Visionary [Louis Tomlinson AU]

[08] "Drinking Will Set You Free."

“You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can't forget. Those are your friends.”

~ Unknown

May 27, 2043

4:00 P.M

            “Hey Liam, could I ask you something?”

            “You always do anyways,” Liam answered in response, glancing up from rearranging a display to look at Louis with a small, teasing smirk. “But yes, go ahead.”

            Louis smiled a bit crookedly, nervously even. The thing he wanted to ask was what he’d been thinking about ever since he discovered all four of them were still around in this world. He wanted to see if he’d be willing to hang out a bit, but not with him alone. With Harry, Zayn, and Niall of course as well, that is, saying that he could convince them all.

            So far, Louis knew that he’d obviously gotten closest to Zayn. Though to be fair, he was also the only one that he truly opened up to regarding Visionary and his extremely fucked up life. So of course, that helped a lot.

            Next to him was definitely Liam considering they saw each other at work nearly every day. Compared to Harry and Niall, they were friends enough.

            “Would you want to come hang out with a few other… friends of mine later today?” He finally asked the younger lad, stopping his work to watch and gauge his reaction for any positive signs.

            Liam’s brows simply raised a bit at that, before he straightened up and shrugged. “Okay sure,” he said in his typical easygoing manner. “When and where?”

            Louis breathed a sigh of relief before realizing that he still needed to talk to Zayn about this. Because to be honest, he wasn’t about to host this get together at his own home, where his parents and sisters were. No, he would prefer Zayn do it if he were willing, where no one else would be around to interfere.

            “Uhm, I’ll text you the details later, like address and whatnot. I’m thinking around seven or something though? Get take out or something and stay in type of night.”

            To be honest, Louis knew that what he was describing didn’t sound particularly appealing, especially with a bunch of strangers. But he also knew how hard Liam was trying to supposedly “reconnect” with him after the “incident”, so he would therefore agree to most anything.

            Louis felt a bit guilty for taking advantage of his efforts, but he figured that it was okay since it would all pay off in the end when they would (hopefully) all be mates again.

            “Okay then, sounds good to me,” Liam replied absently as Louis swam through his thoughts.

            Louis nodded before glancing at the giant digital clock hanging at the front of the store, stating in bold numbers that his shift was over for the day. Perfect timing too, seeing as now he could call Zayn and see if they could pull this whole thing off or not.

            “See you later Li,” he dismissed without thinking before practically dashing out the front doors, not even waiting for a response.

            Louis recklessly raced to his car through the parking lot and slid in the driver’s seat before tugging his phone out of his back pocket and dialing Zayn’s number.