Letters to the Author -Larry Stylinson

chapter four

"Niall, have you ever went to a book signing?" Louis asked sadly, absentmindedly colouring in the little o in his name. He was struggling to finish his English homework, as it was a lot of vocab and his hand was hurting from writing so many definitions. He figured he could do it when the peppy blonde boy in his room left.

"No, but me mum has," Niall responded. He was sitting next to Louis, typing in tons of maths problems into his graphing calculator. Niall was majoring in business, because he was great at math and he claimed it interested him. When it came to school, the two boys didn't have much of the same interests, but other than that they had lots to talk about. 

Louis' dorm was lit up with Christmas lights, strung neatly by him and his mum when he had first moved in. Lucile was sitting next to Louis, her tail hitting his hip every few seconds. Although Louis was a bit exhausted after a long day of lectures, he felt relaxed and comfy, his notebook drawn on his lap as he sat criss cross on his bed. The only problem he had was he couldn't quite find a signing near him. Harry Styles needed to come to Doncaster, as he was poor and didn't have enough money to drive very far.

"Who for?" Louis questioned, writing a few words down once his hand had stopped throbbing in pain. His pencil broke when he wrote over where the notebook was bending against his knee and then where it was touching his vans.

"James Patterson. She was obsessed with Maximum, which I thought was kinda silly, ya know? It's a teen fiction book, but whatever. Never too old to read, yeah?" He paused. "Why?" Louis could see him eyeing his large collection of books by Harry Styles. He did not get them himself, he just pretended to lose them when he checked them out of the library, and therefore had to pay for them, and thus he got to keep them. It was better than looking online and waiting for it to come in the mail.

So yes, he had a secret collection of Harry Styles' books stacked on his dresser, arranged carefully in order of his favourite to his least favourite. The books were now filled with highlighted quotes and sentences, and his curly handwriting. Jay asked him why he would want to ruin his books, but he just said he was personalising them.

"Niall, I want to go to one of Harry Styles' book signings. Is that such a big thing to ask?" Louis sighed, wrapping his shoelace around his pointer finger and releasing it. "I mean, I've been a fan for so long, probably longer than everyone, and I actually post recent pictures of him on Instagram instead of fetus ones that everybody has seen. I am like, the queen of Harry Styles. He's my king. Niall?"

Niall had his face buried in his hands, chuckles escaping every few seconds. It seemed that the blonde boy laughed at almost everything Louis said, even if he wasn't trying to be funny. Louis loved making people laugh, so he actually liked that quality about the boy. Except now, this was a serious subject. Louis frowned at him, flicking his forehead, signalling for him to lift it up.

"Niall. Listen to me. Harry Styles is becoming too famous, too powerful for his own good. I need to meet him before his head gets to big for his di- I mean, body. Yeah. And I just love his penis nose, Niall. It's so pretty, and his eyes, Niall-"

"Louis. I did not come here to talk about your obsession with Harry Styles. I just wanted somebody to talk to about how much I hate maths right now. Why am I going to need to take the sixteenth root of something? Honestly, it makes no sense."

Louis leaned over, adjusting his glasses on his nose, and he cringed when he saw what Niall was doing. "How could you possibly want to major in something as awful as that? It's like a chore."

"And English isn't?"

Louis just looked at him, until his glasses slipped off his nose and they both burst into laughter.

***

The Donnie Cafe was very, very crowded due to the stormy weather outside. Louis found himself rushing around to table after table, while at the same time struggling to keep up his conversation with the boy sitting at the bar. He had dark hair, and a dark mood. He had came in, drenched in water, and Louis liked to watch the way the droplets slipped off his eyelashes, because he always blinked rapidly like he was angry. Well, he was angry, as Liam quickly got out of the boy.

"I like your tattoos," Liam had commented, despite Louis' wary look. The tan boy had glared, whipping his jacket off in one fluid motion. Louis blinked, adjusting his glasses and standing back. He obviously didn't want to talk, but Liam completely ignore that while Louis brought the girl sitting near them another steaming cup of coffee. It was cold, and Louis was glad he had on his favourite blue sweater, because it was very warm. It was only fall, but up in Doncaster it got a bit cold whenever it rained.

"Liam, please keep up with the customers. Ask him what he wants to drink," Louis muttered quietly when he got to Liam, before picking up his coffee pot to take around the counter. "Do you need some more coffee?" He asked politely, smiling widely and struggling not to show the exhaustion in his eyes. He had stayed up late doing research on Harry's signings, and then couldn't sleep because he was going over so many scenarios of what would happen when they met.

And so he spent the rest of his shift trying to ignore Liam's flirtatious comments to who finally introduced himself as Zayn, and refilling coffee cups that were already halfway full. Louis liked to listen to the rain pound against the windows of the small shop on the corner of the street, and every time there was a boom of thunder he smiled. He loved thunderstorms. The rush of the city was always faster during times like this, people scurrying in with big umbrellas and laughs escaping their mouths. Louis envied those couples that were giggling and laughing as they struggled to share their umbrella, sharing kisses in the rain and wow he really needed to stop being so lonely.

Louis got distracted when he was sitting down for his break when Liam laughed so hard that he could hear it over the pounding rain. Zayn was laughing as well, but he didn't laugh very loud. Louis was surprised that Liam could get him to even speak. He looked quite grumpy when he came in.

"Louis."

Louis slowly turned around, pushing his glasses back up his nose and meeting eyes with Ethan. "Yeah?" He asked tiredly. This rain was definitely getting to him.

"Go home. Get some sleep. I'm sure Liam's got you covered."

Louis' eyes widened. "Are you sure? I still have thirty minutes left."

Ethan nodded, reaching out and patting Louis on the shoulder. Louis had just got his bag on and finished his own cup of coffee when he heard Liam say loudly while laughing, "Your friends with Harry Styles?" And he froze.

***

I love every single one of you. Please vote, comment, and follow! Sorry for the slow updates, my pumpkins.

Lots of love,

Kayla. x