Silent Laughter (Louis Tomlinson) [BOOK 3]

I texted Coop who was sleeping outside in his bus that I was on my way to the parking lot, and handed him the napkin right when I entered his vehicle.

His eyebrows raised as he read it, asking me what I wanted to do. I explained to him how I was a bit afraid of what the outcome could be for some reason and he just hugged me before placing the napkin on his lap.

“No matter how much I don’t like the guy, I do like you. And you promised, remember?” He said as his hands rested on the steering wheel, waiting for my say.

I told him he was right and he hugged me again before finally taking me to Louis’ place, my arrival being a few minutes earlier than asked.

I’m unsure if he minds, but now I’m standing here in front of the door I have stood in front of many times. Neither Garett nor any other suited man is blocking my way and the only thing separating me from him is this piece of wood with it’s expensive looking knob.

The napkin is being held in my left hand while my right hand is formed into a fist.
I knock twice, the weakest sounding knocks I’ve ever fucking heard in my life.
It takes about six seconds (Who’s counting anyway.) until the door finally opens.
His eyes look a little tired when he first sees me, them filling up with this sudden life when he realizes who the owner of the sad knocks is.

He’s wearing a black Leeds Festival T-shirt and my nerves ease up.
His smile looks as if it never left, but when I glance at his now very faded bruised eye, I am reminded that it has left before.

“Winifred! How you’ve been?!” He chirps, his body leaning against the door frame.
I just keep on looking at the purple patch on his skin, and I begin to feel even more lost than ever.

“Come on in! I have some movies I rented that just got the loooooowest ratings.”

What the fu-

He moves to the side and I just stand there unsure what to do before finally deciding to just play along for a while.

‘Okay.’ I mouth before sauntering myself inside, my free hand going to my pocket.
His room is a mess.

A few empty water bottles are scattered all over the floor, many food wrappers are covering his bed, a fallen chair is by the window, papers look as if they were thrown in the air from either anger or celebration since they are dispersed throughout the room as well, and other shit in general.

Either the maid did not come today or Louis was really fucking pissed and hungry before I arrived.

I have no idea what’s happening.

“Sorry about the place. Shit just happens, you know?”

His tone is still giddy and I feel myself flinch in a startle as he unexpectedly puts his arm around my shoulder.

He leads the both of us to his couch and we both just sit ourselves down, our bodies so close to each other that our legs touch.

He leans over to the side to grab the remote and he quickly turns on the TV, my body stiffening from a bit of discomfort.

“You’re going to like this movie, Winnie. It’s about these gorilla robots that wear these diving helmets and they scare the shit out of everyone. I heard it’s beautifully terrible.”

His cheery tone sounds forced as I continue hearing it, and I’m beginning to catch on to his plan.
He wants to talk to me. I know it.

The beginning begins to play, Louis already chuckling at the intro and I just place the napkin down on my lap before going into my other pocket to take out the lighter.
At first he doesn’t notice my action, but when I tap his shoulder, he looks to the side and his face changes immediately.

He stares at the red plastic, his eyes going over each hero’s face in detail as I place it on his thigh.
He doesn’t pause the movie, instead he just leaves the lighter on his leg and goes back to watching the film, his smile not returning.

“Let’s watch, Winnie.” He says, not looking at me.
I just continue looking at him, my eyebrows scrunched together and he takes a deep breath.

“Please. Let’s just watch it.”

He glances at me.

‘Coop is waiting for me downstairs.’ I respond truthfully.

Now’s not the time to watch a movie anyway.

“He’ll understand.”

He’s fucking stalling.

‘No. He won’t. Stop wasting time, Louis.’

“I’m not wasting time. I just want to watch a movie.”

My awkwardness has mutated to this anger and I swear if he doesn’t fucking tell me what’s wrong, he’s going to get another black eye.

Well not really.

He examines my face for a while, looking as if he was reconstructing my whole appearance in his head and I have no idea what he’s going to say.
Probably another lame ass excuse.
His eyes close and he takes a deep breath.

