Play Pretend, Find a Friend? (Larry Stylinson)

8

VIII.

An hour-long drive in the rain brought them to a small farmer's market in the middle of nowhere. No one was there except one lone lady standing beneath a tent at the makeshift cash register. The wooden signs advertising pumpkins, gourds, and fresh apple pies were darkened with rainwater. Harry parked in the gravel and opened the door, smiling at the lady and greeting her in that friendly, charming way of his.

Louis followed him out and tugged his hood over his head. The sky still wasn't letting up, but the steady trickle was slightly gentler here. Their boots crunched on gravel and sloshed in the flooded grass as they made their way to the stands of different fruits and gourds and finally the large field of bright orange pumpkins of every size.

"I love coming here. This is my favorite place in the world."

Louis squinted around at the endless fields that just looked like everywhere else in Indiana. "Really? " he questioned, skeptical. It was hard to be sure where his own favorite place in the world was, but he was fairly certain it wasn't a downtrodden corn field.

"Yeah. Don't you just love it?"

He shrugged, toeing a tiny pumpkin with his rainboot. The small ones always made him smile. Back home, he carved pumpkins with his siblings every year for Halloween, which always led to a big mess, and was more trouble than it was worth, but it was tradition. He missed his family. He hadn't called home to check up on them in a while, in more than a week, and he wouldn't be home to see them until Thanksgiving.

"Are you still sad?"

Louis wasn't sure what Harry thought had changed during the course of the endless drive out here, because Louis still felt more or less the same. He shrugged again, picking up the tiny pumpkin and holding it out to Harry like an offering.

"Do you want that one? It's cute. I'll buy it for you."

Louis quickly set it down. Harry picked it up again, tucked it under his arm, and began wandering through the aisles of pumpkins. Having no choice but to trail after him, Louis followed.

"What did you say to your brothers, by the way? I've been meaning to ask. Last week, I mean. They were acting weird." The Japanese movie and the jumping on the bed and the Louis wearing Harry's clothes had happened last Wednesday. It was Monday now; a full weekend had passed and they'd run into each other on campus since then, but barely even stopped to say hi. Senior year was busy, and they were on different schedules.

Harry laughed like he was reminiscing a memory. "I was kind of just like, 'I have a boyfriend I haven't told you guys about, we've been together for months, and he's coming over today, so if you have a problem with that, you can leave.' So everyone shut up about it 'cause I think they were a bit afraid I was gonna yell at them. Not that I would, but. Liam says I can come off as intense when I'm trying to be serious."

"I agree with that statement," Louis concluded. "It's your jawline. Very intense."

"If you say so."

"Was it hard coming out? I mean, given the situation. Sorry. You don't have to answer that."

"No, it's okay. Um, it wasn't the easiest thing I've done in my life, but. I've been wanting to come out since freshman year. I just knew I wanted to be pres, and I had to wait until then if I wanted any shot at it."

"That sucks. I'm sorry."

"It is what it is."

"Well, now that you're out, you should come to Prism meetings. Become a part of the community, you know." Prism was the LGBTQ organization that Louis co-led. "Or, are you a part of Athletes for Equality? I can't go to the meetings because I don't play a sport, but we co-host a lot of events with them and they're really great people. Prism meets every Thursday from ten to eleven PM, and I'm not sure about Athletes for Equality but I can ask one of my friends-"

Harry cut off his rambling by handing him the tiny pumpkin. "I feel kind of weird just showing up randomly."

"Yeah, but people know you just came out, so it makes sense. If you want someone to go with, I'll be going to the Prism meetings, since I have to, because I run them, obviously." Clearly holding the pumpkin did nothing to stop his rambling.

"Okay, I guess, sure. I'll go with you this Thursday?"

"Sure!" Louis's shoulders sagged with relief. Helping someone always made his heart feel happy. "It'll be at the diversity center, which is actually pretty close to where you live. I guess I can swing by the Phi Kapp house on my way there."

"Cool."

They wandered around, through the rows of pumpkins and other produce. The rain was still just as cold as before, but Louis' body had a habit of heating up whenever he was around Harry, and beneath his coat and hoodie he could feel his skin getting clammy with sweat. Harry got to chatting with the lady running the farmer's market, asking her about the bakery, which somehow divulged into a conversation about hometowns and how much they loved the holidays. Louis was much more shy around people he didn't know, and he was impressed by Harry's ability to make conversation with anyone. Twenty minutes later, they trudged back to the car with a tiny pumpkin and a gigantic—freshly baked, still warm—apple pie.

"Dude, this smells so good," Louis groaned as they got back into the car. He was the delegated protector of the pie, since Harry was the one driving.

"I might have some plastic forks in the glove compartment."

Louis checked but there weren't any there. "Fortunately, neither one of us is desperate enough to eat this with our hands."

"Hey, speak for yourself," Harry joked, reaching under the lid to break off a piece of crust and pop it in his mouth. He moaned as he chewed and it was stupidly erotic. Louis laughed to cover up the fact that his cheeks were burning. Apparently everything that had happened last Wednesday was still not enough to desensitize him to the way even Harry's joking moans sounded obscene.

Not for the first time, Louis wondered what he was doing, here, right now, in the car with Harry Styles. Less than two weeks ago, he hadn't even known he existed.

He tipped his head back and rested it against the seat. "Where to next?"

Harry donned his seatbelt, pointed at Louis', and turned the music up. "It's a surprise."