You like to preach with a vodka in your mug

Chapter seventeen

It's the responsible thing to do. Louis still feels guilty as shit when he calls Gemma to make sure she picks up her phone and looks at the picture he just sent her. Right now, Harry looks like he's having fun but it's only one in the morning and there's a lot that could go wrong still. When Gemma picks up the phone, she tells Louis that Harry said he'd be with him. At least he knows that this was a bad decision and tried to lie his way out of getting caught.

"Who's that guy with him? Have you ever seen him?" Louis asks quietly as he pulls some clothes out of his drawer. He'd only just gotten into his pyjamas.

"Yeah," Gemma says, sounding half guilty and half pissed off. "It's the guy I've been seeing recently. Arsehole, I've told him before Harry doesn't drink!"

Within a few minutes, Louis is over at Harry's – it's a lot colder than he'd expected – and Gemma meets him outside. Going on a rescue mission to get Harry isn't exactly how Louis had intended spending his night: he has work tomorrow morning and it's the last early he's going to do before going to uni so he wants to say goodbye to the breakfast ladies properly without falling asleep into his cuppa on his break. Neither Gemma or Louis say much besides deciding where they're going to park and how they're going to get Harry and Gemma's boyfriend out of the nightclub. Harry doesn't pick up his phone and Louis has to come to terms with the fact that he's going to have to pay a fiver to get into a damn club just so he can fish his boyfriend out.

It's freezing walking through the city in joggers and a t-shirt and he's honestly so thankful that Gemma keeps a blanket in her car because he's going to be taking full advantage of that on the drive home.

Thankfully for Louis, he's able to track Harry down on snapmaps and, after one final failed attempt at calling both Harry and Gemma's boyfriend, they cave and pay to get in. Louis offers to let Gemma stay outside so she doesn't have to pay but as soon as he opens his mouth, a gaggle of drunk people start heading over to them and Louis makes the executive decision to stick together.

The bouncer asks them for ID, which thank fuck Louis remembered, and boredly let's them through. Gemma seems to know her way around, which is lucky because Louis hasn't been in here before, and after scanning the main room and three side rooms, Louis goes into the toilets to pure chaos.

Harry is sitting on the floor, the guy Gemma is probably not dating anymore is leaning against a sink, a few guys have a small circle formed and one is holding a lit joint as a security guard demands to have their IDs.

Harry's eyes widen when he sees Louis and immediately he stares down at his lap. The bouncer takes the IDs off of the guys who seem to be sharing the joint, then off of Gemma's not-boyfriend and finally Harry before asking Louis to leave.

"He's my boyfriend," Louis says dumbly as he points at Harry. "I've come to take him home."

"He might be here for a bit, mate," the security guard says bluntly.

"Why?"

The security guard looks him up and down before turning to Harry to ask if Louis is his boyfriend. Harry nods timidly.

"Those say he hasn't had any but he's in close proximity to people in possession of cannabis. Police are on their way but until then these toilets are out of order."

Fan-fucking-tactic! It's never simple, is it? Louis is kicked out of the toilets and has to drag Gemma to the beer garden to explain what's going on. She looks furious now; no guilt whatsoever. There's a bit of a rush to see what's going on when the police do arrive and Louis waits with Gemma outside the toilets for almost an hour before Harry and Gemma's not-boyfriend are escorted out the club and the other guys are taken out in handcuffs.