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Harry walked out of Louis’s room to go brush her teeth in the bathroom down the hall, and Louis immediately released the groan she felt she’d been suppressing all day. Don’t get her wrong, she was glad to see Harry–thrilled, even, since they hadn’t really gone beyond being online mutuals since their musical moment at arts camp a few summers ago. That was out of necessity, not desire. Louis was two years older, and had headed to college shortly after her last-second appearance as the Danny to Harry’s Sandy. And so they had kept in touch online, mostly reblogging one another’s posts on tumblr with some occasional ask box chatter.
That was the case, at least, until last month, when Harry had messaged Louis asking how she liked her university. Pretty quickly their conversation moved to texting as Harry shared she was trying to make her final college choice and was thinking of visiting Louis’s school. Almost immediately, Louis had offered to show Harry around for an overnight visit, offering up her single dorm room–a privilege of being an RA–for Harry to stay for the night.
They had picked a date, and then Louis had set about planning all of the things she would show Harry to convince her she absolutely had to join her on campus the following semester.
Louis had been looking forward to the visit for weeks, and she could barely contain her excitement for Harry's arrival. Harry had borrowed her older sister’s car to drive to campus on Saturday morning, and Louis had the entire day and a half planned to make Harry fall in love with the university before she had to return home. She had a mental itinerary and everything.
Louis groaned again as she thought about that itinerary and all the hard work she’d put into making Harry’s visit the perfect combination of tour and adventure–and how quickly her well-thought plans crumbled to pieces as one thing after another seemed to go wrong.
Louis had drawn Harry a map of where to park–had even decorated it a bit before scanning her drawing and emailing it to Harry. But as Louis had walked to the lot that morning to be there to meet Harry, she saw it blocked off and empty, with a full street’s worth of bright orange “detour” signs leading to a lot further away. Harry had easily followed the signs, but Louis got sweaty in her hurry to try to be there for Harry’s arrival. Harry had already pulled her backpack and pillow out of her trunk before Louis even got the chance to say hello.
Harry had smiled so widely at seeing Louis, though, making Louis immediately forget what must surely only be a small hiccup to start the day.
But then.
As Louis approached her dorm to help Harry bring her things to her room, she realized she’d left her ID card upstairs, as well as her phone. Luckily, since she was an RA she had memorized the phone number to call for room access when a student locks themselves out, and Harry was happy enough to let Louis use her phone while she cheerfully looked around at the residential quad.
After they had dropped off Harry’s things in Louis’s room, Louis had given Harry a quick lay of the land–bathroom down the hall, Harry would sleep in the single bed while Louis used her air mattress from when her sisters slept over earlier in the semester.
“There will be time for a good look around and a movie marathon tonight, Hazza–um, Harry,” Louis said, stuttering a bit at the sudden nickname that had come out of her mouth.
Harry had kept grinning, she didn’t seem to notice Louis’s slip. “Do you have something planned for us right away, Lou?” she asked.
“Indeed I do! First stop is lunch–I’m sure you’re hungry after your drive, and I want to take you to my favorite taco truck in the food truck park! Does that sound okay?”
“Sounds perfect, Lou. Lead the way!” And so they had headed out of the dorm to the food truck park.
Which is where they found a sign that the taco truck was gone today–they’d had a flat tire that hadn’t been fixed yet, apparently. There were other food trucks, and Harry had said she was perfectly happy with her gourmet grilled cheese–”Look, Lou, there’s caramelized onions here too!” But Louis was still disappointed that another thing hadn’t gone to her carefully crafted plan.
It had only snowballed from there.
They were going to catch a few shorts at the university cinema’s international film festival, only to find that the projector had broken during the screening right before they’d arrived.
They were going to play a round of campus golf to see the different areas of the academic grounds, but a heavy rainshower arrived out of nowhere.
They had darted into the library for cover–it had been on Louis’s itinerary to show Harry the library regardless, Harry had said how much she loved the smell and quiet of a library. But just as the pair had gotten to the top floor study carrels–Louis’s favorite, almost secret spot to study–the fire alarm went off and the library was evacuated out into the rain. At least it was only a drizzle at that point.
After they had trudged–well, Louis trudged, Harry still had a cheerful spring in her step–back to Louis’s dorm to change out of their damp clothes, they headed for dinner. Louis had planned to take Harry to the dining hall–she’d been bragging about having access to a soft serve ice cream machine any day of the week, all part of her meal plan. Dinner was fine, but the soft serve machine had an “out of order for routine maintenance” sign on it. Because of course it did.
And then on their walk back to the dorm–they’d taken the longer way so they’d go past the drug store to pick out snacks for their movie marathon–Louis realized she didn’t have her wallet. Harry quickly stepped up to pay for their snacks, but Louis felt it was the principle of the matter. She was the host, she had been meant to pay.
It had been one thing after another all day, but Louis felt she’d done a good job of keeping her cool for Harry–Harry who, for all that had happened, was still smiling and asking thoughtful questions about Louis’s life on campus. After Harry had paid for their snacks, they had made their way back to Louis’s room to put on comfy sweats and pick a movie to start their mini-marathon–Harry had said she wasn’t too keen on going to any parties, and Louis had been more than happy to have a quiet night in.
Harry had taken her sweatpants, hoodie, toothbrush, and toothpaste to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth–she’d said something about wanting to make sure they were brushed in case they fell asleep before she had a chance to go back. Louis had changed while Harry was out and had switched on the pump to inflate the air mattress.
