Just Under The Upperhand »l.s au«

2

(Thanks for voting!! This is a little over 2k, so if you have a short attention span, I apologize. Also, I'm censoring some things for the sake of keeping my story on the listings. Thanks so much -M)

Louis thought about getting up.

He'd also once thought about being a professional footballer, but that dream was as far away as the stars and he laughed in its face and became a prostitute. Which is exactly the reason why his legs ached and his throat burned and he went back to sleep until half-past noon.

The wispy haired 21-year-old heated up a toaster strudel and blended a strawberry-banana smoothie in , taking a glass of water with antidepressants and painkillers for the headache and the soreness. He went over his schedule within a few seconds; Hospital. Starbucks. Sleep. Work.

He looked down at his phone- three new voicemails.

"Why aren't you returning my fucking calls, Louis, I need to talk to you about Jay. I've been trying to reach you ever since-"

Louis pressed 7 to delete.

"Yeah, I'm calling about your erm, service..." Louis rolled his eyes as the rough sounding man stated his name and address and said to call him back.

"Lou, it's me, Harry. Was just checking up on you. We're still on tonight, right? Give me a call back."

Louis immediately called him back,.

"Lou?"

"Hi, Harry." Louis smiled and sipped his smoothie through a light blue straw.

"Hey, what's up, how are you?"

"I'm tired and I have a smoothie, so I'm doing decent."

"What kind of smoothie?"

"Why'd you need to know?" Louis smirked.

"So I know what to prepare when I'm making you breakfast in the near future." Harry sounded smug, and Louis giggled and shook his head.

"Good luck with that, Styles." The smile hadn't left his face.

"Oh come on, don't pretend there weren't fireworks last night."

Louis choked on his smoothie at the sudden change in mood. "Fireworks?" He scoffed. "I don't know what you're on, Harry, but I'm a gay hooker, you don't have fireworks with a f*cking gay hooker." His voice unexpectedly raised and his heart pumped.

"You can't tell me you didn't at least feel a tiny connection, Lou, I swear to god-"

"I'm not having this conversation with you." Louis tried to compose himself and sighed.

"Okay, okay." Harry surrendered and paused. "I uh, what time is good for you tonight?"

"Dunno, you're the one paying me." Louis snapped.

Harry exhaled on the other line. "Eight. Same place."

"Eight?" Louis's eyes widened. What about his nap?

"I'm the one paying you, remember?"

The line went silent and Louis looked down at his phone to find that Harry had hung up on him. He rested his head in his hands and stared at his smoothie, losing his appetite.

Don't cry.

Louis drove with his right hand on the wheel and his left hand holding his previously rejected smoothie, headache overcoming him and making him lightheaded. He took a few painkillers at the stoplight.