anobrain; l.t+h.s

1. The First Day of Spring

Louis 82°

The coffee shop that doubled as a book store wasn't entirely busy during the afternoon. Louis knew school had just gotten out for a lot of people for spring break, but that didn't mean The Paperback Umbrella was a casual hangout on a Wednesday.

Louis had become bored while working his shift, since no one had come to either buy a book or a coffee and the soft acoustic music was slowly driving him mad. He was arranging the sugar packets on the counter into a small pyramid when the door opened and the bell jingled to signal the arrival of a new customer. There was a loud laugh that had started outside and carried into the shop, breaking the calm and drowning out the music for a moment. He wasn't in the mood to interact with people who were loud, so he didn't look up.

"Harry, check this out," the loud voice said, and something like a bullet shot through Louis. He snapped his gaze up towards the side of the shop that served as the bookstore and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. He managed to catch a glimpse of a tall lanky boy with long, brown curls and an infectious smile disappear behind one of the bookshelves. Louis rested his chin on his hand and sighed before going back to his sugar packet pyramid. He wasn't entirely focused on that, though, and was mostly listening for the conversation Harry was having with the other two boys that came into the shop with him. Louis didn't notice the dark and broody one because the loud blonde had taken all the attention.

"Have you read The Road?"

"I don't read," the blonde admitted to Harry in a joking tone. Louis was so concentrated on that that he didn't notice the dark and brooding boy approach the counter.

"Can I take your picture?"

Louis startled and knocked some of the sugar packets to the ground. The boy snickered but bent down and picked them up anyways.

"Sorry?" Louis asked after a moment of silence while he put the sugar packets back into the container.

"Your picture? Can I take it? Your eyes are really cool. Do you wear contacts?" he pressed, and Louis noticed the Nikon digital camera slung around his neck.

"Um," Louis looked down awkwardly. His eyes were rather an intense, almost glowing, blue that attracted quite a bit of attention that he didn't want. He personally hated his eyes; they reminded him of a wolf in the snow. He pulled himself from his thoughts before he was consumed by them to form some sort of response to the boy in front of him.

"Did you need something...?"

The boy looked defeated but then hauled up three books to the counter with an amount of money, "Just these, then."

Louis looked past the boy and to Harry and the blonde. Harry was scanning the spines of books, spring flowers in his hair and a small smile on his face.

"Hello?"

"Sorry," Louis stammered out and quickly checked out the boy's books before putting them in a bag and holding it out by the handle for him to take. Louis was about to give him his change, but he shook his head.

"Keep it."

"Zayn," the blonde called, already at the door with an impatient look about him. Zayn nodded over his shoulder, waved at Louis in thanks and joined the blonde at the door. "Harry, let's go," he drew out the syllables in 'go', making Zayn laugh lightly.

Harry looked longingly at a book Louis knew was about flower types before starting for the door.

Say something, Louis thought, Say 'have a good day' or something don't let him go.

But then Harry joined his friends at the door that jingled in response to their leave, and they all left in a flurry of laughter and a promise of a fun evening ahead.

And his spring boy had gone.

[some chapters will be short, this is lowkey a prologue]