i would name the stars for you [e.c]

chapter 6

& e &

Eleanor blinks awake in the early hours of the morning, the sound of a door slamming shut rousing her from a fitful sleep. Her head is pounding and her neck aches from where she's been pressed up against the brick wall behind her. Her silk long sleeve button-up feels tight and sweaty and she peels it off, grimacing at the dampness of the t-shirt she's wearing underneath it. Her jeans were apparently, at one point, just as equally soaked and have now plastered themselves tightly around her thighs and ankles.

Wonderful, she thinks, trying to ignore the aching feeling that has spread from her neck to what feels like every joint in her body. She stands up, swaying on her feet a bit, and tries to take in her unfamiliar surroundings. The main street from which the alleyway branches off doesn't appear to be very busy which means she's either a) drunkenly teleported to the middle of nowhere , or b) it's currently some ungodly hour in the morning during which people have no reason to be awake and moving about.

One swift glance to the east where the sun is just peeking over the horizon and his second theory is confirmed. She rubs her eyes and groans, peering down the pavement to where she can just make out a large, faded overhang with the words "Camden Lock" slopped on in mustard yellow paint.

"Camden, then," she says aloud, mentally calculating the time it will take to get back to her flat in Kensington.

She quickly realizes just how far she is from home; if her math is correct, about a thirty minute ride by car, longer by bus, and certainly outside of a comfortable walking distance.

She swears loudly, ducking back into the alleyway just as the rain starts up again. With no one awake at this hour, she supposes she's got no better plan than to wait awhile longer, at least until the sun is fully up, and then ask some nearby shopkeeper if she can use their phone and perhaps dry off a bit.

Eleanor lets her body slide back down the wall, closes her eyes with a groan, and waits for sunrise.

& l &

Louis' alarm goes off bright and much too early, the clock next to his bed reading 6:00 on the dot. He groans, the pounding in his head echoing with his every step toward the bathroom.

Louis' slipping on a pair of trousers, mouthful of toothpaste, when his mobile vibrates loudly on the sink counter in front of him.

"H'lo?" he answers, spitting into the sink with a pastel-tinted grimace.

"Lou?" a voice asks, anxiously.

"Oli You alright, mate?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm... I'm fantastic, really," Oli replies unconvincingly.

"Right, so that's false," Louis deadpans, pawing at his messy fringe in the mirror,

"What's wrong, then?"
There's a long pause.

"Erm..." Oli starts, nervously drumming his fingers in the background, "this may sound a bit odd but... how exactly did I‒"

"Meghan took you home," Louis answers in advance, knowing the bashful schoolteacher well enough to anticipate the question. He waits, listening for Oli's loud exhale of relief.

"I- she did?" Liam replies after a moment, sounding decidedly more contemplative than reassured.

There's another beat of silence before he asks "Wait, did we...?" at the exact moment that Louis reassures exasperatedly, "You didn't have sex with her, Li."

Not that you didn't want to, he adds, under his breath.

This time there is an audible exhale; though, of course, it's immediately followed by a terse "and how exactly would you know that?"