Save Myself // Larry Stylinson

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: VIII

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

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"Where are we going, anyway?" Said Lottie as she fiddled with the radio.

"Starbucks,"

"Starbucks?" Lottie sounded like it was the last answer on earth that she expected. Maybe it was.

"Yeah, what did you expect?"

She shrugged once, "well, not Starbucks," she said, staring over at him, "plus we've passed three,"

Louis shrugged.

Lottie narrowed her eyes at him but didn't say another word. She always seemed so suspicious of him, and he couldn't really blame her. Louis had done a fair number of questionable things in his life.

One of which was definitely visiting his too-sweet lab partner who had definitely already seen too much.

When they pulled into the Starbucks parking lot, nerves sunk into Louis stomach. He'd already been through so much that day that most of him really didn't want to deal with the pity he knew he'd find in Harry's eyes. A large part of him was happy that he'd taken Lottie along. He probably needed the buffer and his saucy, chatty little sister would probably steal the show and he was more than comfortable with this knowledge. He needed Harry to have somewhere other than him to look.

Lottie jumped out of the car way faster than Louis was ready to, but he followed suit. She wasn't giving him a chance to second guess anything. Before he even locked the car doors, she was walking into the store. Louis almost wished he had an ounce of her confidence. But he didn't, so he followed quietly behind her.

As soon as they were through the doors, he noticed Harry standing behind the cash register smiling at them.

Not knowing who Harry was, she marched over to counter and handed him her visa.

"I'll get a venti, iced skinny hazelnut macchiato, sugar free syrup, extra shot, light ice, no whip, please," Harry blinked once at her and she looked over her shoulder to Louis, "what are you getting Louis?"

Harry wasn't even looking at her anymore, he was staring at Louis and Louis was staring back at him. It took about a half a second before he saw the light bulb turn on in Lottie's head and he and Harry started to laugh at the same time.

"Is this your sister?"

Louis pressed his lips together to slow his laughter and nodded quietly, finally closing the distance to the counter.

Lottie looked back at Louis then, with what could only be described as a shit-eating grin on her face, "who's this?"

Louis didn't really get it. He didn't get any of it, especially not the look on Lottie's face when she realized he knew Harry. She was reading so much further into it than Louis could really handle. Who knew what she thought, but she was miles off and it left a bad feeling in Louis' stomach.

Lottie thought he'd been hiding Harry from her, or that there was something deeper happening here, and it was so far from the truth. The truth was that it gave Louis heartburn.

No, the real, honest reason he was here was because Harry felt bad for him. He'd seen a bit too deep into Louis' life and he wanted to keep his guilt at bay. He couldn't tell Lottie that, though, at least not in front of Harry.

It was exhausting and he'd hit his limit hours ago.

"I'm Harry," he announced proudly, smiling a perfect, dimply smile at Lottie, "and you are?"