VII.   S E V E N   //   S U N D A Y   M O R N I N G

o c t o b e r   2 0 1 3 

Pyper woke to the sound of rain on her window, the loud pattering acting as white noise. It was a soothing sound; she had always preferred rainy and cloudy weather—especially in Doncaster, for some odd reason—as opposed to the sunny, cloudless skies. Although she was awake she stayed in bed, covers pulled up past her mouth. She didn't want to look at her clock just yet. All she wanted to stay as she was: in bed, in a dimly lit room, the sound of rain being the only thing coming from behind her closed curtains. 

            She let out a soft sigh as memories of the most recent Friday night came back to her like they did on Saturday morning. Brendan had broken up with her that night, saying he had found someone he preferred more. It hadn't made her feel any less upset when he used those exact words as his reasoning. A solid seven months together and he clearly never cared enough about her while she had cared all too much for him. Now all that caring had gone back to bite her in the arse. 

            After a solid fifteen minutes of continuous refusal to leave her bed, she finally slipped out of her covers and pulled on her usual at-home outfit: a loosely fitted tee, athletic shorts, and a pair of black over-the-knee socks. The time on her digital clock read 11:24AM and she groaned, remembering that her Sundays were errand days, spent doing exactly what their name implied. 

            Any other day and she would have paused in front of her mirror in the hallway, bought recently and placed in its spot so that she'd be able to check her hair and makeup before going out so that she wouldn't look bad; that morning, that entire day was an exception, as was Saturday. She couldn't care less about how she looked. Before she got out her usual morning coffee she turned the radio on to BBC1, waiting for the morning commercials to end so she could hear whatever the next song on Scott Mill's tracklist was. 

            "Alright, listeners. We've got a great line up for you in the next half hour. To start it off I'm gonna bring a bit of classic Maroon 5 back, since one of their songs fits the weather and the mood of this morning perfectly. Enjoy." 

            Sunday Morning hummed hummed through the speakers that were set up in her kitchen. Pyper smirked to herself as her coffee started to brew, singing along when the chorus entered, starting off quiet and overshadowed but gradually getting louder as the song progressed. 

            "That may be all I need, in darkness she is all I see, come and rest your bones on me, I'm driving slow on Sunday morning..." Just as the song was ending, Pyper began to think that maybe the day would be better than she thought.

            She stoop corrected when the next song was The Neighbourhood's Flawless, which reminded her all too much of Brendan. She turned the radio off, if only for the next three minutes. 

            A knock on the door took her out of her reverie, something she was both thankful for and annoyed about. She was sure she made it clear that her neighbours weren't to bother her for any reason before noon with the exception of something life-threatening about to happen. 

            "What do you want?" she snapped the second the door was cracked open. She only opened it far enough that only her head was visible, her body still behind the door. She looked up into soft blue eyes; it took her a moment to realize it was Louis at her door. (Another reason to not be bothered was that her brain wasn't coherent; if someone spoke to her, they'd most likely have to repeat themselves several times.) He was dressed in light blue pyjama bottoms and a light grey v-neck, complete with an unzipped, faded blue hoodie. On many occasions the two of them looked the same age of twenty-two—twenty-three in Pyper's case, since she was older than him by four months (and never let him forget it)—but it would have been impossible to tell that morning. He looked a lot more mature most of the time, especially when he didn't shave off the stubble that tended to grow on his chin and upper lip. Like that morning. 

            Ignoring the harsh tone he was so used to, Louis yawned before giving her a wide smile. "You didn't pick your newspaper up this morning so I thought I'd hand it to you personally. But don't throw it out—the coupons are mine." He handed her the newspaper which she snatched out of his hands. "Also," he added, unfazed by her bitterness, "I haven't seen you in, what, a month?" 

            Pyper just stood there. She opened the door a little more so she could lean on the doorframe. "Thanks." 

            "Since I'm still speaking and I've only heard a sentence and a word from you, might I just say your hair looks lovely." He lifted a straggled bit of hair between his forefinger and thumb, waving it over her face. "Bird's nest must be in style this autumn." 