“I got into a fight.” He finally begins.

My eyes widen in surprise, but I quickly shake my head.

I didn’t think he would actually tell me.

I just nod.

His eyes reveal themselves again.

He nods too.

“The Rovers and I were practicing for the big game as I told you that day, and everything was going okay you know? We were doing a bit of a scrimmage sort of thing, the team splitting in half in two teams. My half represented the home team while the other half represented the opponent.”

He fidgets a little, tangling his fingers in his hair before continuing.

“My team was losing, but it was all in good fun really. The chaps laughed and even though we were doing this to see what we should practice to be more prepared for the game the next day, we enjoyed ourselves. But as you may know, my teammates don’t really approve of me. Especially since I was becoming part owner, their tolerance for me was not the greatest.”

Was.

He said was as in not anymore.

My attention quickly goes to the fallen chair near the window and I just imagine Louis getting a phone call about some suit telling him he can’t buy this low paid team anymore because of whatever he did and Louis well… throwing that chair.

I swallow before looking back at him.

It doesn’t seem like he caught my glance.

“This dick named Logan on the other side started kicking my ankles when he tried stealing the ball. At first I didn’t really think much of it, but he kept on continuing and continuing and I knew that he did it on purpose when I didn’t even have the ball and he did that shit.”

‘So that’s why you-’

I point up with my nose at the direction of his eye and for a few seconds he looks confused until he finally catches on to what I’m trying to say.

“Oh. No. That’s not the reason. I would never get into a fight with that wanker over childish competition.”

I nod in approval and understanding, signaling him to continue.

“To cut this story short, he talked shit about someone and wouldn’t stop so I kind of lost it and so did he and that’s how I got this shiner.”

I lean myself in a little closer to get a better look of his wound, his cheeks turning a slight red at my action.

My hand brings itself up and I brush the barely visible mark with my thumb softly.

His eyes widen a little, his eyebrows furrowing again.

‘It will be gone in a few days.’ I mouth before pulling my hand away.

His eyebrows raise and he clears his throat before nodding.

“Yeah. That’s what my mum told me.” He comments.

I nod, getting one last look at the bruise before giving all of him my full attention.
I grab the cushion behind me before turning my body around so my whole front of my body is facing his side. I place the pillow on my legs and I put my elbows upon them, my hands now holding my face.

‘So. If you do not mind me asking...’ I begin, Louis adjusting himself as well so we’re both facing one another.

“Yeah?” He lifts an eyebrow, doing the same thing with his face and elbows as me.

‘Who was he talking bad about that bothered you that much?’
I really hope it wasn't someone in his family. I know how he feels about them and I have even grown to like them just by what I've heard. Not that anything that idiot possibly said was true, but just that it shouldn't have been said.

He looks to be turned to stone when the words release from my lips and I even repeat my words just in case he didn’t understand me.

“No. Um no, I understood you.”

He sits himself up, forcing a laugh.

“Fuck, I need a smoke.” He jokes pitifully, his hand grabbing the lighter he pushed to the side.
I sit myself up too in confusion as I watch him play with the fire igniting plastic.

He just turns the flame on and off for a while, staring at it, seeming as if he’s hoping for the spark to give him the answers.

‘Louis.’ I say, knowing that he did not see me at all since his attention is still upon the silver top.

He clears his throat, finally stopping his action.

He just shrugs as both of our eyes meet.

He looks like rain without the smoke.

“He’s listened to conversations of me on the phone with people. He’s heard me talk about you and remembers you from the times I would bring you with Zayn and Liam and I guess,”

He shrugs again.

“he’s just a dick with a big mouth.”

I’m physically and emotionally fucking speechless right now.

All of this new information is processing and right now I feel like a fucking software analyzer.

“Winnie…”

I shake my head and I shake it quickly.

‘Please, Louis.’ I begin, taking him a bit off guard, his eyes looking worried.

It’s now obvious to me why he ignored me.

