Chapter Text
“So what do you say?”
Harry blinked, astonished at the question, he had no idea what to say. His thoughts ranged from ‘is this a joke’ to ‘he can’t be serious’ and back to ‘is this a joke’ again.
Louis Tomlinson had just asked him out.
He stared wide eyed at Louis, trying to formulate an answer. It was hard when Louis was so close. He wasn’t a particularly tall or big guy, but he still managed to loom over Harry, crowding into his personal space with a hand resting lazily next to the younger’s head, on the row of lockers behind him, which he had been cornered into a few minutes ago.
“So?” Louis prompted, confident smile stretched out on his face.
Harry swallowed, eyes flickering behind Louis where half the people walking by were staring shamelessly at the two. He caught a glimpse of Louis’ friends and teammates, all easily spotted thanks to their bright red letter jackets. They were standing not too far away from them, dirty grins on their faces. Harry focused back on Louis.
“I…”
“Yes?” Louis licked his lips expectantly.
“No thanks” he muttered, and before the shocked “what?!” had even escaped Louis’ lips, Harry was already sneaking away under Louis’ outstretched arm, and into the push-and-pull of students in the hallway.
He could hear the loud laughs and snickering that he was sure came from Louis’ teammates, and he shook his head in disbelief before turning a corner and pushing the memory out of his mind.
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He sat by himself at lunch. He didn’t mind; not being noticed in school was his goal in life. He ignored everybody and everybody ignored him. He was happy with the arrangement.
Nodding his head along to the music playing in his ear, his fingers played with the bunch of grapes he brought from home and he nibbled on a couple of them before changing songs, turning up the volume so he didn’t hear the loud chatter of the student population.
He looked down at his phone once he felt it vibrating, immediately answering his sister’s message, she was one of the few people he ever bothered to talk to.
Catching movement on his peripheral and looked up quickly, just as someone sat down on his table, right in front of him.
He blinked, eyes focusing on the grinning face of one Louis Tomlinson.
Already mentally tired, he pulled out his earphones.
“What?” he mumbled.
“You said no to me” Louis pointed out unnecessarily.
Harry shrugged, looking behind Louis at the table where the popular boy usually sat with his friends. Like earlier, they were eagerly watching the exchange.
“No one ever says no to me”
Harry told himself this wasn’t the time to roll his eyes.
“I see what you’re doing though”
Harry stared at him bemusedly.
“You’re playing hard to get” his smile grew into a grin, pleased with himself, as if he’d just solved the hardest math problem.
“You can stop now, you caught my attention” his lips curled, smug.
Harry stared some more.
“Here, give me your number” Louis took his phone out, but when Harry made no movement to take it from his hands, Louis pushed the phone forcefully at him.
“Go on” the irritation colouring his tone had Harry quickly typing into the phone given to him.
“I’ll put you under Curly” he said once he had his phone back, “cause of your wonderful hair” he reached out, grabbing a handful of Harry’s messy hair and tugging playfully. Harry flinched back, eyes wide, but Louis only sent him a crooked grin, before going back to his table.
To where he belonged, Harry thought as he watched with alert eyes as Louis and the blonde boy Niall high fived, bright grins on their faces.
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“Hey H, how was school?”
Harry looked around. His mum was spread out on the couch, feet up. She was still in her work clothes, so Harry knew she had probably just arrived home.
“The usual” he shrugged, falling on to the armchair and dropping his bag on the floor next to him.
“Except” he frowned, suddenly remembering, “that Louis Tomlinson guy asked me out today”
His mum looked at him surprised, before the corners of her lips turned up into a smile.
“Well that’s good isn’t it? What did you say?”
“Not really, I said no”
“What?” she startled, “but why? Isn’t he the boy you had a crush on?”
Cheeks warming, Harry shamefully remembered that phase of his life.
“That was ages ago mum” he mumbled, eyes focusing on the telly. The Big Bang Theory was on. It was his favourite program.
“Well you only told me about it, what? Three months ago?”
Harry shrugged again, and thankfully she let the subject drop.
It was true that he’d had a crush on Louis Tomlinson. It was no secret to anyone that Louis was bisexual.
It made Harry burn with embarrassment whenever he remembered that time when he was so young and naïve , believing that Louis’ sexuality meant that he had a chance with him. And yes, that had been three months ago, but a few weeks of watching the guy were enough to convince Harry that he was just a typical popular guy; cocky and arrogant and a jerk.
Whatever. He was over it anyway.
