Loose Change (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter Four

>> Fourth Chapter <<

 He knows that he should be feeling really sorry and ashamed right now for arriving late to work this morning, but he just couldn’t bring himself to feel any remorse or guilt. Not even after he just got scolded by his boss this morning he got to the shop.

 He has the hugest smile upon his face at the moment, even though his morning went terribly. No, there was nothing wrong with him; Louis was just really happy and grateful for being able to acquire some sleep over the weekend which his system long needed.

 Just moments ago, once he realized that he’d forgotten to change from his pajamas, he knew that he really had no choice but to go back home.

 After having done all the stuff which he finds necessary before leaving his flat to go to work (for real this time), Louis grabbed his knitted sweater (which was given to him by his gramma) and went along his merry way to the shop.

 And upon arriving at said shop, which was the 'Sparkle and Bloom Flowershop', his boss was working the register. This boss had a very furious expression on his face, which wasn’t hard to miss because it almost seemed as though smoke was going to come out of his ears any time soon if he keeps up this angry face.

“What if smoke does come out of his ears, what happens then?” Louis suddenly thought to himself. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, what if the smoke comes out from his nose? Then--”

“Tomlinson!”

 Louis was suddenly snapped from his smoking-boss-ears-filled-thoughts, as the fuming boss sharply said his name.

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying right now?” he said with the same sharpness from a while ago.

“Um…” Louis thought about it before replying. “Yes?”

 Now now, Louis wasn’t one to lie; but he just had to, okay? He knows that if he said the truth, which would be “No, I definitely wasn’t listening. I just got really distracted thinking about smoke coming out of the holes in your head.”, that would definitely be the last straw. His boss would kick him out of the shop and fire him from his job faster than you can say “Louis’ Pokémon pajamas “.

“Good, you understand then that this is your final chance. I’m sick and tired of all the shit you do here at work like; sleeping on the job and being rude to nice respectable women. So you better not do anything else that will make me have to fire you. Got that, Tomlinson?”

 Everything else was a blur after that, he just remembers himself giving some sort of nod as a response.

 Now, Louis was just sitting there on his little wooden stool behind the counter; he was waiting for his next customer while he was still bearing a grin. And right on time, the bell at the top signals the entrance of his newest “regular” customer.

 Louis has already made the bouquet of white Carnations and Asters beforehand; he just had a lot of spare time, okay. Don’t judge him.

 All there’s really left to do now is hand the flowers over to the customer. Which Louis really wants to know more about, he finds Harry to be really intriguing. Maybe it’s because he wears black all the time and has multiple tattoos scattered across his lean arms, or maybe it’s because of the cool motorcycle Louis finds to be really familiar (he thinks it’s the motorcycle he sees across the street at night, but he can’t be too sure), it could also be because Louis wants to know how his curls look so soft held back by a different bandanna everyday.

 No one will ever know… (But it’s definitely the curls…and maybe the piercing green eyes as well.)

“Hello there, Harry! Nice to see you again…” Louis greeted with much enthusiasm and a vigorous wave of his hand in the air.

 Harry raised an eyebrow and threw a questioning look at Louis’ extreme joy and energy. It was his first time to see Louis with so much enthusiasm like this.

“And what’s with that shit-eating grin on his face?” Harry thought to himself, he wondered if Louis’ face was actually going to split into two in a matter of seconds because of how wide he was smiling. “That would be painful….”

“Yeah…” Harry said as he approached the counter. “Hi, Louis…right? It’s Louis…”

“Yup! That’s me,” Louis giggled like the bundle of joy he is.

“I’ll ha—“ Harry was about to state his order when Louis interrupted him as he quite literally shoved flowers in his direction.

“Here are your flowers! I guessed that you’d probably be ordering the same thing as you had everyday last week; so I decided to just go ahead and prepare them earlier to keep you from waiting. Because I actually noticed how you get so impatient and this irritated look shows up on your face. I can still see you all the way from the back room, you know? Not that I was watching your every move, just saying. Because you might think that I was spying on you, which would be kinda creepy, but really I was ju—“ Louis’ words were cut off as Harry sighed exasperatedly and raised his hand slightly to signal him to stop. “I’m sorry, I was rambling wasn’t I?”

“You think?” Harry said sarcastically.

“Sorry, here are your flo—“

 Harry suddenly grabs them and sets the money on the counter in front of Louis. And just like that, Harry exits the shop and Louis sees him through the huge glass window of the shop as he gets on his motorcycle. He starts it up and heads off.

 Louis looks down in front of him to see the money.

“Hey!” he yelled as if Harry would be able to hear him. “You forgot your—“

 Louis stopped talking as he remembered that Harry has been giving him loads of “tips” every single day for the past week.

 Louis would say that Harry should get his change, but Harry would reply with a “Keep ‘em as your tip” and just leave. And every single time, Louis feels guilty about taking the “tips”.

 You’d think that by now, he’d be used to it…