Chapter 1: Moved in & Settled
*This first chapter is dedicated to @OnTheRise for making this wonderful cover that I absolutely love! I hope you and everyone else will like this first chapter and the rest of the story that I'll update as often as I can! :) *
"Harreh! Where do you want the other couch before my arms fall off?!"
"Oh, stop complaining," Zayn huffs out from the other end of the couch, holding it up higher when Louis lowers it as he keeps whining. "You literally just started carrying this when me and Niall got past the door. Stop being a lazy arse, Lou, and carry it properly."
"Who knew Queen Louis was this weak?" Niall jokes, laughing and almost causing the three of them to drop the couch.
“Horan, stop laughing before I drop this on your foot!” Louis demands, then turns his head to look for their curly-haired friend. “Where the f*** is Curly?”
Niall and Zayn roll their eyes, trying to walk towards the living room with the couch still in their arms. Louis squawks at being forced to move suddenly, trying to press his heels down on the floor to keep from moving. They ignore him and pull the couch further into the room, then decide to just place it by a wall where it seems logical enough to be.
“There. That should be a good place,” Zayn notes, then takes a seat on the couch.
“What if Harold doesn’t want it there? He’s gonna make us move it again,” Louis counters, but sits beside him anyway, lying down and taking up the rest of the couch as he pants dramatically.
“Oi. Move your arse, Tommo. I wanna sit, too.”
The chestnut-haired lad just waves him off, saying, “Go find another place to die. I’m completely fine here, Irish.”
“Should’ve dropped the couch on you when I had the chance,” Niall mutters before he smirks and decides to just take a seat on Louis’ belly.
“God. You’re not as light as you look. Get off, you git!”
“Then move over,” Niall argues with a smile, giving Zayn a high-five as Louis thrashes and fails to get Niall off so he can actually breathe properly.
Suddenly, a shadow appears from behind them through the window, making them freeze and look at each other in confusion. Slowly, in silent agreement, they turn around to look at what made that shadow appear from the window. But, they don’t see anything or anyone out there that could’ve done that.
“You lads saw that, right?” Louis asks softly.
“Yeah, but there’s nothing out there,” Zayn observes, still looking out the window to the view of Harry’s front lawn.
“Probably just a bird flying by,” Niall states, although he, himself, doesn’t quite believe it either.
“Why are you just lying there? There’s still more stuff in the truck,” Harry exclaims as he walks into the living room, carrying a box full of kitchen stuff.
“AAH!” the oldest lad shouts in surprise, sitting up and making Niall fall off his belly. Louis completely ignores the Irish lad on the floor as he puts a hand to his fast beating heart in the hopes of calming it before it beats out of his chest. “Don’t do that again, Styles. You scared the life out of me. Pretty sure I saw my soul leave my body, then re-enter it.”
Harry rolls his eyes and shakes his head as he walks into the kitchen and places the box on the floor. “What are you talking about, Lou? I swear you saw me walk in a few seconds ago.”
“Not that. There was a shadow outside by the window, but when we looked, it was gone,” Louis explains, still not getting off the couch even when Zayn and Niall do.
“Probably just me when I was walking from the truck on the driveway and back in my house.”
“I thought it was a bird!” Niall calls out.
“It was too big to be a bird, Nialler,” Louis dismisses, but follows the other two to get Harry’s other stuff from the moving truck.
“We’re too paranoid. We need to go out tonight and celebrate Harry finally moving to London,” Zayn claims and nods at Niall the grab the other end of a huge box labeled ‘Clothes’, because of course Harry would have this much clothes. “Just like old times, you know?”
The blond hums in agreement, following after Zayn as they carry the box into the house. Louis is definitely up for that too and says so, but then sighs when he sees the slightly smaller box left in the truck labeled ‘Fragile Trinkets’. Great. Now I have to be ‘very careful’ with this crap, or else Harry will throw a fit, he thinks as he tries to keep from rolling his eyes in distaste at the way Harry labeled the box.
He huffs and carefully picks it up in his arms, hoping the small crash he just heard doesn’t mean he already broke something. I literally just picked it up.
Instead of thinking about it any more than he already has, he shrugs his shoulders and walks back towards the house. But not before he notices a lad possibly younger than him looking over at Harry’s house from next door on the porch. He seems to be smiling and writing something down in a notebook as he keeps glancing at Harry’s house.
“That’s… weird,” Louis breathes out, then walks faster until he reaches the door and takes one last look at this strange neighbour.
He doesn’t expect the other lad to look at him at the exact same time and just stare like his eyes are burning through Louis’. The blue-eyed lad blinks in confusion, then waves hesitantly with one hand, careful not to drop the box in his arms.
The neighbour doesn’t seem too happy about Louis noticing him, though, because he scowls back and walks into his house without a word. Louis decides it’s best to just walk into the house and lock it behind him just in case. You never know with some people these days, he thinks cautiously.
“What took you so long? You only had to carry this one box,” Zayn questions as soon as Louis pushes the door shut behind himself.