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Maths wasn’t nearly one of his favourite subjects. It was a compulsory subject at his school however, so every junior had to take it, but Harry had resigned himself to the fact that he was definitely not going to pass his exam. It didn’t really matter, maths wouldn’t help him at all with what he wanted to do when he left school.
In fact, he often skipped the class and subsequent headache altogether.
Sadly, he had decided to turn up for the dreaded class today, and it had only taken Louis Tomlinson walking in with the rest of his little gang, dropping backwards on the seat in front of Harry, and looking at him expectantly for Harry to regret his decision.
So really, not long at all.
It wasn’t hard to forget that he had this class with Tomlinson, Harry barely ever showed up after all, and when he did he ignored everyone and tuned out everything the teacher was saying. There was also the fact that Louis had never shown any interest in him before yesterday.
It was all very suspicious.
“So Curly” he started, hand reaching out for Harry’s hair, though the latter quickly pulled away before he could grasp it.
Louis let his hand drop slowly, something like disappointment etched on his face, “I tried calling you last night”
Harry watched Louis’ tapping fingers on the table as he talked, only looking up at his pause.
“Some guy named David answered” Louis’ eyes narrowed. Harry gulped.
“Sneaky, sneaky” he tsked “you gave me a fake number”
They both ignored the snicker coming from Louis’ friend, sat a couple of tables away from them, and very obviously eavesdropping on their conversation.
Harry had given Louis a fake number. Mostly because he hadn’t thought he’d actually call.
“Give me your phone”
“What?”
“Give me your phone Curly” he said again, hand outstretched, and eyes narrowed into slits.
Meekly, Harry passed Louis his phone, mentally cursing the late teacher, who could have stopped all of this from happening, if he’d just bothered to be on time. Harry was never showing up to his class again.
Louis grinned pleased as he typed away, while Harry breathed out in relief. He seemed to always find himself torn between feeling scared or annoyed, whenever Louis was around.
Once Louis had finished saving Harry’s real number, he gave him his phone back, and before Harry could dodge away from the grabby fingers, they had already closed around a bunch of his hair. Louis rubbed at Harry’s scalp, and Harry tried hard not to let his eyes close at the feeling.
Once Louis took his hand away, Harry’s eyes snapped open and he realised he’d failed at not closing them. He took in Louis’ smug expression with a jolt of annoyance, mad at both Louis and himself.
“Later Curly” he called over his shoulder.
Harry scowled at his retreating back.
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He was helping his mum with dinner when his phone went off, startling him out of his chopping haze.
“Won’t you get that H?”
“Yeah” he washed his hands quickly, dashing towards the living room and drying his hands on his jeans as he went. He very nearly tapped the answer bottom; the only people to ever call him were either his sister or Nick, and they were also the only people (along with his mum) that he always wanted and never minded talking to.
His eyes however, caught onto the caller ID, and his thumbs stopped a millimetre away from touching the lit up screen.
Louis the Tommo flickered away and Harry couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the obnoxious name. He dropped the now silent phone back on the sofa, and went back to the kitchen.
“Everything okay?” his mum asked from her guarding post by the stove, where she was stirring the bubbling white mass of rice.
“Yeah.. um, it was just uh, Louis Tomlinson?”
Anne’s eyes flickered up towards him, and though she tried to not let it show, there was a quirk to her lips that made Harry think she was happy about the fact.
Obviously she hadn’t believed him when he told her he was over his little crush.
“Oh? What did he want?”
Harry shook his head, amused by his mother’s attempt at nonchalance.
“I don’t know. I didn’t pick it up” he went back to his vegetables.
“Harry! That’s rude”
Harry chuckled, “never mind that mum. Can we get this done? I’m starving”
During the course of the meal, his phone rang a total of three more times before he decided to put it on silence.
He looked down at his risotto in disbelief, and tried to ignore his mum as she hid a smile behind her wine glass, he’d just have to avoid Louis for a couple of days. It couldn’t be that hard, and soon Louis would forget all about him and move on to the next person.
He told himself the heavy feeling in his stomach was due to the amount of rice he’d just eaten.
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It wasn’t very hard, avoiding Louis the next day. It was a Thursday and he realised with a jolt, now that he took time to examine his timetable, that Thursdays were the only day of the week when he didn’t have any lessons with Louis at all.
Lucky Thursdays.
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Art was another painful experience, as usual. He actually liked the subject, but unfortunately his teacher seemed to like him too. A bit too much actually.
It wasn’t unusual for Ms Brown to hold him back after classes with the pretence of talking to him about his current project, all the while smiling too wide, and batting her eyes at him an unhealthy amount of times.
