Paparazzi

Chapter 7

Louis spends the next few days with his family and on Twitter. He never thought that social media would fascinate him so much - but here he is. He's been following a few of the people who have created threads and posts under the hashtag Gayrries but feels a bit lost and like he doesn't really belong there.

On the fourth day at home, babysitting Ernst and Doris while his mother is at work, he decides to call Bree, whose phone number he still has saved. Even though she was a bit in high spirits and exhausting, she was lovable and he found her funny. Louis has to smile when she answers after the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Bree, hi. This is Louis. You remember me?" he asks with a smile on his face.

"Of course I remember. How come you call me? Shall we go out to eat again? I happen to have time tonight," she replies as cheerfully as he has met her.

"First of all, I wanted to apologize to you. I just walked away from you at the restaurant and that wasn't fair of me. You must have been shocked by what happened, right? And you were in the restaurant footage. How did you deal with it?"

"Oh it's okay Louis. I was never mad at you. And I'm fine with the recordings. I ended up being in the videos with the Harry Styles. You won't believe how my moots on twitter freaked out about this," she giggles and Louis has to chuckle too.

"What are moots?" he finally asks and Bree explains it to him immediately.

"It's short for mutual followers. Especially the people you actively engage with."

"Oh I understand. One of the reasons I called you. I got drunk and signed up on Twitter but I don't really get it yet and I don't have anyone close to interact with on there. Can you help me?" he asks and of course Bree is hooked.

"Give me your handle and I'll add you immediately. Oh my god, this is going to be so fun between the two of us. I will explain everything to you and send all sorts of tweets that you need to read," she babbles excitedly and Louis is immediately infected by the good mood. A look at Ernest and Doris reveals that the two are still playing peacefully with each other and he stretches out on the sofa before answering Bree.

"Don't laugh at me, it's harryswineguy."

But of course Bree giggles and he hears the typing on her keyboard in the background.

"I love it. I'm so glad we met Louis, for real," she says. "That's it, I followed you."

Since Louis has his phone to his ear, he can't check her name or what her profile looks like, but he'll do that later.

"Have you already searched for gayrries? Oh...oh, I see," Bree says, and then Louis realizes that she must have just seen his only tweet so far. Louis closes his eyes and wants to sink into the ground.

"Louis, are you still there?" she asks and he needs another moment to be able to answer. There on twitter, it says in black and white that he's gay for Harry Styles. Of course he could dismiss it as a joke, but wouldn't he betray himself by doing so?

"Yes, yes, I'm still here. I think I just went into a state of shock or something. I take it you read my only tweet?" he stammers, nervously brushing his fringe aside.

"Yeah but Louis... we don't have to talk about it. It's okay. I know how scary all of this can be," she says softly that Louis never thought it possible to ever hear Bree like this. Louis knows what she means by 'all of thist' and is grateful for the way out she gives him.

"Well, there's no denying it anyway, is there? Harry Styles is my weak point and I like men. And also women - at least I think so. It's difficult, let's put it that way. Please don't tell a soul anything. Besides you, my family has only known about it for a few days and it should stay that way."