During the next few days, Harry had started opening a little bit more up to Louis. Getting a new friend was a long process for him, that didn't just happen over a few days, and he was shocked by how fast he had started putting a little bit more trust into the short boy.
During the weekend, Harry had spent a lot of time with Niall, as he did almost every weekend, and he had taken up the offer to work that Saturday. It turned out to be a good break after the first week of school. Louis had also texted him a few times, which was a nice surprise even though texting back was very stressful, but he didn't over work himself this time. On Sunday, he actually found himself enjoying getting a text from Louis.
On Monday, Harry walked to school on his usual path, avoiding any human contact possible, enjoying the view of the little forest next to the narrow road. He was zoning out slightly, letting cold air caress his skin, not bothering him the slightest, and letting the bird's song take over his brain.
At one point he heard footsteps behind him, this was unusual, since this road was barely used. Most people just took the direct way to school, since they didn't bother to walk further than they needed to. He prepared for someone to walk past him, and looked down at his feet, moving one in front of the other. He waited, while the footsteps came closer, but they never came further than directly next to him. After almost a minute of walking with a stranger, they spoke up.
"Hey, how are you?" Louis' voice rang through the cold air. Harry recognized the voice and noticed his shoulders relaxing. He looked to the side, seeing Louis walking next to him with a smile. He smiled back.
"Better, now that I know that I'm not being followed by a serial killer who will ambush me and leave my body to rot in the woods, never to be found, leaving my family wondering what happened to me", he replied, allowing himself to be a little bit sarcastic.
"Sorry", Louis said truthfully. Then a smile appeared back on his face. "Did you really imagine all of that in the short time it took for me to catch up with you?" He asked, finding it interesting how he overthought everything.
"Yeah", he replied. Louis chuckled at this, which made Harry look down towards his feet again. Why does he always laugh at things I say or do? Does he think I'm awkward? Is he only befriending me so he can find out how weird I am and go tell everyone? He thought while a frown appeared on his face. Louis quickly realized his mistake and scratched his neck, a sheepish look on his face.
"That's not a bad thing, or well, I don't think it's weird or anything, like, I just thought it was kind of cute or, what, no uh, funny or something, but not funny in a bad way you know?" Louis rambled, feeling slightly embarrassed. When he rambled, he would often start saying whatever came into his mind. It was true that he found it cute how Harry would think so much, but he couldn't tell him that. Not yet anyway. Hell, he didn't even know what he felt for the guy.
Louis knew he couldn't be completely straight, but he had never actually had a solid crush on a guy. Had he even had a crush before? Yes, but not strong crushes, mostly just slightly more interest in a person. He thought to himself. But he did find guys just as attractive as girls, so there had to be something, right? He honestly didn't know, but he did know that he indeed thought Harry was cute, and he hadn't thought that about a friend before.
It was Harry's time to chuckle. Louis had gotten all flushed in his face, making him look like he was sunburnt. He tried to ignore what he had said about it being cute, as it was probably not what he had wanted to say in the first place.
"You talk a lot", he simply said and smiled a bit. Louis tilted his head slightly. "That's also not a bad thing, by the way", Harry continued. This made Louis smile and look forwards. They walked for almost five minutes, when Harry spoke up again.
"We have to walk in here if you don't want to end up walking past school", he nodded towards a little path, going over a field of grass. Behind the field, you could see the back of the school.
"Oh, yeah, of course", Louis replied and turned so he walked on the path in front of Harry. They walked in a comfortable silence all the way over the field. When they reached school, they took the back entrance, so they didn't need to walk around the entire building. Since Louis walked first, he held up the door for Harry to go through.
"You know, I'd love to do that more often, but I can't actually walk to school that early most of the time, so it will have to wait until the next time I can" Louis said while they walked up the stairs.
"Oh, yeah, it was nice having some company. I don't mind waiting though, 'till next time then. I'll know who it is coming up behind me to murder me", Harry joked. Louis laughed, while opening up the door to the classroom. Harry walked in and instantly looked towards Niall, who was grinning like an idiot. He made a mental note to ask him about it later today.
The first lesson went by slowly. Louis noticed that Harry would disappear every time they didn't have class. He thought he would only do it sometimes, but he had been wrong. Every time the teacher had walked out the door, it didn't take long before Harry was also gone. By lunch, he had decided to ask his friends about it. Harry had said that it was because he needed some time alone, but he wasn't quite sure if he believed him.
Louis sat down at the table the boys had used the past days of school. Harry hadn't arrived yet, which is why he decided that now was the perfect time to ask. He got Liam's attention who turned to him with a questioning look.
"I was just wondering about something", Louis began, and Liam urged him to keep going. "Well, I've been talking a lot with Harry lately, and I couldn't stop myself from noticing certain oddities", Louis trailed off, not sure how he should formulate his question, but he didn't need to, Liam spoke in the little break Louis had taken to gather his thoughts.
"Well, he does act a little bit weird, maybe sometimes distant, I'm not sure exactly what you have noticed, but most of it began after-" Liam stopped talking, his head snapping towards Zayn, who had slapped his arm. Zayn made a gesture with his head, in the direction of the entry of the cafeteria. Harry had just walked in and was already almost at their table. Louis cursed his timing in his mind. He didn't want to pry, but he was curious as to what had happened.
Harry walked all the way to their table before sitting down. He looked at Zayn, then at Liam, before turning his head to the side to look at Louis. His eyebrows furrowed and the right one lifted slightly.
