New Guy on the Street (Larry)

Chapter Five: Hot Coffee

"Are you fucking serious?" I ask rolling my eyes at the sight in front of me. Louis just pulled into the parking lot of an - you guessed it - ice-cream shop.



"Language Harold," Louis chuckles. "What would your mother say?"



"She probably wouldn't say anything. The sound of her slapping my face would say it all," I respond truthfully, earning a laugh from Louis. My mother was not one to like cussing. The thought of my mother made me wonder just what was going on while she was on her date. Louis and I were talking about Al, and from what we both learned just from talking to him for a few minutes, he had all of the qualities of a douche. Douches are bad. This means that my mom will get her heart broken yet again and we will have to move away once more. The thought totally changed my attitude.



"That's nice," Louis responds. "Now come on bud," he says mimicking Al's pet name for me, "let's go get some ice-cream. Would you like that?"



"Yeah!" I squeal like a five year old before rolling my eyes and pushing open the door to Louis' car. I step outside and immediately regret my decision not to bring a jacket. The nighttime here got colder and colder every day. A cool breeze makes me shiver.



"Hmm..." Louis says, "I think it may be a little cold out for ice-cream." He rubs his chin and looks me over. "Since you seem to be a grown boy now, I'd say we'd go out for coffee like the 'adults' we are. No more ice-cream for us adults. What do you say?" He asks.



"Gee wiz, Mr. Tomlinson. My mother sure wouldn't approve of this," I say sarcastically to match the little game he is trying to play. "But, maybe she doesn't have to find out."



"Well alright then, bud. Let's walk across the street to the coffee shop," he responds. We both make our way to the edge of the sidewalk and wait for the cars to quit speeding by. Finally, we have the clear to go and I start to make my way across the street. Louis quickly grabs my hand from behind. "Wouldn't want ya to get hit by a car now would we, bud?" I don't respond. I'm too weirded out at the fact a twenty-six year old male who is gay has his hand in mine. A hot, twenty-six year old male who is gay at that.



We make it across the street though and Louis drops my hand and ruffles my hair before we walk into the coffee shop. I look down at my hand that Louis was holding seconds before. I can't believe he actually did that.



"What'll you have?" he asks me, making me look up from my hand.



"What?" I ask, a bit confused.



"To drink. What'll you have to drink?" He asks slowly. The look on his face makes me feel like a total dumbass.



"Oh," I say, not really knowing what else to say, "a caramel macchiato seems perfectly nice."



"Okie dokie," he responds. "Go get us a table and I'll bring the drinks." I nod and do as he told and begin to weave my way through the tables to get to an empty one. The place is pretty crowded tonight. I see an empty booth and make my way over but am halted by a girl running into me. Luckily, this isn't some romance movie where she has a coffee in her hand and spills it all over herself.



"Sorry," she mutters. "I guess I'm a bit of a klutz."



"It's fine," I respond to her. "I'm a klutz too."



"I'm Abigail," she says holding her hand out to me.



"Harry," I say while reaching out to shake her hand.



"Are you here alone? You can come sit with me if you want," she says with a light blush on her face.



"Actually I-"



"Oh, Honey! There you are," Louis says interrupting me. "Your drink is here." He places the drink in my hand and kisses my cheek. I immediately feel my face heating up. Why would Louis just kiss my cheek? And in front of another person?



"Oh, I'm sorry," Abigail says while eyeballing the two of us. "I didn't realize- I have to go." I turn to watch her rush off. I guess a gay guy freaked her out. That had always been a problem with me. The only reason both of my relationships ended was that I was too afraid to be gay in public. I'm not good with people judging me.



"Wow. She must have been in a hurry," Louis says with a chuckle. I roll my eyes and turn towards him angrily.



"Why would you kiss my cheek in public?" I whisper-yell. "People could see us!"



"There isn't much wrong with that, Harry," he responds. "It was just a simple kiss on the cheek. And besides, it's not like it meant anything." Ouch. That one hurt. Somewhere deep inside of me, there was a small bit of hope that Louis liked me, but whatever bit that was, is gone now. We both sit down on opposite sides of the booth.



"Right," I say with a fake smile. "So, how much do I owe you for the drink?" I change the subject.



"You're not paying for the drink so it doesn't matter. Don't even try to argue with me," he says with a smirk. Asshole.



