Timeless - A Larry Stylinson FanFiction

Chapter 27

        Louis crouched down on the tiny patch of sand, picking up a smooth stone. With a slight flick of the wrist, he sent it skipping across the ripples of lake water, watching as it eventually stopped leaping over the surface and sunk to the very bottom.

It was kind of like him, in a way. Shaped and worn down by the rough waves; society having smoothed his edges until he was as flat and uniform as all the others. He could be thrown across the water and skip over as many girls as he wanted, but in the end he was destined to sink right back to the bottom where he started. He was a foolish man who fancied another, and no matter how many female distractions he led in and out of his life there was no escaping the inevitable.

Like the stone, the feeling of being with a girl was like leaping through the air, but he only got one chill. One faint inkling of a touch with the water before he was thrust back into the emptiness of the atmosphere.

Spending his days with another man, however, was how he was intended to. What goes up, must come down, and when Louis admitted to himself that the feeling of Harry Styles’ lips on his own felt better than the sky, he knew he had fallen. It was in that moment that Louis Tomlinson succumbed to the waves. He had drowned himself in the feeling of being weightless, of drifting ever lower into the cool chill of the water, no longer restrained by the feeling of the empty air. Under the water, he could feel everything. Every light brush against his skin, every wave that rocked the world around him, every shift in temperature. Louis was drowning in his feelings for Harry, and there was no possible way for him to resurface, of that he was sure.

He didn’t even know why he had come to the party. Zayn had come up his walkway, knocked three times on the door, and Louis had answered.

“Come to the party with me,” he had asked, as straightforward as that, and in a spark of optimism Louis had accepted his offer or rather, his command.

Zayn was bartending; he had been asked personally by Marilyn way back when he had served the drinks at the soldiers’ homecoming party to make an appearance at the one she had been planning ever so carefully for the future.

Louis had barely spoken to Zayn all evening, as he was too busy passing alcohol to grotesque boys who looked as though they had consumed too much already.

It wasn’t a problem for him though, Louis was used to spending his nights in solitude. Besides, just being outside and near something other than the splitting wood walls of his home was enough to lighten his mood.

He stood then, looking around him to make sure nobody was looking his way. As expected, everyone was too absorbed in themselves to notice the odd one out. Ladies laughed as they brought flutes of champagne up to their brightly colored lips, most if not all, on the arm of a young man. They surely wouldn’t notice what Louis was planning to do.

He slipped his shoes off, then his socks, rolling them up and tossing both garments on top of a rock to his left. He rolled up the ends of his trousers so they ended just below the knee, and set his jacket on top of his shoes and socks.

Standing there in nothing but his white buttoned shirt and rolled trousers was a sight to behold, but also a sight that no one bothered to see. With a distressed sigh, Louis pushed his top hat down so the edges covered the tips of his ears, and stepped carefully into the water. It seemed warm to him, a surprise given the late April weather was usually rather cool. He looked around again then, making absolutely sure that he was to go unnoticed by the partygoers back on the shore.

Louis waded into the lake, walking across the sand until the water reached the middle of his thighs. Content, he dipped his hand in, feeling the lukewarm water lick his fingertips each time he dared to trace the surface. It was almost like a dream. His upper half stood high in the air, braced for anything life threw at him and willing to stand tall like the soldier he had been, the soldier he still was. Yet beneath the water, his reflection was off center and it was clear that he was completely different. His image seemed to flow freer, to move without restraints, and suddenly Louis knew that when he was submerged in the water of his life it was when he could truly be free.