It's been a few days and Louis, Zayn, and Liam still aren't talking. Louis' not too upset by his friends' reaction, but he's just going to wait in case they get even more mad when he brings it up. Louis knows that they'll come around at some point, they'd never let something like this ruin their friendship.
"Hey, are you planning on going to the club this Friday?" Niall asks Louis.
Louis eats one more fry and then answers, "I was yeah, I don't have to, though. Why?"
Niall crumples up his McChicken wrapper and tosses it on the tray their food came on that's sitting in the middle of their table. "Well we haven't hung out in a while and I was planning on buying the new FIFA and thought maybe you'd like to hang out."
"Oh," Louis says, as he too puts his trash on the tray. "Yeah, sure. I'll just go on Saturday."
They both get up and Niall throws the garbage away. "You don't have to if you would rather work. I won't be like, offended or anything."
"No really, I've got enough to take one night off trust me. Honestly I could take more than one night off."
After getting into the car Niall continues the conversation as they drive back to the dorms. "You really make that much?"
"Yeah, the least I've made in one night is three hundred."
"What?! That's crazy bro, I make less than that in one week." Niall tells Louis.
"Well you work at Nando's flipping burgers, I on the other hand sell my body. Don't be too disappointed in yourself," Louis says dryly.
"I thought you didn't care about that? You told me it was your choice so it's not degrading."
"I don't mind, I'm just saying. In society it's far more frowned upon to be a stripper than a fast food worker."
"I guess that's true, I really don't think I'd care what society thought if the lowest amount I made a night was three hundred, honestly," Niall says as they pull into the school's student parking area.
"Exactly."
When they get up to the room Louis decides he might as well study. Thankfully most of his classes he's interested in, so it's not hard to pay attention but there's a couple that are so boring he can never remember a single thing the professor says. He has to make sure stripping doesn't cause his grades to slip because then his mum will get suspicious, and he really doesn't need to be telling her about his new job. Yes, his mum still checks his grades.
He only studies for about two hours before he uses his phone for a calculator and somehow ends up on Instagram. It's funny how that works.
Tomorrow's Friday and lately his Fridays have been very long. He has classes from 2 pm until 5 pm and then usually around 10-12 pm he goes and dances for a couple of hours. It's okay because he doesn't have any classes on Saturday so he's able to sleep as long as he wants in the morning, but it's still tiring. That's why this Friday with Niall will be a nice break from work. Also, Niall's right, they haven't properly hung out in so long and Louis will not let his job come before his friends.
For the rest of the day Louis tries to plan out the following week. He wants to make sure he gives himself enough time to go to his classes, study, go shopping, go to work, and then hopefully still have time to himself.
Louis thought quitting, or rather being fired, from Tesco would make his schedule easier, but really it's about the same. When he stays up almost all night he wants to sleep all morning which is fine unless he has important things he needs to do. It's not too stressful, though, and as long as he keeps planning things out he should be okay.
"Have you talked to Liam or Zayn lately?" Niall asks from where he's sat at the desk they share.
"No, they've been trying to call and text but I'm ignoring them because I don't want to keep hearing them tell me what I need to do," Louis explains bitterly. Yes, he's over it...but maybe he's also not.
"Oh, okay," Niall pauses for a moment as if he's finished, but then he adds, "you know it's only because they care, right? They're not judging you or anything."
Louis rolls his eyes. "Yeah I know, and I appreciate their concern but still, it's annoying. I'm not a baby. I know what I am and what I'm not getting myself into."
"Yeah I get it. They definitely overreacted, but were we expecting anything less? They'll get over it soon enough. They still love you."
"Yeah," Louis sighs. "Yeah I know. I love them too and I don't think I'm really mad I'm just, I don't know."
"It was just an in the moment type of thing. You guys need to just talk rationally. They need to calm down next time and you need to listen even if you won't do as they ask," Niall says seriously.
"Woah, when did you become Niall, King of Wisdom?" Louis says sarcastically.
"Shut up. You know I'm right. I'm the mediator in the friend group. I never have any drama."
"Niall, you got mad at Liam for eating your leftovers. You wouldn't talk to him for a week."
"That's different though, that's chicken tenders from Chick-fil-A, this is just petty drama."
"Oh," Louis says even more sarcastically, "I see."
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At work on Saturday Louis notices that he's getting tired a lot faster than he did at first. It's probably from all of the McDonald's he's been eating because he's too lazy to actually cook real food. Maybe he should start working out?
Yeah, no.
