phone for an hour just to get a list of Harry's in the area." Zayn huffs, running his fingers through his hair.

"I'm sorry, thank you so much for doing this. I just- I don't even know why I want to contact him so bad. Like, I think maybe if I had another friend besides you and the hundreds of fake people pretending to care about me, It'd be like- like I have- I don't know. Ignore me." Louis supplies a small smile at the end.

"Yeah, I get it. At least I think I do."

It's silent after that, until Louis suggests that they watch some television. They find King of Queens, which Zayn finds boring but Louis loves. Zayn lets it slide this time and holds in his disapproving grunt. They entangle their legs together as they lay side by side, and Louis is once again encompassed in peace. He likes silence, but he also likes watching television with his best friend.

-

What seems like an endless amount of soup sits on the shelf in front of Louis, from Campbell to store brand soup that tastes like cardboard, it never ends. He's trying to decide what he wants—he usually goes for cheddar and broccoli—but after discovering how unhealthy it actually is, he's decided to change things up. Louis' dressed himself up in sweats and a t-shirt, his usual attire for trips to the store. He's wearing sunglasses so his chances of getting recognized are minimized, even though he looks ridiculous.

It doesn't take him long to snatch a random Healthy Choice can of soup from the shelf and drop it in the basket hanging off of his arm. Behind him, he hears giggling and whispering. He chooses to ignore it until he hears it again as he walks down a different aisle.

Louis subtly turns towards the distraction to find two girls gawking at him. Their eyes widen slightly when he flashes them one of his well practiced Hollywood smiles. Their guardian must be elsewhere in the store.

"Are you Louis Tomlinson?" The taller of the two asks.

"Yes, I am. How can I help you?"

"We were - um, we were wondering if we could have your- your autograph?" The other girl stutters, handing Louis her phone to sign. He does, scribbling his signature on her phone case. The taller girl hands him her phone as well, and he signs it. They don't ask for a picture, which Louis should feel offended by, but he doesn't. A woman rounds the corner almost immediately and scolds them for wandering away from her sight.

He continues on with his grocery shopping, ignoring anyone who whispers about him behind his back; "Oh, I think that's that Louis guy." "Wasn't he in Breaking Down?" "His ass looks great in those sweats." All of these comments made behind his back and Louis can't bring himself to care. Teenagers, girls especially, were constantly talking about his ass and quite frankly, Louis is kind of tired of it. He can appreciate it himself.

Maybe he needs a better disguise than sunglasses.

He starts his car once all of the groceries are loaded into the backseat and turns on the radio. The volume is turned up very high, and Louis' sure his speakers are going to be blown out by the end of the month, but it's worth it. He plugs in his iPod and plays his music, quietly singing along to Under the Gun by The Killers. He barely makes it through three songs (including Mr Brightside, because you just can't not listen to Mr Brightside) when he arrives at the apartment he and Zayn share.

Louis puts away all the food he bought, leaving out the chicken and rice he plans on making for dinner.

This is their routine; Zayn stays out, working with fashion designers and modeling agencies while Louis runs errands to keep himself busy when he doesn't have any interviews or a scene to shoot. It's monotonous and quite frankly, Louis likes routine. It makes his life feel almost. . . normal.

(A/N: Filler chapter, sorry.

Comment right here "chocolate milk" if you're reading this.

-T)