no homo // larry stylinson ⚣

Act III: Scene Fourteen

ACT III
— Scene 14 —
P O V : H A R R Y

"Remind me again why we're taking the car?" I asked, stepping outside the front door.

Louis shrugged, opening the car door and stepping inside.

"Alright then," I breathed out, hopping into the car beside him.

We were on our way to Tesco Extra, or in other words, a huge supermarket which sold food as well as other generic products.

I watched as Louis started the car, backing out of our street. We were about five minutes into the drive, my hand instinctively placed on his thigh, when I realised the radio wasn't turned on.

I reached for the button, turning the dial and landing on a station that was playing The Rolling Stones.

The rest of the drive was mainly silent, and I could've sworn there was some sort of rising tension between us, but I had no idea why.

We arrived at the store, immediately heading to the produce section. I was hesitant to reach for his hand, and I couldn't figure out if this "tension" was just all in my head. I was nervous to tell him about my plans with Sean, so maybe that was it.

"Harry," Louis said, interrupting my thoughts, "Green or red?"

He held up two bags of grapes in either hand, waving them towards me.

"Uh... red."

He placed the bag in our cart, and put the other back on the shelf. We moved onto the household section, and I was starting to feel a bit bored.

I left Louis alone in the kitchen appliances aisle whilst I strolled towards the film aisle. I figured I could pick out a nice film, and Louis and I could have a film night, with a bowl of popcorn and hopefully more cuddling on the couch.

I was looking through the films when I felt a tap on my shoulder

"What are you doing?" Louis asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I figured we could watch a film tonight," I smiled sheepishly, "I'm trying to decide between Love Actually and Track Nine. Have any preference?"

"What?"

"I'm leaning towards Track Nine. I heard it's a wonderful gay coming of age story," I went on.

He scratched his head. "They're both romances."

"Yeah," I replied, "What's wrong with romance?"

Louis' gaze fell at the question. "Dunno, it's just..."

He looked back at the display of films, picking up a random DVD with a cat on the cover. "What about this?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Nine Lives?" I read the title, "Seriously, what's wrong with romance?"

"I don't know," he mumbled, "It's just so— overrated."

"Oh."

Without saying a word, he dropped the dumb children's' film into our trolley.

I watched him turn his back and walk away, before I reached out to sneakily grab The Notebook and follow behind him.

We headed towards checkout, and Louis started placing the items on the conveyor. I tried to subtly set The Notebook down along with the other items, but Louis caught me in the act.

"What is this shit?" he asked rudely.

I frowned. "This 'shit' is a cinematic masterpiece, thank you very much."

Louis rolled his eyes and picked up the DVD. "Put it back," he demanded.

"C'mon Louis," I started, "Do it for Ryan Gosling."

He stared at me for a few seconds before sighing. "Fine."

We payed for the things, pushing the trolley to our car and unloading everything into the trunk.

I closed the trunk door and hopped into the car beside Louis. "Did you get me some more Lucky Charms?"

"Mmh," he replied, driving out of the car park.

I fiddled with the fraying holes in Louis' jeans as we stayed quiet a bit longer.

"Are you okay, Lou?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, yeah," he assured me, "Just a bit tired, that's all."

I nodded, still unconvinced.

"Hey, we should do something tomorrow," he continued, face lighting up a bit, "There's this really cool bowling place near Brick Lane."

I shifted in my seat, grinning. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, you up for it tomorrow?"

My smile faded when I remembered the plans I made with Sean. "I can't."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Why?"

"I uh, made plans with Sean for tomorrow," I told him.

Louis' eyes widened. "Sean? You mean that weirdo who thinks he's a cowboy?"

"What?" I asked, "He's not a weirdo. He asked me if I wanted to hang out, and I was trying to be nice."

"So... you said yes?

"Yeah," I said softly, placing both my hands back in my lap.

The rest of the drive back was quiet. Halfway through, I grabbed the sketchpad and pencil that I kept in the car and mindlessly began to sketch the tattoos that covered Louis' left arm. I slowly leaned back, making sure he couldn't see the doodles.

Even though I had drawn them so many times before, I found that today, sketching his tattoos was inordinately challenging. I kept messing up, crumbling up the piece of paper and trying again.

We finally arrived home, and Louis instantly plopped onto the couch, leaving me to put away all our stuff. Once everything was in its place, I started the film (The shitty cat one), and made some popcorn.

I joined Louis on the couch, sitting down on the opposite end. I directed my focus to the TV screen, but I felt Louis' gaze turn to me. From the corner of my eye, I watched him scoot a bit closer to where I was sat.

We were around ten minutes into the film, but the one thing I was mainly focusing on the strong yearning I had to rest my head against his shoulder, or take his hand in mine, or, I don't know, kiss him?

Instead, I sat there, paralysed, unable to understand why it was suddenly so damn hard to be intimate with him.

"This film is awful," I said, attempting to be casual.

"It's not," he whined.

I shook my head, "It is. I bet it has horrible ratings."

Louis picked up the remote, pausing the film.

"I'm sure it doesn't. I'll look it up on Rotten Tomatoes," he insisted, picking up my phone.

I leaned closer, using it as an opportunity to rest my head on his shoulder so I could peer at the phone screen. Louis turned on the screen, and I felt his body stiffen at the text message that was displayed on my lock screen.

Sean: Hey cutie, looking forward to tomorrow ;)

"I'll respond later," I muttered, sitting up straight.

He nodded and unlocked the phone, finding the Safari app and looking up the ratings.

"See? Only 12%," I said.

Louis groaned, putting my phone back down.

"Fine, Ryan Gosling it is."

AN: :(
— Ava and Melina