Smell
If there’s one thing Louis doesn’t like to do, it’s waking up early. Especially on a Monday.
After dragging himself out of bed, he goes downstairs to get some breakfast.
His sisters are sat around the table, seemingly half asleep still. Their dislike for early mornings are one of the few things he has in common with them. He has his breakfast with Phoebe perched on his lap, his chin resting on her shoulder, saddened by the thought that soon she’ll be too old to want to be picked up or cuddled by her big brother anymore. He kisses each one of them on the cheek, his mum last, wishing them a good day before leaving.
He drives over to Zayn’s to pick him up. The short journey to school is made in silence, Zayn dislikes monday mornings just as much as Louis does. Once they get there he helps Zayn carry all his art stuff to his classroom, he always thought the size of the portfolios were slightly ridiculous.
“Good luck Z” he wishes him.
“Thanks mate” Zayn nods, but he’s obviously distracted, already planning what he’ll be working on first, Louis assumes, so with a wave, he leaves him to go to his first lesson of the day: business.
Business is not so bad; it’s just that he has no interest in it whatsoever. Still he bears with it, sighing quietly while his classmates groan at the fact their teacher’s just given them a whole lot of homework. It’s one of the only times where he feels not so alienated from his classmates.
Break is boring, and also a little lonely, though Zayn texts him a couple of times. Louis has no idea how he actually manages to do that when he’s in the middle of an exam, but he’s grateful for the little sarcastic inputs anyway.
He prepares himself for the same at lunch. He sits at his usual place, by himself this time. He’s not really expecting to see Zayn around school for the rest of the week.
It’s sunny out, which is not exactly unusual for January, but there’s frost on the ground and because this is England he still has an umbrella on him because even though for now the sky is blue and cloudless, he knows that it changes in a matter of minutes.
At the end of the day he waits for Zayn in the empty hall, sat on a table with his back turned to the fast walking students all eager to get out of school. He’s got his earphones plugged in, and the volume is turned up high, and it’s not hard to ignore everybody else.
He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about that party, replaying everything over and over, the image of Harry’s smile engraved in his mind as painfully clear as hot iron on skin.
The warning he gets to the fact he’s not alone anymore is the musky, minty-sweet smell that suddenly invades his senses. He turns his head to look around behind him, to see Harry leaning forward over Louis’ shoulder. Startled at the proximity he leans back on his seat, voice failing him once again.
“H-Harry?” he pulls the earphones out quickly, not wanting to miss whatever Harry says.
“Hi Louis” he greets, and there’s a sheepish smile on his face that Louis doesn’t quite understand.
“That’s a good song” he nods at the ipod on Louis’ hands, and Louis blushes even though the complement is not exactly directed at him.
When Louis doesn’t do anything except look at him, Harry clears his throat uncomfortably.
“Er, look, I wanted to apologise for the other day…” he starts, fumbling with his words in a way that’s very familiar to Louis.
“Oh.” He wonders what he’s apologizing for.
“You know, er, at the party. I was, um, really drunk, and I can’t remember if I said anything bad, but if I did say anything, like, I’m sorry.
“You didn’t” Louis blurts.
“Right” they stare at each other for a moment, and Louis regretfully realises how awkward this is. He thinks wistfully of a couple of nights ago, when it had been so exciting talking to Harry; but also so comfortable.
And then to his surprise, instead of leaving, Harry sits down next to him, adorable smile on his face.
“So why are you still here?” he asks curiously.
Louis can feel his cheeks warming from Harry’s gaze. He looks down, licking his lips nervously. It’s harder now, he realises; talking to Harry. When it’s not in the dark and there isn’t so much noise around, because those things had acted a bit like a safety net for him, and he feels uncomfortably bare in the light of day now.
“I, um, waiting for Zayn” he says, voice soft and low, eyes flickering around nervously, though all he wants to do is fix them on Harry’s face.
“You drive him home?”
Louis nods in response, deciding he should probably just try to speak as least as possible, because it’s always embarrassing when he does.
“Oh” Harry frowns for a second, and though he prefers it when Harry is smiling, he thinks the way Harry’s lips purse is quite beautiful.
He watches as Harry bites his lips, nose wrinkling as his head tilts to the side. He doesn’t say anything for a second; instead he pops a tic-tac in his mouth as he silently appraises Louis.
It’s nerve-wrecking.
“Are you guys..together?” He asks slowly, leaning forward slightly to catch Louis’ eye.
Louis sucks in a breath startled, he can smell Harry’s breath, he’s so close; It’s sweet and fresh and cool and it doesn’t do anything for the way his cheeks are burning in embarrassment, having never expected to be asked that question. Especially not by Harry. Oh god.
“What?” he chokes out, wishing very much he was anywhere else at this moment.
Harry is still looking at him curiously, though he seems to take pity on him once he sees Louis’ reaction.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable” he smiles apologetically.
Still, there’s not much he can say at the moment, voice clogged in his wind pipes.
“I-I should go” he stands up, hands fluttering around as he gathers his stuff.
“Wait, hey I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it” Harry looks at him in surprise, probably at his sudden rush to leave, Louis thinks.
“No it’s fine. I should go wait outside” It surprises him that in his hurry to leave, he doesn’t stutter, but he’s thankful for it, just wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.
Harry however doesn’t seem to understand that, standing up and sprinting to catch up with him.
“Wait, I’ll come with” he smiles lop-sided and the sight makes Louis’ stomach flutter, like there’s something cold flickering around inside him, and causing goose bumps to erupt on his skin. He suddenly wishes for that line that separated the two of them, so he could back to watching Harry from afar without having Harry’s attention suddenly zeroing on him. And yes, he is quite aware that’s a very cowardly thought.
“How was the rest of you week-end then?” Harry asks, and Louis is relieved he let the subject of Zayn drop, but he’s also blushing again because what could he possible say, that Harry wouldn’t find incredibly boring and weird? Harry was goofy and happy and exciting and Louis wasn’t. He spent his week-ends reading or watching movies or looking after his little sisters. Harry spent his week-ends going out on dates or with friends, hanging out together in that cool easy way Louis thinks he’ll never understand, and he’s well aware of the differences between the two of them.
“It was alright” he mumbles, heaving a relieved sigh once he sees Zayn walking in their direction, gaze moving from Louis to Harry and back again.
“I…I have to go” he says quickly opening the door of the car.
Before he can slam it shut however Harry says, “ok. See you tomorrow then?” smiling hopefully at Louis, and for the life of him, he can’t find it in himself to say no. So instead he nods, switching on the car once Zayn gets in.
Harry throws a quick “hey Zayn” before smiling sweetly at Louis, and stepping back away from the car.
Louis drives away with the image of Harry popping another tic-tac in his mouth in his rear mirror.