The Curl Next Door (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter 2

A month has passed since the fateful arrival of Louis and his family. After the hallway commotion with Brent, Louis has kept his distance from his next door neighbor and the heavily-fueled bully. Though the young boy counts his distance as a blessing, he can't help but be intrigued by Harry's heartless demeanor. He doesn't want to become the type of judgemental person who would assume the "punk" boy to be anything other than wholesome. Unfortunately, based on what the rest of the students have spoken about him, Harry has quite the negative reputation. Louis tries not to take it all to heart, aware that what others have to say about a person isn't always who they really are.

Niall and Leigh-Anne have been keeping him busy. They showed the unaware boy the 'good' and 'bad' people around the school and how to avoid the bad ones. Louis learned that Jack Anderson likes to stick wet boogers under the desks in the front of History class, so it's best to steer clear. Betty Grace is always sick, but is the nicest girl of his classes, so be sure to keep hand sanitizer on hand. Niall will laugh at anything and Leigh always smacks him when he does something stupid. Louis likes his new friends. They're cool like his old friends. In the end, Louis may not have wanted to move away from his hometown, but he is beginning to warm up to the people surrounding him.

"Louis. Louis. LEWIS." Niall drags out the sounds in his friend's name, poking his cheek with a carrot stick. The three new-found friends are sat at their lunch table, gossiping about the possible teacher affair between Mr. Vega and Mr. Evans. The students caught wind of the situation by examining the way Mr. Evans lets his cheeks warm in color when Mr. Vega just so happens to run out of staples every day. The squealing girls in the hallways clutch at their chests and discuss possible fan fictions while the two male teachers blindly fall in love with each other.

"What do you want?" Louis exasperates, laughing at Niall's scared reaction.

"You've been zoned in on Harry for like 10 minutes. What's up with you?" Niall asks, holding a collection of Louis' flower crowns, looking to see which ones look good on him. Louis snatches the bands away, silently cursing at Niall for stealing them from his bedroom.

"I was just thinking and happened to be staring at Harry," Louis says, half lying. He was thinking, but knew he was staring at Harry a little while ago. At first, it was a purely innocent thought process, simply admiring the way the girls would shyly approach their love interests. Along with watching the boys make fools of themselves trying to find lovers, his eyes focused on Harry sitting among his friends. Trying to figure out Harry's personality silently became an interest of Louis'. It becomes difficult when the person you're examining isn't willing to even glance in your direction, but its a challenge the little blue-eyed boy is willing to take.

"You like him don't you?" Niall asks, mouth full of food. Leigh-Anne sends him a glare, venturing back to the table after copying her friend's calculus homework, slapping Niall on his arm. A large part of Niall and Leigh-Anne's relationship is her trying to beat the fact that not everyone is gay into Niall's head. The Irish boy is nothing but innocent, but sometimes his natural instinct is to just assume anyone's interest in anyone is purely gay.

"What? Guys, I'm not into...guys. I am not and never will be gay." Louis' eyes widen, nervously fiddling with his flower crown. A blush creeps up his neck thinking of the possibility that he could ever be someone's boyfriend. Of course, Louis doesn't have any repressed feelings, but one thing he is sure of is that any romantic emotions towards boys isn't in the cards for him.

"Well, to be honest with you, I think everyone's a little gay for Harry." Leigh pats the now blushing boys' arm, giving him a serious look. Louis silently admires his friends for being so open and compassionate about his sexuality, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.