Innocence//l.s

Chapter One

I had my hand placed on the small of his back as I led him out of the room, only letting go when I had to let him lead me to his apartment.

His door was surprisingly close to mine. Now I know how he just knew I was moving in. Considering how close his apartment was to mine and how thin the walls are. Even with all the noise I can hear my neighbor's television playing from across the hall.

"Oh sit! Sit!" Harry led me into a pastel painted room. The couches and furniture all white leather with lightly colored throw pillows.

"This was the apartment from the website," I looked around, admiring how much bigger and nicer Harry's apartment looked.

"Yeah," he answered from the kitchen, "They wanted a nice representation of the building to draw in more people to fill the rooms. The super asked if they could take pictures of my place since I take the best care of it." He walked back into the room, handing me an empty porcelain plate.
I took the dish, setting it on the stained wood coffee table in front of me. The plate had little painted roses around the edges, green leaves swirling around the pink.

In any other environment, I one hundred percent would have thought the plates belonged to a eighty-year-old woman; but I'm Harry's possession they just seem so in place.

My admiration of the plates was cut short, a flawlessly iced slice of cake placed on the dish.

"You made this?" I gasped as he handed me a fork.

"Yeah," he sat across from me, his side of the table not occupied by the pastry, "I hope you like chocolate."

"Are you going to eat any?" I motioned towards the kitchen, "It's really good,"

"Oh god no," he laughed, "I'm so sick of cake, ate it all the time when I was younger,"

"Shame, this is really good," I pointed to it with the fork.

"I'm glad to hear it," he smiled, a knock soon sounding at the door. "Excuse me," he mumbled before getting up.

"No, It's just our new neighbor!" I heard Harry return, a young looking couple following behind him. "He's moving in right now,"

"Hi," I stood to greet them both.

After introductions and a brief conversation started by Harry offering them cake, the man (introduced as Evan) slyly pulled Harry aside and asked in a hushed tone, "Are you working tonight?"

I didn't think anything of it, continuing to talk to his wife Annabelle; listening to her rambling about how absolutely lovely the building is, and how terribly amazing Harry is, and how much Evan totally loves his work.

She's really kind of annoying.

"Okay," Evan walked back over to join us, "We've got to go now," he sent me a quick smile, "It was nice meeting you, Louis,"

"Yeah you too mate," I gave him a smile in return that was just as brief as his own, waiting for them to leave so I could talk to Harry more. He was really cute and he blushed a lot.

"Sorry," Harry started after he had closed the door behind the couple, "Evan just wanted to ask me about work tonight,"

"You guys work at the same place?" I raised my eyebrows, a little sad that I actually didn't have any cake left.

Harry noticed this and scooped the plate out of my possession, rinsing it off in the sink quickly before placing it in the dishwasher, "Uh, no, he just likes to hang out where I work," he sent me a smile from the kitchen.

"Where do you work,"

"A bar,"

"You must make really good tips," I looked around the apartment Harry lives in. Mostly everything in the room matched his sweater perfectly. 

"Haha, yeah, I guess," he laughed a little bit and sat down next to me.

"Do you want to help me decorate my place? My friends say I have horrible taste," I looked around at the black and white Polaroids that hung in pastel frames above the television .

"Maybe later," he rested his head in his sweater paw, "Right now, I think we should help your friends move," he stood, reaching his hand out to help me up.

I took his hand and stood up, accepting the gesture but not really using it to help me.

"Good plan," I agreed and walked with him back to my apartment, where the lads had now set up my tv and Xbox and decided to slack off.

"Oi!" I yelled when I walked in, "What are you bums doing?"

"You left us," Niall rolled over to look at me, "We were lost without our queen to command us,"

"Shut up," I went over and unplugged the game station to get the other two's attention, "We have work to do,"

"But you left us to hang out with dream boy," Liam whined.

"He's right there," I pointed to where he stood awkwardly by the door.

"Hi, I'm Harry," he waved a little less enthusiastically than he had initially when they all looked over to him. Now he looked shy and quiet.

"I'm Niall," he was the first one to stand, walking over to Harry to shake his hand.

To which Harry pulled Niall into a hug, wrapping his arms around his shoulders tightly and smiling widely.

Uh, I didn't get a hug. Rude.