"Well, then thank you," I say taking a sip of the hot liquid. It burns my tongue as soon as it touches it, but because I don't want to make a scene in front of Mr. Tomlinson, I just swallow it and wait for my tongue to cool off on its own. I definitely killed some taste buds though.



"No problem," he says leaning back in his seat. "So how's school so far for you?" He asks, as if he cares.



"Why are you asking me about school?" I question. "I see you every day afterword and you ask me how my day went so you pretty much already know."



"Oh yeah, huh?" he says while scratching the back of his head. "Well, if you must know, I'm horrible at starting conversations."



"Oh, I noticed," I respond while I take another sip of my coffee, pleased to find out it isn't as hot as before.







* * *







"Thanks again for the coffee," I say as we make our way back to Louis' car. It was almost eleven o'clock. We stayed in the coffee shop talking for nearly four hours. Louis wanted to bring me home around the time my mother would be home.



"It's no problem," he responds as he unlocks and opens the passenger door for me, completely oblivious as to what he is doing. I get inside the car and decide not to question his kind gestures.



The drive home is silent, as usual. When we pull into the driveway, Al's car is there. Please just let them be having coffee, please just let them be having coffee. I say over and over in my head as Louis parks.



"I had a fun time tonight," he says, turning the ignition off. I nod my head.



"Me too."



"Hopefully your mom had a good time on her date with that douche," Louis says making me laugh. I open the door and step a foot outside.



"Well, I'm about to go find out," I say stepping completely out of the car. "Thanks again, Mr. Tomlinson."



"Any time, Curly," he responds and I roll my eyes. I make my way to the front step and watch Louis pull out of the drive way and drive the whole ten inches to his house and give him a small wave before he steps into his home for the night. I dig through my pockets for my key and when I finally locate it, I make my way into the house.



The first thing I notice is that a lot of the lights are off, even the kitchen. That means my mom and Al are not having coffee.



One noise and that is all it takes for me to bolt out of the house not even bothering to lock the door behind me. My mom knew I would be coming home. She shouldn't even be doing that on the first date, anyway. I cringe. Now where am I supposed to go? I begin to weigh my options. I could wait them out and freeze my ass off outside, I could go inside and become sick to my stomach, or I could bother Louis. I feel as if the third option is best for me, but not for Louis. I don't want to keep him up all night. He's probably had enough of me by now.



In the end (and by the end I mean when I get so cold that I can't feel my toes anymore), I suck it up and walk over to Louis' house. I could explain it to him and just ask to stay downstairs for a bit. I'm sure he wouldn't mind too much.



The cold makes me run the entire distance to Louis' home and ring the doorbell. Please come soon, Mr. Tomlinson, or you will open your door to an ice sculpture of yours truly. The door swings open and behind it is a naked, well sort of if you count naked as a towel around the waist, Louis.



"I'm sorry to bother you for the umpteenth time today," I say in a rush, "but I got home and my mom and Al were-"



"Just come inside," he sighs backing out of the doorway so I can enter. After closing the door behind me once I've made my way in, he speaks again: "Why would your mother do that to you? She knew you were coming back home tonight."



"I have no clue," I respond while shrugging my shoulders. "It was probably that douche's idea." I wrap my arms around my body to try to stop the shivers that the cold blessed me with. Louis walks over to his couch and picks up a throw blanket and hands it to me.



"Get warm. The last thing we want is you getting sick," he says.



"Thanks."



"What took you so long to come over here anyway?" he asks me. "I had time to check my email and shower before you came over here."



"I didn't want to bother you," I say wrapping the blanket tighter around me.



"Well that's dumb. You're always welcome here, Harry."



"Thanks, Mr. Tomlinson," I say giving him a dimple filled smile.



"Alright," he says, "You sit here and get warm and I'll go upstairs and put on some clothes because I feel naked."



"Okay," I say as I watch him make his way up the stairs. I sit down on the couch for a moment before I realize how tired I actually am, which is weird because I drank so much coffee.My mother always thought that the fact that coffee had a reverse effect on me was a bit strange... or maybe what I drank was decaf. Nonetheless, my eyes start to flutter closed and soon, I'm asleep.

The last thing I remember of tonight is Louis trying to wake me up and taking me into his room.







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A/N: Well... here it is. And here I am... tired as crap. You're all welcome.

#Didn'teditbecauseineedsleeptoo



~Charlotte