It was common knowledge that kids would find themselves with a crush on their teacher at least once throughout their school career, but until Ms Brown, Harry had no idea that the opposite could happen.
Ms Brown was an attractive woman, slim with long wavy hair, and the youngest teacher in school, as she liked to tell them. The problem was just that she was a woman… and a teacher, he amended.
Shaking his hair out of his eyes, he walked quickly. He was starving and Ms Brown had managed to talk most of his lunch time away. He definitely had to get better at cutting her short.
He stopped in his tracks at the sound of a loud laugh echoing through out the hallway, and recognising the voices, he peeked over a corner, hidden.
“I still can’t believe you did that!” Louis’ blond friend, Niall, was saying, traces of laughter still in his voice.
“He was annoying me”
“Oh yeah, cause that’s the reason you punched him”
There was a pause in their conversation, and Harry looked on wide eyed, his curiosity growing roots under him feet.
“So” Niall started again, “where’s your little pet today? Haven’t seen him around”
Immediately Harry’s eyes narrowed, “I haven’t either”. Harry couldn’t see Louis’ face, but something in his tone made Harry think he was frowning. He shook the thought away.
“Have you called him yet?”
Louis shut the door of his locker closed behind him, before leaning back on it, “yeah, but he won’t answer the stupid phone!” he whined.
“Shame, maybe you should just give up on this one eh?” he leaned back opposite Louis, so they were facing each other.
“No! He can’t say no to me, nobody ever says no to me”
“I’ve said no to you plenty of times”
Louis scoffed, “you know what I mean, you prat”
Niall shrugged, “tough luck mate, hey how about you help me with that maths homework huh?” Niall threw an arm over Louis’ shoulder, and the two started walking away.
“We don’t have homework Nialler”
“Maybe you don’t. Bloody maths genius” Niall grumbled, shoving Louis sideways.
“Hey!”
Harry huffed to himself as he walked away in the opposite direction. He was nobody’s pet, especially not Louis’. That brat. He kicked his toes on the ground angrily, hunger forgotten.
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History was his last lesson of the day. It was as much of a pain as Maths, but he figured his mum wouldn’t be too happy with him failing more than one subject. She didn’t care about maths much, knowing Harry had gotten his inability to understand any of it from her, (though she didn’t know about him not even showing up for the lessons, thankfully) but he didn’t want to find out what she’d do if he failed anything else.
The French Revolution wasn’t the most interesting subject, and as their teacher droned on about the downfall of King Louis XVI, Harry found himself focusing on the conversation of the two girls sitting in front of him.
Girl number one – Cassie? Lacy? He didn’t know, was whispering none too quietly to girl number two.
Chin in hand, Harry looked back up at their teacher. The poor guy just kept going, monotonous voice explaining about how people rebelled against King Louis’ rule, to a bunch of disinterested teenagers. He didn’t bother to scold the chatting girls, or the dozing boy in the corner, he never did anymore.
Harry focused back on the two once he heard Louis’ name leaving girl number one’s mouth.
“So, I was in line yeah? And like, he just came up to me, and put his arm around my shoulder”
Girl number two nodded along excitedly, though Harry wasn’t surprised to see a glint of jealousy in the girl’s eye.
“And he like, he brought me to his table and I had lunch with them”
“Shut up” Number two said, jaw slack.
“Yep” smug, she stood up as the bell rang, “and he asked for my number, said we could go out sometime” she smiled slyly, “you know what that means” she looked at her friend, obviously having left the best for last, before flicking her hair and calling out a ‘see you later’ to number two.
Harry watched the girls go with a frown on his face. He’d been right about Louis forgetting about him. He just didn’t think it would happen this soon.
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He tried to focus on his homework, but it was hard, when listening to music and letting his mind wander were such better, easier options.
The buzzing of his phone caught his attention two seconds later, and with a relieved sigh, he pushed his books away to check it. He was nearly finished anyway.
‘Hey H, gonna be home late, don’t wait up. I’ll see you tomorrow’
It was from his mum. She was out with a few friends tonight. Harry usually did wait up for her, but only if he didn’t have to be up by seven AM the next day. Sleep was very important after all.
He wondered whether he should get back to his homework, but it wasn’t due in until Monday. It could wait.
He scooted down on the bed, so he was facing the ceiling and tried to remember where he’d left his ipod. The sound of his phone ringing startled him out of his thoughts, and he rolled sideways on the bed so he could look at the blaring device on his bedside table.
Louis the Tommo.
He rolled his eyes at the name again, wondering whether he should change it, or even delete it, but he argued with himself that it was better to know that Louis was the one calling, so he didn’t make the mistake of answering it.
