Brother's Best Friend || l.s.

chapter 5

Harry was daydreaming about Louis while he sat in his history class. He was mindlessly chewing on the end of his pen, staring intently out of the window on his left. Nothing that had been said by their teacher so far, throughout the duration of thirty-five minutes, had sunken into his mind yet because there was no space for it to fill. It was already crammed with Louis. Harry really wanted to be crammed with Louis, literally. Jesus Christ.

"Harry, what's the answer?" He was suddenly called on by their ancient teacher, Mrs Marshall, sparking him back into reality. And then came the most embarrassing, possibly tragic moment of his whole life. He blurted out the only thing that was on his mind.

"Louis."

It was such a hurried and frantic statement that he was hoping his classmates couldn't comprehend what he had said, however the immediate uproar of laughter contradicted this. They had heard him loud and clear. Harry's eyes shot over in Liam's direction, to find him with an extremely puzzled expression, his eyebrows impossibly low in confusion. For crying out loud, Harry wanted to disappear.

"Alright, settle down!" Mrs Marshall clamoured, using a hand to gesture her command for the noise level to drop. "Clearly Harry needs to learn how to concentrate."

Damn right.

Liam had only just taken his quizzical eyes off of Harry, after a good half a minute of looking at him, and Harry knew he would probably receive a questioning later. And as normal, Niall was showcasing his 'silent laugh' from across the room, right at Harry. Harry's cheeks were burning. He had never experienced something so comically embarrassing in his life; he didn't think it was possible to blurt out something he was thinking about. But it showed how powerful his thoughts about Louis were. It was just annoying that Liam was there to hear it.

And, not to anybody's surprise, Liam did interrogate Harry, as they sat around the canteen table.

"Why did you blurt my brother's name out in history?" He had a little smile, nothing too serious. Harry began forking lettuce into his mouth faster, a nervous acceleration of consumption, avoiding Liam's eyes as he desperately tried to think of an excuse.

"I forgot his name, was just trying to remember it. I guess it came to me right as Mrs Marshall asked me a question." He satired, instantly wanting to kick himself. What a foolish, slightly harsh excuse! Forgetting somebody's name wasn't nice. Harry always tried to be nice, he lived to be nice.

"You're so mean!" Niall erupted into laughter, a sound that never lacked in any of their conversations. "How did you forget his name? You idiot."

"Yeah, harsh!" Liam taunted. "Wait until I tell him! Maybe it will make him less cocky."

NO! This had really backfired, Harry didn't want Liam to actually tell him! And it would be particularly embarrassing if he told him that Harry had blurted it out instead of the answer to a historical, educational question! Fuck.

"Dooon't!" Harry whined, tugging at Liam's sleeve. "That's just meeean!"

"It's what you deserve, for treating Louis like a nameless piece of... nothing," Liam smirked, "Although that is pretty much what he is."

He certainly wasn't. He was more a hot piece of eye candy, but that had to stay strictly confidential, forever in the confinements of Harry's mind.

"It's fun to terrorise you, Harry, because you get so annoyed." Niall snickered, taking a bite from his Kitkat bar, without snapping the two fingers apart first. What a genuine monster.

"You're both horrible to me," Harry put on a pout, "I've learnt to live with it by now."

Harry was hoping with all of his heart that Liam wouldn't bring up the name-blurting incident. But if he did, and Harry was present to receive the embarrassment firsthand, then at least it would mean they would have been invited round. Once again. For Harry's... forth, fifth time? He had lost count by now. He just knew that being friends with Liam could sometimes be a blessing. Sometimes.