Black Coffee (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 2

Black Coffee - Chapter 2

Harry took the long way back to he and Louis' apartment. He had to dry his tears before he could approach Louis. There was no way he could tell Louis what happened. Maybe management was threatening him still. Maybe this was all one big scare. He wasn't really kicked out of One Direction. He didn't really have to leave the band because he stood up to something he believed in.

But no matter how many times he circled the building, he knew he would have to face Louis no matter what. He parked his car, and entered through the back entrance of the apartment building. He entered through the lobby, nodding politely at the secretary.

"Hello, Harry." she said politely, then doing a double take. "Wait!"

Harry stopped and turned to the girl, who held up a finger before disappearing into the back rooms. Harry stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled back and forth on his heels as he waited. What could she possibly want? It wasn't like the saw each other everyday or anything.

She came back out with a bag of ice, and ushering him to come closer. "Your eyes are still swollen from crying." she whispered, and Harry felt his cheeks grow red. "You don't have to tell me why you were crying, I just wanted to help." she pressed the bag of ice to Harry's cheek, just below his eye.

He smiled at her politely, "Thanks."

He took the bag of ice, and went straight for the men's restroom. He looked in the mirror and sure enough, his cheeks were still pink. He pressed the ice to his face in an attempt at reducing the color.

After what seemed like an hour, his cheeks were normal color, and all evidence of any crying was erased. He dumped the bag of ice in the sink, threw away the bag and leaned against the counter.

Taking a deep breath, he swallowed down any and every fear he had of telling Louis. No matter how many times he told himself different, Management would never lie about something like this. He had to tell Louis before someone else did.

He turned towards the door, and made his way up the elevator and to his floor, reminding himself that it won't be as bad as he thinks.

He stopped outside their apartment door, taking a deep breath; it's now or never.

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Louis drove down the slippery wet roads down to the cafe, like every day. You'd think that after years of living the high life as an international popstar, living in a motel room just to go to a cafe everyday would be a waste. But Louis thought different. He thought that if he went there enough, the waiter would finally recognize him, and they could return to life as the two best friends.

Finally, after a long year, he thinks his plan just might succeed.

He pulled up into the parking lot, and put his car in park. Just before he was about to switch his car off, he heard the familiar sound of the guitar intro to Little Things.

Louis had to fight the tears. He was to torturing himself by staying in the car, but he couldn't leave. He was forced to relive the memories of them being a band, before Harry's incident. Maybe if Louis had stayed, they could have continued the band without Harry. Maybe if Louis had stayed, Zayn wouldn't have left the country to America, just to 'get away from it all'. Maybe Niall and Liam wouldn't have been forced to remain in the public eye, explaining what happened to 3/5's of the biggest boyband in history.

So yes, Louis felt extremely guilty about leaving the other three boys alone, but what was he supposed to do? Listen to the doctor and leave? Forget that Harry never existed? No. That was never going to happen. Louis would stay here, by Harry- well, Ben's- side until he recovered. This was temporary. Only temporary.

Louis pulled the beanie tight over his head, then pulled the hood to his jacket over. He stepped out of his car, ducking his head from the rain, and ran under the cover of the cafe. He pulled the door open, warm air rushing out, hearing the sound of the familiar bell.

"Hey, Louis!" Paige waved from behind the cash register. "How are you doing today?"

Louis gave the kind woman a smile, "Same old thing, just fine." He knew that she wasn't asking out of politeness. She knew, just like everyone in the whole world, about Harry's condition, and was making sure that Louis was still emotionally stable.

She just smiled, "Good. Ben will be here in ten minutes." Louis had begged Paige to give him the hours in which Ben had worked, in order to appear at the cafe, whenever he did.

Louis nodded, silently wishing it was Harry to arrive to work, and not Ben. Sure they were the same person, with or without some memories, but Harry knew Louis, and to Ben, Louis was just a stranger.

Louis sat in his usual table, receiving sympathetic stares from everyone in the cafe. Everyone knew that Louis went straight to help Harry, and during the first part of the year, fans would stop by all the time to get a glimpse of Louis and Harry. It sucked, because Paige, or someone else would have to lie to Ben so he wouldn't get freaked out if he got mobbed. Thankfully, it died down so much, that maybe one or two fans would show up a week, on a bad week. Even though they would never approach him out of respect, everyone was aware of who they were. Well, everyone but Ben, and it was going to stay that way, until Louis could find a proper way to tell him.

Ben walked through the door, smiling at Felicity, giving her an excuse to why he was two minutes late. Louis smiled, then ducked his head to the table, pretending to be preoccupied with the sugar packets.

"Pssst!" Louis turned his head up to see a two girls on a breakfast outing. They live around here, because this wasn't the first time that he had seen them around. Louis looked at them with curious eyes before the blonde spoke up in a hushed whisper, "Good luck, today!"

Everyone was routing for him. Maybe fighting for Harry wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Before he could respond to the girls, Ben came up, smiling brightly at Louis, "Hello, again! Black coffee?" Louis nodded but realized that he was already holding a pitcher of coffee, and he could help but smile.

"So what are you doing here?" Ben asked Louis as he poured the coffee into the mug. "Don't you have somewhere else to be every morning?"

Louis just shrugged, placing his cold hands around the steaming mug. "I'm waiting for someone."

Ben took a moment to analyze the older boy's face before saying, "For who? Are you waiting for Hazza?"

Louis was taken aback. He didn't think that Ben would have remembered the name he slipped out days ago. He didn't have words for the face he knew so well, and all he could do, was nod.

Ben looked down at Louis' coffee mug and suddenly smirked, "For almost a year you've had coffee for breakfast. What about some pancakes, eggs or even toast?"

Louis bit his lip. He's only ever gotten coffee because he needed an excuse to come here, plus his nervous stomach couldn't handle much to eat.

He just shrugged mumbling a soft, "Never occurred to me."

Ben laughed heartily, the sound bringing back memories of old time to Louis. He couldn't help but smile as he watched the humor grow on his pale face.

"I'll get you some eggs on toast."