◣ 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞.... ◥

❝ 𝗶𝗳 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲, 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲. ❞

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- [✩] ; CORA'S CHEEKS WERE PINK as she roamed the streets of London. Since uploading "Coffee Shop Boy" on her Instagram, the teenager got overwhelmed with the attention she was receiving. Yes, she was glad people like the song, but she couldn't believe that the mysterious coffee shop boy was able to found. It's not like Cora really expected that to happen and when it did, she panicked for a good hour before calming down. And all of the many compliments Louis Partridge, yes that was his freaking name, gave her made Cora feel very warm all over, especially in her stomach and chest.

Cora didn't want to stay cooped up inside the lonely apartment with her many thoughts, so she opted to stroll about and maybe get a bite to eat. Plus, she was ignoring her friend's incessant texts, so she could use a distraction. She then put in her AirPods and clicked her "movie vibe" playlist on Spotify and continued on her walk. There were many people in London, especially in the area Cora lived in Notting Hill, who decided that it was a good day to go on a walk around while the sun was out. Even though she was annoyed by the people who passed her and gave her strange looks for loudly humming along to Taylor Swift, she stood dead in her tracks at the sight before her.

On this particular street, all of the apartments were lined next to each other, (which reminded Cora of New York) and the beautiful colors the homes dawned on. There was baby blue, pastel pink, spearmint green, each home was unique and Cora was absolutely obsessed with it. The streets were vibrant with color, and she knew for a fact her friends back in Cape Cod wouldn't believe her if she didn't take a picture.

So Cora stepped between the rows of cars that were parked along the sidewalk and took her phone out. Once the camera setting was on, she looked through her phone and frowned at the angle. That's fucking hideous. She internally moaned and wrinkled her nose as she moved around the cars and shifted her phone around to get a better look. Cora then looked out onto the street, checking both ways to see if there were any cars driving and decided to step into the middle of the road.

When Cora looked at her phone, this time the picture looked a thousand times better. She snapped a couple of shots, crouching down and moving her phone to do a panorama picture horizontally. A happy grin fell onto her cherry lips as she admired the panorama for she was proud that the picture came out better than expected, and decided to post it later when she did a bit of editing.

Whilst the teen stood distracted in the middle of the road, she was completely oblivious to the car driving towards her. With Lauv playing loudly in her ears and the phone in her face as she admired and deleted some photos, Cora didn't hear the honking from the car. The moment she registered the fact that a headlight was coming towards her, Cora was suddenly grabbed by the waist and fell to her side with a loud thump.

Quickly with wide eyes, Cora took out her AirPods as she rolled off of the person she landed on. Now she was laying on the pavement with her eyes staring up at the sky. She groaned, mainly due to the impact of slamming into the pavement, and the overall shock of nearly getting run over.

"Holy shit!" were the first words to leave her lips as she slowly blinked and reached for her head, feeling no blood or cuts on her face so that was good. Still, a little dazed by the whole ordeal, Cora turned her head to the side and saw that the person who saved her was kneeling and running a hand through their hair. Cora carefully sat up and started to quietly laugh to herself. "I almost died, wow, that's a new one."

"Care to share why a near-death experience is funny to you?" a British (obviously) male voice replied.

She shook her head and covered her mouth with her hand in an effort to suppress her laughter. "Sorry, sorry, it's just- it's not the first time I've almost gotten run over," Cora admitted.

"And what lucky number is this one?" the voice beside her asked.

"Like my fifth," Cora grinned and then turned her head to see the person who saved her from almost getting flattened on the street. "Thank you for-" once her eyes landed on his face her grin on her face dropped as her jaw dropped. "It's you again! Are you stalking me now, piano boy?"

Louis smiled sheepishly when Cora finally recognized him. "No, God's honest truth. I was walking home and I saw that car coming at you - and you weren't paying any attention whatsoever - and I had to act." he then started to stand and offered his hand to her. "But this is certainly a surprise,"

As Louis flashed her a smile, Cora squinted at him, slightly suspicious because this was all too fucking weird, but in the end, she took his hand. He pulled her onto her feet and once standing, Cora took her hands back to her side almost instantly and pressed her lips into a thin line. "I guess this is where I thank you so... thank you." she stared at him warily for a moment before deciding that Louis wasn't exactly a threat and softened her gaze on him.

His voice is nice. Cora thought to herself.

"Your welcome," Louis nodded his head and then shoved his own hands into his pocket. He continued to glance at Cora every-so-often before looking away to smile at himself.

"Well," Cora shifted her weight from each foot as her eyes danced across his face. "I should get going then," she adjusted the straps to her bag. It was abrupt to leave, but again, this was all to fucking weird. Out of all the people on this earth, Louis Partridge was the one to pull her out of harm's way. "Thanks again for saving my life." then she turned around on her heels and started to walk in the opposite direction she was originally going.

