I'll Make This Feel Like Home {l.s}

15

"Woah hey Harry! I have seen you in a hot second."

"Yeah it's been like what, Two years?" Gabe and I used to go to school together before he moved away a few years back. We weren't as close as Niall and I are, but we were good mates. "What are you doing in town?"

"Visiting some family and friends. Haven't been back here since I left for Italy. Took a plane here and I'm staying until the end of December. Doing online classes of course but yeah It's going to be a good time."

"That's nice, what day did you get here?"

"About a week ago." As he says this I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Who's your little friend Harry," I hear Louis' voice ask from behind me.

"Gabe, Louis. Louis, Gabe. This was my mate almost two years back but he moved to Italy. He's going to be in town for the next few months. Gabe this is Louis, he actually moved here not to long ago but we're pretty close now."

Gabe extends his hand to Louis, and Louis just stares at it for a second.

I'm about to call him out for being rude but then he shakes Gabe's hand.

"Good to meet you, but Curly and I better be on our way. Got places to be and such, you know how it goes."

"Sounds, good. Here's my new number by the way Harry. Let me know when you want to hang out," he says, handing me a scribbled scrap of paper and walking out of the store.

"I got to pay for this stuff, then I'll meet you out there yeah?"

"You mean I have to pay for it."

"Same thing. Go to the car I'll be right there."

I had grabbed a few packets of crisps, some candy and a couple sodas. Maybe it was more then a few because the total was $25.98 but no one needs to know that.

I say one more goodbye to Gabe and let him know I'll be texting him. Then I exit the store to meet Louis in the parking lot.

I hop in the car and Louis zooms out of the lot.

"Why the rush," I ask.

"Already told you; places to be."

"Like where?"

"You'll see."

"Do you rhyme all the time?"

"Duh. Otherwise it would be a crime."

...

The sun begins to go down as we reach our destination.

"A playground?"

"Yeah it closes at dusk so no one else should be here."

"Such the trouble maker."

"C'mon," he starts as he gets out of the car. "Last one to the swings is a rotten egg."

"A child I swear to God," I mutter under my breath.

"I heard that," He shouts, already halfway to the swing set. Looks like I'm the rotten egg.

Once I reach the swings, he says, "Sit in this one and let me push you along."

I do as I'm told and Louis pushes me for awhile as we watch the last fleeting moments of daylight disappear.

Once there's no trace of sunlight, Louis says, "Climb up here with me."

Louis climbs the rock wall to the jungle gym, and I just take the winding staircase.

Louis takes a baggie out of his pocket and pulls out a blunt and a lighter.

"Rolled it before I picked you up. Do you mind if I smoke it?"

"Only if I can have some."

"I knew you had it in you Harold."

Louis lights it and effortlessly takes a long drag. He holds it in for awhile before letting the smoke billow out his nose and mouth, and cloud around him.

He hands it to me and says, "Small inhale, hold it, then exhale. Might burn a little but that's normal. Try not to cough before you let out all the smoke though."

I try to follow his directions, but as soon as I feel smoke reach my lungs, I heave out an obnoxious cough.

"Easy tiger," he laughs as he takes another hit.

After my coughing dies down, he asks me, "Want to try again? This time try to just suck it in, the inhale what's in your mouth, then blow out."

I suck a little air in while my mouth is on the blunt, then take a small inhale, and manage to let go without having a coughing fit.

...

"If I get scared half to death twice, do I die?"

"Yeah I think so," Louis responds as he crumples the ashes of the dead blunt between his fingers, and sprinkles them on his head. "Pixie dust."

"Gimme some," I say scooting over so I'm no longer sitting across from him, but next to him.

We're still sitting on a platform in the middle of the jungles gym, but there's plastic walls around us so anyone driving by couldn't see us.

He sprinkles some on my head, and I slide down the slide. "Look, I'm flying."

We both explode in a fit of laughter as he follows me down the slide, except he goes head first. "Superman," he screams.

We lay down in the grass, and I roll towards him. "I'm a bulldozer. If you don't get out of the way, you'll get smushed."

Louis doesn't move, so I crush him, since I'm a bulldozer. I roll from one side of him to the other.

"Why didn't you get out of the way?"

"I wanted you on top of me."

Before I can respond, a car zooms by on the street by us, startling us both.

"We should get back in the car before someone catches us out here," Louis say, no longer laughing.

I pout at him but he still tugs at my arm and drags me to his car.

"I can't drive I gotta come back down first."

"So are we just gonna sit back here for the next ten hours?"

"Ten hours? Oh please. One at most."

"But still yes, just sitting here? Should I ask Niall to come pick us up?"

"It's almost midnight don't make him drive out here for that. Plus he'll ask questions and like... be able to smell us. And see how bloodshot your eyes are. Then he'll get mad at me for having your first time being high be with me instead of him."

"Then what do you propose we do until then?"

"Oh I know. Let's play truth, sip, or strip, minus the sipping since I'm kind of trying to sober up."

"Kinda hard to do that sitting in the driver and passenger seats. Should we go back outside."

"You filthy boy wanting to strip down outside."

"That's not what I meant, well I guess it was but I didn't really think it through."

"I'll put the seats down in the back and we can sit criss cross back there. Sound like a plan?"

__________

Word Count: 1152