“Louis, I was thinking that maybe we should watch Portrait of a Lady on Fire first?” Harry said as she made her way back into Louis’s room. “I saw it’s available to stream from this app from the library, and I was thinking about it since we didn’t get to see that French short earlier today. What do you think?”
Louis turned from the air mattress that she’d just finished filling, reaching for a sheet and blanket to put on top of it. “Sure, Harry, we can watch that. I’m really sorry again that we couldn’t do the film festival earlier.” She looked down with a heavy sigh, feeling a bit disappointed at all the things that hadn’t gone to plan during the day.
“Oh, it’s not a big deal!” Harry assured. “It was neat to get to see parts of the campus instead, at least until the rain.”
Louis groaned loudly. “Gosh, Harry, we didn’t even get to do a full tour because of that freak rain storm!” She was working herself up a bit now–the disappointments of the day catching up with her. “And then we couldn’t really get to enjoy the library because of that stupid fire alarm–there wasn’t even a fire!”
“Hey, Lou, it’s okay. I heard one of the librarians say that someone had pulled the alarm because they thought they saw smoke.” Harry had a goofy grin on her face, like she was going to tell a joke. “It turned out they were studying in a particularly under-used part of the stacks and what they saw was a cloud of dust from books that hadn’t been taken out in a while, but better safe than sorry, right? Honest mistake!” Harry chuckled.
“I’m glad you think it’s funny, Harry, but really! What else could possibly go wrong today?” Louis moaned as she moved to lie on her air mattress.
Her air mattress that went POP!, then WOOSH! as all the air escaped through a brand new hole in the side.
Maybe if I just lay here and pretend this isn’t real, I’ll wake up to find it’s a dream, Louis thought. She hesitantly turned her gaze toward Harry.
Who promptly erupted in laughter.
“Oh my gosh, Lou, that timing was perfect!” She giggled, then paused to ask, “Wait, are you okay? Did you get hurt?” She looked chastened for her immediate laughter response, but she moved toward Louis now to check on her.
“No, I’m not hurt, Harry,” Louis replied. “At least not physically. I’m just so frustrated about how crappy this day has been for you, nothing went to plan!”
She started to sit up, and Harry extended her hand to help pull Louis to her feet so she wouldn’t get tangled in the sheet and blanket that were now loose on the deflated air mattress.
“Hey, what do you mean it was a crappy day?” Harry challenged. “I had a lot of fun!”
“I’m glad to hear that, Harry,” said Louis, standing awkwardly in the middle of the mattress/blanket pile in the center of her dorm room. “I really wanted you to have a good visit, and so I planned everything just so, because I really want you to feel comfortable here and choose this college for the fall.” Louis’s voice had started to quiet as she’d spoken, and she began playing with the sweater paws formed by the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
“Oh, Lou,” Harry said, sitting back down on Louis’s bed. “Come here.” She gestured to the open space beside her.
When Louis didn’t immediately move, Harry said more firmly, “Louis. Here.”
Louis obeyed, sitting next to Harry on her bed. She was still looking down at her hands and fiddling with her sleeve.
“Louis, want to know a secret?”
“Sure, Hazza–Harry,” Louis replied, turning hesitantly to look at the younger girl. “What is it?”
“Two weeks ago I sent in my confirmation to come to school here in the fall.”
It took Louis a few seconds to process what Harry had just shared.
“Wait, what?” she exclaimed, surprise turning to excitement. “Harry, that’s great! I’m so glad we’ll get to hang out next year!”
Louis turned with the intention to give Harry a hug, only to find that Harry was now the one staring at her own hands.
“That’s not really the secret, Lou,” she said sheepishly. “The secret is that I always knew I was going to come to school here, but I told you I was still deciding and needed to visit because I wanted us to be friends–real life friends, not just online mutuals or old camp friends–but I wasn’t sure how to go about making that happen.” She exhaled with a self-conscious sigh.
“Oh, Hazza,” Louis said. “I really want us to be friends, too. That’s why I was so particular about everything today–I thought that the best way to become friends would be to spend time together here next year, so I needed to convince you to come to school here.” Louis felt lighter somehow.
Harry grinned ear to ear.
“Well, it would be silly to wait until next semester to be real life friends, Lou, honestly.” Harry quickly recovered from her momentary shyness. “Obviously we’re friends for life, forged in the fires of a day of mishap after mishap. Or maybe just forged in the fires of a dust cloud in the library.”
Louis snorted. “See, I knew you noticed it was a crappy day.”
“Not crappy, Lou. It could be a million mishaps and they’d still be fun, because I got to experience them with a friend. Right?”
“Right, Harry,” Louis said, rolling her eyes a bit at the sappiness, but secretly pleased.
“And friends can laugh at a ridiculous day, right?” Harry asked.
“Sure they can. Just as soon as one friend figures out who on their hall has another air mattress to lend,” Louis said, starting to move off the bed to take care of the deflated pile on her floor and make a bed for herself.
Harry grabbed her arm first. “Nonsense, Louis. Friends can share a bed, right? Let’s make this a proper sleepover.”
Louis felt herself gulp, as Harry tugged her into her side.
“Sure, Hazza. Proper friends, proper sleepover.” She was pretty sure Harry could hear her smile in her voice.
“Good, Lou. Now lay back and press play, like a good friend.”
So Louis did.