"Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like the team of Coventry started to cheer, although there's still thirty minutes left of the match and nothing's sure yet. Judging by the look on coach Hamilton's face, no need to give it up, the boys might have a few more tricks up their sleeves."
The voice of the commentator startled Harry and he realised how much time had actually passed. His friends tried to understand what was going on, but he refused to give them the details. He wasn't ready to admit he really offered his foolish heart to the other on a silver tray and all Louis could do was running away from him. If he said it out loud, it would become real... too real.
Through the game, he listened to the ongoing conversation and the observations of the commentator as well, while he also didn't stop watching every move of his footballer. It's not like he paid any attention to the curly headed one, but who else would of been the center of Harry's interest?
As Zayn suddenly got the ball, waves of excitement flashed through the whole crowd of fans. Since the scoreboard didn't look great, the hopes of the spectators started to die down; however, the running black haired boy revived the tiny amount of hope they still had.
"Malik has the ball, he's heading right towards the gate... Dawson on the other side is one of the fastest players of Coventry, he's following every move of Malik..." the commentator kept talking, then hissed in a painful tone. "....Aaand he fell over Dawson's leg, who has the ball now. Looks like the referee didn't consider it as an unfair attack and the game won't stop."
"This asshole is with the bitches from Coventry, I swear," Ellie snorted and sat back on the bleacher. "That guy clearly did that so Zayn would fall over and he acts like it's been nothing!"
"I don't know, it wasn't that obvious for me." Liam shrugged, but the answer was a quite spectacular look from the girl.
"Interesting... you should be protective about him, not me..."
"No, and before you say it, no, he's not my boyfriend."
"Then what is this thing between the two of you...?"
"Ells, don't" Harry interrupted them, because the last thing he needed at the moment was listening to his close friends arguing over something which was clearly off the table. "He doesn't wanna talk about it."
His best friend glanced at the younger one and the tone he used woke up the guilty feeling in him. He expected Harry to tell him everything about his life, but in these past few weeks he kind of shut him out of his own life. The excuse about not being able to discuss the sensitive topic yet felt weak even for him, moreover Harry looked like a depressed puppy again and Liam knew the most he could do for him at the moment was coming up with a distraction.
"Actually..." Liam cleared his throat, his heart pounding faster than ever. "There's uh... a few stuff I want to share with you, if you're interested."
The younger boy immediately perked up and forgot about the match and everything else. He's been trying to make him open up for so long now; the fact that he was willing to talk seemed like a huge breakthrough.
"Of course." he bit his lower lip in concern, since he had no idea what to expect. Ellie nodded along and did her best not to look too excited.
"He's NOT my boyfriend and never will be. I'd appreciate, if you understood this, okay?" the boy in the middle started quite nervous, while watching the game. This made it easier to let go of the huge weight, which he felt like he had to deal with on his own. "I didn't like him and I'm still not sure if I do now or not... I mean he's really annoying, unnecessarily confident and thinks he can mess with anyone if he wants to."
"That can't be true, otherwise I would of already fallen for him." Ellie sighed which made all of them smile a bit.
"Alright..." Liam rolled his eyes, but the smile fortunately remained. "I don't know why, but every time I got annoyed, he found it really fascinating and decided to make it worse. He kept teasing me and then we texted a few times and I had to admit that I was kinda enjoying these banters."
"What happened at the locker rooms?" Harry tried to help him out with questions, since it was obvious how badly Liam was struggling to find the right way to phrase it.
"Wait no, I missed that episode, what locker rooms...?" Ellie frowned and the curly headed one rushed to explain it as well as he could.
"When Lou got hurt, I was in the locker room with him and Doctor Page and after I left and went back to Liam, he looked quite... flustered."
The girl grinned, then lifted her eyebrows with a curious look on her face. "Oooh nothing's better than a detailed gay story, please tell us everything!"
"Uhm..." Liam let out a nervous laughter, before finally telling the truth. "...I wanted to go after H to see what was going on, but Zayn stopped me in the corridor and I said I didn't have time... thereupon he stepped closer and I got stuck between him and the wall," his voice was a bit trembling as he relived the memory. "I started to argue with him as always, but after awhile he just murmured 'gosh, shut up' and... and yes, he kissed me."