He turned away from the phone with an angry huff. Didn’t Louis have anything better to do? Some other person to go call and bother? Shouldn’t he be calling that stupidly smug Katy girl?
Sulking, he stared at the ceiling some more and ignored the continuous ringing of his phone. He wouldn’t let anyone mess around with him, not even Louis Tomlinson.
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The only lesson he had with Louis the next was day was maths, he was happy to find out, and seeing as he never went to it he relaxed, stopped looking over his shoulder every thirty seconds, thinking that as long as he stayed out of Louis’ sight, the thought of him wouldn’t cross the older boy’s mind. Out of sight out of mind.
He was mistaken. Before he’d even managed to get to his first lesson, someone shouted “hey Harry!” across the corridor and out of reflex Harry turned around, receiving a few dirty looks from other students for blocking their way, and he saw Liam Payne, another of Louis’ friends standing a few meters away and staring at him before turning around, “Oi Louis, I found him” he shouted again over the crowd, and Harry’s gaze snapped in the same direction as Liam’s, catching a glimpse of the boy he’d been trying to avoid.
Eyes widening Harry turned and walked briskly away, bumping into a few people and hoping the busy hallway would hide him from view.
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He was spotted again a few hours later, by Stanley Lucas and this time, there were no other students around to hide him from view.
“Oi, you!” Stanley called out, and having learnt from his last mistake, Harry didn’t stop walking. Instead he quickened his pace, hearing a “wait” come from the other boy which Harry thought was especially stupid; he obviously wouldn’t just stand there and wait.
He heard the sound of footsteps running away and frowned in confusion before –
“Hey Tommo hurry up, he’s here”
And to his horror, Louis’ voice answered back.
“What?” was the last thing he heard before running.
There wasn’t anywhere to go where he wouldn’t be easily seen, so hoping no teachers were inside he clumsily fell into a classroom, closing the door softly behind him, relieved at the lack of people in the room. He slid down, so he was crouching, hidden behind the door, and out of view, if Louis was to look through the little glass window on the door.
His breathing was a little erratic, and he wondered what the hell was going on. It felt like he was being hunted.
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He didn’t go to the cafeteria at lunch, choosing to go outside instead. He laid down on one of the bleachers by the football field, one foot set on the top of the metal bench, the other firmly on the grass below him.
It was a cold January, but the sky was blue, and cloudless, and it was nice, even if breathing in the cold, humid air made his nose sting.
He heard the bell going, signalling the end of lunch, but with a mental apology sent towards his mother, he stayed where he was, music playing loud enough in his ears to cover the loud crunch-crunch cause by his snack. Salt and vinegar crisps; his favourite.
When the bell went again, just over an hour later, he sighed reluctantly but sat up, gathering his stuff and shoving it in his bag. He threw it across his shoulder, took out his earphones, and looked up, surprised at the sound of voices approaching.
It was the football team. Or half the football team anyway, there were too few of them there, but still, Louis was there, right in the middle of the group, walking across the field and towards him.
Grimacing, Harry started to walk, not too quickly as to not catch their attention. They seemed entertained enough within their group, laughing loudly and shoving each other around. Harry rolled his eyes at the ground. The scene looked like one taken straight out of those clichéd high school movies.
His mouth curled up in disdain before quickly popping open with a yelp of surprise as he was yanked around by the arm, coming face to face with another one of Louis’ teammates.
“Hey Lou, look what I found” he grinned, still gripping him by the arm.
“What?” came from a few feet away.
“It’s your little friend”
“I’m not little” Harry said defensively, annoyed at being called little when he was at least a couple of inches taller than the boy still holding on to him.
He’d barely finished speaking when there was a commotion at the front of the group, “Curly!” Louis showed up seconds later, “there you are. You know I was starting to think you’re avoiding me”
Harry stared at him silently.
Louis’ eyes narrowed, and suddenly the group of goofy boys seemed a lot more menacing. Harry squirmed uncomfortably in the unknown boy’s grip, and saw how Louis’ eyes followed the movement. He stiffened.
“Oi, Danny, what are you doing? Let go of him”
“What?” the boy, Danny, seemed startled as if he’d forgotten he was still holding on to Harry, but he let go immediately.
Harry rubbed his wrist, mouth pursed.
“Oh. Sorry mate” Danny said sheepishly.
Harry looked up at him surprised at the apology, but thinking Danny looked genuine Harry offered him a quirk of his lips that was almost a smile.
“Right” Louis cut in, putting an arm around Harry’s shoulder and leading him away from the others.