When Cora thought she was a good distance away from all of that, she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Now that was freaky. Yeah getting nearly run over is scary, but Cora has grown used to such things happening, but to see the boy you wrote a song about and he knows it's about him, and you see him in PERSON? God, she hoped no one felt that second-hand embarrassment because that was overwhelming.

As she continued to walk away, the voice of someone calling out her name suddenly filled her ears.

"Cora! Hey! Wait a second!"

She groaned. What the fuck?

"You know Louis when someone walks away that usually means they want to leave." Cora spared a glance over her shoulder to see Louis, skating down the sidewalk on a skateboard and in her direction.

"I just wanna talk, no games," he said as he stopped skating and did some sort of skater boy trick so the board would fall into his arms. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but you've gotta be honest, it's all very-"

"-Weird?" Cora raised a brow as she looked at him before finally shrugging her shoulders. What could the harm be there to hang out with this hotshot? "Alright, c'mon then. I want more Hi-Chew."

"What the hell is a Hi-Chew?" Louis asked but then realized that Cora was kept on walking, not even bothering to wait for him.

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"THANK YOU AGAIN," CORA smiled at the old woman who owns the Asian store as she bought several packs of Hi-Chew. Then as she and Louis walked out of the store, she tore open one of the packs and handed a small rectangular candy in a wrapper. "Now go on, try it, piano boy."

"Alright," Louis eyed the candy warily before unwrapping it to find that it was white with a pink filling. He popped the whole thing in his mouth as Cora watch him, eating a green one with a small grin.

"Well?" Cora asked as she chewed through the candy with a small grin on her lips.

"It's good, reminds me of taffy in a way," he replied and held out his hand, obviously enjoying the treats. 

"Taffy? Oh my god-" she laughed but handed him another and then nodded her head towards the bench. "Let's go sit, my legs are tired."

"You did almost get hit by a car."

"And you slammed me into the ground."

"To prevent you from getting hit- besides you landed on me first before falling on the ground."

"Yes, I know Louis, I was there."

As they sat down on the bench, Cora cracked her neck as she ate another Hi-Chew. Louis put down his skateboard, allowing it to lean against the legs of the bench next to his school bag. And for the first time since they officially met, Cora took a good look at him. He wore a white button-up shirt and a black tie with blue and silver stripes around his neck. He also had black slacks, black dress shoes, a navy blue blazer that he was currently stuffing into his bag. Louis looked... good. Yeah, good, that's a safe word to use.

In comparison to Louis, Cora felt wildly underdressed. She only had a pair of ripped jeans with multi-colored butterflies coming down the side of her legs and a pink floral tank top. Her white doc martens, where her favorite thing in her closet, so of course she was wearing them now.

"Why are you wearing a school uniform? It's Mid-July." Cora suddenly asked with a bewildered expression.

"It was the last day of school," Louis explained as he picked at his black slacks. "When did you get out of school?" he tossed her a look as he took another Hi-Chew from the pack that sat between them.

"June 14th," she replied with a small grin and put a hand over her exposed knee but then winced. She looked down and saw that she scrapped her knee, probably from falling earlier.

Louis followed her gaze as a small worried frown fell on his lips. "You're bleeding,"

Cora shrugged. "It's just a scratch. At least I know my blood is red. Shame, I'd wish it was something cooler like purple or green."

"I think I have some plasters in my bag and some water to clean it- hold on." he then opened up his bag and started to dig through it.

"Hey, it's literally nothing," she put a hand on his arm to stop him from going through his bag. "I'll live,"

Louis looked over at her, his lips still curled into a frown. "I don't know... I'd feel better if we at least cleaned it."

"A bandaid would work fine." Cora countered with a pointed look.

"Alright, fine," he sighed softly and then went back to search through his bag.

Cora grinned, glad to she was able to have Louis back off a bit. Though she was flattered that he was worried and for some reason, it made her smile internally, Cora knew how to take care of herself. But then she noticed that her hand was still on Louis's arm. Oh my god, your hand was lingering for too fucking long, Cora what the hell. Her face went red and quickly took her hand back and placed it on her lap, bitting her inner cheek.

"Here," Louis said as he held up a skin-colored bandaid and then handed it to her.

"Thanks," Cora flashed him a small smile as she took the bandaid.

Everything was good between the two teens, and that was good enough for them.

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author's note.

cora, sweetie, u say u have street smarts but u did a DUMB thing

everyone say thx u louis for saving our gal cora's life!!!

this chapter is a mess i'm so sorry y'all