the spaces between us ➳ larry stylinson

chapter nine

published on march 28, 2021

again, sincerely sorry for this c r i n g e y chapter. hopefully you still enjoy.

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Lou ☀️: I had fun 2day with you and the lads! Let's do it again soon!

That was the goodnight text Harry received from Louis last night. God, he still couldn't get over the fact that he, HARRY STYLES, played football with LOUIS TOMLINSON yesterday. And as an added bonus, he didn't make a complete idiot out of himself! 

Harry felt himself fading away from his maths class and back into yesterday, back to the football pitch, back to being on a team with Louis.

Harry had noticed while he and Louis were having a water break, Liam, Niall, and Zayn were having some sort of heated conversation. Harry would have just ignored it except for the fact that their eyes kept flicking over to himself and Louis, and then they laughed and smiled when Harry would occasionally catch one of their eyes. He was confused as to why they kept looking and Louis and him, but he just played it off as them making fun of Harry's clumsiness.

Jesus, was Louis a proper football player. He doesn't give himself enough credit, Harry thought throughout the whole match. Louis was scoring goals left and right, and his passes always went directly to Harry. On the other hand, Harry's passes often went flying by Louis and into the waiting feet of Zayn, Niall, or Liam. 

It was sort of a surprise when they ended up winning the match. Harry knew they had many goals because of Louis, but he thought that his rubbish performance on the field would bring them down and make them lose. Fortunately, he was wrong and they won. 

Oh, and one more thing that made the butterflies in Harry's stomach flutter around like a tornado had it, was that Louis hugged him.

With 10 seconds left in the game, Harry actually made an alright pass to Louis, who then dribbled the football further, cut around Zayn and then Niall, and kicked the ball as hard as he could, resulting in a brilliant goal. Harry cheered as loud as he could for Louis. Harry wanted more than anything to run up to Louis and take a picture of him, so he could remember this moment forever. Louis looked so happy, smiling wide, eyes twinkling as the sun brought out those beautiful, baby blue eyes. His face was sweaty and his hair was wild and all over the place. No one would have been able to pull off this look. No one except Louis. Louis manages to look good in everything and can pull anything off. He could show up to school in a rubbish bag and Harry would still want to scoop him up and cuddle with him.

Harry was about to run over to Louis to congratulate him on the perfect goal, but Louis beat Harry to it, and was suddenly running towards Harry. He was confused why Louis was charging at him and smiling so wide, and before he could think, say, or do anything, Louis wrapped his arms around Harry as tight as he could. Harry could barely breath, but did he care? Absolutely not. He needed to save this moment for as long as humanly possible. Harry was shocked and nervous and excited that Louis was hugging him, but he would assess his feelings later. Now, he needed to savor Louis' hug. Harry wrapped his arms around Louis and squeezed him back lightly, so as to not hurt him or crush his tiny ribs. Louis Tomlinson was hugging him.

Harry hoped he smelled good, although that would be difficult to achieve, since he did just play in a footie match. Louis sure smells good. He inhaled Louis sweet, clean smell of strawberries and mint. Harry also smelled a hint of vanilla, which wouldn't work on anyone except Louis. Wait, why was Harry analyzing Louis' smell rather than enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime experience that is a hug by Louis Tomlinson?

Louis gives the best hugs, Harry decided. He never wanted this moment to end. It's like everyone else faded away when the they embraced each other. The world went into slow motion just for the two of them.

No, no, Harry was in way over his head. Louis was surely just hugging him because they won and he was happy. It was probably a hug out of pity, now that he thought about it, since Harry was absolute rubbish on the field today.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts and brought his brain back into class. Oh how he hated maths. He sucked at it, so what was the point anyway? He might as well keep being bad at it, so he can continue being tutored by Louis. Harry had noticed that ever since Louis entered his life, it was harder for him to focus on important things, like school. Even during football matches, when Louis is sitting on the bleachers to watch Niall play. Sometimes, only sometimes, Harry imagines that Louis is there to watch him play.

He hadn't taken many notes for maths, so he would have to ask Liam what they went over during class. Unfortunately, Liam sits across the room from Harry's seat. But on the other hand, Louis sits in front of Harry's seat, so Harry can stare at Louis' gorgeous locks all class. But unfortunately again, Nick Grimshaw sits next to Harry's seat, and is always shooting menacing glances at poor Louis for no reason.

Sometimes, Harry wanted to kick Nick in the face with a football as hard as possible. He could be such a bloody idiot and was so rude to everyone - except Liam and occasionally Harry. Liam and Harry's friend group had sort of just been forced to tolerate Nick after Liam and him became friends after they both went to the same camp over the summer. That same summer was the last time Harry ever took a vacation with his whole family together. Just the four of them, on holiday together. When life was easy and peaceful. 

Harry wanted this day to be over so he could go home and fawn over Louis some more, and if he was lucky, get some notes down.

He was already planning in his head of what he would say to Louis. He wanted to be funny, but not overly funny, but wanted to be sincere and nice. He put off answering Louis' text about their football match long enough and it was time to suck it up and just send something.

•••••

The day was finally over and Harry was walking home, contemplating on what to say to Louis again, mulling over ideas in his head. Harry was definitely overthinking this. He just needed to send Louis a text that was nice and got to the point, but had some humor to it.

When he opened his front door, Anne was sitting on the couch with her glasses on and her laptop open, typing furiously. She looked tired and stressed and Harry didn't want to bother her, so he crept upstairs to his room and shut his door. 

He dropped his backpack onto the floor, reminding himself to take his notes later, since Liam caught him up to speed on what they did in class. Harry threw himself into his bed and typed out his message.

Hazza 🐸: I had fun too! Glad you lads came and we got to play together. Sorry I was a load of rubbish during the match - I promise I'm not always like that 😂 x H

Harry bit his lip and pushed his curls out of his face, concentrating on this message, finger hovering over the send arrow.

Was his text too corny? Would Louis totally judge him and never talk to him again? Jesus, why was this so hard?

Before he could think, Harry pressed his finger down on the arrow and right away the text delivered. He rolled to his other side, shut off his phone, and exhaled, smiling a little.

Louis had no clue how whipped Harry was.

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