Although every member of their inner circle assumed something like that must had happened, the crumb of information still surprised Harry. He didn't want to show that it was a big deal, since Liam's cheeks were already much more red than a tomato, but the fact that he couldn't tell Ellie to do the same led to a smaller catastrophe.
"NO FUCKING WAY," she exclaimed as her jaw dropped. "YOU MADE OUT WITH HIM?"
"Next time remind me not to tell her stuff like this when we're in public," Liam turned to his best friend, then glanced back at the girl, followed by a deep sigh. "You could put this on the scoreboard as well, just to make sure everyone knows."
"I'm sorry, gosh" she toned it down a little, then shot a questioning look towards him again. "But can you blame me? First my ship of Harry and Louis became a canon, now yours is also about to... I feel powerful."
"And what happened at the halloween party?" Harry got back to the main topic, before Ellie could start picturing a double wedding.
"After the uhm... events at the locker rooms..." he attempted to choose the right words. "This happened a few times. Every time I told myself that it was the last one and I won't let it happen again, but sometimes that was the only way of making that annoying smug smile disappear," Liam admitted it as he also kept acting like he was watching the ongoing match on the pitch. "But I didn't like this game, you know? So when he told you he's gonna go out and smoke after S&M was over, I followed him to talk about this. I wanted to end it."
"But you didn't do that." Harry showed him a pretty reassuring smile, cause he could imagine how hard it must of been for him to understand his own feelings. He's been there a few times.
"Yeah..." Liam ran his fingers through his hair, gazing at the black haired footballer on the field. "...in fact, we just went further in the bathroom instead... and then further at his house... Meanwhile Miss I-don't-wanna-date-anyone blasted her favourite romantic songs downstairs. It didn't help me to resist."
"To be fair, I wasn't doing that for you. I turn to a forgetful 16 years old whenever Niall's around, I absolutely forgot other people were in the house." she defended herself without thinking, however her smile became a bit more upset as she thought of the blonde boy.
"I can't believe I missed all of this," Harry only shook his head and the idea of regrets crossed his mind, but in the end he decided that leaving with Louis was definitely more fun than watching their four other friends make out. "...Thank you for telling us. I know it was hard to."
Liam nodded, still embarrassed, then let himself show a shy smile. "Thanks for giving me the time I needed, H. And thanks for the unquestionable support, Ells."
"Of course. We've raised a pretty amazing young man." the girl smiled at the younger boy first, then the other. She loved both of them so much, sometimes it just hit her.
"Yes, we're proud of you," Harry pushed a curl behind his ear as he was talking, before glancing back at the field. "Keep us updated, if you're comfortable with it."
"I'm gonna probably end this soon, cause I can't handle this game anymore, but yeah, sure" Liam replied and after a short pause he looked back and forth between his friends. "So who's drama is up next? The tension of Ells and Niall or the sudden, mysterious downhill of H and Louis?"
"Not mine." Harry shook his head, getting a pouty glance from the girl on the right as a result.
"Hey, no- that's not fair."
" 'm sorry, I was faster."
"Title of your sex tape as Jake Peralta would say, but back to the topic, no we won't talk about my latest trauma." she replied without missing a beat.
Before the others could of started arguing and giving her a speech about the importance of communication, the commentator's stridently loud voice startled all of them. As Louis got the ball and headed towards the gate on the opposite side of the pitch, the students of Norwich became more and more excited. The Coventry boys were winning for 2-0, but every move of the footballer in the number 28 jersey seemed to crumble their confidence. He was determined, fast and played it really clever.
Just when everyone thought the player of the other team was going to take the control again, Louis kicked the ball.
"Aaand GOAL! Tomlinson did it, fifteen minutes before the end he scored a goal for the boys of Norwich!"
Harry's never felt prouder; that moment from the previous night when he was massaging his wounded shoulder and told him how much he's going to impress everyone appeared in front of his eyes. After all, he was right and it didn't matter that their team was losing.
Louis showed them that he was a talented player who was worth for their attention.
Zayn gave a high five to the older boy and for a quick second Harry swore he saw Louis searching through the crowd on the bleachers, only to smile at him. The mixed feelings mingled even more; he really wanted to be happy for him, but at the same time the pain what was left after the awkward scene before the game hurt like hell.
You love and support him. He doesn't do the same for you. Accept it. You're not important to him.
The intrusive thoughts chose strong violence today and he hated it.
