Loose Change (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter Five

>> Fifth Chapter <<

 A cement wall. One of the white walls of the flowershop, to be exact.

 That’s what Louis has been staring at from the moment he got to the shop this morning. He’s forgotten exactly how long it’s been since he arrived; all he knows how to do and cares about at the moment is staring at the white cement wall in front of him.

 He was late for work yesterday and was told that he only had one chance left, one chance to not do anything sleep-related or insulting-old-ladies-related.

 So now, this is him trying his best to stay awake. Since the sleeping pills had caused Louis to oversleep and be late yesterday, he decided against using them last night. Meaning, he was awake the entire evening as he heard all the usual rough-housing from next door.

 Right now, Louis looked like a downright mess. Even though he showered this morning, like he does every day, he still looks as though he just woke up. And how ironic is that, considering he hasn’t even slept.

 Before he left for work, Louis drank a lot of coffee, hoping that he wouldn’t be caught sleeping on the job again.

 Sitting on his little wooden stool behind the counter, he was facing the wall to the right of the register.

 His usually soft and feathery brown hair was now frizzy and went in a lot of directions. Just his luck, he had run out of conditioner this morning, so he was going to have to buy another bottle over the weekend. Oh, and soap too. Lots of soap. Louis loves soap, he’s absolutely enamored with the idea of soap.  

 After he had showered at home, Louis looked in the mirror and noticed the bags under his eyes. They seemed more prominent than usual. So, he thought that by applying the “Bags-No-More” cream on his eyebags, they would just magically disappear. He was wrong to think that. Because now, not only did he have really messy hair, but he also has this white stuff under his eyes while he stared at the wall in front of him. Truly, did he look like a mindless zombie at the moment.

 He’s had maybe four or five customers already for this day; but really, who’s counting?

 At that moment, Harry enters the shop for the day. He sees Louis facing the wall off to the side, and he’s wondering what’s up with the wall?

 He takes a tentative step forward to inform Louis of his presence, since the bell at the top of the door frame didn’t do much to help. But it still doesn’t work.

“Damn, he’s really focused on that wall…” Harry thinks.

 He decides to clear his throat instead, as another approach to make his presence known by the lad on the stool, much like the very first time he went to the shop.

 Louis turns his head to acknowledge Harry’s presence with a nod and grabs flowers from the side. He lays them on the counter and returns to staring at the “Oh so interesting” wall.

 Harry wonders how all the smiles and happiness from yesterday had turned to this. A mindless zombie.

 But, at least his flowers are done. Before he could think much further about it, Harry places his money on top of the counter before grabbing the bouquet and heading off.

*

 The next day was pretty much the same, except maybe it was much worse. Much, much worse than yesterday. Louis doesn’t even try to look at Harry, much less acknowledge his presence. He just grabs the flowers and this time, instead of facing the wall beside him; he’s looking out of the giant window at the front of the shop. Which makes it seem as though he was looking at the customer in front of him, but really, he wasn’t.

 Well at least he wasn’t being rude to old ladies or sleeping.

 But to Harry, it felt like he hated Wednesdays a little bit more upon seeing this Louis who was just sat at his stool staring at nothing and everything all at once.

*

 Thursday hadn’t gone too well either. Harry had tried to at least make a conversation with Louis. To cheer him up even, but it was no use as Louis only looked at the speck of dirt on the other wall this time.

 Finally, Harry decides he couldn’t handle it anymore once he got to the shop on Friday. Upon seeing him in the weird zombie-like state again, Harry decided that he’s had enough. Even though he found it to be very irritating the way Louis was all smiles and giggles on Monday, Harry can’t help but feel that he actually misses that Louis.

 Sure, he finds the huge shit-eating grin to be quite creepy, but it couldn’t be worse than this. He’ll take the rambly and bubbly Louis instead of this any day.

 But before Harry exits the shop, he notices the way that Louis tries to keep his eyes open. How it’s such an effort for him to do so. And Harry figures out that Louis has probably just been very sleepy lately and he knows just what to do for him.

*

“Here, I bought you some coffee from across the street”

 Louis looks up from the floor that he was staring at and sees Harry setting down a large paper cup with probably the coffee in it.

“I noticed that you’ve just really been out of it these past days, so I decided to buy you a cup of coffee.” Harry says.

“Um…” Louis was really touched to know that someone cares about his misery and decides to help him out.

 Louis picks up the paper cup and drinks the warm liquid.

“Thanks!” Louis said upon drinking it all. “I guess I just needed that…”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Harry said as he smiled at him.

 Louis went home that day, happy even though he still felt really tired. He was happy to know that someone would care enough to bring him coffee while he was in a time of need.

But he wondered, were Harry and him considered as friends now?

Or was he just trying to be nice and they were just acquaintances?

Louis tried not to think about it too much; after all, it was the weekend.