Would You Want Me?

Winter

Harry's heart sinks a little bit, he should have known that's what the note meant. That's why he knew he had to circle maybe while his entire body wanted to circle yes, yes, yes. "You mean you aren't going with Mersey?" he says instead.

Louis scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Don't be cheeky, you know I was only messing around with her to make you jealous, she was only with me to waste time,"

"You wanted to make me jealous? I thought you did it to piss me off," Harry says starting to walk down the hallway towards the front doors.

"All the same," Louis says waving him off. "Did it work?"

"Did what work?" Harry asks playing coy.

"Did you get jealous?" Louis asks following next to Harry, trying to keep up with his stride.

"Do you want a ride home or not?" Harry says instead of answering. Louis already knows the answer is yes, Harry was jealous.

"Depends," Louis muses. "Will you go to formal with us?"

"I'll go to formal with you,"

"That's not what I'm offering," Louis counters.

Harry sighs and opens the passenger door to his car for Louis as he's always done. "Yes, I'll go to formal with you and the boys,"

Louis just smiles and gets in the car waiting for Harry to settle in next to him. "Did you see our marks for our project?"

"I did," Harry says driving down the road towards home. "I did a wonderful job,"

"Shove off, I did some of the work," Louis defends.

"You wrote two pages, and I didn't include them when I turned it in. They were shit," Harry says with a light laugh.

"You're shit," Louis says crossing his arms.

"Come on, Lou, you know I did it because I love you," as soon as it's out of his mouth he wishes he could grab it from the air and force it back down into his mouth. Louis tenses and looks out the window. Harry clears his throat and turns the radio up.

"Didn't mean to say that," Harry says after a few awkward moments.

"I know," Louis says too quickly.

It's extremely awkward the rest of the drive to Louis' house. Harry was going to see if Louis wanted him to drop him off down the street like they've been doing here and there so that he can sneak into Harry's room through his window to watch films cuddled up under the blankets in his bed or lay on their bellies on the floor to play scrabble.

It doesn't feel like the time to ask now though, so Harry pulls up to Louis' house and avoids looking at Louis.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow for formal then?" Louis asks avoiding Harry's eyes just as heavily.

"Yeah, are we meeting here?" Harry asks. Louis nods and opens the door, getting out and walking up the drive to his house.

"I'm an idiot," Harry says to himself once Louis is inside. He slams his hands on his steering wheel and hits his head on the seat a few times hoping it'll take him back in time to before he said that he loves Louis. Out loud. To his face. Harry groans at himself before setting off down the road to his own house.

"Hi, love," Anne kisses Harry's cheek as he walks past her in the kitchen. "Niall and Zayn are upstairs,"

"Hi," Harry says solemnly.

"What's the matter?" she asks leaning on the counter.

"Just Louis," he says. "It's nothing,"

"Niall says you're all going to winter formal together?" she asks with an eyebrow raised. "All five of you?"