"No!" I scream, "Stop! That's not fair!"
"Then stop hitting me with those damn turtles!" Louis protests and continues to press random buttons on my controller.
Somehow Louis convinced me to play Mario Kart with him, and now we've been playing it for three hours straight. At first, I thought it was just going to be a nice game we used to play when we were kids, but instead it turned into an official war.
"Ha, yes! Browser wins again!" Louis cheers in my face.
I scoff, "Only because you fucking cheated, you butt."
"I told you - you shouldn't have picked Luigi, he's sloooow."
"Whatever. Rematch, but this time I'll choose Princess Peach." I say as I stuff a bite of sandwich into my mouth.
"No more rematches," Louis laughs and gets up.
"What? I just-"
"Nope. We've been sitting around all day, come on, let's go out somewhere."
I look at him, "Did you forget I have an unconscious ankle?"
He lightly chuckles, "Let's go down to the book store, you don't have to move much there."
I sigh, "But I don't wanna go anywhere."
"Come on Jess, lets be... active? No, let's be productive. Yea, let's be productive today, Jess."
I groan, "I can't even get up."
Louis immediately walks over and grabs my arm to help me up, completely catching me by surprise. I get up with a loud "Whoo!" and suddenly realize I'm standing up - standing merely two inches away from Louis.
His face is right in front of mine as he stares at me with his grasp still on my arm. We stand in silence together until I finally gather my senses.
Abruptly, I jerk back and step a good two feet away from him, "Um, I'll go get ready."
With nothing else said, I wobble up to my room but this time with a little less awkwardness as I climb up the stairs. The only awkwardness is the silence between Louis and I from what just happened.
I stumble up the stairs, avoiding eye contact and try to my way up the least bit of awkward.
Once I got upstairs, I shut my door and gather my thoughts. What just happened?
Louis' simple gesture made my mind go crazy. The way we were two inches apart from each other, the way his breaths were right there, just his presence-
No, stop. He's not worth it anymore.
I ignore all my thoughts about that. But sadly, I have to admit, I liked it. I liked his presence, especially right next to me.
I shake my head and push out those thoughts. It was just in the moment. We are nothing, barely even friends anymore. He's just here to help. That's it.
Proceeding to get ready, I throw on a sweater and some yoga pants. It's the weekend and I have an injured ankle, I do not have the motivation to look decent today.
I walk downstairs - more like trip - and meet Louis at the front door. Before we leave, I grab my beanie from the coat rack and place it on my head. Louis opens the door for me and I step out into the frigid air.
Like a gentleman, Louis opens the door to his car for me but I take my seat without a word. Once he gets into his seat, he begins to start the car but opens up the compartment area and grabs a pair a glasses.
Louis had glasses since the ninth year in school, but he hasn't worn them since he became famous. He was the type of guy you would find at school holding a good book in his hands, wearing a beanie with glasses.
"You still have glasses?" I ask, genuinely curious.
He smiles, "Yea, I don't really use 'em. But since we're on our way to the library, I guess I sorta need them now."
I nod, "Huh,"
My hands are burning hot from mine and Louis' coffee I'm holding. I speed walk over to where Louis is sitting and place it in front of him as take my seat.
"Theres your coffee," I say to Louis.
He mumbles something I can't even understand and continues to emerge into the book.
Louis' been in the critic phase for quite a while now - the phase where you act all artsy and suddenly start to review everything you see. It seems interesting but actually it gets annoying when someone criticizes everything you do, especially with Louis.
I sip my coffee and stare off into space while Louis' eyes don't leave his book once. At times like this, I question why he even invites me when he's not gonna even talk to me.
"Louis," I say, "Whatcha readin'?"
"A book." He states, nothing more.
"Is it good?"
"Yea,"
I groan and roll my eyes, the library is not my place especially when I don't even have a book that interests me. Louis is barely even making conversation with me which makes it even worse.
"Louis, you've read that book a million times! Let's do something else," I complain.
He looks up to me through his glasses, "Well, a book's detail and structure is so good that a person may want to read it multiple times. Besides, it builds the brain better than just wondering what color your going to paint your nails, Jessica."
I gasp and open my mouth into a big 'O', "Well, Mr. I'm-too-good-for-the-world-so-I'll-just-read, you are going to learn how to become nice again."
"I don't have time-"
"Shut up." I interrupt,"I'm done with all this art and literature shit, me and you are going to do something fun and actually socialize."
"What do you mean?" He says, finally paying attention.
I take his book from his hands and shut it close, "We are going to go all around the mall and compliment every damn person we see. I don't care if it's the most unlovable person out there, we are going to compliment them."
"What if there's nothing nice to say?"
"Then make something up!" I demand.
I throw both of our coffees away - even though they're not even finished - but that doesn't matter because we have something more important to do. Standing up, I take Louis' and march towards outside of the bookstore.
