You Think I Hate You? (Larry Stylinson AU) Stepbrothers

Chapter 5

"No, Harry. No dares or bets, I promise. This is all coming from me. I want to improve in school because my parents have started noticing how low my grades are and they want me to do well and I just can't disappoint them. So please, help me out?" He pleaded, sticking out his bottom lip for more effect.

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. "Sure, fine. Is there a catch though? I would like to know that before I agree with anything else. Furthermore, I would like to get some kind of reward for this."

He grimaced as he nodded his head. "Yes, of course. Whatever makes you do it is fine by me. We'll negotiate about the reward after our first meeting. And yeah, there kind of is a catch actually. You can't tell anyone about this because I wouldn't want anyone to know--" He started saying, but I cut him off.

"To know that you're spending time with me, I get it. You also don't want anyone to know that you need help with your schoolwork. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," I said, giving him a small smile.

He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Really? You would actually do that for me? I mean, we would have to hide from the other kids and probably have to have our meetings in the library or something, after school."

I shrugged. "Nothing I haven't done before. I usually spend time in the library after school, you know?" I chuckled, making him grimace.

"Yeah, forgot you are..." he trailed off, furrowing his eyebrows.

"That I am what?"

"Nothing. I gotta go. See you tomorrow after school?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure."

"Goodbye, Harry."

"Bye, Louis."

I woke up by the sound of my alarm clock going off, making me let out a loud groan. The dream was still very clear in my mind, and I was aware that it wasn't just a simple dream, but a memory. A memory of the first conversation Louis and I had.

You might think that he actually wasn't that bad back then, and the truth was, he wasn't that bad either. Sure, I didn't like him, but that was because he acted like a whole other person around his friends than it turned out he did when it was only the two of us. Before that meeting, I had never witnessed the nice side of Louis, so what else could I think of him?

Once I had talked to him for the first time, I thought I had got the opportunity to get to know the real him, but after he stopped showing up at our meetings, I started doubting myself. It felt like that Louis was only a stupid act to get me to help him out or something. No matter what, it didn't feel like that side of him was the real him anymore, and now I was almost sure that assumption was correct.

For some reason, though, I couldn't shake the memory of him being so kind to me out of my mind. There was something about the way he had acted back then that made me think that it was actually real, that it wasn't some stupid act he had come up with. Maybe it was because of the way his eyes would crinkle when I used to pull my stupid jokes or the way his high-pitched laughter would make my stomach do somersaults. Either way, it had actually felt real, and no matter how much I wanted to forget about it, I couldn't. It was like an annoying, nagging headache that you couldn't get rid of.

Letting out another groan (this time not from tiredness), I sat up and tried rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. It was only seven in the morning, yet my brain was working at high speed. It was definitely not smart to start the day by thinking about Louis. He was like a puzzle that was impossible to solve, and just the thought of him made my head hurt. The fact that I would have to face him in mere minutes didn't exactly make matters better.