The Ring {L.S}

Chapter 12: Nebraska

Louis and Harry arrived in Nebraska in a day and a half. They would've made it sooner if Louis had just let Harry drive through the night but he insisted that they'd rest at some sketchy point along the highway. They borrowed Liam's dad's box truck and spent the night nestled together closely while other truckers pulled around next to them.

They had booked a hotel right outside of Omaha and made their way there first. Obviously Harry would not Louis pay for anything the whole way across the country, and he wasn't going to start now.

"Styles," he said to the concierge who was behind the counter.

"Just one key should be fine, thanks."

They made their way to the elevator with their small bags and went up to the third floor to find their room. It was a small room with a single queen bed and a little bathroom, but they only needed it for 2 nights, so it would work just fine. They started school in a little over a week, and Louis still needed to get his cast off and settle back into work. They couldn't stay in Omaha for too long, but they were going to stay long enough for Louis to see things and Harry to say goodbye to all of the friends that he made. It was early in the morning and Louis decided that they would start by going to the storage unit to get all of Harry's things first, that way the hard part could be out of the way for both of them. The entire way there, Louis worried about Harry potentially bumping into Michael, or worse, Michael intentionally bumping into Harry.

Once there, there wasn't much to be packed away. Most of it was bins of clothes, a few boxes of vinyls, and a lot of car parts. It was obvious that Louis still didn't know a lot about Harry. He knew the basics, like he loves to eat, builds race engines, and is the most complicated man he's ever met; he knows that Harry doesn't like it when he sips from his coffee and there is droplets down the side of the cup, so he always has to lick it after, and he knows that his mom isn't too fond of visitors in the house but his sister loves to be around new people. He knows that Harry has eyes greener than the most beautiful field he's ever laid eyes on, and he knows that Harry isn't someone who genuinely enjoys talking about his problems.

He wants to know everything. There are so many questions left to be answered, like,

"what's your favorite car that you've ever worked on?"

"What does your mom do in her free time?"

"What is your deepest fear?"

"Will you miss it here?"

"Will you miss Michael?"

"Are we ever going to have to come back here?"

The last few questions shook Louis to the core. He wasn't sure that he truly wanted to know the answers. Nebraska has been his life for so long, so he felt like he had already known the answers but they weren't the ones that he wanted to hear. He was in his thoughts for so long that he didn't realize that Harry had stopped moving things into the truck. He was hunched over going through a bin of things that Louis was too far away to see.

"What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry stood still in his spot. Louis began to walk over to him, but Harry stood up quickly and tucked something small away in his pocket. The bin was full of model cars and trucks and it looked like there were seven more filled with the same thing. Harry's face was flushed, but when he saw Louis looking at the contents of the bins, he couldn't help but laugh.

"They're toys?" Louis began, and Harry laughed even harder. The Nebraska sun was beating hard on their heads and the only thing that Louis could do was laugh along with Harry.

"They are NOT toys, Louis." Harry was surprisingly looking a lot better than he was only a few minutes prior. Louis wondered what made him act this way, but his smile was genuine enough that he was able to forget what happened.