Whole Again | Larry

Chapter 1

     At twenty-two, Louis expected to be finished with uni and be settled into a well paying job. Maybe even already be renting a nice proper flat with a clear view and adopted a dog or something for company. Instead, Lou's just finished co-signing a lease with a blonde haired boy he just met thirty minutes ago and has put in three different job applications at three different shops. To say this was not in his plans would be an understatement.

     "Niall yea?" Louis offered his hand as the blonde huffed in response due to the heavy box currently located in his hands. "Right, let me help you with that, proper twat aren't I?"

     Niall chuckled before gladly accepting the exchanging of the box and wiping his hands across his jeans. "Thanks mate, appreciate it. And yup, Niall Horan's my name. You're Louis Tomlinson yeah?"

     Louis nodded, setting the box beside the door that led to the bedroom Niall had previously called 'dibs!' on.

     "I'm much too tired for this and extremely hungry, care to join me for a bite?" The overly enthusiastic boy voiced to which Louis simply nodded, much too tired to come up with a rejection excuse and carrying boxes up and down the stairs for the last thirty minutes did make a lad quite hungry.

     The pair ended up going to a small pizza joint down the street from their new flat. The ten minute walk in the blistering heat made Louis even more hungry and thirsty then he already was. It had to be at one of the hottest days he's seen in a while and even with a pair of basketball shorts and a loose short sleeved T-shirt, he was wiping away the sweat that was forming on his forehead.

     The bell on top of the pizza shop's door went off as the two stepped inside the air conditioned room ('Thank God' Louis thought to himself), and sat at one of the booths located by the wall. After ordering two large cheese pizzas ("No way are we going to eat all of that Niall." Louis complained only to have Niall comment back with a "You might not but I sure can.") and a large pint, did Louis finally decide to look around the small restaurant.

     It was a small little joint, the only seating was the booths lining the wall and two tables placed in the middle of the shop. Besides Niall and him, only two other seats were occupied. One was filled with a family of four and Louis watched as the mom grew impatient with the two little boys who would not stop spitting paper balls from their straw wrappers at each other rather than eating. Then his attention drifted over to the other occupied booth and that's when his interest really peaked.

     Sat in the tiny booth was three boys, one with raven hair and dark eyebrows to match, the other was a clean shaved brown haired boy, and finally on the opposite side of the booth of the two was a younger looking boy with wild curly hair and the greenest eyes Louis's ever seen.

     Louis continued to watch the trio, eyes fixated on the curly haired boy. He couldn't help but notice the way the boy pushed back his curls when they would get into his face everytime he softly chuckled at his friends, the intense gnawing he did at his pink full lips, or how he continued to pick at the sleeves of his navy blue sweater. Louis was completely infatuated with this boy and didn't even know his first name.

     "Oi!" Niall called out, snapping Louis out of his apparent trance, "Whatcha staring at?"

     "Nothing." Louis said too quickly for his liking before taking a sip of his drink.

     Niall looked skeptically at Louis before turning his attention to their surroundings, looking for what had Louis so memorized a few moments before. It definitely didn't take him too long before he also spotted the table of boys, a smirk playing on his face.

     "Well, well, well. What we have here?" The irish lad chuckled, raising his eyebrow in Louis's direction. "You never told me you was into blokes."