Golden | ls au

2.

Louis is the one who drives an overly excited Niall to his apartment, before going off to his own.

The night is quiet; it doesn't feel like he's in the same world as the one he was just a couple hours ago, when he was being pushed and reaching near deafness among an insane amount of cheering fans. When he's inside his place, Louis puts the folded paper from his jeans on his nightstand, tucked under a candle, and follows his night routine. When he's in bed, he checks his phone, replying Niall's thread of messages about their night and ignoring his ex-girlfriend's texts.

He sighs, glancing at Eleanor's contact name, wanting to respond but not having the response that she wanted. He blinks and decides that he's done for the night, and the folded paper remains in his nightstand until he wakes up the next morning and realizes that it's still placed there, proving that it wasn't a surreal reverie of his mind.

The morning sun is bleeding into his bedroom when he unfolds the paper and grabs his phone, typing in the number and saving the contact as "H".

It was a prank; it had be, he thought. At each step to adding the number's contact into his phone, he was more convinced that someone decided to pull a joke on him. However, the man - Jeffrey - had said his name. Louis shook the thoughts away and texted the number, hesitating shortly to hit send.

"Hey, it's Louis. Got this number from Jeffrey."

He read the text over, thinking that the short message looked ridiculous. He is still drunk with sleep when he stands up from his bed and goes into his kitchen, making himself a cuppa and sitting on his couch, sipping on the hot beverage and letting his system wake up. The natural light illuminates his apartment in a comforting way as he breathes quietly, appreciating the peace around him before he has to get ready for work.

He can hear his phone buzzing in the bedroom. His eyes widen in realization, placing his drink on the center table and rushing to the room. His mind only seemed to recall the memories from the night before right when he unblocked his phone and saw the notification from "H".

He taps on the pop up, opening the message.

"Hi! I'm so glad he managed to find you. It's Harry, by the way."

Louis swallows and releases a breath he didn't know he was holding in. The contact appears to be typing, and before he has time to process, another message comes in.

"Good morning, Louis :)"

He blocks the phone and throws it on the bed. It can't be true. It has to be a hoax, a joke, a prank. Louis is pacing in his room when a laugh erupts from his throat; someone is playing him, and he would not fall for it. Believing he's stupid that he even believed it in the previous night, he ignores the phone and goes back into the living room, drinking his cuppa with too many thoughts in his mind.

Louis showers, puts clothes on and glances at the phone, thrown between tangled sheets.

What if? He thinks.

He opens the conversation with "H", glancing at the messages. His fingers are responding before he has time to ponder too deeply about it.

"Good morning, Harry."

He sends it and sighs, texting again.

"Is this really you? Got a shock last night when your manager appeared out of nowhere with your number."

Louis glanced and waited, but Harry, or whoever was on the other side of the conversation, didn't pop up online. The man groaned to himself. This is stupid, he thought. He tucked the phone in his pocket, grabbed a jacket and his keys, and left to work.