TELL ME DO YOU EVER TRY?

[10:05 am, 2nd August]

Louis opens his eyes and looks around to find himself naked and cold in his bed. He hates it when Emma does this, The girl knows Louis doesn't like waking up alone, yet, she leaves him on a bed that he finds too big for only him. He sighs thinking about how if he ends up with Emma, he might never wake up beside someone cuddled up against him or to someone watching him sleep, or to someone kissing him in his sleep, or just simply to anyone who'd stay and wait for Louis to wake up before they leave the bed. That too, only for the sole purpose of making breakfast for the two of them. He'll probably never have someone who'd lay beside him and have deep conversations with him or tell him how they should just stay in bed for the rest of the day. Why? Just because. And Louis might say no, but then they might just smile and Louis would be so in love that he'd just give in.

He lets out another sigh and gets off of the bed before finding his boxers and putting them on. Surely, he enjoys the nights with Emma when they have sex, but he hates waking up the next morning because that's when reality hits him. The mornings only make him realize that he was actually only having sex with her, there was no lovemaking and that always gets him feeling downhearted.

He makes his way into the bathroom and gets freshened up before he gets downstairs wearing only a grey short. As he walks into the living room, he sees Emma watching the TV.

"Hey, good morning." He dully says and the girl turns to look at him. She's only wearing a panty and one of Louis' thin tank tops which makes her perky nipples very much visible to the boy. But trust him when he says, he's not even a single bit turned on right now. He can't get himself to feel horny when so many vulnerable emotions are running through his body.

Louis really needs someone to hold him and tell him that he's beautiful, that they see how much he cares about them, that they understand how he feels, and that it's okay if he wants to hug them and bawl his eyes out like a baby in their arms sometimes. He wants someone to tell him that they really, genuinely, seriously, love him and not just his body or his face.

"You wanna watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S.?" Emma asks and Louis frowns at her.

"What about breakfast?" He asks.

"I ordered pancakes." She tells him and he sits on the couch beside her.

"You could've made them yourself. It's not like you don't know how to cook, you work in a bakery after all." He says and she looks at him with a frown before rolling her eyes.

"I didn't want to cook." She says simply and Louis wants to yell at her that she should've woken him up then so at least he would've made breakfast, but he keeps quiet, not wanting to start a fight.

Soon the pancakes arrive and they both finish their breakfast in silence, Emma occasionally laughing at the show playing on the TV.

They just spend their afternoon on the couch, watching TV and sometimes taking their phone out for a while. It's nearly four thirty when Louis tells Emma that he has some work and he's going out. The girl tries to question where he is going, but Louis only says that he's got some important work.

Emma takes herself into Louis' bedroom to get ready and the boy notices that she didn't take the dress she was wearing last night. He knows she's probably going to steal one of his sweatshirts and jeans. The dress is still lying on the couch where he had undressed her last night. He picks up the piece of cloth and examines its lilac material. It's a revealing dress if he remembers well, but the light shade of lilac gives off a very innocent vibe. He puts the cloth down when he hears footsteps and of course, his girlfriend had decided to wear his navy blue sweatshirt and tight black jeans.

Louis drops Emma at her house and she gives him a deep kiss before getting out of his car. Then Louis drives off to the market to search for the little shop he had once seen. He walks around on the streets of London for nearly half an hour before he sees it.

Diana's Witch Shop.

Louis grins from ear to ear before pushing the glass door of the shop and walking in. It's the kind of glass through which one can see outside the shop but the outsiders can't see inside. As soon as Louis walks in, he is hit by the scent of incense sticks.

He looks around to see different kinds of strange articles all around the shop. He sees nobody around, so he walks to one of the aisles. He lightly touches the Ouija board on the stand and his mind reminisces the time when he had asked his mother to buy him the board so he could call his grandpa's spirit. Louis chuckles at the memory and turns around when he hears light footsteps.