Liam noticed the glint of melancholy in the green eyes and stopped clapping; he put an arm around him instead and stroked his upper arm in the most reassuring way he could, along with a cautious smile.
"I won't panic, you don't have to do this." Harry spoke, but his best friend only shrugged.
"I know you won't. But I'm still here for you and you can count on me."
They settled down on the bleachers again as every other spectator also calmed down, and Harry sighed.
"I wish Niall could be here to celebrate with us."
"Yeah... Yesterday we had lunch together and he told me that he changed the schedule at the record label now and has a lot more free time, but he still couldn't make it today. Some big musician came and he really wanted to be there, when they recorded," Liam nodded, then took a subtle glance at the only woman of their friend group. "It's still quite unfortunate, isn't it, Ells?"
"What?" she blinked, before coming back to reality. "Oh. Right. Yes, it's... it's bad."
Apparently none of them bought it, since even the curly headed one played the role of a straight guy on the double date better than the girl did her role at the moment. This little act didn't work at all, but the more important question was why an act was needed on the first place.
"When was the last time you talked to him?" Harry asked without further deliberating and they all witnessed Ellie losing her confidence in a second.
"Oh uhm... I don't really know. Maybe a few days ago."
"But I know it for a fact that he texted you yesterday."
"Goddamnit Sherlock, what do you want from me?" she sighed pretty tensed. "Yes, he did and I haven't replied yet. I need time to figure some things out on my own."
"Then tell him!" Liam frowned. "Text him exactly this and he will understand and give you the time and space you need. But ignoring him isn't the solution."
"I don't want to butt in as well, but he's right," the younger one added. "Please don't make the same mistakes as Louis did years ago. Just... just be honest with him, okay? 's better than slowly breaking his heart by ignoring him."
Ellie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before nodding. She knew the boys were right, but even the simplest things felt life-changing when it came to Niall. Of course she liked him; that kiss on the night of halloween was the best kiss she's ever got, for god's sake!
There were just so many things she had to consider before jumping into a relationship with him. Not only her plan of not dating anyone would of been destroyed by the end of the first week of November, but also the conception of their group of six would of blown up. According to the worst scenarios in her head, it could end the great dynamics of their friendship, tear them to smaller teams and it would be just a crazy gay as fuck version of Captain America's civil war.
...However, on the pro side there was this lovely Irish boy, who almost stole her heart right after they met on the double date.
This whole situation made Ellie emotional, so she only sniffled in the end and forced a smile on her face when she turned to the others.
"Can we talk about something less serious? I feel like we're not at a football match anymore, but at the therapist as a family."
"Good point," Liam let out a short laughter, then remembered of something important he wanted to ask Harry about. "Oh H, I heard that the midterm exhibition of the art students is on Monday."
"Yeah it is..." he smiled quite cautious. "But I didn't turn in any of my paintings."
"What?" his friends spoke in unison, getting a shy laughter from the other.
"None of them was good enough and I didn't want to turn them in, only to see that Mr. Morales didn't exhibit any of them. I don't wanna be disappointed."
"Oh my god, we really hit a low point," Ellie pouted. "Even the 'less serious talk' took a sad turn. November is cancelled, we're all upset."
At least the comment made all of them laugh briefly. The game ended a few minutes later anyway; although the students of Norwich were a bit upset since their team lost the game, Harry knew Louis will be happy. He scored a goal, which meant that he definitely caught the attention of the judges of the talent program. The team might have not succeeded, but Louis attempted to show his best and did it better than anyone else.
The spectators slowly left the bleachers and walked to their cars or to the bus stop. Harry and Louis agreed on seeing each other at the parking lot so they headed there, although he didn't want to meet him now as much as he usually wanted to. The intrusive thoughts didn't rest, which also made it incredibly hard to deal with the situation.
His friends obviously noticed the slight change in his behavior as they were waiting for the boys, but they didn't ask anything. It wasn't the time for a good old friendly interrogation.
"Oh, here come the football stars!" Ellie exclaimed, when Zayn and Louis finally stepped out of the building.
"What a fan base." Zayn looked back and forth between his friends, a wide smile playing on his lips. He put an arm around Ellie's waist as she gave him a tight hug, then nodded towards Liam as a way of saying hi.
"You can quit acting like this, I told them what happened." he spoke and regret it a second later, when Zayn raised both eyebrows.
