your lipstick stain is a work of art » stylinson

⚤seventeen

part seventeen

⚥

" ─ somebody grab her other leg!," louis can hear somebody shouting, and he can sort of feel their hands touching him, but it mostly just feels numb. "we need to hurry, c'mon!," shouts what sounds like the same person, and louis tries to open his eyes, but they won't open. maybe they're frozen shut? or maybe he's just too tired? that's probably it. he's so sleepy. "she's losing consciousness!," louis hears, and his eyebrows furrow as he can kinda feel himself getting picked up, and he tries to shake his head in irritation.

"harry...," he whispers, and his lips hardly move at all, but one of the strangers seems to hear it, they pat at his cheek, trying to wake him up.

"sweetheart? hey, love, you need to stay awake. we've got your friend, too, and we need you to stay awake," says a woman, and louis breathes in shakily, trying to open his eyes again, growing frustrated and so, so tired; all of his energy used up by trying to stay warm.

"mm. where's he?," he asks, his chest rising and falling slowly.

"he's right ahead of us, he's on a table top that we broke off it's legs ─ my brothers are carrying him," she answers calmly, and louis smiles a little in relieve. well. he would be smiling if his lips could move.

"how's he?," he slurs, resigning himself to a world of darkness for the time being, not struggling anymore. he waits for several moments, and he wonders if his ears have started to mess up, too. "ma'am?," he whispers, nearly choking on his tongue, his eyes painfully watering.

she doesn't answer.

❁

❁

❁

" ─ hello? ma'am? we really need you to wake up, please," louis catches, but the voice is sort of garbled and he can only catch a few words. but, where his body used to be numb, it is now on fire. a high pitched crying noise leaves his mouth and his eyes fly open, and he gasps loudly, raising up with a hacking fit. "good! you're aliv ─ awake! awake!," says the woman from earlier, and louis squints his eyes at the sudden brightness of the room, looking from his lap, over at the direction the voice was from.

"where's harry?," he says automatically, catching eyes with a woman with strikingly blue eyes. she sighs quietly and puts a hand to her mouth. "what's wrong? where is he? where am i?," he asks, rapid fire, hesitantly looking away from the woman, to look around.

"this is a restaurant called 17black. i... we got a frantic call from your friends... jamie and leigh-anne?," she says, and louis nods, not bothering to correct her. "you might want to give them a ring, they were in tears," she informs him, and he's suddenly struck by how raw his body feels. "do you... do you wanna use my phone?," she asks, and louis assumes they didn't grab his phone from the cement. it's probably ruined anyways.

"please...," he whispers, and she nods acutely, and leans back to dig in her front pants pocket, pulling out her mobile, handing it to louis without hesitation. he tries to reach for it, but cries out as soon as he moves, and he really regrets sitting up.

"here... lemme help you lay back down. i'll call your friends and put them on speaker? how's that? then i'll go an... i'll go see about your friend," she smiles pitifully, and louis nods with a sniffle, clenching his jaw as she supports his spine and shoulders, helping him lie back. "what's their number?," she asks, and louis sniffles again.

"five-five-five-two-three-eighty-nine," he says slowly, his tongue feeling heavy now that he's on his back. the nameless woman doesn't say anything after that, she just types it in, and as soon as it starts ringing, she puts it on speaker, placing it by his head. "now, please go check on harry," he whispers, closing his eyes. again, the woman doesn't say anything, but she does pat his shoulder as she walks by, and her heels click as se leaves the room.

after she is gone, the only sound in the room is the ringing on the phone, and louis is nearly positive that he's not going to get an answer when the receiver suddenly picks up, a frantic jesy on the other end, "hello? who is this? did you find them? are they okay? oh, my god, please say that you've found them," she sobs, and louis gives a wet laugh, sniffling again.

"it's me. i'm okay, jes," he says, blinking his eyes open, a tear spilling down his cheek, soaking into his already wet hair. another wet chuckle leaves him at hearing jesy and leigh-anne's choruses of happy cries.

"thank god! we ─ you ─ i ─ z-zayn had a dashboard camera in his car... we saw... you two just... we thought... lou, we were so afraid," leigh-anne hiccups, too, and louis feels so guilty for not calling them. and then he remember his mum, that he left her with such a note, and that he needs to get in touch with her as soon as possible. "how's harry?," leigh-anne asks after a few moments, her breath shallow, trying to compose herself.

"i... i don't know... i haven't seen him since... i can't even go walk to find him...," he whispers, his head starting to hurt a little, but all the pain is sharpening his senses, "i hit my head pretty good. i'm pretty sure i might have a concussion. harry's leg was very swollen when... when i woke up the first time. he was carrying me... i'll... i'll talk to you about what's happened later. i don't wanna talk about it right now," he says, and jesy starts to say something as soon as he's finished.

"woke up for the second time? how many times were you unconscious? a concussion? where are you? your mum called me in hysterics, said you had called her - but she wouldn't tell me what happened, she just said you needed help. but i think we know, because we could... we called zayn and had him watch the car's dashboard camera. after that, me and leigh called a whole bunch of local restaurants to get them to try and find you, but nobody got back to us...," she whispers, and louis can imagine how traumatic this must have been for her - the girl who freaks out if he's 3 minutes late to getting home.

"um, it's a restaurant i think... they broke their table to carry harry on... the woman who owns it was just in here, she said the name of the place was 17black?," he says, purposefully avoiding the questions she had about him being unconscious or hurt.

"okay, yeah, they're between ethster's bakery and the old pharmacy," jesy says with a small sniffle, obviously relieved by the news of louis and harry's safety. "listen, lou, the storm will be over tomorrow. me and leigh will ask to borrow mr chinn's snowmobile thingy and we'll get you and harry to the hospital. okay? will you be okay there?," she asks, and the woman from a few minutes ago enters the room, her lips pursed.

"yeah - yeah... listen i gotta go, jesy," he murmurs, blindly pressing his numb fingers onto the phone until it hangs up, his eyes. not leaving the woman's grave expression. "how is he?," he asks as soon as his throat opens up a little.

the lady's lips twitch a little, and louis can hear her sigh. "he's asking to see you..."

❁

❁

❁

a/n:

i swear i'm not mean! this is the last sad chapter! no more cliffhanger syndrome - lots of fluff ahead... and no more crap 500 word chapters either, i'm going to get back in the 2.000s!
_

and @princelouwt is writing the spanish translation to this if that is your native language - it's in my reading list 'swag translations'
_
andand tysm to my bby lou-ren aka @stylinkink for being such a cutie ily ( #laleyisreal )