your lipstick stain is a work of art » stylinson

sixteen⚤

part sixteen

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it only takes about .002 seconds for louis to lose all will to survive.

any fight that had previously been in him is shattered and buried in snow; just like the windows of zayn's car.

with whatever strength is left in him, he hobbles over to harry, pressing right up to him. he closes his eyes tight as a wave of violent, quaking shivers wracks his body. he can't remember a single moment in his life where he felt anywhere near this cold or hopeless.

he can't even tell if harry is still alive. the taller boy isn't moving, not even shivering, and louis can't bring himself to look at his face.

so, doing the one thing he can think to do, he opens his eyes and fumbles around his waist until he finds his purse, and he reaches the challenge of unzipping it without feeling. his fingers are so numb that it's painful, and he can't even feel that he's unzipped the bag or holding the mobile - he can barely see through the blizzard.

but he has done both, and he drearily brings the phone closer to his face, blinking several times to try to get snowflakes off his eyelashes.

he tries to click the centre button to turn it on, but his thumb doesn't want to cooperate. with a frustrated cry, he tries and tries to put enough pressure on his thumb to illuminate the screen, and he actually does start crying as he succeeds, his screensaver becoming a beacon of hope; it's a picture of he, jesy, leigh-anne, and their friend leslie at his birthday party a few weeks ago.

he shudders a breath and robotically swipes his finger on the unlock screen, and it barely moves, and he grits his teeth and tries again, fighting off the violent shivers. "yes...," he hisses under his breath as he gets it to the final trial; the passcode.

that's quite easy, considering he doesn't have to press or swipe anything. with the same mechanic, frozen up body movements as before he types in "0-7-2-3" and his frozen ears hear the glorious click sound of his phone unlocking, his home screen even more welcome than his lock one.

suddenly he curls more into harry as the wind picks up even more, making it difficult to see a meter ahead. he curses himself for not bringing even a jumper. he tucks himself under harry's chin and brings his stiff thumb to the familiarly placed phone app.

he can taste the blood on his tongue from his splitting lips as he clicks on the 'favorites' star, clicking on the contact that says 'mummy,' requesting a facetime.

he uses his free hand to try to make himself look a little more presentable as he sees his face, the dinging sound that means the call is being sent. his hair is flat against his bloody forehead and his skin is very pale, except for his rosy red, frost bitten cheeks, lips, and nose.

as customary from his mum, she answers before it's rang 5 times, and happily says, "hey baby, what's up? has the snow storm his you yet?," before the screen has gotten focused, and louis laughs a little.

"h-h-hi, mummy," he says, sounding childish, "and... y-you c-could say that...," he mutters, and the screen focuses, he can see himself in the tiny square on the corner of the screen, his eyes watering and his lip wobbling as he sees his mum's face - watches how her expression turns from happy to horrified.

"louis! louis! what happened? where are you? are you outside? why are you all bloody?," she cries, and louis smiles at her, shrugging.

"it's v-v-v-very cold, m-mummy. i wanna go inside, but i c-can't leave h-harry out here by himself-f! i think he's-s taking a w-wee nap," he chuckles, his eyes fluttering a little, "i understand why, mummy, i'm very sleepy, too. c-c-c-could you sing to me, p-please? like you did w-when i was 'ittle?," he requests, and jay gasps in terror as louis' eyes close, the phone dropping from his hand, smacking onto the snow covered pavement.

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"he won't answer...," jesy groans, slumping back into her chair, slamming her phone onto the kitchen island. "why isn't he answering? there's no way they made it into town before this blizzard hit...," she repeats the same thing that she's said about a billion times before.

leigh-anne sighs, running a hand through her hair, taking a glance out of the window, her spirits dropping even worse than they had. snow has started to stick to the window sill, nearly a fourth of a meter already. "maybe they're just bunkered down in the car?," leigh-anne says hopefully, shaking her head a little. "zayn's car has excellent heating," she adds, but that doesn't effect jesy.

"this doesn't feel right...," she mutters, burying her face in her hands, clenching her eyes shut. "he would've called back or answered if they had just been stuck in the car," she reasons, and leigh-anne hesitantly nods in agreement, she wants to accept this as much a jesy does. "call zayn, you have his number, haven't you?," she asks, and leigh-anne nods, picking her mobile up, off the table.

"what do you want me to ask him?," she asks, unlocking her phone with ease, sliding her fingers over the screen until she clicks on the contact app.

"um, go on and call him. see if he has that on star app or what the hell ever that might be able to track his car down," jesy throws her hands up and leigh-anne nods, pressing the call button, putting her phone to her ear, twiddling with her puffy hair a bit in nervousness.

"'ello?," grunts zayn as soon as he picks up, and leigh-anne puts the phone on speaker, placing it onto the table and jesy swoops in.

"zayn," she gasps, picking the phone off the table, putting it close to her face, to not miss a word.

"eh, okay?," he replies, obviously just roused from a nap or something.

jesy rolls her eyes, and huffs. "have you heard from harry?," she asks, "or louis?"

"um. i... who is this? and harry's out on a date right now...," he answers, his voice still groggy.

"this is jesy n - it doesn't matter right now. i'm on leigh-anne pinnock's phone, you know each other. anyway. i know that harry's on a date. in the middle of a blizzard. and he's with my best friend. they left here not long ago and the blizzard...," she petters off, hoping that he'll catch on.

"blizzard?, what blizzard?," zayn asks, and jesy can hear him grunt as he sits up, probably looking out the window of whatever room he's in. "holy hell...," he mutters, and jesy gnaws on her bottom lip. "how long has it been like this?," he asks, and jesy closes her eyes.

"about ten minutes," she whispers, "now, please, my best friend, louis, might be hurt. he would've called else-wise. do you have some sort of tracker in your phone?," she asks, and holds her breath, her heart about to beat out of her chest.

"i have a dashboard camera...," he murmurs, and jesy blinks quickly, "i'll log into it real quick...," he mutters, and only a few moments later do both girls hear the sound of keys on a keyboard being pressed.

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zayn really hopes that this mystery girl is just psycho. he is torn between hanging up and going back to sleep, but he lugs himself to his laptop and starts typing in his password. "are you at it yet?," asks the girl identified as jesy, and zayn rolls his eyes.

"not yet. i've just gotten past my password," he informs her, clicking on the safari tab. "okay, just gimme a second...," he whispers to himself a little and goes to the website the people who sold him the camera told him. he quickly types in his log-in information, and the basic layout comes up, with only 3 options: view real-time, view post, log-out.

he opts for the first link, and clicks on it, bringing a hand up to his face, gnawing on his thumbnail. "okay... it's loading...," he murmurs, and his dark eyebrows furrow in confusion, but then realization sets in, and he gasps quietly.

"what?," jesy asks quickly, tears collecting in her eyes. "what is it?," she hisses, clenching her fists together.

"we need to get emergency help. now"

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will they get emergency help in time? will haley update regularly again? will jesy nelson marry me? sigh. ily tho