"Were you talking about me just now? You all got real quiet when I came over", he asked them about his suspicion. The two lads in front of Harry looked like they were deer, caught in a headlight, but Louis just nodded.
"Yup", he said, popping the p. "I was asking what they'd give you for Christmas, I like to plan stuff like that quite early, cus I'm real bad at coming up with present ideas, but these two obviously don't, because they haven't even thought of what they wish for themselves." Harry just looked at Louis in astonishment. So did the two other lads. Harry was astonished because Louis had straight up told him that they were talking about him, his friends would never actually do that. Liam and Zayn were shocked at how easily he had come up with a lie to get Harry off their scent.
"Oh, okay, well then" he just said and smiled slightly. "You guys coming to football practice today?" He changed the subject, not actually thinking about what he had asked. He let the conversation start up around him and got distracted with his food. Harry didn't notice how often Louis sent quick glances in his direction, while he basically inhaled his salad. When he was done, he let his brain explore actual thoughts, other than "nom" and "food".
"Hey Louis?" He got the attention of said person. "You said they don't even know what they want for Christmas yet", he paused, watching Louis nod. "What do you want for Christmas?" he asked, wondering what stuff he was interested in. Louis answer caught him a bit off guard though, Harry not expecting such an answer. Louis looked at him for a second, staring into his green eyes, before answering.
"Someone to spend it with." Louis didn't look sad. He actually sported a little smile. Harry was shocked, eyes big, and eyebrows lifted high, so his forehead wrinkled up. When Louis saw his shocked face, he held up his hands. "I do have family and stuff, but we don't celebrate together. They normally leave the day before Christmas. They tell me to invite friends over, but my friends have always wanted to spend Christmas with their family, so I always end up alone. It's not all that bad, but I'd love to spend Christmas with someone I love for once." Louis smiled at Harry. Harry looked down at his hands for a second, before looking at him again.
"I'm so sorry Louis, that must be so lonely", Harry told him. Louis just shook his head at that, the smile still evident on his face
"It's honestly not that bad. I mostly make the most out of it on my own. It's the days after that bother me most, since everyone is always talking about what a great time they had. That's why I want someone to spend time with, because of the loneliness you feel when people boast about all the presents and the food, and the time with their family. On Christmas eve itself, and the Christmas days, I actually enjoy it a lot. Being alone I mean." He looked content, but Harry's thoughts had latched themselves onto something Louis said.
"You don't eat Christmas food?" He asked in shock. Louis shook his head. Harry didn't say more, he looked own at the empty box of salad, mouth still slightly open. He had already made up his mind, he would try to make Louis' wish come true, which could be hard, but at least he'd try. He was dragged out of his thoughts when Liam spoke up.
"Come on, our next lesson starts in two minutes, we should go so we don't get there to late." Harry got up with the other guys and walked out of the cafeteria. On their way, Harry's attention was caught by a tall figure, not taller than him, more the height of Louis. They looked like a girl to him, but he didn't know if they identified as that.
They had short hair, like really short hair. It was the colour of Zayn's, and a similar cut, a short quiff, even shorter than Zayn's. They also wore a hoodie and cargo trousers. Harry was mesmerized. She was pretty, honestly, he thought, but that wasn't what caught his attention. He admired her courage to be herself, cutting her hair, wearing more untraditional clothes than her friends.
She had piercings too, a few in her ears, one septum and one through her eyebrow. Harry had looked for a long time already, and first noticed when he realized he shouldn't know what her face looked like, seeing as she was walking in front of him. She had turned around and caught his gaze, her eyebrows furrowed slightly before she turned back forwards. Saying something to her friends. Harry didn't care, he wasn't attracted to her.
It took him a few seconds to realize, he was jealous. He had often wanted to do things that weren't necessarily viewed as manly. Especially growing his hair out. He was too much of a coward to do that though, so he was stuck watching girls with envy of their long hair.
Louis had noticed the whole ordeal and chuckled. Harry gave him a questioning look. "What?" He asked, a little confused. Louis chuckled again.
"I think you just got turned down mate. She's pretty, I have to give you that", Louis said with an amused look on his face. Harry shook his head.
"No, I'm not interested in them, I was just thinking how brave they must be", he told Louis. Said boy looked confused for a second, before realization seemed to seep through.
"Oooh, okay. They're still pretty, you sure you're not into them?" Harry nodded.
"Yeah, pretty sure", Harry said with a smile. "Not quite my type", he told him. Louis chuckled again.
"Looks a bit too much like Zayn, eh?" Louis joked. Harry chuckled too. He didn't get to answer though, seeing as they had reached their classroom. They walked in, Zayn and Liam walking in behind them.
AN:
Okay, I'm so sorry, I wasn't planning on making an author's note this chapter, but I have some explaining to do.
This chapters is one of the chapters I thought of before I started writing, like a leading point, so when some things happened, it made it quite hard to write.
First off, I had already finished half the chapter when my laptop decided to delete the entire book. I was able to get back a previous version, but due to that I lost about a quarter of the chapter, which really sucked, and put a halt in my writing.
When I had re-written the part I lost, and wanted to finish the rest of the chapter I had some type of writers block, so I didn't get back to it through Christmas, but when I got back to it I rewrote the chapter three times, because I just wasn't happy with it.
I hope you guys at least enjoyed it, because writing this one was honestly just payne:)
Merry Christmas^^