            She shook off the insult even though he was joking. She couldn't bother with it. "What's your point, Lou? You know I'm busy with coursework. Every year the workload is larger."

            "I'm pretty busy with coursework too, you know. And footy." Louis shrugged. "I used your newspaper as a segway to coming to talk to you without bugging you too much."

            "You're still bugging me." 

            "I didn't say I wasn't, love." Louis smirked. "I said 'without bugging you too much'."

            She scoffed. "Two years and you're the only person who's brave enough to come see me at this time. You and Nancy down the hall, who came by asking for sugar...like, two months ago." 

            "I still question your cold morning shoulder," he said, pulling out a chair for himself. 

            "You know I need my morning coffee." Pyper rolled her eyes and took a mug out from the cupboard. "Can't exactly live without it." 

            "Maybe that's why you're still so short," Louis poked. "I grew an inch, you know."

            She tried to keep the smile that was beginning to form off of her face. She was trying to keep her annoyed mood visible on her face. She took her first sip of coffee as she turned to look at Louis, grimacing at the bitter taste; she had run out of milk Friday morning but couldn't bring herself to bother going out and buying it. "I'll have you know I grew half an inch myself. I'm officially five-foot-four." 

            "You grew half an inch and I grew one. Looks like I'm even taller than you are now," Louis said with a smile, the long dimple on his right cheek prominent. "So how have you been? I'd buy the coursework excuse you gave me if this were happening the same time last year but it's obvious there's another reason why you died on me."

            Pyper already knew this. Not only with Louis, but with Lydia and Liam as well. She even turned down one hangout with Zayn, which was weird even to her because the times she had asked him, he had been too busy. It was about a month ago when Brendan started acting weird and more distant, so naturally the distanced feeling spread to her. "Brendan broke up with me." 

            The second his name was out of her mouth, Louis' sassy and humourous demeanour disappeared, "God, Pipe. Are you all right?"

            She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She wouldn't cry, not now. The only time he had seen her cry was when her cat died of old age near the end of winter. She bit her lower lip. "Not really, but don't worry. I'll be fine." 

            "Moping around your flat isn't exactly going to help you truly be fine, you know," Louis commented, his lips forming a small smile. "Let me accompany you on your errands today. I'll even treat you to Coffee Hit for a late lunch."

            Despite her best efforts from earlier, Pyper let the smile she was hiding slip onto her face. Coffee Hit was their place, always; she had never taken Brendan there and the one girl who asked Louis out and offered to go there, he turned down, saying he had other plans that night. Even though she went alone sometimes, the coffee seemed to taste better and the sandwiches fresher when they went together. "Alright, you got me. When should we leave?"

            "Now. It's almost noon and I'm close to accomplishing getting you to leave your flat before lunchtime." As he made his way towards the door he added, "You know what? I'm gonna treat you to dinner. Today's officially deemed Pamper Pyper Day."

            She scoffed. "Pamper Pyper? You can't be serious." 

            "Would you rather I shorten it to PP Day? Because that sounds awfully immature." He flashed a grin and she burst into laughter. "Now go fix the bird's nest on your head—" he waved his hand in the direction of her hair "—and we can leave." 

            Pyper just rolled her eyes as she went to get ready, brushing her hair quickly and slipping on a beanie. She switched out of her shorts-and-socks combination and opted for light grey sweatpants; if Louis was willing to leave the house by walking around in his pyjamas, why leave him alone? When she walked out she saw him scrolling through his phone and wearing one of her faded beanies from her closet. Of course. He waited for her to grab her jacket so they could begin 'PP Day." 

——————————

            've also seen a lot of sites and posts that louis is 5'7 and that louis is 5'9 so if anyone can confirm his actual height that'd be a bit of help for me when i finally edit this sometime later on. ((this has been confirmed and fixed. thank you, @inkstyles))  

            also, a personal goal: think you readers can get this fic to 200 likes? maybe even voting on chapters you haven't? if this happens i'll either post two chapters at once or post them extremely close together with little wait time. i like to think this is possible. 

            love you guys,

            – linn