You like to preach with a vodka in your mug

Chapter twelve

Louis comes home from his new part time job – between this and football coaching, he's expecting to be rolling in it by the end of the summer – and Lottie has found something new to mope and whine about. He's hot, he's sweaty and he's been forced into a button down shirt and an apron. He isn't happy but the pay is alright and he's gotten a decent share of tips so far.

Louis rolls his eyes and pulls a face at Fizzy as Lottie keeps whining, which makes her snort with laughter and frustrate Lottie further, before he scuttles away upstairs. When he returns, his mum is calming the situation down with quite a lot of success.

"When you pay for your own room and you have a partner you can bring along then I won't stop you," Jay shrugs nonchalantly before handing a pile of laundry that she'd been folding to Lottie. "Louis has just come home from work so he's got no excuse to not pay; he's probably got the most money out of all of us."

Louis' eyes widen as his mum looks over to him. He was expecting her to be properly focused on his younger sister but she simply rolls her eyes as he shoves a cookie into his mouth and smiles around it.

"What am I paying for?"

Jay waves a bit of paper at him.

"Brandon moved his wedding forward," she says brightly, "because apparently him and Ashley are going to Singapore. They managed to get a date for the start of August."

"When did Brandon and Ashley get engaged?" Louis gulps, snatching the invite from his mum's hand. "I never said congratulations."

"It was a few months ago," Jay frowns, muttering to herself about why Louis could possibly not know. "It was the day Harry called."

"Oh." Louis' eyes dart to Lottie and he notices her ears prick up.

"But your Auntie Millie mentioned that Brandon's making separate invites for the stag do. I don't know if he'll offer a plus one for that but," Jay pulls a face, "maybe that wouldn't be a good idea."

Louis nods and blinks at the invite. He and Harry can have their own room. That's never been a consideration before: Louis' mum still offers him the sofa bed if he stays over, to which he politely declines and makes it seem like he's saving her the hassle of getting it set up.

"We can stay together?" Louis gulps dumbly. "In our own room?"

"Only if you promise to behave."

"What are we going to do? We can't exactly make you a grandma."

Jay raises an eyebrow and repeats, "best behaviour or no room."

A smile breaks out onto Louis' face and so he blows kisses to his mum before she can remind him about supposedly behaving. He checks the date on the invite: fifth of August, which isn't that far away. Louis' got to find an outfit to wear that won't make him look like an idiot. Harry could probably help with that so, when he calls him that night, he's very enthusiastic about Harry helping him with picking one out.

"When is the wedding?"

"Fifth of August," Louis beams, "so we've only got a couple of weeks."

"We?"

"Yeah, baby. You're invited too. Apparently I don't shut up about you so Brandon said I could have you as a plus one."

"Who even is Brandon?"

"He's kind of my cousin but not really. His mum and my mum are best friends so I call her Auntie Millie."

"Oh. Well, have you said I'd go?"

"No, not yet," Louis says, trying his very best not to sound dejected, "you don't have to come if you don't want to."

"No, it's just," Harry pauses and groans, "I don't know when I'm allowed out. It's a very individual thing and technically I've done longer the minimum lived-in time but I don't know if they'll agree I'm okay on my own."