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Harry Styles hated his neighbours.
They weren't really neighbours, since this was an apartment, but Harry hated the people who lived in the rooms beside him. All of them.
The guy who lived on his left, Lewis or something, was fucking rude. When Harry first moved in, carrying heavy boxes of stuff, the Lewis guy just stared at him and didn't bother to help. And he even ignored Harry once when he passed by him and Harry tried to say hello! What a priss.
The person living to Harry’s right was possibly even worse. They always blasted this loud, shitty music at night when Harry was trying to study. And to accompany the music were these banging sounds coming from their apartment. Could Harry never catch a break?
The screechy music that was playing now made Harry draw a crooked line on his math homework, and oh, he just about had enough of this.
Meanwhile, one of the neighbours Harry hated, Louis Tomlinson, was trying to practice a song on his dinky old keyboard.
Louis Tomlinson also hated his neighbours.
One of them, Henry or whatever, was an annoying hipster type. He had these long ass legs that were always covered with tight jeans, and his curly hair ticked Louis off for some reason. But because Louis was nice, he went to Henry's door to say hi when Henry moved in. But Henry just slammed the door in his face, can you believe?! Hipster bitch.
And don't even get Louis started on the apartment room beside Henry's. Some weirdo in there is always blasting Justin Bieber and banging on the walls and it was disturbing the entire apartment complex. Louis was surprised they hadn’t been kicked out yet for being a public nuisance.
Louis’ finger slipped and hit the wrong note when the music blaring through the building somehow got even louder. His walls are shaking, for god’s sake!
“Oh, shit’s about to go down,” Louis muttered, standing up and reaching for his door.
That's it. I'm done, Harry thought from beside Louis’ room, throwing down his pencil and marching over to his own door.
Harry and Louis threw open their doors at the same time, poked their heads out to face the music, and yelled, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
The music immediately died down like someone was sitting and waiting to hear those words. Harry and Louis both let out little sighs of relief at the silence, and turned to look at each other.
“Uh. You're Lewis, right?” Harry began awkwardly.
“Louis,” Louis’ face twitched with annoyance. “And you're… Henry?”
“Harry, actually.”
“Oh. Okay, Henry.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Do you have to be such a prick all the time?”
“Me!” Louis was shocked. “What about you, door-slamming hipster?”
Before they could rip each other's heads off, the music-blaster’s door opened, making them both snap their heads towards the guilty (and sweaty) looking bloke standing in the hall.
“Um, hi,” the guy said, “sorry about that. You're the ones who yelled shut the fuck up, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Louis confirmed, crossing his arms. “Why you gotta play your music so loud, anyway? There's these magic things called headphones, you know.”
Harry elbowed Louis. “Don't be rude,” he hissed and Louis sighed but grudgingly mumbled a “sorry”.
“No, no, it's completely my fault,” the guy assured. “Erm, I'm Liam. And I always play music really loudly when I work out because it's kinda like motivation. Nobody ever chewed me out for it, so I thought it didn't bug anyone.”
“Psh, Justin Bieber bugs everyone,” Louis snorted and Harry elbowed him again.
Liam just laughed. “Fair point, mate. I would go to the gym but I don't have a ride. How's this, I'll keep the music down now, sounds good?”
“Sounds great,” Harry cut in quickly, just in case Louis was thinking of making another rude comment. “Sorry we, uh, yelled at you. You seem like a good person.”
Louis was kind of surprised because, whoa, he didn't think hipster boy had any manners. Where was his politeness at when he slammed a door in Louis’ face, huh?
“No worries, guys. See you around!” Liam waved cheerfully before ducking back to his apartment. He reminded Louis of a puppy. A muscular puppy.
Well, now that the episode was over, the smart thing to do was for Louis and Harry to crawl back into their own apartments and never speak again. But Louis had different ideas.
“Why'd you slam the door in my face?” Louis called out just before Harry closed the door to his apartment, almost slamming the door on Louis for a second time.
Harry's eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
“I said, Henry,” Louis drew out the word, “why did you close the door in my face that time I came over to welcome you?”
Recognition flickered over Harry's features. “Oh, that. Because you were being an unhelpful tit when I moved in. You just stared at me from down the hall but didn't offer to help carry any of my things in, thanks.”
Louis shook his head. Is this what Harry was so pressed about? “Are you serious? Dude, I can't carry shit. Those boxes looked damn heavy and my noodle arms wouldn't have been any help to you whatsoever.”
Harry looked Louis up and down and blushed. He was right. Louis was fucking tiny, Harry had just noticed, and was indeed pretty wimpy. But in a cute way, if that made sense.
Wait, no. Louis wasn't cute, what was Harry thinking about. Louis is still a brat, Harry told himself.
“Okay, but that time I said hi to you outside the apartment and you just pretended I didn't exist,” Harry pointed out, “was pretty rude of you.”
“I don't remember that,” Louis finally said after searching his memories. “I must've had earbuds in or something, sorry. Honest mistake.”
“Okay, but… That…” Harry's mouth opened and closed like a fish when he realized he had no reason now to hate Louis.
Or Liam, for that matter. His neighbours were actually decent people, what.
Louis must've noticed the same thing and chuckled. “Well, now I feel dumb. We could've worked out all this crap a lot earlier, with Liam too, if we just talked about it like normal people.”
Harry grinned. “Yeah. So, I guess you're not so bad after all.”
“Not so bad yourself, Henry.” Louis shot back. “And your skinny jeans don't actually look too terrible. And your hair isn't actually that ridiculous.”
Louis paused and tilted his head, looking at Harry's curls. “Well, nevermind. It's pretty ridiculous.”
Harry bursted out laughing. “I like you,” he admitted before slapping a hand over his mouth. Too soon, Harry.
Louis smirked, ignoring the quickening pace of his heart. “I am quite likeable. It's my delicious ass,” he teased.
Harry seemed to nod agreeably before snapping out of it. “Oh yeah, I've got math homework. Um, can I talk to you later?” He asked hopefully because he really didn't want to stop talking to Louis.
The feeling was mutual.
“Yep. I'll knock on your door whenever I'm bored. Which is usually around 2 am, just warning you,” Louis slowly backed into his own apartment door and opened it. “See you, Harry.”
Harry planned to say something cool like “ay, you got my name right” but he was too busy staring at Louis’ butt as he retreated into his apartment. Louis was right; his ass was delicious. Harry could probably stare at it forever, with a bag of popcorn, if Louis let him.
A cough made Harry's eyes snap back up. Louis smirked and gave him a wink before closing his door with a click.
Harry's face was bright red from being caught, but he was also grinning really big. The grin, along with a fluttery feeling in his stomach, stayed with him even as Harry headed back to his room to do math homework.
Harry Styles loved his neighbours.