Eccedentesiast || Larry

16. Fair

L

Louis wakes up in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed, wearing nothing but his boxer briefs. His head is pounding due to the amount of alcohol he drank last night, and he can't remember anything.

He sits up slowly and sees his pants lying on the ground next to him. He picks those up and exits the room after looking around for his shirt to no avail. Louis' bare feet pad across the long hallway as he tries to find a bathroom in the extravagant home. He succeeds, but not before opening the wrong door to find a gym room, the bathroom adjacent to it.

Louis pees first. He drank a lot last night. Then he looks at himself in the mirror. His hair is a complete mess and scratches cover his entire torso, leaving it red and irritated. Louis sighs as he slips on the pants he wore last night and attempts to calm his wild hair.

When he manages to find the kitchen on the first floor, not the second (he didn't even know the house had two floors), Jennifer is sitting at the counter, eating a bowl of cereal. She pauses when her spoon is halfway to her mouth, locking eyes with Louis.

"Good morning, Louis!" She chirps, smiling brightly.

"Morning. Do you have any Advil?" Louis mumbles, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead to stop the throbbing.

"Of course. It's in the cabinet next to the fridge."

Louis opens the cabinet to reveal all sorts of pill bottles. He quickly finds the one he was looking for and dry swallows two pills, causing his throat to feel like something is caught in it.

"What happened last night?" Louis asks, leaning against the stove.

"Well, you obviously drank more than I did, that's for sure," Jennifer chuckles, setting her spoon down in the bowl and pushing it away. "But, anyways, do those scratches hurt? Sorry about that."

Louis' eyes widen and his heart beats faster. No, no fucking way. I didn't sleep with her, did I?

Jennifer laughs at his shocked face. "I'm totally kidding."

"Oh, thank god... So, what really happened?" Louis asks, letting out a breath of relief.

"You were drunk last night, like, really drunk, and I wasn't about to let you drive home by yourself."

"But Zayn-" Louis tries.

"He had already left," Jennifer states.

"Asshole..." Louis mutters under his breath.

"I know. So I brought you back here to crash for the night. And those scratches were formed when you said, and I quote, "I'm really fucking itchy right now" and started to itch yourself like a mad man. It was actually really funny," Jennifer says, laughing at the end.

Louis blushes in embarrassment. "Why wasn't I wearing any clothes when I woke up?"

"You took off your jacket and shirt when you needed to itch yourself. I guess the pants came off later," she shrugs, standing up and walking over to the sink.

"We didn't do anything, did we?"

"No, we did not."

Louis releases a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Then, he asks the question he's been wanting to ask since he first walked in here: "Where is my shirt?"

Jennifer doesn't reply, just points. Louis walks in the direction she is referring to and finds his blazer and shirt lying in front of the door, right on top of his shoes. Louis buttons up his shirt and slips on his shoes, calling out a thank you and letting himself out of the house. But then he turns back around and reenters.

"Um, Jennifer? Where is my car?" Louis asks as he enters the kitchen.

"Zayn took it, I think. I'll drive you back."

Louis rolls his eyes at her comment about Zayn. He probably brought home a girl for the hundredth time this month. Jennifer laughs quietly as she collects her keys and walks with Louis out to her car.

-

"Z? Are you here?" Louis calls out into the apartment. Nobody answers.

He walks into the kitchen; nobody is there. The living room is empty as well, but the television is playing the credits of some movie.

"Zayn?" Louis calls out again as he moves on to the short hallway, and this time, he hears a reply. Zayn's head pops out from behind his bedroom door.

"Hey, Louis, what's up?" He says, fully exiting the room and closing the door behind him, wearing nothing but boxers.

"Zaaayn, come back to bed!" Louis hears a girl yell from behind the door.

Louis raises his eyebrows.

"She'll be fine. Where were you last night?" Zayn asks, voice thick with concern.

"I crashed at Jennifer's after you left me there with no transportation," he declares, lowering his voice and glaring at Zayn.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I kinda forgot."

"Whatever," Louis mumbles, walking past Zayn.

"Hey, wait! You need to see something. Give me your phone."

"No, you have your own!" Louis says, crossing his arms.

Zayn just holds out his hand. "Please, it's important."

Louis caves in, handing over his phone and watching as Zayn pulls something up, handing it back to him. It's an article by The Window. He reads it over, squinting and frowning at the screen by the time he reaches the pictures at the bottom. None of this is true, except for the pictures. Yes, they hugged once. Yes, they had a drink. Yes, they smiled for the camera. And yes, they left the venue together, but that doesn't mean anything! Oh, and they definitely did not kiss. Reporters always exaggerate everything.

"Shit, this is bad."

"Yeah, I know. Have you talked to Harry yet?" Zayn asks.

"No. Should I?" Louis asks, glancing up at Zayn. The girl inside Zayn's room calls for him again.

"You should. He's probably upset."

"Alright, yeah. I will. Thanks." Louis walks away and enters his room. He's thankful that their walls are thick and Zayn's bed is on the opposite wall as his.

Louis dials Harry's number and waits for him to pick up.

The call goes straight to voicemail.

-

(I really liked this chapter and I hope you did too.

I answered your questions on whether or not Louis did what you thought he did (he didn't) so you're happy, I hope, because I'm happy.

I am going to New York on Thursday and I have no idea if the hotel we're staying at has wifi and I may or may not have any time to update, so I spent all day yesterday writing as much as I could so that I could just use my data or something and publish the chapters. I've got so much planned once these next few chapters are over with, which are focused on the same issue. I also have some more larry moments I will be including soon!

One last thing. I've realized that none of you really know anything about me, so I was thinking it would be cool to do a 'Get to Know the Author' kind of thing! Only if you guys want to, though. You can comment questions here or I can just state 20 facts about me in my author's note in the next chapter, it doesn't matter. You choose.)