Unbelievers

Chapter 2.5

"You stole his keys?" Niall asks in incredulousness. "You – You stole his... keys."

Louis glares at the ceiling above his bed.

"You actually, literally stole his car keys. Like, the keys to his car. From his bag." There's a moment of silence. "His keys?!"

"Yes, Niall!" Louis exclaims. "His keys! I stole his keys!"

"God, Louis... Just checking."

"Why are you laughing?" Louis can literally hear his attempts at keeping quiet through the phone. The next second Niall is bursting into actual laughter. It's Saturday afternoon, and Louis doesn't need this. "Stop laughing!" Niall cackles for a minute straight, his literal ha-ha-ha's vibrant even through a phone. Louis rolls over on his bed and hangs up on him.

A moment later Niall calls him up, still laughing into the phone. Louis hangs up again.

He crawls underneath the covers of his bed, mourning every piece of dignity he used to have. Louis' mother found a grey, soaked shirt under a radiator in the hall yesterday and Louis had to pretend it was Liam's from the team, and he'd put it there to dry. His mother had given him a funny a look before picking it up and throwing it in the wash, and Lottie had laughed at him from her spot at the kitchen table. The shirt is now lying neatly on Louis' dresser, freshly washed and folded, together with the pair of socks Harry had left behind.

Louis' phone buzzes beside him again. He rolls his eyes, pressing the green button on the screen. "Have you stopped being a dick yet?"

"Sorry, mate," Niall snickers, and Louis sighs. "No, don't hang up! I'm nice again. Please, do go on and tell me what happened next. I'm all ears." Louis doesn't think that's very believable, considering most of the time Niall's only mouth and no ears.

"Right," he says, and tells a brief summary of what occurred, conveniently forgetting to add the "oh, and we fucked" part. Louis doesn't even know how he would tell anybody that. How do you just tell somebody that you've done it up the arse with someone you hate? Niall's life would be a lie, honestly.

His phone buzzes once more while he's speaking to Niall, and he quickly pulls away to glance at the screen. He frowns when he sees it's only a random text, and he realizes he can't just sit and wait anymore. He tells Niall he's got to go, and hangs up.

It's been almost two weeks now and nobody's called or sent him a message. He went all over town, leaving resumes and begging people to take him on, and he hasn't gotten a single response. He realizes getting a job isn't that easy, and it's not as if Louis' resume is very impressive, but he really, really needs this.

He gets out of bed, righting his shirt and changes his tracksuit pants for a pair of proper jeans. He fixes his hair a bit and makes sure he looks presentable, before trudging downstairs. Lottie's with her friends and his mother's working, but what's new. Jay takes the bus to work so that Louis and Lottie will have the car available, and spending a lot of money on petrol isn't something they're very keen on. Louis tries not to use it too much, but he gets lazy sometimes, and today is one of those days.

It's a weekend so there are more people in town than usual, but Louis tells himself to just suck it up. He needs this, and he wants to make it easier for his mother as well. He goes into the café at the end of Cavanaugh St. but no success there. The manager apparently hasn't even looked over his resume, and Louis turns and leaves with a roll of his eyes. At the next place, the cinema, they say they aren't hiring at the moment, but Louis tries to persuade them into changing their minds. It doesn't go very well, but at least the owner of the salon says he'll get a free popcorn next time he visits.

Three additional stops and no luck later, he finds himself at the little fro-yo shop on Will Abby. He's getting a bit desperate, and by the time he walks in the sun's starting to set. There are a couple of people sitting around in the shop, but none of whom Louis recognizes, so he walks straight up to the till. A tall guy is standing behind the cashier, and he's wearing a black t-shirt with a pink little fro-yo cup over the heart. He looks fairly young, and his nametag says "Greg".

Before Louis gets a word out though, the lad is looking up, and pulls a smirk. "Louis, innit?" he says, grinning slightly, giving him a slow onceover.

"What?" Louis says dumbly, taken aback.

Greg smiles, giving him a nod. "Your resume. I read it over yesterday."

"Oh." Alright. Okay. "So..." he says, warily stepping forward and leaning his arms on the counter. He finds himself looking up at the guy, who feels like a good ten inches taller than him. "What do you say?"

"Straight forward aren't you?"

"Well, there isn't much else to talk about is there?"

Greg gives him a small smile. He copies Louis, leaning on the counter. "Look, Louis. Do you have any experience at all? As in working in a shop with costumers?"

"It's putting cold stuff in a pot. How hard can it be?" Louis says, shrugging.

"So, no," Greg smiles, and he might look a bit endeared with Louis' attitude. "No experience?"

"I'm pretty?" Louis tries. "I'll bring all the girls in town to the shop?" Even if that's the exact opposite of what he would like to happen. Ideally, nobody in the world would know he needs a job to help his family's economy.

Greg laughs, lips quirking up around a white smile, and he straightens up, hands on the edge of the counter. "True," he grins. "You are pretty."

Louis smiles. "So? Me, fro-yo, work here thing?" He doesn't care if Greg only gives him the job on the grounds of the "bringing girls" concept – he just needs the damn job.

He purses his lips, looking down at Louis. "I'll give you a call once I've worked out some schedules. I need to teach you a thing or two as well."

The sense of relief is almost making Louis hug the guy, but he settles for a smile and a handshake, and leaves with the feeling of a tiny bit of the anxiety in his belly being smothered.