Open Road (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 2

Thump, thump, thump, went Louis' head as he slowly came to.

Rather out of it, he nearly missed the distraught Harry pacing from one end of the room to the other. Louis could hear him muttering to himself as he tugged on his curls.

If the bags under his tired eyes gave any indication to how much sleep he had received the night before, Harry must have been exhausted. Although, Louis figured he wasn't looking much better.

Groaning lowly, he rolled over. Harry froze and looked at him, his mumbling stopped.

On the nightstand beside him stood a glass of water, but no Advil, much to his dismay.

Mouth like a desert, Louis took a sip of water anyways in a feeble attempt to get some relief. His next thought was brushing his teeth. If his breath smelled anything like his tongue tasted, it couldn't be nice.

With a heavy sigh he pulled himself up in to a sitting position and shed the blankets from his body. looking at Harry and catching his intense gaze.

When he finally blinked enough sleep out of his eyes to see the room around him, he was astonished.

His hungover brain wasn't fully comprehensive of the situation, so he raised an eyebrow at Harry as a cue to explain. Harry opened his mouth and closed it again. It reminded Louis of a fish.

"Do you remember what time we were supposed to be home last night?" Harry asked.

It took Louis a moment to come up with the answer. He had an awful memory, and his mind wasn't exactly at his prime first thing in the morning.

"11:30, I think? Whatever," muttered the other boy. There were more important things to tend to. "Where's my toothbrush?"

"LA," Harry replied.

Louis' eyes widened and he choked on the water he was drinking.

"You mean-?" Louis knew what had happened, the warnings were repeated every time they went out, but he didn't think that they were serious. The band had left without them.

"We're alone in an unfamiliar city with unfamiliar people and nothing but one debit card and 67 dollars in cash? Then yes. Oh, we also have a smart-ass note from Liam." Harry said exasperatedly.

"Well."

"Yeah."

"Looks like we're stuck," Louis stated.

"No," Harry grinned. "It looks like a road trip."

"Road trip?" Louis questioned, eyes wide.

"Road trip."

Right like usual, Louis had predicted Harry's amount of rest. It had been none. The poor boy hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before.

After spending the night thoroughly analyzing the predicament they were in, harry had come to the conclusion that there were only two ways out of this situation: the fun way, and the boring way.

The boring way was rather unfavourable. It included pooling all the money they had, which wasn't a lot, and buying two economy class tickets to LA. They'd be stuck there for a week, most likely under house arrest and listening to countless rants about their ineptitude by Liam and their management.

Harry was leaning towards the fun way.

The fun was was a road trip. Actually, it was a really fucking awesome road trip. The bags under his eyes were from the hours he'd spent doing sleep deprived calculations, even though he was bloody awful at math.

They had just enough money. Factoring in renting a car, gas, hotels, and food, they would have a few dollars to spare. Harry was quite pleased with himself. Excitedly, he began relying the information to Louis.

"So that means no beer, or any other kind of alcohol, but we can do it! It'll be so fun, Lou."

Being hungover, Louis wasn't fully paying attention to everything Harry was saying, just nodding along and muttering a few 'mhm's' at the right moments.

He dragged himself out of the lumpy bed and pushed past Harry towards the bathroom. If he couldn't brush his teeth with a toothbrush, he could at least use the hotel toothpaste and his finger.

"It's 2767 miles, Louis!" Harry shouted from the other room. "That means this is going to be at least five days, do you think you can put up with me for that long without a break?"

"Harry," he mumbled through a mouthful of toothpaste. "Harry we've gone months without a break before, five days is nothing."

"Good point," said Harry softly, Louis hardly being able to hear him.

Louis spat into the sink and rinsed his mouth, washing his hands as well before walking back into the room with Harry.

"Well," he said. "We need a plan."

Plopping himself back down on the bed, he looked at Harry expectantly. Louis figured he'd already come up with one.

"But do we?" Harry asked. "We've been so responsible lately-"

"Look at our situation, this doesn't come from being responsible!" Interrupted Louis.

"-Don't you think it's time to let loose a bit? Have some fun?"

"I think we have the roles a bit mixed up here, Harry. I'm supposed to be the irresponsible one; and if I think this is the time for a plan, it probably is." Louis argued.

"No," Harry said firmly. "No plan."

"Whatever," Louis growled. He was grumpy and hungover, and sorry for snapping at Harry, so he walked over to the taller boy and buried his face in his chest. "'M sorry," he whispered onto Harry.

"It's okay, boo."

"So what kind of car can we get?" Asked Louis after a few minutes of just hugging. They

weren't in a relationship, but Louis wouldn't mind if they were.

"Well, I'm used to driving my Audi, but we're on a bit of a budget, yeah?" Harry was planning on going to the rental shop and getting the most fuel efficient and cheap car they had.

"I think a fact car would be more fun, don't you?" Louis whined hopefully.

"Well you aren't getting one, we're gonna need to buy a lot of things for this road trip, and a fancy car isn't very high on the priority list. It does sound fun, though."

"Okay," Louis agreed. He knew he couldn't always get his way. He also knew that he was being rather childish by demanding such unnecessary things, but in the moment he didn't care.

Looking up, he frowned at Harry. Quickly, though, his frown turned upside down into a dazzling grin at the thought of how close he was to Harry. If he were just a little taller, their lips would already pressed to those soft red ones, and fuck if that wasn't what he wanted.

"Are your ready, Lou?" Harry asked. He couldn't deny it, he was very impatient to head out on the road.

Louis was so ready. He was so ready he thought he might explode. All of his drowsiness had faded away, now he was nearly buzzing.

"Hell yes," he finally answered.

-

[e d i t e d   9 . 8 . 1 5]

[there's chapter two. there's not much going on in the story yet, but bear with me - it'll kick off soon. dedications go to the comments that make me laugh or smile :)]