Small Styles

Chapter 16

"You two were supposed to be leaving soon, weren't you?" Anne asked as she wrapped herself in one of the blankets Louis brought with him. 

"Yeah, soon.... Speaking of, I need to email the dean and make sure that we can push back the date. I don't want Harry to be alone for any part of this. I promised him that I would be with him for the whole thing, minus the surgery itself of course," Louis said as he pulled his laptop and charger out of the backpack that contained his things. 

He looked around the small closed in waiting room for an outlet, finding one relatively quickly. He and Anne switched spots and he plugged the cord into the red outlet beside his chair, opening his laptop lid and going straight to the Internet. Of course, this was put on hold by the WiFi password not being entered and no connection being chosen. There was free WiFi at the hospital, thank goodness, so he just mooched off of the hospital. He spoke out loud as he wrote, Anne correcting him on punctuation and spelling and word choice as he went. 

It was as if he was in high school all over again and still applying for colleges, using Anne's help for the grammar and spelling as she was a high school English teacher. That was actually how he and Harry met, which was kind of weird when you think about it. Dating your teacher's son made things a bit challenging, because she could look at Louis' grades if she wanted, she could mark him down if there was an argument, she could be the one to decide that Louis wasn't good enough for her son or he wasn't smart enough. She never did any of those things though and when Louis left middle school and went to high school, that's when Anne moved up to. 

She always hoped that she would be able to be Harry's teacher, though she knew that it was highly unlikely, though not impossible. That's why she did all of her schooling for pre-school and the way to college, stopping at twelfth grade. She didn't ever want to teach college, though college professors made more money than the other grades. Now, here she was, helping Louis write something that doesn't even have to contain any correctness whatsoever. 

"You'll need to put your name on a different line than your complimentary close," Anne said, so Louis changed it. "Now you have to put your phone number underneath your name so they have something to get in contact with you."

Louis made the changes Anne told him to make, agreeing with her whenever she said something needed to be changed. Louis actually didn't care, he was just worried about his baby. The school could wait, really. He knew that he shouldn't have his mind made up like that, but that's just how it was. Family came first, and this was his family. 

"Thank you for helping me," Louis said to Anne who nodded sleepily. 

"You're welcome, but your writing still hasn't improved since you left my class in twelfth grade," Anne said, chuckling when she'd actually said the whole sentence that she'd been thinking since Louis started the letter.

"Why did you never make Harry break up with me when it was so clearly obvious that I was most likely going nowhere in life, Anne?" Louis asked as he turned his head to look at her. 

"It wasn't my decision, Louis. I knew that you'd end up somewhere, whether it be a boring nine-to-five job or a job going around the country and maybe even the world to compete. Though, if I'm being honest, I thought that you would choose to be a singer or actor rather than a soccer player. You always seemed more interested in the arts than you were in sports."

"I would prefer drama or singing, but soccer is what I was given a full ride for. Clearly, they saw some potential in me with just that one thing. Plus, this school has a shitty arts program." 

"So why don't you just go out and audition for things, Lou? There's commercials to be in, there's movies to be in all the time, there's plays to be in. Plus, you've got two out of the three things that most people look for in an actor or actress. You can sing and you can act, I'm not sure that you can dance though." 

"I can dance.... Not really, I'm not even going to attempt to lie to you. You'll figure out one way or another that I can't dance. Why did you let Harry move out of your house and into the one that we share now when he was just, like.... Was he 15 or 16?" 

"It was his fifteenth birthday that I let him move out and you were almost 17, if I remember correctly. I only know that bit because you and Harry had me lie on the documents and say that I was the guardian and I would always be there. I only let him move out because I trusted you, I trusted him, and I knew that I would be close enough to come and help you two out if there was trouble," Anne said simply. 

"You should never trust Louis Tomlinson. What would you do if we ever got married? What if we had children? How do you feel about us moving out of the country to go so far away?" He kept spitting out questions, not even thinking about them as they came out. After they did come out, though, he was quite shocked. He didn't even know that he was thinking about things like this. He was thinking about marrying Harry and having kids with him? Since when?

"Well, you were both bound to leave at some point. I feel like it's a wee bit soon for my liking, but even if I was dead, it would be too soon. I never want my Harry to move and if you move, Harry moves as well. Then, I lose not one, but two sons," Anne explained. "And if you're thinking about proposing to Harry, I'm going to need you to ask in a different way than that. However, I would most likely give you my blessing, I'm hoping you'd ask me first though. Harry's always wanted a baby to call his own, so if you two do ever have children, no matter how you do have children, then that will be a joyous moment for all of us. I would hope so at least...." 

Louis nodded, "When do you think Harry will be out of surgery?" 

Anne shrugged, "Hopefully soon. If it goes on like this much more, I will go absolutely mad or I'll fall asleep." 

Louis just nodded and looked out of the window. The sun was just barely rising. There was just a small, thin line of orange that was showing through purple and pink looking clouds. It was quite beautiful and Louis couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Anne ended up falling asleep less than ten minutes after she made the statement about her going mad or falling asleep. Now we both see which part of her won. 

He looked at the picture on his screen and decided that he would make that his lock screen. He usually kept it a plain black screen so that if he woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to check the time, he could do so without being blinded by something bright. This would go against everything he'd set up. The whole system would be ruined, but that was alright for now. As long as he had something to do and something else to focus on. 

He got to thinking about what Anne was telling him. She was right. There were always auditions being held for commercials he'd most likely have to leave for or plays in the area or for movies that he would probably have to go to another state to film. He continued thinking about it and couldn't shake the thoughts from his head no matter how hard he tried to. 

Even as they were walking down the hallway to go see Harry, his mind was completely focused on the thoughts of being an actor and possibly even making a name for himself in acting. He could definitely see that for himself and liked that idea way more than just playing soccer, though he also really liked soccer. Maybe he could do soccer on the side or do charity matches or something, he thought to himself. He'd always seen celebrities do things like that, so he knew it was possible. Or maybe he would get a role for a movie or commercial or play or something where he played a soccer player. That'd be quite cool and interesting as well. 

He let Anne take the couch in Harry's room, which was actually quite spacious, while he put himself on Harry's bed. He glued himself to Harry's side and threw their comforter over them. He tried to focus more on Harry than his own thoughts, but he couldn't help it. He really, really liked the idea of him being an actor. He fell asleep with his thoughts and dreamed of actually succeeding in becoming an actor. He could help provide for his family, biological or not. He could take care of Harry all the time and they'd never have to choose between eating dinner for the week or getting Harry a new pack of nappies or a new stuffy that he really liked. And Louis really liked the idea of that. 

{I think that I've figured something out for this story finally. If you'd like, can you please comment whether you'd like Louis to continue his dream of soccer or whether he should be an actor?}