The Middle | Hemmings + Styles AU

26. you left a mark

The morning after the show I was sitting on my lounge with Olivia drinking coffee. She'd only arrived to the house about half an hour before, still in last nights clothes. Her face lit up again as she recalled something else. "And when he comes, it's like, the same intense face he has when he's playing on stage."

A mouthful of coffee caught in my throat because then she began biting on her lip and I could only imagine what she's thinking about. "I really didn't need to know that."

"Sure you did," she smiled. "This is the most action you've had for months." She always said that.

"Thanks for the reminder," I said, choosing not to add that Luke and I spent a while kissing on this very couch last night. He mostly wanted to talk about the tour, though. With the smile that had filled his face when I told the boys the news, you'd think they were the ones headlining.

"You're going to sleep with him before he leaves for the tour, right? You have to leave a mark on him before he's surrounded by adoring groupies every night."

"Is that why you slept with Calum? I teased her. I wasn't really surprised that she left the show last night with him. Once she had her sights set on someone, she wasted no time making her move.

"I slept with Calum because he's hot," she answered confidently, then pursed her lips together into this smirk she often did. "And I definitely left a couple of marks."

"You're sick," I laughed, setting my empty coffee cup down on the coffee table.

"But very, very satisfied," she winked.

-

When I arrived at work on Monday morning, I was shocked to see that Louis was already there. His head was dipped down as he waited for me. Without a jacket, by the way, which was both crazy and stupid in this weather.

"I didn't know you were capable of getting out of bed before 9am, Louis," I said to him as I unlocked the door. Grunge had never trusted him to have his own set of keys and it had never been an issue because Louis never made it to work for opening.

"Yeah," is all he answered as we walked inside. I turned the lights on as well as the heating, and did a quick walk through like I did every morning.

When I got back to the front of the store, I was even more shocked to see that Louis's eyes were glassy, but unlike usual, he didn't seem stoned. He seemed like he'd been crying.

"Are you okay?"

"Do you know how old I am, Stella?" his voice cracked a little, as he ran his petite hands through his brown hair. "I'm twenty three. And I get stoned every day and come to this job which I miraculously haven't been fired from," No arguments there. Even I had no clue why Grunge kept him around. "And now this... I need to get my shit sorted."

"This?" I asked, hoping he hadn't done something entirely stupid.

"I slept with this girl a while back... and she's pregnant."

"Wow," I breathed, not really sure what else to say. "Are you sure it's yours?"

His blue eyes looked up at me, "Yes I'm sure," he snapped, and I mean, I deserved that. It was a stupid thing to say. "She hasn't been with anyone else since."

I nodded quietly, figuring it was better to just keep my mouth shut and let him talk. "I don't know how I'm supposed to support a kid, Stella. I'm flat broke."

"You could stop spending your money on drugs," I suggested, even though I expected that's not the answer he wanted to hear. Sometimes you have to tell people things they don't want to hear.

"Yeah."

The tiny features of his face were arranged in a way that was sort of heartbreaking. I didn't know much about Louis other than the fact that he was significantly unreliable and had a dependency on drugs. Right then I could see that he must have some moral compass below the surface, though, because this was visibly eating away at him.

"You know, Grunge is going on tour soon and I'll need an extra pair of hands around here," I began saying. I'd actually planned to hire a junior to help out after school or something. Louis looked up at me, a slither of hope behind his eyes. "It won't be much but it'll be extra work... if you want the extra cash."

"Yeah, sure," he smiled weakly. "That'd be great."

A customer walked in at that moment and I decided to let Louis handle it, feeling a bit like a parent who was trying to teach their teenager a lesson in being responsible. Rather than watching over him, I headed out the back and ran through the invoices for the month and then began filing all of the bills that came with running a store: rent, electricity, employee insurance etc.

I wanted to make sure it was all handled before Grunge went away with 5SOS so he didn't have to worry about anything back here. Plus, it was good practice for me to know these types of things. I still planned to have my own store or label one day.

When Louis popped his head into the back room at about lunch time, I couldn't help but make a joke. "You lasted three hours without breaking something? Well done."

He laughed softly, his eyes completely clear for the first time since I'd known him. "Ha, ha," he mocked. "There's a delivery for you. The contract for Grunge, I think."

"Oh, sure. Just sign for it and leave it under the front counter."

"No," Louis frowned. "It's not a courier. It's that guy... from the label?"

"Clark?" I rolled my eyes. He was so painfully boring, I'd actually began to dread him coming into the store.

"The other one, with the tattoos."

Oh. "Okay," I said, dropping the folder of paper work and running my fingers through my hair. "Send him in."

"You okay?" Louis asked, frowning again. "You seem flustered."

"I said send him in, Louis," I answered harshly because, yes I was flustered. Wasn't I always when Harry was around?

He walked in wearing a black and white striped shirt, with the top three buttons undone. I wondered if anyone else at Pilot Records dressed like that, or just him. Obviously Clark didn't, not that he'd get away with a shirt like this. I couldn't imagine anyone else looking as beautiful in the clothes Harry wore.

In his perfectly cut hands was a thick yellow envelope. "Thanks," I took it, still not looking into his eyes. Once I did, the little composure I still had would be sliced up and served on a platter for him to devour as he pleased. "You didn't have to come all the way down here to deliver it. A courier would have been fine."

"But then I would have missed the pleasure of seeing you," he drawled, the words somehow reaching my stomach and twisting it in knots. "I take it the boys are excited about the tour."

"They are."

"And you?" I finally looked up then. His green eyes stood out brightly against the rest of his black and white outfit. His tongue licked the corner of his mouth as he smiled briefly.

"And I what?"

"Will you be able to keep yourself entertained while they're gone?"

"It might surprise you, Harry, but I actually have a life outside of 5SOS. So yeah, I'll be fine."

His lips were pressed together as he smiled again, "Well, if you need anything, let me know."

"I'll be fine," I repeated cooly. If only my knees didn't feel so shaky.

"We should see a show, or something soon," He was frowning now, which was almost more attractive than his smile. "If you like."

"Sure," I answered before I could think of a reason to turn him down. "Sounds great."

i don't know if the real louis baby rumours are true so please no one fight me on this. this is just a fictional story.

and there's some big hella moments coming up