Strawberries & Cigarettes

A World Tainted Pink

                                                                   Song(s):

                                         "Cigarette Daydreams" - Cage the Elephant

                                                 "Pallid Eyes" - Emily Jane White

Louis didn't remember the boy's name. He could only recall the initial first, hot meeting of clashing tongues and teeth, the sweat coating his skin until drink, pleasure, and exhaustion had set him into oblivion, but not the name. Not that Louis needed that information, anyway.

Slowly, careful not to wake the sleeping boy next to him, Louis crept out of the bed and assembled his clothes from the floor, wincing at every creak of the floorboards and sounds as he zipped up his trousers. He was just about to put on his shoes when the boy turned in his sleep with a groan and Louis froze, pinching his eyes closed, then loosed a quiet sigh of relief when the boy kept sleeping tight as a baby, and tip-toed to the window, shoes in his hand.

He peered through the window and almost pushed a fist in the air at the sight. Ground level: jackpot!

But... One last look over his shoulder told him what he had already suspected: Community college. Located about 8 kilometers from his apartment. Fuck. Now he also remembered the boy excitedly telling him about his major until Louis had had enough of pretending to listen and solved the problem the usual way: with his tongue. That had gotten the boy to stop talking, no doubt about that.

Louis carefully pushed up the window and threw one bare foot over the railing, glancing back at the sleeping boy, and wondered for a split second if this was in the boy's favor or if maybe he was more like Harry, one of those boys who would prepare breakfast in bed and ask you out on a date. Well, Louis wasn't one of the latter, so it didn't matter, did it? He wasn't. But the prospect of breakfast seemed a very good one at the moment, even though the mere thought of any form of liquor already made him nauseous and a headache throbbed behind his skull.

Slowly, he hoisted himself up, now sitting on the window sill like on a horse and peered down to the ground below. Although the dorm room was luckily located on the ground floor, the dry grass beneath him still seemed terribly far away from this perspective. But it was too late to turn back now. With an ejaculation toward the sky, Louis threw his other leg over the sill as well and then made a Spiderman-like jump for it.

He had anticipated to land on the ground with a cool roll like in spy movies but the reality was much different. He landed on the grass with an unceremonious thud, the impact nearly taking the air out of his lungs, and loosed a series of violent swears.

For one moment he was taken back to the last time he had fallen out of a window and landed on a patch of grass (which was definitely something that shouldn't happen that frequently to one person) with Harry by his side. The memory of what had happened afterwards let another few weak swears from Louis' tongue.

Padding the loose pieces of grass from his clothes as if that would miraculously make him look less sleazy or would somehow also make his clothes less rumpled and foetid, his eyes stuck on his feet. His still naked feet. With a dreading look up to the window his assumption was confirmed: he had forgotten his shoes on the window sill which was too highly located to reach from where Louis was standing. He nearly let out a frustrated scream but stopped himself when he remembered not to wake the boy above him. A few angry kicks and beats on the dead grass had to do for now.

It was cold; the sun hadn't even fully risen yet, only a few streams of sunlight snaking their way through the grey clouds. For a moment he considered the option of going inside the building and knocking on the boy's door but even the thought made Louis cringe, his entire body tensing with dread. From the looks of it he would just have to go home barefoot. Doing his walk of shame not only looking a maniac but also like a hungover Jesus, sans the luscious long hair of course. Where was Harry Styles to hoist one up in the air when you needed him?!