"Okay, let's start with each other, " I speak, "Louis you look amazing with the beanie and glasses on right now. And where did you get your Vans because they're lookin gooood."
He laughs and goes along, "Thank you. Jessica, you look... good."
I clear my throat, "Good? Gee thanks, I feel the love." I remark sarcastically.
He laughs even harder, "Jessica, you light up my world like nobody else. They way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed."
I blush and giggle, "There we go! Now, let's spread kindness!"
Everywhere we went, we have out the randomest compliments to everyone that passes by us. People are surprised at first on how we compliment them out of nowhere, but I could see the affection in their eyes from our nice comments. I gotta admit, it feels fucking good to make people happy.
"You look beautiful!"
"Your so tall! That's a good thing!"
"Oh my god, your so pretty. Ugh, can I be you?"
"Chocolate ice cream is my favorite flavor, too!"
"Ahhh! I love you!"
"You, with the gorgeous face, I love your smile!"
We probably look like two idiots who don't know how to shut their mouths and stalk random strangers. But hey, it's still fun.
After what seems like a decade, Louis and I took a break because walking around the entire mall is quite the task.
I turn my head to face Louis and I could see his smile is so big that his eyes are squinting, it's adorable. The sight makes me smile too and I notice that my cheeks hurt from all the laughing we did today.
"That was fun." Louis admits.
"See? Isn't that better than hating the world and burying your face in a book?"
"Yea maybe, but I'm not gonna stop reading that book." He chuckles.
I roll my eyes but smile, "Whatever."
Louis takes off his glasses and reaches for his beanie but I stop him, "What are you doing?"
"We're not reading right now so I don't really need my glasses."
"No, don't. They suit you." I admit and place his glasses back on him.
"Really?"
"Yea, you look... good." I say and admire him.
"Good? Gee, I feel the love." Louis mocks me from before.
I snort, "Haha, that's very funny."
Louis laughs even harder and wrapped his arm around me, "Thanks for getting me out of that funk. I feel better now."
I chuckle, "Funk?"
He laughs along with me,"Come on let's go, I'm tired."
I get up, "Same here."
We walk out, my head rested on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around my waist. Nevertheless, we still have out compliments to some people that passed by us and it never got old.
"Your gonna do great in life!"
"Oh my god, your so awesome!"
"Your really pretty."
We made our way through and hopefully we made some people's day a bit more happier. Louis and I stepped out into the night sky, which was light up by a thousand stars and beautiful city lights...I love the night scenery.
Louis pulls me down to sit beside him on the water fountain in front of the mall, and I don't complain.
I rest my head on his shoulder and he pulls me in close. We sit in silence just admiring the night in front of us.
He soon places his head on top of mine and I could feel the frame of his glasses on the top of my head. Honestly, his wardrobe right now is so nerdy... but I secretly love it.
Out of all the compliments we said today, there was specific compliment that Louis and I were both thinking but we just didn't have the guts to say it to each other.
Except for me.
"Your a great friend, Louis." I say just loud enough so only he could here me, "I love spending time with you, dude."
Louis doesn't say anything at first, but I could feel his smile, "You too, Jess. Thanks for always being by my side, I'll always love you for that."
We continue to sit on the fountain and gaze up at the stars - but inside, both of our hearts were swelling up with happiness from the simple compliments we have each other.
My eyes are fixed onto the novel that's in front of me. Although, I'm not really reading it - I'm just staring at words and pretending like I'm interested when actually I'm thinking about what I'm gonna have for dinner tonight. But I'm in a store full of book lovers, so I have to at least act like I enjoy it here.
"Here's your tea, love." Louis announces and places the cup in front of me.
My heart flutters a little when Louis called me love, but I quickly push it away. We are nothing. He's just helping. That's it.
Louis begins to read whatever he's reading and I resume to my task. I go and try to take a sip of my tea but it immediately burns my tongue, damnnit.
I look up to see what Louis is reading but something else catches my eye.
Right there in front of me, was the sight that made my heart melt.
Louis' head is down, reading his book but he looked like he was 18 again. His hair was naturally down, his glasses were on the bridge of his nose, and he wore a striped shirt like he did in ninth year. All he was missing was a beanie.
I take my beanie off from my head and throw it at Louis. I giggle when I saw his reaction. He was ready to shout at whoever threw that at him but he realizes it was me. Instead, he shut his mouth and gave me a questioning look.
"Put it on," I say and smile at my idea.
Louis puts it on, still with a confused face, "How do I look?"
I giggle and smile so big, "Aw, you look like your 18 again!"
He pulls out his phone and opens it to camera. Soon he sees himself and smiles along with me.
"Ninth year all over again, huh?"
I nod and never stop smiling.
Our giggles soon quiet down and we resume to read our books. I've already finished my tea and I'm not even the slightest bit interested in my book.
"Louis, I'm gonna go find another book, er, something." I say and grab my crutches.
"Do you want me to come with you?"
"No, no, it's fine." I instantly say.
