𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 ~ ✰☽ 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐜

~ twenty nine ~

"Well, the woman I boarded off assured me this was a fine room," I say with a perked up chin and Louis turns back to look at me.

We make eye contact, and he shoots a small smile. As much as I hate to admit it, the boy has it a lot harder here. While Tewksbury likes Enola, and her company, Enola claims to dislike him.

A lot easier for me to act out than him.

"The woman you boarded off lied."
He looks over at the undergarments laid carefully on a wooden pole to dry, and I turn my expression to more of an embarrassment.

I look from Louis, to the clothes, before hurrying over and hiding them from sight.
"I have but a single bed, so you'll have to sleep on the floor."

As the scene continues and Louis lays his coat on the edge of the bed, he looks down at papers, scattered across the sheets.
"You keep old newspapers?"

"Be careful with that. I haven't finished reading it yet," I reach for them, but he turns around and sits down.

Confusion fills me like a bucket. In the script, Enola is supposed to take the papers from him so he can't ruin them. But he... went off script? Looks like we're improvising now.

"Oh I'm in this one," he smiles, looking up at me as we remain less than a foot away from each other. It's so awkward. It's so incredibly awkward.

"So you are."

"Look."

I walk past him, not sure how to improvise at all. I've seen so many incredible actors create whole scenes by themselves, completely going off script, but I've never done so.
However, Louis seems to notice I'm off. And soon enough he returns to original script.

"Why do you keep all these old newspapers, Enola Holmes?" He asks, setting it back down and finally reciting the line he was supposed to say.
I slowly turn around and yet again lock eyes with him.
I used to see a kind, loving soul in those eyes.

Now I just see a fight.

"My mother. I'm waiting for her to leave me a message. She hasn't yet-"

"Message?" Louis squints his eyes, "What-"

"She likes ciphers. Coded messages that need to be deciphered," I slightly smile as Louis looks back down at the newspaper.
I take a quiet breath so the microphone, which was hanging directly above my head, couldn't hear it.

"And why would she leave you a message?" Louis asks, looking at me as I sit down beside him, making sure our knees don't touch, or elbows.

"Because she left me," I sigh, looking down at the wooden floor.
"And I thought she meant for me to find her, but I'm not sure she did now."

I turn my position to face Louis, who looked back up at me.
That damn eye contact. It happened again.

And I couldn't look away.

"So I've left her a message and I'm hopeful of a reply," I say sharply.
Louis improvised stealing the newspapers from me, so I do back.
I grab the papers from his hand, snatching them away. And it wasn't scripted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Harry give us a little smile, seemingly happy that we're making this scene our own. But he has no idea why.

Louis gives the the worlds tiniest smirk, noticing that I too, am trying to mess him up.
"I keep the newspapers to check," I recite.

The swirling feeling in my stomach builds up as Louis keeps his eyes on me. And an awkward moment approaches.