“So” he said once they were out of earshot.
“What” Harry shrugged off his arm, but Louis’ smile didn’t falter.
“You weren’t in maths today”
Harry lifted up one shoulder in a half shrug, eyes stubbornly focused at the grass field. He blinked when a pair of bright red shoes entered his sight, and looked up quickly at Louis, who was now standing in front of him.
“You don’t like maths much, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Louis grinned, “you’re never there”
“Right” he muttered, though he was honestly surprised that Louis had noticed that.
“And, you didn’t pick up my call” he sounded more accusing now, smile dimmed.
“Yeah.. well.” He looked away from Louis, unable to hold his unwavering gaze.
Louis took two steps forward, and he as so close now, Harry was forced to look at him, finding it hard to focus on anything else.
“Why won’t you pick up my calls?” Harry’s breath hitched at the softness of Louis’ voice, incapable of looking away even as Louis leaned in so close their noses nearly touched.
Louis tilted his head sideways, quirking his lips up into a smile, “you know, I got your number for a reason”
“Which is?”
“To talk to you?” Louis arched an eyebrow at him, amused.
Harry scoffed, “oh, so that’s why you get people’s numbers. Right.”
Thrown, Louis frowned “what do you mean?”
Harry huffed, mouth pursed, “just leave me alone Tomlinson. Go call your girlfriend, Cassie or whatever” he turned around, ready to be done with all of this, but two hands on his shoulders stopped him.
“What are you talking about?” Louis asked once they were facing each other again.
Harry shrugged, stubbornly silent.
“Harry?” he asked sternly, making it obvious he wouldn’t let Harry go without an answer.
“I meant” Harry started reluctantly, “exactly what I said. You should go call your girlfriend and leave me alone”
“I don’t have a girlfriend Harry”
Harry humphed, “that’s not what Lacy said”
Louis looked at him stumped “Who’s Lacy?”
Harry stopped for a second, “that blond girl with the weird make up” he let out an impatient snuff at Louis’ confused look, “the one you asked out yesterday!”
“I ask out a lot of people in one day Curly” He smirked, but it only made Harry angrier, whirling around and determined to stamp his foot hard on the ground as he walked away. His plan was once again thwarted by the annoying boy, and Harry found himself, once again, looking at a very smug Louis.
“You’re jealous” he accused, smile giddy.
Harry flushed angrily “I’m not!”
“You are!” he laughed delighted and Harry grit his teeth. Louis was so…infuriating.
“Whatever” he muttered defiantly.
He turned away, and this time Louis let him go, shouting “her name’s Stacy by the way!”
Scowling, Harry finally got to do his grand, stomping exit.
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Louis called again that night. Harry ignored both the phone and his mother’s amused looks, focusing his attention on the tv.
He lost count of how many times Louis called (seven) before the phone finally stayed silent for more than five minutes. Harry sighed, only then noticing how tense he’d been. He rolled his shoulders, feeling more relaxed now that he knew Louis was done for the day, but the thought had barely left when there was a loud ping! coming from his phone.
He jumped surprised and whipped around to look at his phone, wanting to make sure it wasn’t his sister or Nick, Nick was forever texting him weird stuff. It wasn’t. He could just barely make out, from his place on the couch, the name Louis the Tommo.
He rolled his eyes. It was a reflex reaction by now and he wondered why he hadn’t changed the stupid name yet.
Stubborn, and ignoring his mother’s “you should really just answer him”, he turned his phone on silence again, but even though his favourite program was on, he couldn’t concentrate on it, eyes going from the telly to the phone buzzing away sitting at the centre table, every few minutes.
It was just gone half past nine when he gave up, telling his mum he was turning in for the day, and taking his phone with him upstairs.
He went through the routine of brushing his teeth (twice) and patting at his face with some of the acne cream his mum had bought him. Being sixteen, nearly seventeen, wasn’t good for his skin.
He changed out of his clothes before padding back to his room in boxers and socks, also known as his pyjamas.
When he was finally in bed, and there was nothing else to do besides sleep, he concentrated on not thinking of anything, closing his eyes only to open them again at the sudden light behind his eyelids. It was his phone.
He sighed tiredly, only then realising how much harder it was to ignore texts. Calls were easy, but texts were just there, on his phone, not even a feet away. He was curious.
He reached for it, thinking he’d have to check his phone eventually, and it might as well be now.
20:03
‘Harry?’
20:09
‘Haaarrrreeh’
20:16
‘Will you answer me already!’
