paper boys || larry stylinson

prologue

13th july; friday

harry picked up his button-up shirt with red flowers, trying to ignore a weeping louis pressed against him.
louis hung by his arm, begging him to stay. he looked like a mess, his hair stood out in every direction, his lips quivered and cheeks were flushed red due to sobbing for the past hour.

harry felt pity for the older boy. but it was now or never.

ever since harry was a little boy playing in flower fields in his hometown, he dreamt of being on magazines, topping charts and being adored by strangers all over the world. and after 6 years of dreaming and working, at the ripe age of 21, he had his chance. Of course everything good had to be achieved by making sacrifices. one of them was louis and shockingly, harry was fine with it.
they were anyways way too young, he told himself.

he was only a baby faced fourteen year old when he first saw louis, sweaty and happy, playing football with his friends. he was two years older, cute, funny and everything harry ever wanted. well, until he wasn't.

louis, on the other hand, didn't fall for the younger but way taller boy until he was seventeen. the lanky fifteen year old had finally approached him one fine day, emptying his coffee on louis' sweater. and they just hit off from there, chatting in the school toilets while trying to remove the coffee stain from louis' blue sweater. he remembers their first words to each other;
oops and hi .
unfortunately, the memory had only managed to increase the number of years flowing from louis' eyes. he really did believe he and harry were enough. they wouldn't need anything else but each other. even if they weren't the richest in town, their love was enough for them. boy, had he been wrong. maybe it was his fault for really believing he was enough for harry, maybe he was naive but harry didn't seem to care about anything about louis. was he really that blind?

when harry first told him about his plan to leave for california and try to take over the music industry, louis honestly thought it was a joke. but he agreed, he supported Harry in every way he could, getting him tea (albeit burned) at 2 am. giving him rubs when harry was stressed. working extra shifts to buy harry small gifts on harry's bad days. then harry told him he was leaving. initially louis thought he meant both of them together, but of course, his hopes were crushed when harry told him the relationship wouldn't work out. it's too far away, harry reasoned, i need to dedicate all my time into this, i really won't have time for you.

he begged and cried for days, trying to convince harry that what they had was enough.

well for you, harry told him, i'm not happy.

and louis would be a liar if he said his heart didn't crumble into pieces. but whatever he did, he couldn't make harry stay. at the end of the day, louis was still alone.

for one last time, just as harry picked up his final suitcase, louis tried again. his eyes filled with tears

"harry! please! i love you! we'll be enough-i promise. please, it isn't too late, right now. i'll be yours and you'll be mine. we'll be fine- we'll be happy. please just stay, we can work this out! please, stay! i love you." Louis' voice cracked at the end, the amount of emotion in his voice was intensifying.

harry gave him one last glance, before getting into the uber.

"hey lou, i love you but no fucking way."

and with that, harry styles was gone, leaving behind his heart-broken boyfriend of nearly four years.

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