I would’ve done the same if the tables were turned.

‘Don’t ever risk yourself like this for me again.’

His lips separate and man I know Louis writes songs about people, but others should really write songs about people like Louis.

They would get a hit.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can. You’re my friend, Winnie and I’m sorry but I don’t let people talk shit about my friends.”

His words are defensive but still not enough and I feel angered as well as touched all at the same time.

By what he’s told me about the Modest dicks, I can already tell that they made him come back to this hell hole for pres reasons.

He was doing so fucking good too, but he just had to fuck up for me didn’t he.

‘Who cares about what he said, Louis! You fucked your chances!’

I don’t think I have ever really ‘mouthed yell’ before, but since I don’t have any blank napkins with me nor a pen, there’s nothing else I can really do to express my frustration.
And this still isn’t enough.

“You know what? Who even gives a shit about Modest! They can go fuck themselves! I stay another month. Big shit! I get to see you for a few more weeks and I taught that dickhead Logan a lesson! Seems like a win to me!”

Louis is beginning to yell and yell these stupid things that just aren’t right and the whole room seems to be like thunder without the lightning. It’s all just noise without the spark and I’m losing it.

‘I care! You got hurt, you idiot!’

“He was talking bad about you, Winnie!”

‘SO?!’

“SO, NO ONE LIKES HEARING CRAP ABOUT SOMEONE THEY LIKE YOU BUFFOON!”

My whole body stiffens and the thunder silences to almost nothing.
We’re both breathing heavily, our chests rising and lowering in sync.
I still feel as if I could run a whole marathon due to the amount of adrenaline I have pumping through me, but I also am a bit tranquil at the moment.

Fucking helium.

I take a deep breath, rubbing my face with my hand before chuckling.

‘Fighting about caring for each other is not going to undo this.’

His cheeks are flushed and he’s holding this puzzled look.

I don’t think he really got what I just said, but when I chuckle again, something clicks and he smiles as well.

“You’re right.” He states, his hand going to the back of his neck.

I nod and he nods too.

“So...what are we going to do about this whole thing? I’m not going to stop caring about you, whatever the costs and you care about me at all costs.” He questions, both of us looking quite tired.

I narrow my eyes at him and shake my head in a don’t get ahead of yourself way and he just chuckles again, putting his hands up in defense.

“Hey is it not true?”

I roll my eyes, throwing the pillow on my lap at him.

‘Shutup.’

He smiles in victory, grabbing the thrown cushion and wrapping his arms around it as he pulls it closer to his chest.

“So what now?”

My smile kind of dies down in an unknowing way and I shrug.

‘You have a month right?’

He nods.

‘Well don’t fuck up for a month. Okay?’

He glances up at the ceiling in an exaggerated thinking way and I snort.

“Hmm. I don’t know, I me-”

I lean over and slap his wrist lightly, seeing how his skin crinkles at the corner of his eyes as he laughs.

“Okay. Okay. Yeah I promise.”

I nod and he nods back.

...

We both said a few more things to each other that held no relevance other than the fact that it kept the conversation going and I sort of laughed at that before remembering that Coop is waiting for me downstairs.

He walked me to his door and we both laughed a few more times before I waved goodbye with him returning the gesture.
He sauntered back inside, but then as I was halfway through the hall I stopped and soon turned around, walking myself back to his room.

I knocked again, this time with more confidence and when he opened the door with confusion evident in his features, I wrapped my arms around him.
I don’t think I’ve ever shocked anyone this much, but when he wrapped his arms around me in return, I knew that he was happy with the shock.

His fingertips right now are dug into my sides and holding me closer, his chin on my shoulder.

“Winnie?”

I mumble a hmmm as I continue my action, his embrace warm and his scent being of some cologne I have never smelled before.

“I know we have a shrugging thing, but would it be too much to have a hugging thing as well?”
I don’t say anything; neither does he.

I begin to rub circles with my thumb on his back and I hear him chuckle this muffled chuckle, knowing my response.

Notes