Make Me Beg ➸ Larry Stylinson

seven

Louis' POV:

"You guys ditched me!" I huff and cross my arms, pretending to look upset as Zayn and Liam get ready for work in their room. 

"And how does that make you feel?" Zayn purses his lips and bats his eyelashes, mocking the voice of a therapist as he pulls out a fake notepad and begins to write with an invisible pen.

"Piss off," He snickers and resumed buttoning his dress shirt. 

Liam peeks his head out from the open bathroom door, toothbrush in hand. "Is he nice?"

"Yeah, Li, he's super sweet... unlike the 'therapist' standing next to me. He even gave me his number in case I ever need a ride."

"You got his number?" Liam exclaims at the same time Zayn laughs and repeats, "In case you ever need a RIDE."

I ignore Zayn's humor - if you'll even call it that - and dig around in my pocket to find the slightly crumpled napkin.

"Yeah, I did. Maybe I'll text him and ask if he wants to sit down for tea or coffee after one of his gigs."

"Don't invite him to the cafe tonight, Lou," Zayn says while feeding a brown belt through the loops of his trousers.

"Why not? I mean, I can't imagine he's doing two gigs in one day, but still."

"Remember Liam's friend Donnie?"

"From the firehouse, right?"

"That's the one. Anyways, Donnie recently got hired at a bar downtown, and we're going to pay him a visit and get a few drinks. Naturally, we're dragging you along."

"What if I already have plans?"

"Do you"

"No."

"That's what I thought," Zayn smirks.

"How long has he been working there?"

"Only a few weeks," Liam interjects, walking out of the bathroom, "Zayn and I haven't actually been there before, but we've both seen it. I pass it all the way on the time to the studio. I've heard it's nice inside too, with good drinks and stuff."

"If I go, you cant ditch me like you did at the cafe,"

"We won't," Liam assures me, "I can't trust you to get home safely if you're drunk; you get too delusional."

Liam (being the most responsible out of all of us) has historically been our designated driver. He rarely drinks a lot, and I've only seen him drunk once. He's more on the one-drink-and-done type guy, while Zayn and I can easily hammer down a handful of drinks or shots before calling it quits.

"We can head over after your shift is down, Lou."

My shift today is over a bit after 7 pm today, since it doesn't start till 11 am.

"Sounds good," I nod and excuse myself to my own room.

✰ ✰ ✰ 

The workday goes by quickly. The nice thing about working at a job you love is that you don't feel like you actually work a day in your life. It sounds cliche, but it's true. 

Despite a bit of chaos in the kitchen when one of the other chefs - Juan Luis - forgot to buy fresh salmon for the lunch special, everything went smoothly. 

Before I knew it, I was punching in my time card. I talked off my black chefs' apron and fold it neatly, tucking it under my arm.

"Juan, don't worry about today," I say as I walk out the back doors of the kitchen.