5 Leagues Above ➸ Larry Stylinson

Chapter 23

[Louis POV]

When I got home the next morning, my eyes felt heavy and it felt like I was about to rub the living shit out of them. My vision was a bit blurry and I was absolutely exhausted from the night before with Harry. Last night with him was so nice and getting to know him on a much more personal and vulnerable level was amazing. 

We ended the night with a bang - and no, there weren't fireworks in the city. Long story short, I've happily settled as a bottom and Harry as a top. No complaints.

I dropped him off a bit ago at his house before driving back home. He said he wanted to talk to check in on Gemma before going and talking to Zayn about something. Of course, I wanted to spend more time with him but I didn't mind. I loved how close he was with Gemma and Zayn. 

I made a mental note to call up Liam and Niall later to see if they wanted to hang out at the mall or something. Boys can like the mall too, leave me alone. Since I was closer to the main city of San Diego, there were lots of huge malls and cool shops around the city and in the suburbs near my house too.

I walked inside the front door, not caring much about my parents' whereabouts. Their car was in the driveway since they shared one, so they were home - probably in the bedroom. I kicked off my shoes and grabbed a banana from the kitchen because I was hungry; maybe Niall and Liam would be down for lunch too. Niall seems like he's the type of person who could eat a horse at any given moment, and Liam had quite an appetite too.

Harry and I stayed up pretty late last night and ended up sleeping in the grass, cuddling and wrapped in blankets to stay warm in the breeze. The blankets were in my car, and they smelled like Harry, as did my clothes. It was a faint smell but the sweet vanilla and tobacco were like a drug and made me all happy and giddy. 

My back felt stiff from laying in the grass all last night, so I headed into the bathroom in my bedroom to try and relax with a hot shower.

* * *

After the shower, I realized I didn't have a clean towel in my bathroom. The spare one I kept by the sink was gone because I'd given it to Harry to use when he was over and forgot to replace it. Shaking the excess water out of my hair and combing my hair back with my fingers, I slipped on a pair of grey sweatpants and left the room, walking into the hallway.

My parents were in their room with the door closed, and I rolled my eyes, trying to tune out the strangled and odd sounds that were coming from their direction. 

Instead, I walked into the spare bathroom across the hallway since where the extra towels always are. I grabbed a dark green one, which reminded me of Harry's emerald eyes, and smiled.

I closed the door to shed the sweatpants and dried myself off. Once I was dry, I put the pants back on and threw the towel over my shoulder to bring back to my room. Stopping to look in the mirror, I fixed my hair once more with my fingers and happened to look down at the sink when I went to use the hand towel beside it.

The sink had a faint tint of red in it, which I thought was odd and slightly annoying. The toilet, sink, counter, and shower were always perfectly white since I cleaned every week so as to not let the house get all dirty. It looked like something deep red had been almost poured into the sink, like wine or something. There were also lots of makeup products lined up across the counter.

Why wouldn't my mom just put her makeup in the master bathroom? She comes into the house and just puts her shit everywhere, what the fuck?

The number of products was overwhelming, but upon further inspection, there was little to no variety. Loads upon loads of tan concealer covered the counter - a rather obnoxious amount, actually. I looked around, and only found a single thing of mascara amongst the concealers.

From all the girls that used to spend the night, they always brought so much makeup with them and caked it on their faces for no apparent reason. I'd seen what they'd bring, and it was more types of products than I even knew existed.

The only reason why I'd paid attention in the first place was that I'd seen my fair share of makeup tutorials - of course, no one knows this and I don't plan to tell anyone anytime soon unless it somehow comes up - and I was looking to see what products the average girl uses and what ones I recognized. I don't own any makeup, but I also wouldn't be opposed to it if I ever felt comfortable enough. It's like art on your face if you can pull it off it like the beauty people in the videos do.

Too bad I'm not artistic.

This collection of makeup was nothing like what those girls had - the amount of concealer was out of the ordinary, and no amount of acne or blemishes was enough to need this much concealer. I pushed them all into the crack between the wall and the sink to make some counter space because the clutter was annoying me and I couldn't just leave it.

My knees almost gave out when I saw what was underneath them. It wasn't the tan rings of watery concealer that had been underneath the containers that were now spread across the white granite, which would have normally annoyed me since I'd be the one to clean the counter.

It was the blood.

I nearly screamed and a wave of realization washed over me. The cabin, the lack of communication, the scared look in my mom's eyes, the strange sounds, the smacking noises, the concealer, the blood...

Oh my god, my mom is being abused.

***

Short chapter, I know, but I prefer writing them over super-long chapters. I'll have more chapters out soon when school gets less hectic.

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I have a few other one-shots I've written in my profile (not a lot, but some) and I'll add to those here and there too. 

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