Young & Beautiful

But it doesn’t get any easier.
He’ll see pictures on Facebook. Harry, adorned in beautiful clothes, draped in beautiful people,
pupils blown. Bruises barely visible under makeup and shadow. Captions like “BEST NIGHT
EVER FUCK” litter the screen and it leaves Louis’ stomach twisting. Not just with disgust, but
with worry, with fear. With all kinds of things.
And then sometimes Zayn will mention him offhandedly before getting this look in his eyes when
Louis clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck, before immediately cutting himself off.
As if to spare Louis or something.
And sometimes one of Des’ songs will come on the radio and that just fucking sucks as well.
And then there was that question about Oscar Wilde on his exam—it almost sent him into a
downward spiral of emotional panic and despair, right there in the classroom.
No, none of it gets any easier.
But, hopefully, in time it will.
**
“Do I look important enough in this?” Niall asks, twirling in place, arms outstretched and
welcoming an honest, objective opinion.
It’s the last day of term before everybody goes home for the holidays. Incidentally, it’s also the
night of Des and Nick Grimshaw’s release party for their new single, “Certain Things,” and Niall
has cordially invited Louis as his ‘plus one.’ He has hasn’t stopped talking about the event for the
past couple of days—he’s brilliantly excited about his drumming skills (the boy doesn’t even
pretend to be humble) and he’s eagerly awaiting the thousands of requests he insists he’s going to
get to become the next big thing in modern music.
To be honest, Louis wouldn’t be surprised at all if that was Niall’s true calling. He might need to
start looking for a flatmate for next term.
“You look important enough for big time execs to request your services for their upcoming artist’s
tracks. Does that count?” Louis asks, and he smiles. He wishes he could smile bigger. But, in the
present funk he still seems to be in, he cannot.
Niall must notice because he comes up to him, placing a strong hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” he
says, and Louis meets his eye. “We’ll have fun tonight, yeah? Free booze and free drugs and
plenty of opportunities for sex. We’ll have fun. I promise.”
Louis tries to smile wider. “Well, obviously.”
There’s a moment longer where Niall eyes Louis closely before finally nodding and continuing to
button up his jacket.
“Right. Well. Let’s get this party started then, shall we?”
Louis looks down at his hands. “Yeah.”
He tries to sound excited.
**