Across the Barriers (l.s)

Seventeen

Harry's POV:

The next morning, I woke up to someone excessively clearing their throat. I opened my eyes just a little to see if Louis was fine. He was. He was sleeping next to me, all cuddled up, his arms around my waist. Ugh, then who's coughing so much?

I groggily sat up with a yawn and looked up. I yelped as soon as my eyes met another pair of eyes, "Ow! Niall?" What the... Sure enough, Niall was standing right across me, his hands folder over his chest and a smirk on his face. He cleared his throat again, "Hello, Harry." I glared at him, "What are you doing here?"

Niall smirked some more, "I think the better question would be what exactly you are doing right now?" All the commotion woke up Louis right then; he's a light sleeper. His arm moved around looking for my waist; his eyes still closed. He mumbled, "Come back to sleep, Haz." Niall promptly dissolved in peals of laughter.

That's what alerted Louis that there was someone in the room with us. He sat up immediately and opened his eyes. He paled as soon as he saw Niall; his mouth gaping in horror. Niall saw his expression and practically fell on the floor with laughter. Overreaction much?

Louis buried his face in my shoulder and groaned, "Kill me, please." I refrained myself from kissing him; that would be such a disaster. Well more of a disaster than whatever is happening right now. I glared at Niall, "Why the fuck are you in my room?"

He looked up from the floor, "I came to get you two for breakfast. What the fuck are you doing sleeping together?" Louis yelped, "We are not sleeping together!" Niall finally stood back up and raised his eyebrows, "You are literally in the same bed as we speak."

Louis blushed at that and groaned, "It's really not what it looks like." Niall chuckled, "Yeah? Then what is it like?" Louis fumbled, trying to answer, "Well... Um..." I rolled my eyes, "You're making this so much worse, Tomlinson. We ended up arguing last night and I accidentally  poured water over him, and he just happened to be sitting on his bed. So he obviously couldn't sleep in a wet bed." 

The lie was so effortless. Technically that's how we first slept together in the same bed. So, is really a lie? Okay fine, it's a half-lie.

Louis looked at me with confusion just for a moment, before nodding, "Yeah, that's what happened." Niall looked between us and then peeked at Louis' bed. Louis said kind of feebly, "The water has obviously dried up now." Niall looked back at us. He didn't look like he fully believed us.

A few seconds later, he shrugged, "Fine. Whatever you say. I'm hungry; let's go get food." Louis shrugged before getting up and making his way to the bathroom. I called after him, "Hey! I was going to go to the bathroom first!" He laughed at me, "Suck it up, Styles." 

I glared at the bathroom and might have cursed a few times to put on a show for Niall. Don't get me wrong, I still do hate Louis, but we usually shower together now, so... I don't know. Not relevant. I turned to Niall, "You utter a word about this to Astraea or anyone else, and you're dead."

Niall laughed aloud, "Ooh, I'm scared." I raised an eyebrow, "You should be. Please Niall, let's not forget what we've done when we used to room together." Niall yelped, "Hey! You promised to never talk about that ever again!" I just smirked at him, in response to which he sighed, "Fine. I won't tell anybody about this." I grinned as I patted his head to annoy him, "Good lad." 

He huffed before turning around and walking away; to the cafeteria, I presumed. Then I walked into the bathroom to find Louis brushing his teeth. He ignored me completely. I rolled my eyes as I got my toothbrush, "It's not my fault Niall decided to walk in, you know." He spit out his toothpaste and spoke quietly, "We need to lock the doors more often."

He then rinsed his mouth before walking out. I quickly brushed my teeth and went out to catch up with him. He was just changing into some presentable clothes, still ignoring me. I got a t-shirt and put it on before tugging Louis to me. He huffed, "Let go of me."

I said, "I will, after you tell me why you're mad at me." He mumbled, "M'not mad at you." I snorted, "Yeah, well you're ignoring me." He shot back, "Since when do I need a reason to ignore you?" I shrugged, "You just do. What is it?"

He didn't say anything for a while and continued dressing. Fine, if he wants to be like that. I went back to dressing too. He then abruptly asked, "What did you and Niall do when you used to room together?" 

I laughed, "Is that what this is about? You jealous, princess?" He smacked me in the stomach, "No! And don't call me that!" I teased, "You're jealous." He huffed, "I do not get jealous, Harold." I laughed, "Sure, sure. Anyway, it's quite a funny story actually."

He looked up, "What is?" I explained, "The thing with Niall. So last year, there was a Rogue party and somebody managed to sneak in alcohol. And we don't get to drink a lot in school, so most of us got wasted. Niall included. So later that night when I walked into our room, Niall was on his bed with some girl, literally wanking in front of her. I mean, they were making out too, yeah.

"Anyway, as soon as the girl saw me, she walked up to me like 'Harry! I've been waiting for you!' But she was literally covered in Niall's cum-"

Louis almost gagged at that, "That sounds disgusting." I nodded, wincing at the memory, "I'm pretty sure she got Niall's cum on me." Louis looked torn between laughing and being disgusted. He somehow did both at the same time. I muttered, "Stop laughing! It was a traumatic experience."

He giggled, "I bet." I just rolled my eyes. Within five minutes, we were at the cafeteria. All of our friends were already there. Destiny sighed with relief as soon as she saw Louis, "Lou! I have been so worried. Are you okay?" Apparently, everybody knew that Louis was upset. Except Niall.

He asked, "Why wouldn't he be?" Astraea then went ahead and explained the situation; about how Louis froze during the last round and almost cost them the competition. Louis visibly winced when she said that. Destiny shot her sister a warning glance, "It wasn't his fault. Besides, we won! We should have been celebrating yesterday."

Louis muttered, "Well excuse me for not being in the mood after almost costing the competition." I slowly moved my hand under the table to touch the small of his back. He relaxed into me, still visibly upset. Honestly, curse Destiny for bringing this up again. He had forgotten about the whole debate competition thing until now.

The conversation then shifted to various other topics. Niall didn't bring up about the room incident, but he did keep looking at us and smirking. Idiot. He's so planning to give it away without actually saying anything. 

A while later, Niall suddenly said after he checked his phone, "Guys. The talent competition date came in." Astraea snatched his phone right away, "What? Show me that. It's on the last day of the term." I did the math in my head before speaking, "So, in a month? When's the auditions?"

Astraea checked Niall's phone again before speaking disbelievingly, "Next week. The trials are next fucking week." Niall and I groaned at the same time. One week is not enough time. Usually, it would be, but considering Astraea and Zayn don't seem to agree on anything anymore... Fuck, this is going to be a nightmare.

Niall muttered, "We'll have to start right away. Like today." Astraea snapped, "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Destiny glared at her twin, "Be nice, Trae." Astraea glared right back, "Shut up. I'm very close to panicking right now. We have to get to the band room right now."

I said wryly, "Band meeting led by Astraea. Fun." Astraea shot me and Niall a glare before standing up and walking over to Zayn's table. Niall sighed, "Let's go, Harry. Astraea isn't here anymore. It's Traezilla in the house." Liam, Destiny and Louis laughed at the nickname. I just rolled my eyes as I followed Niall out of the cafeteria.

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A/N

I have a feeling this story is going to be long. Nobody really reads this except my friend ieva but that's okay. psst ieva u don't mind the story being super long do you?