He does enjoy dancing though, so he could come in during the day or something and practice, because he does quite need it, which would also give him a good work out. Is that even allowed? Maybe if he asks Harry he'll unlock the doors for him and just leave a key or something so he can lock it back up when he's finished.
After his last dance Louis decides to try and see if Harry's still at the club. He's there most nights but sometimes he goes home early and some nights he doesn't even come at all. Hopefully he's here tonight.
Louis goes over to the bar where Noah's working. Noah is the main bartender so he's here the majority of nights unless one of the other bartenders come in. Noah's a very good looking guy and Louis doesn't mind talking to him because he's pretty friendly, and also very nice to look at. Louis and him are actually becoming somewhat friends with each other.
"Noah," Louis says after Noah finishes taking someone's order.
Noah turns around. "Hmm?"
"Can you let me through, I need to talk to Harry."
"Again? He's going to get annoyed with you," Noah says, but he opens the mini door anyways.
"Well I'm going to get annoyed with you if you don't just mind your own business."
"Wow Tomlinson," Noah says in a joking manner. "You're very sassy tonight. You could probably use a drink."
"Sod off, you're not getting my money," Louis says earning a playful smirk from Noah.
"Oh but you have so much of it now."
Louis just flips him off and goes to Harry's office. When he gets in front of the door he knocks three times and waits a few moments before it's opened.
"Yeah?" Harry asks, looking down at Louis.
"Hi, I have question."
"Well I'm not Google so," Harry says them waves his hand to 'shoo' Louis away.
"Yeah obviously. If I could ask Google I would." Wow, maybe Louis does need a drink or two.
"Hm, fine." Harry opens his door and lets Louis walk in.
"So, I need to start working out and I also need some practice dancing," Louis says quickly and without hesitation, then pauses.
"Kay...and what does that have to do with me?"
"Well I was wondering if maybe-"
"I told you, you can't have any extra dances," Harry interrupts.
"Good thing that's not what I was going to ask for then," Louis says back. Harry raises his eyebrows at Louis but let's him continue. "Can I come in during the day sometime next week?"
Harry looks at Louis and then goes to sit at his desk. "And how do you suppose that's gonna work?"
"Well," Louis starts, walking a little closer to Harry's desk. "You could like, leave keys or something. Hide them behind the sign," Louis shrugs. "I don't know."
"How do I know you're not going to steal money or something?" Harry asks. He doesn't seem very serious and he's talking casually almost as if this whole conversation amuses him.
"Look at me, Harry," Louis gestures to his body. "Do I look like I'm capable of stealing without getting caught?"
Harry runs his eyes over Louis' body and shrugs. "You could be a con artist or something. Is your real name even Louis?"
Louis knows Harry's just being stubborn at this point so he just shakes his head but can't help the small smile that creeps onto his lips. "Yes, it is. I'm not a con artist, I'm not going to steal shit. I'm just a uni student who also happens to be a stripper and I need to work out. I eat too much McDonald's."
"So stop eating McDonald's."
Louis sighs. "That's not really an option."
Harry stares at Louis blankly for at least five seconds. "Fine."
"Really?"
"I guess. If you steal things though I'm not leaving the keys for you anymore."
Louis gives Harry a confused look. "You wouldn't fire me?"
"Yeah, I'd probably do that too. Why? Are you going to steal?"
"No. We've been over this."
"Yeah, okay," Harry says as he pulls out a single key and hands it to Louis. "Here."
"Wait, you're just giving it to me?" Louis asks but takes the silver key nonetheless.
"Well I trust that more than hiding it behind the sign. Just give it back when you're done," Harry says casually.
"Okay...thank you," Louis says, a little shocked that his plan actually worked.
"Whatever. Now go, I need to finish this," Harry gestures to his empty desk.
"There's nothing there," Louis points out.
"How do you know that?"
"Because, it's—it's empty," Louis says holding his hand out to the clear desk, not totally sure if Harry's joking or not.
"It is empty. I don't have anything to do, I just want you to leave," Harry replies. Louis knows he doesn't mean it as an insult so he just shakes his head.
He walks over to door. "Thanks for the key," Louis says as he closes it.
"Don't steal!" Harry semi-shouts before Louis finally closes the door all the way.
As soon as he's back out into the main club area he goes straight to the locker rooms to change. Outside of the door Bebe's waiting with a smug look on her face, "I'm so getting that money."
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A/N: I just read the phan hat fic (if you don't know what that is...good.) and I'm not even in that fandom