painless ➸ larry

eight

*chapter eight;

"Decisions, decisions." Louis chuckles into the phone, after Harry had been talking about what university he'd like to attend. "Why don't you have your mother's last name?" Louis asks Harry absentmindedly, changing the subject. All the time they would've spent together this week has been moved to talking on the phone. 

"Harry Cox? Lou, you sick bastard." Harry chuckles, and it sounds even more raspy than it normally would, because the reception Louis gets in his room isn't the best. 

"You've got that right." Louis laughs, glancing at the clock. 2:13 AM. Whoops. 

But, Louis doesn't mind that he's staying up this late, if it means he can talk with Harry. Maybe he's gotten a little too over-attached, but how can he not? Louis doesn't have many other friends, usually they run away as soon as they hear the word disorder. Like, he could list off people that spaced themselves from him after they found out. Really, Liam is the only one who's stayed, and they haven't talked since Louis met Harry. Louis mentally reminds himself to text Liam tomorrow—er, today, since it's two in the morning.

"Do you ever think, like, how cool it would be if soulmates had matching pendant necklaces? There'd be no heartbreak, it'd be perfect." Harry says, perhaps thinking that Louis might have his matching pendant.

"You got that from Tumblr, didn't you?" Louis smiles, even though Harry can't see him.

"Maybe. It'd still be cool, though."

"Yeah, but, like, what if your soulmate was some psychopathic cannibal?" 

"That's not how it works, Lou. You're soulmate has to be someone you like." 

"Not necessarily." Louis insists. "And, what if you got tired of the person? Like, there'd be no one better in the world for you, so you'd be cursed to being a lonely old cat person."

"You don't get tired of your soulmate, Lou." Harry replies. 

"Whatever. I don't think I believe in soulmates, anyway." Louis yawns, dropping his head onto his pillow. 

"Why not?"

"It's too good to be true, you know? Like, there's someone out there that's perfect for you. They balance you out, bring out the best in you, while you bring out the best in them. I'm not good enough to do that for someone, I don't think. It seems like a crazy idea, anyway. I'm just not sure if I believe there's someone out there that will love me and hate me but not be able to leave me, because, everyone leaves, at some point." Louis voice gets softer and softer as he goes on. 

"I won't leave you." Harry says, quietly.

"You will." Louis replies, closing his eyes.

"How do you know I will?" 

"How do you know you won't?"

Harry is about to reply when the line goes dead, because Louis fell asleep and hit the end button with his thumb. 

 ★

"When will these be gone?" Louis whines to Dr. Cox as he inspects the little yellow bruises that he had received from Harry nearly a week prior. Harry was just trying to make a few pounds, was all. Well, in a very stupid way, but that's the Harry way, Louis supposes. 

"They should be gone in two days," Dr. Cox says. "but, they may fade by tomorrow."

"You know your son isn't a sadist, right?" Louis blurts, before covering his mouth with his hands.

"Yes, I know that," She replies. "but he can't just hurt you like that because you can't feel it. I don't know how he got the memo that that was okay in the first place. He's not one to hurt things." 

Louis ponders, do I tell her about the bet, or not? No, he decides. That would make things even worse. It's better to just let her wonder. 

"You're free to go, now. I need to speak with your mother, however."

"She's not here right now; I came by myself." Louis says. "She's probably at work."

"Oh, can you tell her to stop by here afterwards? It's important: the thing I need to talk to her about."

Louis doesn't ask what the infamous 'thing' is, he's done that before and he never gets answers. He simply just say okay and is off. When he exits the room, he does not expect to be dragged into the bathroom. He throws his elbow up to hit his attackers nose, and when he hears a high pitched squeal followed by a deep groan he knows exactly who he just hit.

"I just wanted to say hi, and now I get a bloody nose?" Harry complains. 

"Well, you could have just said hi, not gone all super rapist-kidnapper on me." Louis says with a little hmph, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"I wanted to surprise you." Harry pouts, holding a paper-towel he had just grabbed from the dispenser up to his nose. It is, indeed, bleeding; and, maybe Louis is a little proud.

"There are—" Louis is cut off when he is dragged into a stall with Harry. "Jesus, Harry, what's wrong with you?"

"Shhh." Harry demands as the door to the bathroom opens. Louis visibly rolls his eyes.

"It's not like your mum is going to come into the men's toilets to look for us." Louis whispers, saying it as if Harry's stupid. 

"You'd be surprised. Now, shh." Harry replies, and Louis hears the click of heals across the tiles. His eyebrows raise and he looks at Harry—who is now standing on the toilet seat so that if his mother was to look under the stalls it wouldn't look suspicious.

"Louis?" Dr. Cox's voice rings through the bathroom. 

Louis clears his throat. "Hmm, yeah?" 

"I forgot to check your blood pressure. So, once you're done, come back in, okay?"

"Okay." Louis replies, looking up at Harry whom has a look of relief on his face. They hear the door close and Harry steps off the toilet seat. 

"What I'm wondering is how she knew to look in here." Harry says, scratching the back of his neck. 

"Maybe she saw you drag me in here." Louis suggests. "Maybe she heard you squeal like a piglet when I hit you in the nose and she knew it was me getting revenge." He laughs. 

"A piglet?"

"Mhmm," Louis smiles, poking Harry's nose. "I'd better get back, then."

"Call me tonight?"

"Sure, Harry."

★

literally this is like all dialogue i hope that's not bad

why do you think anne knew to look in the bathroom? c;