"And? I should welcome you with a blowjob now or what?"
Liam rolled his eyes and used the most sarcastic tone he could. "Right, fuck me for being polite and informing you."
"Maybe later, I need to take a shower first."
Ellie suppressed a laughter and stepped back from Zayn. It felt weird that she only hugged him, when Louis was also right there, so in the end she decided to give him a hug as well, which turned to the most awkward moment of the century. The older boy patted her back while frowning, but fortunately they shared a look a moment later and words weren't needed to discuss that this should never happen again.
Liam told something to Zayn about the match and the girl also joined the conversation, so the young love birds were left in silence. Why did it have to be so damn awkward?
No kissing. No hugging. No pet names.
Only a very embarrassing atmosphere.
...Basically it felt like visiting a stripper club for straight people.
"Congratulations on the goal." Harry spoke finally, getting a half-hearted smile from the other as a result.
"Thanks," he cleared his throat and tried to lift the mood with a lame joke. "Am I your favourite footballer now?"
"A close second to Ronaldo."
Louis deliberated, then shrugged. "Alright, I'll take that, but only because I know how much you love him."
Oh lord.
The older boy also realised how bad it came out, considering what had happened and the expression on his face absolutely gave it away. Harry looked as uncomfortable as him; he's never been able to hide his feelings and it didn't seem like he was about to start it now.
...I know how much you love him.
Was it necessary to use those words?
"Anyway..." the younger one mumbled, gazing at the ground. "...I forgot that I had already promised Niall I'll hang out with him today, so I can't come over."
No, he did not.
"It's okay, don't worry about it," Louis replied immediately and ran his fingers through his hair with a quick move. "It might be better like that, cause I'm gonna probably fall asleep as soon as I get home. I'm really tired."
No, he was not.
Harry bit his lower lip, like he always did when something bothered him, and noted it with a tiny nod. He hated that he confessed his love and he also hated that he had to feel bad about it.
They were supposed to be in love, why did the words scare Louis so much?
"I thought all of us will celebrate at their house." Liam's questioning voice scared Harry, since he's got lost in his head again and the annoying thoughts tried to drag him down to the abyss.
"You can still go, but I don't have time," the curly headed one pulled out his hand, reaching towards his best friend. "I can drive your car back to the dorm."
"Are you sure...?" Liam spoke in concern, as he handed over the keys, but the other just nodded quickly.
"Yeah, 'm going back, I need to study."
"You mean hanging out with Niall...?" Louis blinked and his boyfriend didn't even care about saving the chain of lies. Everyone knew how bad he was at lying anyway.
"Uhm, that too. Yes. Have fun!"
He was about to leave, when a question from the astonished Ellie made him stop.
"No goodbye kiss...?"
"You got one on the double date, you better stop now." Louis rolled his eyes, getting another withering look from the girl.
"Not for me you dumbass, I'm just surprised you let your loverboy walk away like that. A week ago you couldn't even wait till the end of the halloween party, before bringing him upstairs."
"It must of been the drinks. Or the makeup. Anyway..." Harry mumbled, but this time the older boy crossed his plans by gently grabbing his arm. He couldn't read any of the emotions on Louis' features, but he assumed this was more than awkward for him.
Three words. Three fucking words caused this absolute mess.
"Let's talk later, okay?"
"...If you want to."
Louis quickly noted that there wasn't anyone else around, and in the next moment he placed a soft, short kiss on his lips. Harry didn't move, just closed his eyes, then stepped back and whispered another 'okay', before turning around and leaving his friends at the parking lot with all of their questions, along with a quite upset boyfriend.
His lips were burning from that kiss, but it wasn't the same sweet feeling he's got used to. It was only a bandage on a broken mirror... a useless, temporary fix.
Louis didn't call him that night, or the next day. Saturday rolled by, then sunday as well and none of them texted the other. Harry checked their dms a couple of times, scrolled back and read a bunch of old texts. He expected comfort, but it got clear pretty quick that it was just another technique of torturing himself, and those heart emojis and lovely texts became the fuel for the already burning wildfire. As the weekend passed by, he came to the conclusion that he didn't really know what bothered him anymore. Was it the fact that Louis didn't even attempt to show him some love? Was it anger? Was it that these things only confirmed what he already knew and Louis proved he'll never be as important to him as he would of liked to?
