Disorders [ Larry Stylinson )

chapter three ; you don't throw away cigarette butts.

It was night now, and the park was dark, save splinters of moonlight-empty, save one small boy, whose head was buried in a book. The boy was, physically, on a park bench, but mentally he was enveloped into the world and story of the two boys printed on the pages of this book.
Louis didn't know how he got to this point. He couldn't remember leaving his house in the middle of the night with a tiny pocket paperback in his coat pocket, and he didn't remember walking to the park, and he didn't remember sitting on a bench and opening the book and he didn't remember reading halfway through it. All Louis knew was that he was there, and he was reading a book some twink had accidentally left on his desk.
It made him angry-why was he reading this? Why had his attention been directed to this random paperback romance for over two hours? It made him mad that he didn't know what time it was, and it frustrated him that he didn't care enough to rip his eyes from this story to check his watch. He cared so much about these words on this page, he cared so much about giving it his undying attention. Which was infuriating.
He wasn't used to caring about anything-Louis had a "fuck it, I don't give a damn anyways" attitude about everything, so the fact that he was so attached to something as lame as a book was particularly confusing to him.
It was confusing to the other boy who was now entering the park as well, in fact he was absolutely baffled when he spotted the rude, short boy from his English class.
The boy was Harry, whom Louis had kicked out of his seat earlier, and whose book he was currently bent over. Harry, who was absolutely devastated by the loss of his book, couldn't bring himself to read anything else and was instead using his reading time to go on a late night walk. So here Harry was, extremely curious at this point, because the tiny, yet strong, boy who had pushed him down and kneed him earlier didn't strike him as a reader. He wanted to know what he was reading, and if he read often, and what his favorite genre and author was, and all of those beautiful things.
Harry chewed gently on the end of his sweater sleeve, which he had changed into when he got home, and slowly walked over to the boy. He made his steps quiet, and Louis was so wrapped up in his book that he didn't notice him until he was sat next to him on the tiny bench.
Louis quickly snapped his head up to Harry, causing the taller boy to squeak a bit and scoot to the edge of the bench.
Harry peeked down at the book Louis was holding-if he was to be yelled off soon he at least wanted to find out what book he was so invested in-and he immediately recognized his own book in Louis' small hands.
He knew it was his-not only was it the book he lost, but he could see "H.S" written on the bottom edge of the spine. It was his book, he must have left the copy on Louis' desk when he quickly moved out of it. He noticed that Louis had not only picked up his book and taken it home, but he had taken it to the park and sat down and read halfway through it and was so involved in it that he hadn't noticed Harry was with him until he was literally sat next to him.
After a few seconds of simply looking at each other, Louis finally came to his wits, slapping the book closed and shooting Harry an angry look.
"What are you doing here, boy?" Louis grumbled, pulling his coat tighter around him.
"J-just-" Harry mentally scolded himself for stuttering, "went for a walk when I saw you reading, and I wanted to see what book it w-was so I came and sat over here, and-"
"I wasn't reading." Louis scoffed. "I just...brought the book here to return it to you." Louis nodded in satisfaction, and Harry tugged on his sweater sleeves.
"But, but Louis you didn't even know I would be here, you couldn't h-"
"Oh, whatever." Louis tossed the book over to Harry, who wasn't prepared to catch it and squeaked as it fell on the grass. The shorter boy rolled his eyes, taking a cigarette and a lighter out of his jacket pocket as the younger boy scrambled to the ground to pick up his paperback book and wipe little water droplets carefully off of it with his sweater sleeve. Louis lit up and took the cigarette between his lips, chuckling softly when Harry turned around to see him smoking and cringed, hugging his book closer to his chest and backing up a bit. Louis raised his eyebrows and blew the smoke up in Harry's face, the taller boy coughing squeakily and fanning at the air around him.
"Why are you still here, library boy?" Louis asked, taking another puff of his cigarette.
Harry looked down at his shoes. Tomorrow was only his second day, and a fourth of the school had already titled him as something dorky like "library boy". He thought those types of things wouldn't bother him, but when Louis called him that he felt a little pang in his chest. Just a little one, though. He shrugged gently in response to Louis' question.
The older boy flicked his cigarette butt off to the side, and Harry calmly walked over, stamped it out, then picked it up and threw it in the trash can.
Louis laughed loudly. "Did you just throw away a cigarette butt?"
"Yes."
"You don't throw away cigarette butts."
"You can."
"But you don't."
"I do."
Just then Harry's phone timer went off, and the tall boy squeaked and silenced it, instantly turning to walk home.
"What the fuck?" Louis asked as a general interrogative term.
Harry tightened his coat around his lean frame, turning back towards Louis and huffing out a bit. He didn't have much time to waste. "My time is up; I have to go home now if I want to stick to schedule," Louis opened his mouth to try and ask another question, but Harry kept going, "so I'm sorry Louis but I have to go; have a nice night and I will see you tomorrow."
Louis glared at Harry as he quickly walked off, shaking his head at the strange boy as he stumbled a bit.
He sighed and smiled gently, though, once he looked to his right and saw the small paperback book left neatly sitting on the bench for him.

hiiiiii guys. i can't even remember if this is a late update or not, i'm sorry. but hey i met halsey on wednesday !!! how was your guys' week? thank you for one hundred reads, be sure to keep voting, it motivates me to update quicker.
side photo-harry's lil sweater. why is he such a cutie.
until next week; hannah cathleen xo