20:20
‘I will just keep calling you’
20:23
‘You can’t get rid of me you know’
20:28
‘You can stop this whole playing hard to get thing you know? You don’t need it with a face like yours’
And on it went. Harry didn’t bother to check the rest, instead he felt annoyed at the fact Louis thought he was playing hard to get. He scoffed, as if.
Annoyance wasn’t all he felt however.
‘With a face like yours’. Was that a good thing? He wondered. It sounded like a compliment. He couldn’t help but jump up off the bed. He inspected himself in the mirror, leaning in close to look at his face. He wasn’t so bad. He didn’t think he was ugly at least, but maybe he was biased.
His face was slim now, less chubby than it had been a few months ago. He always thought his features were too big for his face, big eyes, big nose, big mouth, but he didn’t think the end result was unpleasant. He smiled and his dimples came to life in the mirror. He could pass as cute, not gorgeous or handsome, not like Louis himself, but still.
He frowned suddenly, and saw the colour rise up to his face. What was he doing, acting like some insecure teenage girl just because someone had given him a kind-of compliment.
He wrinkled his nose at the thought and promptly shoved his phone under his bed, where he wouldn’t see it or hear it until the next day when the alarm went off.
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The next week went the same way. Harry spent his time at school hiding, which was a lot harder than he’d first thought, seeing as he had to start dodging the rest of Louis’ teammates as well, since they all seemed to be on the look out for him.
Louis had also started calling and texting at school. He received more detentions in a day than he had in his last three years at this school. After that he’d learnt to either turn off his phone or just leave it in his locker.
His birthday came and went, thankfully free of any big, celebratory events, and it was only a couple of days after that, that his patience finally ran out.
Harry hadn’t had a good day. He’d slept in and ended up running out of the house, hair a mess and bag open wide as he shoved his homework inside. He was late to his first lesson which lead to a telling off that lasted over ten minutes and felt like an hour. He managed to lose his homework, probably in his mad dash to get to school on time, except his teacher wouldn’t believe that, so he left the lesson with a detention to serve.
Things hadn’t looked up at lunch, because in his hurry to leave the house, he’d forgotten his lunch, and adding that to his lack of breakfast that morning, Harry was very hungry, and grumpy and annoyed, and really just ready for the day to be over, but it wasn’t.
Because of his detention at the end of the day, he ended up missing the bus, much like in the morning, so he had to make his way back on foot, and just because this was obviously not his day, it started raining.
Brilliant.
He was barely past the front door when his phone rang. Harry cursed loudly, thankful his mum wasn’t home to hear it.
He pulled his phone out of his back-pocket with difficulty, due to the wet fabric of his jeans. He didn’t even look at the caller ID, he just answered it.
“What, Louis, what?”
There was an audible gasp at the other end “look who finally decided to pick up his phone! You know I hope you don’t just ignore everyone who calls you”
Harry grimaced at the squelching sound his wet shoes made as he kicked them off, “what is it Louis?” he asked again curtly.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” he could hear the teasing tone of Louis’ voice, and he took a deep breath, begging any sort of holy entity for some patience.
“What do you want?”
“To talk to you! Haven’t we been over this already?”
“I thought we agreed you’d leave me alone”
He heard some rustling before Louis voice came back, “does it look like I’m leaving you alone?”
Harry sighed, suddenly tired, “why – what do you want from me?”
Harry had a feeling he knew what Louis wanted, he wasn’t an idiot, but he thought it probably would be better to hear it from Louis instead of assuming anything.
There was a pause, before “I want you to go out with me” Harry ignored his skipping heart, focusing on how cheerful Louis sounded, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven, make sure to look pretty yeah?” and the line went dead.
Harry glared hatefully at the black device in his hand, as if it was Louis Tomlinson himself. He couldn’t believe Louis. Telling him that they were going out, assuming that he was going to say yes.
He was such a typical jock, conceited, cocky and just so incredibly annoying. Harry wasn’t going anywhere with that ignorant prick.
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The next day was Friday, and Harry had never been more grateful for the end of the week.
Thankfully waking up on time, he had time to have breakfast and caught his mum just in time to give her a kiss goodbye, before she left for work.
The first thing he saw when he arrived at school was Louis. He was standing by his locker with his back to Harry, chatting with Liam, Niall and Zayn, all of them wearing their letterman jackets.
It was ridiculous; it was a wonder how the school’s cheerleaders didn’t walk around in their cheerleading uniform.
Deciding this was a sign that he shouldn’t procrastinate, he carefully approached the small group, relieved that at least there were only four of them. Still standing a meter away he saw that Zayn had noticed his approach, mouth curling up.