Whatever it was, it caused a deep scar somewhere inside of him and the pain was unstoppable.
On the other side, although he did his best at the game, Louis couldn't celebrate the small success throughout the weekend. He wanted to call the younger one many times, but in the end he always put down his phone. He didn't know what to say, but the process of figuring it out wasn't an easy task either. Things were happening so fast: he met him again on the very first week of September, and although since then they've already survived tons of disasters together, it was still only November and he felt like the tempo was slowly suffocating him. Louis did everything he could, but it was never enough; he stepped out of his comfort zone when he admitted his feelings, he broke some of the rules by a kiss on their first date, then went against everything over and over again.
He loved Harry, he really did. It wasn't a question.
But his artist could never understand how much these stuff required from him. The pressure of the future was just getting worse, while Hailey also tried to mess it up for him and if all of this would of not torn him to shreds, Harry asked for more to crown it all.
Louis couldn't breath nor tell him to take things slower, without hurting him. He knew Harry would blame himself, or take it as a way of telling him how fucking clingy he was and Louis wanted to be everything, but the asshole who caused another wound.
As monday came, the waves of the fresh start hit him and instead of the grumpy mood, he woke up actually seeing things a bit better. The weekend of self-hate and anxiety was part of the past now and he decided an honest talk was the only way of fixing it.
However, as soon as Louis entered the building a weird feeling captured his stomach and cramped it.
Everyone was looking at him.
At first he didn't realise it, since after he became a pretty popular member of the football team, he's got used to people glancing at him every now and then.
...But this was something else.
"What the fuck..." he murmured to Zayn, while they crossed the small hallway, heading to the main building.
"I don't know man, let's go through the list."
Their power duo created a short list through the years, so whenever one of them got the judging looks at the university, they had some kind of guide in the middle of the mess. It was the older boy's idea after his first huge drama, when he got caught with a cheerleader in a class room, but kinda forgot about her a day later. The facial expressions of other people made it clear that he messed up something, but since he had no idea what it was exactly, Zayn asked him a bunch of questions.... and that was when the idea of the list was born.
"Alright, so did you make out with someone in public?"
"No, I haven't talked to Harry since friday."
"Did you get drunk or high which could of led to doing some shit?"
Louis thought over everything again, then shook his head. "No, I had a chill weekend."
"Check your account, maybe you accidentally posted a dick pic." his best friend shrugged, but after a quick session of making it sure he didn't embarrass himself on any social media, Louis sighed in a hopeless way.
"Nah... and I'm not walking around in my pajamas either, so everything's crossed on the list."
They were still taking weak guesses when they got to the main building, however, people just kept glancing at him. It started to bother him for real and the level of discomfort reached the limit that he could still bear with.
"What if they're looking at you...?" he was thinking out loud while gazing at his best friend, but suddenly Zayn placed his hand on his shoulder and made him stop.
"No uhm... bro it's definitely not me," he cleared his throat and nodded forward, looking more worried than ever. "I think I know why they're staring at you."
Louis turned his head in pure confusion, but as he glimpsed at it, he understood everything in a second. His heart skipped a beat and all of the proper thoughts left his mind. The shock slapped him so hard, even a dizzy feeling took over his body and his lips parted in astonishment.
It couldn't happen, it had to be a nightmare.
No way.
No. Fucking. Way.
He was in denial for a good couple of seconds, even tho his body already accepted the fact that he was really fucked and couldn't do anything about it.
Although Louis could see it with his own eyes, he still didn't want to believe that the exhibition of the works of art students took place in the middle of the hallway in the main building. Moreover, under the name of Harry Styles, a colorful chaos appeared on the canvas.
...And visibly Louis's features were painted over that beautiful mess.
•••
A/N: OMG I almost forgot to post the new chapter, because I'm at a camp rn and I'm busy all the time. I hope I have strong enough internet to publish this tho lol
love you all, I hope you're happy some things got revealed about Liam ahah
OH AND THE PAINTING, I LOVE THIS DRAMA AKSHAKSJJS YALL REMEMBER OF THAT PAINTING FROM A FEW CHAPTERS AGO RIGHT?
WELL IT'S ON DISPLAY NOOOW
Buckle up, cause this one's gonna be a serious ride akdhajsj
dee <3