Young & Beautiful

‘Thank you, Curly. Happy Louis Day.’
He waits, fully prepared for nothing, but still he waits and waits and waits, and just as his eyelids
begin drooping and sleep has begun to ensnare his senses in its quiet clutch, his phone vibrates
harshly, startling him out of his slipping unconsciousness. He brings it to his eyes immediately, his
pulse picking up. He’s almost tempted not to read it, to save it for the morning so he has
something to wake up to—be it good or bad. Which is dangerously close to being pathetic.
But in the end he gives in to temptation (doesn’t he always?) and unlocks the text, staring at
Harry’s response.
It’s an emoji. Of an octopus.
… Ok, then.
So Louis sends him a rose before he falls asleep, his smiling cheeks pressed deep into his pillow
that smells so sweetly of home.
**
It isn’t long before New Years rolls around the corner.
Louis ends up going to Stan’s party, a small, painfully fun bash that he holds in his charmingly
shady apartment on the other side of town despite having been invited to Zayn’s ever-so-famous
New Years Party Extravaganza. And he’s a little glum about it, yeah, (in no way could he
rationalize the traveling costs or the abandonment of his childhood mates for a glamorous shit
show at some elitist hotel) because he doesn’t get to see the lads, but he has fun regardless and
drinks enough to forget to think about them all—namely Harry, who he hasn’t heard from since
he’d gotten the octopus emoji, the fucker—and as the clock strikes the new year, he’s even
managed to find himself a new year’s kiss.
It’s a boy with a hairsprayed quiff and a trendy shirt that reeks of sub-par cologne, his forgettable
green eyes smiling into Louis’ as they chat throughout the night casually, exchanging drinks and
pleasantries about their lives. The green only makes him think of Harry—but it’s a shameful
comparison because Louis’ quite sure the color of Harry’s eyes is the only of its kind and the
Powers At Be had fucked around a bit longer while making him, inventing new shades on the
color spectrum, putting more energy towards him alone than they have the whole population.
Or maybe Louis’ had too much tequila.
In any case, Hairspray Boy follows Louis around (he can’t be blamed really—Louis looks
fantastic tonight) and takes full opportunity of their proximity as everybody cheers in the new
year, the noisemakers exploding, and grabs him into a very un-momentous kiss.
“Cheers, mate. Happy new year,” Louis says half-assedly after he’s released, throwing the boy a
weak thumbs up and avoiding his gaze as he slips by him and wanders off to find his mates. He
feels the disappointment in the boy but he leaves regardless because he just can’t care, feeling very
indifferent about the situation in general.
“Louis!” Stanley greets with drunken enthusiasm, and before he knows it, he’s swallowed whole
by the masses, laughing and celebrating another year gone by.
He wonders what Zayn and Liam are doing—probably cuddling.
He wonders what Niall is doing—definitely partying. Maybe shagging some girl. Or girls.