I stumble my way to the book shelves and go into the magazine area. Things with pictures entertain me the most.
A certain magazine caught my eye though. I come closer to it and see five familiar faces - One Direction.
I snatch it off the shelf and skim through all the pages. This is like a photo album dedicated to One Direction, really. There's tons of pictures of all the boys - from young to old. I examine each picture and I never realized how much I missed them until now... I miss them a lot.
Flipping through the pages, there's an entire page titled 'Goodby Eleanor'. I read carefully through the entire passage and I don't know how to feel. Eleanor and Louis broke up. They officially broke up.
They broke up. They broke up. They broke up.
My mind is blank. Should I feel happy? Sad? Relieved? Should I even care at all?
"Whatcha readin'?" Louis' voice booms in the side of my ear.
I jump in surprise and flip the magazine to any other page. "Um, a magazine."
He looks at it and smiles, "Those boys look familiar."
I scoff, "Yea, aren't they called 'One Per Section' or something?"
He laughs, "That guy looks pretty hot." He points to himself.
I roll my eyes, "Feels good to be famous, huh?"
"There's ups and downs," he shrugs.
I place the magazine back and continue to search for another book, now with Louis by my side. In reality, I'm dozing off and thinking about how Eleanor is feeling about the breakup. I wonder if she hates Louis now.
"Louis, I'm bored. Can we leave?" I abruptly ask, not sugarcoating it or anything.
"Finally! I actually wanted to leave a while ago but I didn't wanna admit it because, ya know, I suggested to come here in the first place."
"Really? I thought booknerds like you love it here." I joke and tap on his glasses.
"Haha, funny." He snorts in a nerdy way which makes me laugh even more.
"Come on, glasses, let's go."
We drive home in silence, only the sound of the radio filled in the silence.
Once we arrived at my house, Louis heads upstairs to take a shower which means I finally get to have the downstairs area to myself. No more struggling to get up the stairs anymore, thank god.
I immediately grab the remote and plop on the couch. Scrolling through the channels, I see 'Mean Girls' is on and I don't hesitate to watch it. I grab a pillow and sink down into the couch while watching Regina George stuff up on carbs.
Before I knew it, Louis come into the living room with wet hair and glasses on. I will never take Louis wearing glasses for granted ever again.
"Mind if I join you?" Louis asks.
Out of politeness, I shake my head and let him join. With all the space on the couch, Louis chooses to sit right beside me with only about an inch apart from each other. I was completely uncomfortable for him to sit that close, but I was too tired to say otherwise.
I could hear Louis' breathes right beside me and I feel intrigued yet disgusted.
I wrap my arms around my chest, yoga pants don't warm you up enough. I would get up and get a blanket myself, but I have a broken ankle so that wouldn't be the easiest thing to do.
"Are you cold, love?" Louis asks and already gets a blanket beside him.
Before I could protest he spreads the covers over the both of us. Me and Louis are sharing a blanket, oh my god. Louis seems beyond fine with the position we're in right now, while I was screaming on the inside and not in a good way.
As the movie goes on, my eyes get heavier and heavier. I try to fight my sleepiness but I have to admit, I'm quite comfortable which makes this even worse - this is the perfect place to fall asleep...to fall asleep in Louis' arms.
Fuck it.
I finally relax into Louis' arms and finally accept that I enjoy Louis' presence beside me. I hesitantly rest my head on his shoulder and he immediately wraps his arm around my shoulders, bringing me closer and I don't mind.
I slightly smile and enjoy this moment of... I don't know, something nice.
He rests his head on top of mine and I could feel the frame of his glasses. I chuckle as I remember he still has his glasses on.
"Why do you still have your glasses?" I ask, barely over a whisper.
He smiles, "Like you said, it suited me. Plus, I love seeing your face when I wear them,"
I chuckle, "Your really are a nerd then, huh?"
"Yea, but you love it."
I'm shocked that he figured that out, "No... No, I don't." I lie.
He breathes out a laugh, "Sure, whatever you say, love."
I roll my eyes but I can't hide the fact that my heart is beating faster than ever before.
"Goodnight, Jess." He whispers before I fall asleep.
I smile, "Night, nerd."
A/N:
LOUICA LOUICA LOUICA!!!!
I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE
I swear I wrote this like 7 hours ago but none of it saved so I had to rewrite it all over ://// :((((((
but hey, I did it ;)
Thank you everybody for reading and especially everyone who has been reading this from the start and continuously comments and votes, I love you so much.
I loooove seeing your feedback.
DID YOU SEE ZAYNS NEW HAIRCUT THO?!!!!
i mean, I LOVE zayn... but i really don't like the new hair :/
I don't like buzz-cuts in general
but Zayn is still beautiful
PLEASE SHARE THIS STORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
-Lauren xxxx
p.s. - Louis with glasses and a beanie makes my heart melt in real life I just think he's absolutely adorable with them on.