the flowershop ❀ l.s.

Chapter Three

It was Saturday and as promised, they had been hanging out all day, playing Fifa while getting high and eating greasy pizza. A perfect day, really. Louis was glad, Zayn had more or less bullied him into doing it because he had missed it. He had missed it a lot actually. That's why he made a mental note to himself to do this more often because he realised how little time they actually spent. Between uni, girlfriends (and boyfriends in Zayn's case) and work it was sometimes hard to focus on other things, that were important too.

But then Zayn had the great idea of them going out like in the "good old times" and Louis had protested but yet somehow, he ended up going anyways despite not being in the mood at all. And there they were. In a crowdy space, with people grinding on each other and the ever-present smell of alcohol and sweat lingering in the air. The lights flickered to the sound of terrible music that was way too loud. Any other day Louis would have probably enjoyed it. But for some reason he didn't today.

"Come on, Lou. Let loose!", Zayn shouted through the bass hammering from the boxes. So, Louis awkwardly stepped from one foot to the other because, really, no one actually knew how to dance in places like this. With enough alcohol in your system, it didn't even matter how stupid you looked because you would just be another fool in the crowd. However, Louis' alcohol level was definitely not high enough and he wasn't really in the mood to let loose either.

Next to them a couple started to make out and Louis turned his head. Too much public display of affection. He never really understood those people who ate each other's faces in public. They were grown up so everyone could do what they liked of course. He just preferred not to be involved in other people's love and sex life.

"I'm gonna get something to drink. You want some too", he shouted to Zayn but the other boy didn't understand him, so Louis pointed towards the bar and made a drinking gesture. Zayn nodded but signed him that he would stay there.

Louis fought his way through the moving and sweaty bodies and was about to order a drink when he spotted a somewhat familiar figure in the crowd. Tall, heavy black boots, medium length and curly hair. He gave up on his original mission to buy a drink - he didn't even want one anyways but he preferred it over dancing - and pushed through the crowd again to catch up to the guy he had spotted.

The guy disappeared somewhere and since Louis wasn't the tallest person, very much to his own frustration, he couldn't spot him anymore. Louis huffed and pushed through the crowd. Maybe it was time to get some air anyways.

***

It was cold outside. The days were getting warmer with every sunrise, but the nights didn't. His breath was still a bit visible in the air and he shivered. Maybe he should have put on his jacket. A look on his phone told him that Eliza had messaged him, something about enjoying the night and that she loved him. He swiped the messages away and leant against the cold wall, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

The moment, he placed it between his lips and wanted to light it, he heard some laughter next to him and turned around. The guy he had seen before turned up and Louis pushed off the wall.

"Hey", he said and the curly haired guy turned around which made Louis take a few steps back.

"Do I know you", the guy asked, raising an eyebrow. He may have looked like the guy from the flower shop from behind, but his face looked nothing like him. This guy's face was way too harsh, too undefined and too... arrogant to be even close to the one that had stormed into Louis' flower shop.

"Sorry", he mumbled. "Thought you were someone else."

The guy just grinned and it didn't look friendly at all before he turned back to his friends again, laughed and said something about idiots. This guy was an idiot himself. The guy from the flower shop had been way nicer and way more interesting.

Louis rolled his eyes and light up his cigarette. He had to try a few times before he managed because his fingers were icy. Walking around a bit to keep himself from freezing, he smoked his cigarette, somehow glad about the quiet. Sure, there were people around him, smoking and talking but no one talked to him and he appreciated it.

Louis wondered, where he had gone and what the purpose of the bouquet had been. And then he wondered why he was still thinking about the guy. They've met once. Yet there was the question back in his head, if he would see the guy again. Maybe make him another bouquet of hate?

After he finished his first, he took out a second cigarette. He knew, he probably shouldn't and he it wasn't a healthy life style but he was going to die at some point anyways, so why bother. He always found it a funny thing, how people were scared of dying and wanted to live forever, yet they got addicted to things that shortened their lifes. Maybe that was the thing that made life so interesting - knowing that it had to end at some point. And living forever would probably start to get boring at some point.

Zayn and his mum always rolled their eyes when he pointed out things like that and told him, he shouldn't think about negativities. But to Louis this wasn't about negativity, it was just thoughts. He knew he wasn't born to die, despite having one of his favourite artists sing about it.

You didn't listen to a song to have it ending. You didn't start reading a book to finish it. It was about the whole experience.

Louis wondered, if the bouquet guy would think the way Zayn and his mum did. That Louis shouldn't think about those things. Or if he would understand. Shaking his head over his own thoughts, he took the last drag of his cigarette and snipped the bud away. Why was he thinking that anyways? He literally didn't know anything about that guy, not even his name. Why was it bothering him? Maybe he was bored enough at the shop to have lost his mind. Yeah, that must have been it. He stomped on the bud of the cigarette and walked back inside.

***

The noise hit him like a freight train after the thoughts he had been going through outside but he was thankful for it. He remembered that he had wanted to get a drink before curly-guy-that-wasn't-curly-guy had stepped up in the game.

He tried to find Zayn in the crowd and after a drunk guy asking him about a hundred times if he had seen Jamie, not caring that Louis didn't know a Jamie, a giggling girl trying to get close to him and another drunk guy spilling his drink over Louis' shoes, he found him.

Pressed up against a wall, a pretty muscular guy with short brown hair sticking his tongue in Zayn's mouth. Louis couldn't help but roll his eyes. Like, get a room?! But on the other side, Zayn's room was next to his and the walls weren't exactly sound proof so on second thought, Louis didn't mind it if they stayed here.

Deciding that this was his cue to leave, he texted Zayn that he had went home and left the club.

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a/n: Hello guys. Thank you so much for reading this. I hope that I can update regularly but I can't promise. If I take too long, just push me a bit, sometimes I just need the motivation to sit my ass down and get things done. Love y'all ❤