Before Zayn could announce his presence for him, Harry leaned forward and tapped Louis on the shoulder.
The boy didn’t even turn around, “not now babe” he threw over his shoulder. Harry cleared his throat, “Um, Louis?” he wondered if maybe all the rain he caught the day before had made him hallucinate the phone call. Maybe he didn’t have to worry about a supposed date at all –
“Harry? Look who’s come out of hiding!” Louis announced loudly, “what’s up babe?” he leaned sideways and crossed his arms, resting his shoulder against his locker.
“Uh” he spied the other three boys behind them, very obviously eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Um, about last night – “
He realised he’d used the wrong words when the boys started catcalling.
“Alright Tommo!” Niall praised punching Louis’ shoulder lightly.
Though he was smiling – smirking wound be a better description – his eyes didn’t leave Harry.
Slightly uneasy, Harry decided to hurry up and hurry away from there. He couldn’t help but throw a disgruntled glare at the three boys, before focusing back on Louis, who looked amused now.
“What about it?” Louis asked, his words doing nothing to disprove his friend’s thoughts.
“Yeah, uh. I’m not going on a date with you”
The lazy smile and confident look vanished at once.
“Why not?” he pushed away from the locker, stepping towards Harry.
Harry wished he wouldn’t. This was one of the times where Louis didn’t look stupid or obnoxious, this was one of the times he looked intimidating.
Harry took a deep breath, “because I don’t want to” he told him before quickly walking away as fast as he could without actually running.
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Sadly Fridays weren’t lucky Thursdays, though after the day he had yesterday he was starting to doubt the truth of it.
Fridays meant English, and English meant Louis, and Louis meant a serious consideration where Harry wondered whether he should skip his lesson or not.
He shook his head and told himself to stop being a coward.
Neither Louis nor Liam and Zayn were in there yet when he arrived, so he took his seat with a relieved exhale.
Louis was late, in fact he only arrived fifteen minutes into the lesson, Liam and Zayn barely a step behind.
The teacher had looked at them, rolled her eyes and continued his lesson. Harry pursed his mouth at the injustice, remembering the telling off and the detention he received for being late the day before.
He wondered if he was going crazy, but he could feel eyes on him throughout the whole lesson and he had no doubts as to whose they were.
There were still another five minutes to go, and the teacher was babbling away, something about overused metaphors and clichéd concepts, Harry wasn’t paying close attention, though he usually liked English. Instead, he already had his things packed away, and when the bell went, he was the first one out of his seat.
He hurried towards the cafeteria, wishing the day would end already.
After a bit more of pushing his way through, made easier by his size, he finally settled down at the table which he had claimed for himself nearly three years ago.
He never shared a year at this school with his sister, she’d been a freshman in uni when he himself was starting high school. He thought that was too bad, he and Gemma were close, and her friends had always loved him growing up, and Harry had loved them in return, mostly because they were older, and not like the immature, over-dramatic kids his own age.
He took his lunch out and promised himself he’d call her later before the thought was chased out of his head by Louis’ sudden presence. He was standing in front of Harry’s table, knuckles resting on top of it, and he was smiling.
That couldn’t be good.
“Hey Curly” he grinned down at him, “nice lunch?”
Harry nodded, dumbfounded.
Louis’ grin widened, “I’ll pick you up at seven yeah?”
But it wasn’t a question, Louis wasn’t asking him, in fact Louis didn’t even pretend that he wanted an answer, already turning around to leave.
“Are you mental?”
The words escaped him before he had a chance to think them through. Louis turned back around so they were facing each other again, “well I did ask you out” he smiled.
Cocky bastard.
“No you didn’t” Harry snapped, standing up, “you didn’t ask me anything”
Louis looked startled at the words, mouth opening to protest the statement, but Harry pressed on, “you just assumed. You’re so used to everyone saying yes to you, that you don’t even understand it when someone says no”
“No one says no” Louis looked uneasy now.
“I’m saying no!” Harry said exasperated, tone rising “you can’t have everything you want Louis”
They stared at each other for a few seconds, the cafeteria felt strangely silent, and then he saw the infuriating smirk returning to Louis’ lips.
“Yeah I can” he disagreed, and Harry honestly couldn’t think of anything to disprove him, Louis did get everything he wanted. Everything except –
“Well you can’t have me” Harry muttered, gathering his things, “so stop calling, I don’t want your phone calls or your texts, and I certainly don’t want to go out with a cocky, arrogant jerk like you”
He stormed out of the cafeteria, for once not caring about what Louis and his teammates could do to him.