“Huh?” Louis asks, still confused about Harry’s neighbour. “Uh, I mean, I got distracted. Can you take this box from me? I need to ask Harry something. And Niall, could you lock the door? Thanks, boys.”
“Okay…?” the other two lads reply and do as he says, raising an eyebrow as Louis heads into the kitchen.
When Louis sees Harry still unpacking the box, he walks over to the counter and takes a seat on it. The taller lad raises an eyebrow, but decides to not scold Louis, knowing him so well that telling him to get off his arse and help would be too much of an effort for either of them. Queen Louis, indeed, Harry thinks.
“So, Harry, have you… met your neighbour?” Louis starts, observing Harry for any reaction, really. “You know, the really fit, brown-haired lad next door? You met him yet?”
“No, not yet. I haven’t even seen him. I didn’t know he was outside. I would’ve greeted him if I saw him.”
“Well, um, don’t? Cuz he’s kinda… What’s the word? – Sketchy? Like, I just waved at him, then he was all rude and walked into his house. I mean, I don’t know how you’d feel if he did that to you, but I was hurt. I deserve to be treated better than that, don’t you agree, Harold?”
“Whatever you say, Lou. But since you’re being ‘oh, so helpful ‘ and criticizing my neighbour before you even meet him, where do you think I should put the plates? This cupboard, or this one?” Harry asks.
Louis scowls in return, hopping off the counter and heading back into the living room. “I’m trying to keep you safe from possible stalkers, and you’re just dismissing my concern. You know, I could be elsewhere instead of here, helping you move in beside your new and probably creepy neighbour. I get no appreciation from you at all, when I could in my home, napping right now before El tells me to do something.”
“And I thank you for your kindness, Queen Louis!”
“Oh, shut up!”
The curly-haired lad just laughs to himself as he steps on a stool and puts the plates in one of the cupboards. Smiling in success of not falling off and hurting himself, he steps down and reaches for the glasses to put away next.
Although, before he can do that, he sees a shadow pass by the kitchen window by the sink. He blinks and looks towards it, but sees nothing or no one. He shakes his head and reaches for two glasses from the box on the floor, then stands back up to look at the cupboard he’ll be putting them in.
He never expected to see someone right outside his window staring at him quite intensely.
“Oh god!” he yelps, jumping back and losing his grip on one of the glasses in his hands, which fell on the floor and shattered to pieces.
The person by the window puts a finger on his own mouth, as if to tell Harry to keep quiet about seeing him. Green eyes wide in shock, Harry nods for some unknown reason and obeys this stranger. He’s pulled away from just staring back at this brown-haired and brown-eyed lad at the window when he notices his mates calling out to him from the living room as they unpack other boxes.
“You okay in there, Harry?” Zayn asks first, busy trying to open a box labeled ‘Dining room stuff’.
“We heard something break. Did you drop something?” Niall adds as he tries to decipher what this particular ‘trinket’ is in his hands that Harry just so happens to own. Looks like a cross between an elephant and a zebra, he notes thoughtfully.
“You should be more careful; especially since you’re so clumsy,” Louis calls out and nearly trips on the scissors Zayn left of the floor. “I knew it, Malik! You’re trying to kill me!”
“Harry’s not the only clumsy one,” the black-haired lad counters, earning a high-five from Niall beside him.
“I, uh, just dropped a glass. I’ll clean it up; don’t worry about it,” Harry says loud enough for them to hear and hopefully not go into the kitchen.
Deciding not to listen to their banter anymore, Harry focuses back on the lad outside his kitchen window. The stranger nods his head to the side, as if he’s trying to tell Harry to go… somewhere. But where? Harry asks silently, hoping this person would let him know somehow.
When the brown-eyed lad puts a paper against the window with something written on it, Harry hesitantly walks closer to read it clearly.
Front door.
“Uh… okay?” he mumbles, then steps back and almost lets out a squeak when the lad pulls the paper away from the window and looks into Harry’s eyes.
He nods his head in the same direction as he did before, which Harry now understands is towards the front door. Harry nods back as a response and the lad disappears quickly before Harry can really process any of that actually happening. But he decides to obey and clean the pieces of glass on the floor later, carefully walking out of the kitchen to head to the front door.
The other lads look up and silently question why Harry’s going there as he passes them, since they know they got everything from the truck already.
Not that he says anything as he walks to the door and opens it.
*First chapter - YAY! Took me long enough, but it's here! :)
I won't be able to update as often as I'd like, even though I'm actually really excited about writing this story. But University is just so stressful and time-consuming that I'll probably only be able to update once a week, if I even can! So please bare with me! I promise to make this story as good as I can make it!
ANYWAY...
What do you think of the story so far? Do you like the slight humour and slight thriling parts with Liam being all sketchy and making those shadows appear to scare them? Why do you think he wanted Harry to go to the front door? Why is he being so sketchy anyways?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR AND WHAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN! I really appreciate them! :)
What will happen next?* x