𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚 𝟐𝟓𝟖 [𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧]

𝟒𝟎. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬

I was outside waiting for my mother's car to arrive, on my right I had my suitcase, while on my left I had Louis, who seemed much calmer than me and I couldn't understand how it was possible. He was about to go to complete strangers' houses in clothes that weren't his own. He was about to be covered in questions and he probably should have lied about eighty percent of them and yet he was so relaxed and didn't seem to care about a thing.

"Hey curly, will you stop torturing those poor hairs? Can I know what they did to you?" Louis asked me after I ran my hand through my hair for the three hundredth time.

"How can you be so calm?" I then asked him ignoring his provocation "Do you realise what we will have to do, how we will have to behave? What if they ask us questions we won't know how to answer?"

He shrugged. "I'm a very good actor." But I wasn't, pretending had never been my forte. He turned to look at me and probably realised he hadn't reassured me at all because I heard him sigh before turning completely in my direction. He reached up to my face and freed my bottom lip from my teeth. I didn't realise I was torturing it. His hand then moved from my lip to my cheek, where it stopped. His touch was somehow warm and reassuring.

"Harry, look me in the eye" at that sweet request I moved my eyes off the floor and fixed them on his. He had gotten closer than I expected and in a second I forgot everything. In my thoughts there were only his eyes so blue and beautiful they seemed to sparkle. Then his voice came too. "Harry, everything will be fine, in the end it's nothing so absurd. We won't do anything we haven't already done, in fact I'd say we've done much worse than what we'll do in front of your family" he giggled and that laugh overwhelmed me too.

"So take it easy. Okay?" I nodded to confirm. He came over and planted a light kiss on the lips that I had previously tortured. I blushed slightly at that sudden sweetness. I realised that I would never get used to his kisses, his hugs, his caresses, his touches, his mere existence. It was just too much for this poor world.

"Why are you so nice now?" I shouldn't have asked him that question and I knew it the instant his eyes froze and his hand left my cheek. He returned to staring at the horizon before answering me.

"Because I don't want you to ruin everything. As always anyway" those words hurt me and I wondered if he was referring to that particular moment or more generally to our whole relationship that I had ruined for the simple fact of falling in love with him. Or maybe it meant something else or a combination of things.

Luckily or maybe unluckily, I still had to figure it out, at that moment my mother's car parked a short distance from us. I saw Louis put a very fine smile on his face and a little more shyly I did the same. My mother parked the car in the middle of nowhere and, opening the door wide, got out with the engine still running. She came towards me and hugged me, while I remained motionless and embarrassed.

"Harry, it's so good to see you again!" Then he pulled away and turned to the person next to me "And you must be Louis, you're even cuter in person." She held out her hand and my 'boyfriend' shook it smiling.

"Thank you very much Ma'am" my mother glared at him "Okay fine Anne"

"Much better! Do you need help with your luggage?" She pretended to take our suitcases only to be told the usual 'no leave it alone, we'll take care of it.' Once I loaded my and Louis' suitcases in the trunk, the first problems began. What was I supposed to do? Sit up front and leave him behind? Or make him go in front since he was the guest and I go behind? Or leave the front seat free and go both in the back seats? In the end I settled on the latter as it gave me more ability to control Louis, plus my mother had reduced visibility of us by doing so and the less she observed us, the better.