"You have a beautiful laugh, Louis." A female voice says before a petite figure appears from behind an aisle. The girl looks just as young as Louis with her hair tied up in a bun and her bangs hanging loosely on her forehead. She's beautiful, Louis concludes before he widens his eyes at the smiling girl.

"How the fuck do you know my name?" He asks and the girl smiles even wider at the words.

"It doesn't matter, Louis. I'm Eleanor, by the way. You like that board?" She asks and Louis looks back down at the Ouija board before shaking his head. He touches the smaller board on its left as he speaks.

"I was just looking... what's this?" he asks, checking a different board on the right side of the bigger Ouija board he was checking before.

"That's a future wheel, but I don't know how that works." Eleanor shrugs. "Follow me, Louis, I knew you were coming so I brought out what you need." She says and starts walking away from Louis. The boy only furrows his eyebrows but follows the girl anyway.

She leads him towards the front desk and opens a drawer from the wall behind before pulling out a little packet.

"What's that?" Louis questions and Eleanor only smiles at him before opening the packet to reveal a set of a bracelet and a necklace. Both the accessories have a very similar-looking little white stone. "Wow! It's pretty." He whispers as he takes the bracelet in his hand to examine it.

"I know right? My grandmother, Diana, recently made these and they actually don't have a name, but I like to call them 'heart stones' because they know your heart." Eleanor says and Louis looks at her confused, but the girl holds the necklace up and speaks again. "This... whoever wears this necklace, permits the stone to peek in their heart. The stone on this necklace changes color according to how the person wearing it is feeling. And before you confuse it for a mood stone, let me tell you that this is not a mood stone. This doesn't present your mood but your emotions." She explains.

"Wow.. well what about the bracelet? Is it the same?" Louis questions and Eleanor shakes her head.

"No. I mean... kind of but not exactly. This stone is actually different from the one on the necklace, it doesn't directly work with the emotions. It's like a messenger to that stone, it changes color accordingly with the other stone. Hence, both the stones are supposed to be worn by different people, so the one wearing the bracelet knows how the one wearing the necklace is feeling at the moment." Eleanor finishes.

"Oh. But how do I know it's working? That it's not fake?" Louis questions and Eleanor rolls her eyes with a tiny smile.

"That's like the most common thing I've heard since I started looking after this shop. I don't understand how people don't believe in magic, yet, end up walking in a Witch's shop." She shakes her head and Louis shrugs. "Here, how do you think I feel right now?" Eleanor questions and Louis thinks for a minute.

"You seem happy." He answers and Eleanor nods, letting him know that he got it right.

"Now take the bracelet and go somewhere away from me, you can go back to the board aisle you stood at before if you want." She says and puts on the necklace which instantly turns a bright shade of yellow.

Louis starts walking towards the aisle and sees that the stone on the bracelet has turned yellow too. When he's back at the board's stand, he decides to check the stones more.

"It's working.. but I don't think I'll buy it." Louis yells so the girl can hear to the other side of the shop. He notices that the stone has changed the color to a light shade of blue and he gasps because what the hell is this sorcery?! "I don't trust your grandma or whatever." He says and the blue of the stone deepens, but now there are a few sparks of red in it. "What is she? A Witch or something? I honestly think this is stupid." He says mockingly and the stones turn fully red. "Eleanor?" He calls out when he hears nothing from the girl.

"If you don't want to buy it, then get the fuck out of my shop. There is no need to doubt my Grandma's knowledge." Comes Eleanor's voice which sounds very angry.

"Calm down girl, I was only checking the stone." Louis calls out and the red of the stone lightens. "I didn't mean it." It turns lighter until it is white again. "In fact, I'd like to buy these." He smiles when the stone turns a light yellow. "And I might come to meet your Grandma someday, she's amazing if she made these." And it turns the brightest yellow right after those words leave his mouth.

