echo. | larry stylinson.

Chapter Nine - Mysterious Behavior.

Louis’ POV:

There I was, standing in front of Harry’s house without having an idea what I could say. Ugh, why was I so stupid? I swallowed and bit my lip, silently praying that I would find the right words to say when Harry opened the door.

After two minutes that probably felt like eternity to me Harry opened the door – he immediately raised an eyebrow as he saw me, folding his arms in front of his chest.

“What are you doing here? I told you to stop stalking me,” Harry said and I swallowed once again, but my throat remained dry. Why was I so nervous around Harry? Was Zayn right? Did I start to like Harry? Because last time I checked I liked girls.

“Hello?” Harry’s voice woke me up from my thoughts and I blushed a little as I realized that I must’ve been staring at him for a few moments.

“I-I live across the street and my mum told me to introduce myself to the neighbors,” I croaked. Harry nodded.

“C-Can I have a glass of water? I think my throat is drying out right now.”

Harry sighed but nodded again. “Follow me,” he instructed and I followed him into the house. I closed the door before I walked into a kitchen that was the cleanest kitchen I have ever seen in my life. You probably could eat from the ground if you wanted to.

Harry got a glass, poured some water into it and handed it to me. I took it with a smile and one of Harry’s sleeves slid up as he pulled his hand back, revealing a bandage that was wrapped around his forearm. Harry seemed to notice it and rolled the sleeve down as fast as possible, avoiding eye contact with me.

“What happened?” I asked, hoping that he wouldn’t throw me out of the house because I was “caring about things that weren’t my business”.

“I tried to pet my aunt’s cat but the cat didn’t seem to like me that much. No biggie,” Harry said, smiling weakly. I nodded after I decided to ask any more questions in case he’d throw me out of the house.

I looked around the room and noticed a framed picture hanging on the wall. I stopped closer to it and looked at it. It showed two boys; they probably were about eleven or twelve years old. They were sitting in front of a house that I recognized as Harry’s. One of the boys obviously was Harry, but the other guy didn’t seem familiar to me – he had surfer hair, kinda like Justin Bieber. Both of them were smiling brightly.

“Is that Liam?” I asked without thinking and I saw Harry tense up out of the corner of my eye.

“H-How do you know his name?” And that the answer, this guy was Liam. Harry seemed to be happy with Liam by his side because I never saw him smile. This Harry seemed to be happy, but the Harry I got to know was visibly depressed, but I didn’t know why – maybe because he got bullied at school, or maybe because he seemed to be lonely. He never talked to anyone at school, and he never went out or got visitors.

“Ed and Niall told me about him, but they never said anything else than that he was your best friend but then moved away,” I explained. “I’m sorry, by the way. You seem to miss him.”

~

Harry’s POV:

Ed and Niall told Louis about Liam? Why would they do that? They weren’t even my friends; it wasn’t their job to tell people about my life or my friends. Well, Niall once was my friend, but that was before middle school, before the darkness got me as I liked to say.

I swallowed and nodded slowly, and before I knew it I was talking to Louis as if he wasn’t the guy who seemed to stalk me since he moved here, the boy who I started to like the first time I saw him even if I didn’t want it.

“He was my only real friend,” I said. “We used to hang out every day; he was the only guy who knew everything about me. You could say that he was my rock. I felt secure around him, like nothing in the world could hurt me, you know?” I decided to leave out the fact that Liam was the first boy I ever liked, the one that made me question my sexuality for the first time ever.

“When he moved away my world got turn apart, but who cares?” I shrugged and looked down at my feet.

“I do,” Louis said and I looked up, right into his blue eyes. They were a perfect shade of blue, and I started to think. Was it weird that I told him everything? Even though we practically were strangers?

“I-It’s better that you leave now,” I stumbled and shoved Louis out of the front door before he could question anything. I ran up the stairs and into my room.

What did happen down there? Why did I tell him about Liam? Something about Louis made my stomach flip and my knees got weak when I looked right into his eyes. I didn’t want to like him, I didn’t want him to get hurt, I wasn’t allowed to get close to him. But that wasn’t easy.

I was falling for him.

~

Louis’ POV:

I turned around but Harry already closed the door. What did happen? One second he was talking to me, and the other second he threw me out of the house?

I walked to my house and entered it. My mum was already waiting for me in the kitchen as I walked in.

“Where have you been? You’re late,” she said and I sat down at the table.

“I was over at Harry’s house, you know, Anne’s son.” My mum became good friends with Anne when he moved here and they met quite often – most of the time they hung around our house, baking things or gossiping about topics that I couldn’t care less about.

My mum smiled. “I’m glad you’re friends with him, Harry is a nice boy,” my mum said. “I’m going over for dinner at Anne’s tomorrow, maybe you could join me. I’m sure Harry would like that, too.”

I smiled, because that would be my chance to talk to Harry again while having a logical reason to be over at his house.

“Sure, I’d love to,” I said with a smile and walked into my room where I sat down on my bed, pulling my phone out of my pocket and opened a message.

Message to Ed;

I was wondering if you want to come over, maybe we can start writing the song we talked about in music class. I’m bored as you may be able to tell.

I sent the message, locked my phone and walked over to my window, looking over at Harry’s house.

The curtains of one window were closed and I assumed it was Harry’s room since I was able to look into all other rooms, well, except the bathroom since it had opaque windows. I was wondering why Harry acted so weird as my phone beeped and I looked at my phone.

Message from Ed;

Sure, I’ll be over to come over.