Still, he went home, ditching the rest of his classes and deciding that being a bit of a coward sometimes was good for his health.
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Louis didn’t call him again, and for once he was able to have dinner without his phone ringing a ridiculous amount of time.
Harry didn’t know what time he fell asleep. Very late, he was willing to bet, vaguely remembering that it had been 2:41 the last time he’d checked the clock.
He wasn’t, therefore pleased to be woken up by the sound of his phone ringing, louder than it ever had, or so it seemed in his sleep-hazed mind.
“H’llo” he mumbled into the phone.
“Harold!” Nick’s cheerful voice greeted him back from the other end.
Harry had met Nick a couple of years ago. It was kind of Gemma’s fault that they’d met really.
Harry had gone over to visit Gemma in uni, and she’d taken him along to a party, eager to get started on her social life now that she was away from home. He’d lost sight of her barely five minutes after they arrived, leaving him with a couple of girlfriends and encouraging him to ‘have fun’.
Nick had found him only minutes after that.
“You look a bit young to be here” he’d said and Harry had blinked at him, unfazed.
“Probably” he’d agreed.
“You don’t seem as wide eyed and in awe like the other freshmen though”
Harry had shrugged, not seeing anything to be awestruck by. He’d told Nick that, and he’d grinned, there and then deciding he was going to keep him (his words).
They’d been friends ever since, and though most people found it odd to see a twenty year old hanging out with a fifteen year old boy, nobody said anything. Neither Gemma or his mum had been surprised, not batting an eyelid, when Harry had introduced Nick to them.
“Ugh” Harry groaned, face shoved into his pillow.
“Up, up young one” Nick’s voice urged.
“Too early” Harry grumbled back at him.
“It’s noon.”
“On a Saturday” Harry whined in response, though he sat up anyway, stretching his arms above himself before reaching for the phone again to hear Nick babbling away.
“Regardless. Get up already, there’s this huge orange thing up in the sky today, and we shouldn’t waste the day away sleeping”
“What?” Harry asked, mind befuddled and stubbornly clinging to sleep.
“The sun Harold, the sun! Dear god, have you always been this slow? Don’t answer that” he said quickly and Harry closed his mouth again.
Prat.
“What do you want anyway?”
There was a mutter of ‘rude’ before the older man got back to the point, “I’m throwing a party tonight, dear one, and you’re coming”
Harry rolled his eyes, “Am I really now?”
“Yes Harold, you are. So get your cute little bum out of bed and get over here already.”
“Fine but I’m staying over” he didn’t want to drive back home late and probably drunk, he’d just gotten his driver’s licence, he’d like to keep it.
“Of course you are” Nick agreed easily, “now get over here”
Harry grinned and went to find his mum and beg her to let him use her car.
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It was nearly ten by the time Harry got back home on Sunday, and he wasn’t even close to recovered from his hangover. He’d forgotten how lethal Nick’s drinks were.
The first thing he did was pass out on his bed. The second was being woken up by insistent sound of his alarm clock in the morning.
He could barely believe it was Monday already. He didn’t like Mondays, but then again he doubted any seventeen year old did.
School passed by more slowly than usual. He was actually ready to fall down to his knees in gratitude when the bell finally went at the end of the day.
He pushed his way through the crowd, students spilling out of the door like ants out of their nest. Twisting around, he reached for the Ipod in his bag and that’s when he heard the sharp, leery whistle. He looked up reflexively, before turning back to his bag, and then he needed a second glance, because standing a few feet away was Louis, and he wasn’t alone.
Louis had a blonde girl wrapped around him almost obscenely, as he tried, or so it seemed, to swallow the girl’s face.
Riveted, he watched, and he was aware he wasn’t the only one doing so, as the two embraced each other, to put it lightly, Louis’ hands running all over the faceless girl, touching places that were entirely too inappropriate for a place such as the school parking lot.
Harry licked his suddenly dry lips and forced himself to turn away. The first step was the hardest, after that he was practically running.
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The next few weeks were much of the same.
It had been hard to avoid Louis before, and now it was just about impossible. It seemed like everywhere he went, Louis was there, always with a different girl on his arm; kissing (though Harry thought that was just a nice word for the positively indecent, gross way Louis would behave with those girls) and touching and hugging.
Harry lost count of how many times he saw Louis with a girl on his lap, draped all over him, lost count of how many times he turned away or walked right back out of the cafeteria after another one of the displays.
He told himself he was lucky, he wouldn’t be used like those girls (strangely enough there were no boys in the mix) only to be discarded the next day.
He was better off.
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