"Of course! Come here now, Let me pack them for you." Eleanor yells back and he grins at the bracelet. Lottie's going to love it.

He is about to walk back to the girl when he sees something shining from the corner of his eye. He turns to look at the object and sees an ordinary notebook lying beside the Ouija board, but he could've sworn that it was glowing just a second ago. Wasn't there supposed to be the future wheel instead of this diary? He picks up the bundle of papers which has a cover painted with the most beautiful shade of green. The material used for the cover is softer than leather and feels absolutely satisfying to touch. He opens the cover and flips through the blank white pages, feeling how smooth and soft they are. He never thought he would say this, but a notebook has gotten him intrigued.

He picks it up and walks to Eleanor, who is putting the necklace back in the packet. He hands her the bracelet and waves the notebook in front of her.

"What's this? Thought you had only magical stuff?" He asks and Eleanor furrows her eyebrows at the book.

"That.. where did you find that?" she asks in a bit of a daze as she stares at the book.

"Boards aisle." He shrugs. "It's very beautiful though." He comments and Eleanor stays quiet for a few seconds before she speaks.

"I was never worthy enough." She whispers and Louis looks at her in confusion before the girl shakes her head and looks back at Louis. "It's something that my grandmother didn't make, she just found it her her articles one day, She still doesn't know where it came from though," Eleanor explains and Louis frowns.

"So, it's an ordinary book? Because your grandma didn't make it.." Louis tilts his head.

"No, no, it's not an ordinary book. It is magical. When grandma wrote something in it and it came true, she knew it was the kind of book that turns whatever is written in it into reality." She says and Louis shakes his head.

"Well, as much as I believe your grandmother's magic because of these stones, I can't get myself to believe in this story. Maybe it was just a coincidence that whatever your grandma wrote in it came true? Just because it was in her stuff, doesn't mean it has to be magical." Louis says and Eleanor frowns. "I want to buy this, by the way. What's the price?" He asks anyway.

"There's no price on this book. Grandma sells only her own magic and this book isn't one of them." She says and Louis nods. He loves free things. "And let me tell you, Louis, you might think you have chosen to take this book with you, but the truth is that it has chosen you." She explains with a very serious face, her cheery attitude long gone. "It had chosen a very old lady, like three years ago, and now that she died last Thursday, it probably came back here to start hunting for someone new who is worthy to have it." She frowns and sighs as she looks down. "I've been trying to have it for a few years now, but it never appeared to me." She says sadly and smiles at Louis.

"Wow... I still kind of don't believe it, but okay because I'm just going to use it as my new journal." Louis says and Eleanor nods.

"Alright. It's not like I can do anything about your beliefs." The girl shrugs and hands Louis the packet that contains the stones along with a receipt. "Anyway, tell your sister I said 'Happy birthday'." She says and Louis looks at her with wide eyes.

"Honestly, how do you know?" he asks, bewildered by the girl.

"I wasn't going to keep the shop open today because no one really visits on Mondays. But Grandma told me to keep the shop open because 'Louis will come to find a birthday present for his sister', so I was waiting for you." Eleanor explains and Louis nods, still kind of shocked by the fact that her grandmother can actually see the future. He pays the girl and leaves the shop with the book in his hand and the stones in his pocket.

_________

WC: 2,468 words
DOP: 14/12/21

FOTC: The idea of putting Eleanor in the witch shop came from a scene in my other book- 'Who Are You?' where Harry calls Eleanor a witch and asks her to give Miss White, their teacher, an apple to be saved from the lesson. And you will never see El in the book after this chapter, so we can call it a special appearance!

WOTC📗: I wish to get good at drawing lmao.

Author's note: Does anyone have a clue on Harry's identity yet? Also, I just can't wait for Harry to show up since I know it gets really fun when he does. Or maybe I just simply don't like Emma 😪

Louis: *sad*
Us:

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Us see El in a witch shop

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When the magic book is green

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Last edited: 09/05/2023