Chapter Twenty-Four

"Louis, you actually need to try on the clothes," Sarah stated, looking through a shirt rack in the small shop that the three friends had wandered into.

After their short meetup in the park, Sam, Louis, and Sarah had all gone back to Sam's house as they had planned. There were some quick introductions between Sarah and Sam's parents who, at first, weren't too keen on Sarah sleeping in the same room as Sam, so Louis had to assure them that he would be in there, too, 'keeping an eye on things'.

Sam, of course, had been right when he had said Jay would be asleep, and Louis had to continue putting up with the teasing about him and Shawn. Louis didn't mind it too much. He was looking forward to the date in a way. But every time Sarah or Sam mention Shawn's name, Louis couldn't help but feel his stomach drop, wishing it had been Isaac's instead.

After having a late dinner and playing some video games on Sam's television, the trio decided to get some sleep. Louis loudly groaned and whined, trying to insist that shopping wasn't necessary, especially early in the morning, but Sam and Sarah thought otherwise and ignored him. Louis had found it harder to get to sleep that night, and he wasn't entirely sure why but knew that he shouldn't have expected to be able to sleep well for three nights in a row.

Once the sun rose and peeked its way into Sam's room, the three friends got up and got changed, each of them taking turns to go to the bathroom down the hall to do so. After a small breakfast and a long chat with Jay, which was mainly just Louis and Jay chatting about random things within the house, the three friends swiftly made their way outside and jumped in Sam's car, beginning their 'shopping spree', as Sam and Sarah kept referring to it.

Louis just rolled his eyes. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. That's not to say he didn't roll his eyes a lot before, but with an extra person in his circle, more opportunities to do so arose. Not that it was a bad thing, because Louis liked to think that he rolled his eyes at his friends with "love".

As soon as they had arrived at the small shopping centre that sat just outside the city, Sarah dragged Louis to a small clothes shop that she loved. Louis, still not pumped up on the idea of shopping, wasn't taking things seriously.

"Why? I already know I'm going to look good." Louis winked at Sarah, who sighed and shook her head.

"Come on, Lou," Sarah whined. "Shopping is meant to be fun!"

"I literally don't know anyone who thinks shopping is fun," Louis retorted as he flicked through some button-up shirts on the rack they stood in front of.

"I think it is. And Sam is enjoying himself." Louis and Sarah looked over to where Sam was, who was looking at himself in a mirror trying on hats and sunglasses.

"Sam's only enjoying himself because his mum gave him money to buy snacks." Louis shook his head and turned back to the clothes in front of him. "He's like a child, and we shouldn't leave him unsupervised."

"Well, at least he's having fun," Sarah stated, still looking at Sam.

"I just don't understand why I need to buy new clothes. Plus, Sam's paying for them, which makes it even worse."

"If it makes you feel any better, you have to pay me back," Sam said as he appeared behind Louis, making him jump.

"Can you not do that?" Louis scolded him.

"Have you picked a shirt yet?" Sam ignored Louis' question.

"No..."

"He's more difficult to shop for than my brother," Sarah chimed in, "and he's a nightmare."

"Can we just take a moment to stop picking on me?" Louis interjected.

"We're not picking on you, Lou." Sam laughed. "Just teasing."

"That doesn't make it any better," Louis mumbled, moving away from the shirt rack.

"You do know that this would be over much faster if you actually tried some clothes on, right?" Sarah followed Louis over to a pile of folded up shirts.

"Can't we just agree that I'll look good in anything and just buy a shirt and leave?"

"Aw, Lou, that's not fun!" Sam laughed as he took a white button-up shirt from the rack. "You and your bulky stature are a size large, aren't you?"

"Yeah..." Louis said slowly.

"Alright, we'll get this one." Sam held up the shirt in his hand. "Go get us a table in the food court while I pay. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Louis mumbled, and not caring about what shirt he got, he just shook his head and walked out of the store with Sarah.

Both of them made their way to the food court, where Louis was silently cursing to himself again because Sam would also be paying for his food.

"Are you excited?" Sarah asked as they sat down at a vacant table when they entered the food court.

"About eating? Yeah," Louis responded, but he knew that wasn't what she meant.

"About the date with Shawn, you monkey." Sarah grinned. "Sam's not here, so you don't have to conform to society's norms of being 'manly'."

Louis flipped his hair out of his face. "I'm manly no matter what."

"Sure you are, Lou-Lou. Now answer the question," Sarah pressed.

"Okay, yes. I guess," Louis mumbled.

While that was true, Louis was also very nervous. He didn't know what to expect or what was appropriate. It was daunting for him.

Sarah seemed to notice the hesitance in Louis, and she said, "I'm sure it'll be great. You never know, maybe you two are meant to be together!"

"Oh, God. Please don't start that," Louis groaned. "I had to put up with Sam doing that all afternoon."

"Doing what?"

"Doing what Sam does best."

"What does Sam do best?" Sam's voice floated into Louis' ear from his left, and Louis turned to see his best friend walking towards them, a small bag hanging from his hand.

"Annoy the crap out of me," Louis stated as Sam reached the table they sat at.

"You're not wrong, Lou-Lou." He smiled down at Louis, who just shook his head. "Alright, I'm gonna get the food. The usual, Louis?"

Louis nodded, still hating that Sam was paying.

"I'll just have what he's having," Sarah said, gesturing to Louis. "Unless it's gross."

"It's just a small thing of hot chips," Louis mentioned quietly, and Sam nodded to back it up.

"I'll have that, then!" Sarah confirmed with a smile.

"Alright! Too easy!" Sam smiled before walking off towards the food stands.

The rest of their shopping trip mainly consisted of the three of them eating with the occasional teasing of Louis about his date, though Louis wasn't short of comebacks when they arose. They also stopped at the grocery store so Sam could spend the money his mum had given him.

Once they finished what they were getting and Louis managed to convince them that he didn't need any more clothes, they headed back to Sam's house with bags of snacks in their laps.

"I'm totally gonna demolish this bag of chips," Sam muttered, as he jumped out of his car, grabbing a shopping bag from his trunk.

"You demolish all kinds of food," Louis stated, following Sam's lead.

"Yeah, but, Louis, these are hot and spicy chips. Hot. And. Spicy."

Sam led the other two up to his front door and walked inside.

"I know, Sam. I was there when you bought them," Louis stated, before giving a quick hello to Sam's mum, Kate. "You practically knocked the entire aisle down."