Zoo // Louis Tomlinson

//17//

***unedited*** 4/1

Louis’ POV

 

            “Kid, are you trying to impress someone?” Markus raised his eyebrows, pulling his sunglasses down like he couldn’t see me before.

            Victor cracked a pity laugh, patting me on the back as a warning to not open my mouth and utter something that would land my ass back in the SUV. So instead of responding, I kicked a few rocks in his direction. Not minding the dirt that was already beginning to dust over my hardly worn red vans.

            Victor had driven me to the Zoo today instead of Markus, and of course we had gone through the front entrance. It was evidently important that I was photographed at least every once in awhile. So now I was rubbing the blinding flashes out of my eyes, and trying to see without tearing up.

            It was a bit of a rush to see cameras again. People you didn’t know taking your picture to fuel their own wallets. I hadn’t seen many paps around in the past week, and to be honest, it had been utterly and completely amazing in the most peaceful of ways. Today though, I had to wake up earlier than usual because Victor and Markus had something going on. So as a direct consequence, I was to be dropped up at nine thirty with Lydia.

She was just finishing up a tour. Which meant I would have to go and meet her, and then I would accompany her to whatever class she had left, before we headed back to the slide room.

See why I didn’t have a problem with waking up earlier now?

            “Oi, kid! Has he been listening at all?” Someone smacked the side of my arm, and I was abruptly brought out of my stream of thoughts to see Markus rolling his eyes for the billionth time.

            “Of course I haven’t, what the bloody hell do you need?” I stopped with them, standing in front of a large building. The campus was just beginning to separate from the Zoo at this point, and I could see a small abundance of backpack carrying grad students. Some of them even looked slightly familiar.

Ahead of me to the other side, was a path where a pinpoint of golden curls marked exactly what I was looking for. She was so far away that her hair was really the only guidance I had, and I spent more time focusing on that than Markus –as usual.

            “Louis! Pay attention for thirty more seconds, you have all day with her!” Victor was sighing, amusement and annoyance cleverly hidden in his kind eyes. “We’ll be back at the same time as usual, and behave in the class. You know Morgan won’t hesitate to take your phone back if she hears anything about you being a damn idiot.” I had nearly forgotten that just an hour ago I had, had my phone handed back to me by a very reluctant Markus.

            “Alright, I got it. Do your work shit, I’ll see you later tonight.” Lydia was growing bigger. Her tiny figure approaching as I tried to wave the two men off.

            “Be careful, no more funny business.” Markus warned me, turning with Victor to walk the opposite way that we had come.

            What the hell did he mean by more?

            “Emma, a fossil is not an animal. I need you to give me an animal that is currently alive.” The very same melodic voice with the sharp curve broke the sound barrier between myself and the rest of the world.

            She was crouched down on the late September concrete, her all khaki Zoo uniform incredibly unflattering, but for whatever reason I was still turned on. She had a gigantic safari hat topping off her scorching curls, and I could tell from her slightly pained tone, that she was about ready to bottom out. In just seconds she would undeniably go into scholarly argumentation mode, with a five year old.