Bebz you’ve got to wake up now if you want time to have a shower, if we’re late for Liam’s game he’ll kill us, Zayn says gently, rubbing Louis’ shoulder.

Chapter Nine:

"Bebz you’ve got to wake up now if you want time to have a shower, if we’re late for Liam’s game he’ll kill us," Zayn says gently, rubbing Louis’ shoulder.

Louis groans and rolls over, looking blearily up at Zayn, “not gunna shower, come snuggle with me for an extra half an hour and I’ll throw on a beanie?” he asks.

Zayn smiles like he was hoping Louis would say that and pulls back the covers to climb in. Louis wore a cozy old jumper and some flannel pyjamas to bed, but even with his heavy duvet he’s still cold when Zayn scoops him into his arms. Zayn hisses a little when Louis slips his freezing feet up the cuffs of Zayn’s jeans but he just holds him closer.

"You’re so bloody cold Lou," Zayn says and Louis can hear the frown in his voice.

Louis doesn’t reply, just snuggles closer and shuts his eyes while Zayn draws patterns on his back. He dozes off a little, comfortable and warm beside his best friend. He had heard Liam up early running the blender for his protein shake. He’s always been a morning person and Louis knows he’s probably tidied the house and done their laundry already. He’s left to go do whatever their team does before games, Louis and Zayn will only get to see him for a minute before the game starts.

"Alright, we should head out," Zayn sighs, too soon for Louis liking.

"I don’t even know why they are having a football game when there is frost on the ground," Louis grumbles into Zayn’s shoulder.

"Stop whining, it’s the championship match," Zayn says but Louis can hear the smile in his voice, "last one till spring."

Louis lets out a groan and rolls out of Zayn’s embrace, stretching until all his joints have given a satisfying crack. He pushes himself up and rubs his eyes, clearing the morning scratchiness out of his throat. Zayn sits up and smiles fondly at Louis, even though Louis knows he must look like a mess. Zayn is fully dressed and his quiff is immaculate as usual. The thing Louis loves most about Zayn are his eyes; the colour of whiskey and framed by long dark eyelashes. They’re beautiful but they’re also so kind.

Louis has a thing for kind eyes. He has always said the reason he chose Liam to be his best friend on their first day of class in first grade was because Liam had the kindest eyes he’d ever seen. Liam’s are dark and deep but so warm and Louis just knew he could trust him. It’s the same reason he chose Zayn on their first day of college. Even though Zayn was quiet and Louis was loud, Louis took one look in Zayn’s eyes and knew he could trust him too. Liam was a little hesitant of Zayn at first, because Liam had always been the centre of Louis attention and then Zayn came along and clicked with Louis so quickly. Louis has always had a lot of love to give though, and Liam quickly realized there was room enough for both of them.

Louis stumbles out of bed and to the closet, deciding on a pair of jeans and a creamy white cable knit sweater. Zayn has wandered off to the kitchen but Louis closes his door, just to be sure, before stripping and yanking his clothes on. He gabs his grey beanie with the pompom at the back and brings it with him to the bathroom. He brushes his teeth and washes his face, only looking in the mirror to run a brush through his hair and arrange his fringe under his hat.

Louis goes to the front hall closet and pulls on his beige suede coat. Zayn hands him a pair of gloves and pulls on his own leather jacket and gloves. Louis leads the way down to his car and he starts it and plugs in his iPhone, trying to keep his teeth chattering to a minimum as they wait for the car to warm up.

"Since when do you listen to The Kooks?" Zayn asks as the music thrums through the car.

"Oh, Harry made me a playlist," Louis says as he looks over his shoulder to back out of the parking stall.

Zayn makes a surprised noise in his throat and grabs Louis’ phone out of the cup holder to scroll through the songs.

"He has pretty eclectic tastes," Zayn says, switching it from Junk of the Heart by The Kooks to Thrift Shop by Macklemore, "is this from the States?"

"Yeah some of it. I actually like all the songs he picked, put on I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor by Arctic Monkeys," Louis instructs as he gets on the motorway to the football field.

He had fallen asleep listening to every song on the playlist and he couldn’t find a single one he didn’t like. Louis thinks maybe he’ll make a habit of putting on the playlist before bed because for some reason his bed didn’t feel as lonely with the music playing softly in the back ground.

"When did he make it for you?" Zayn asks.

"On Thursday during second period."

"Were you guys doing fitting for the fashion show?"

"No I was beading and he did homework," Louis says.

"Did he come see you on your spare yesterday too?" Zayn asks, doing a really poor job of feigning innocent curiosity.

"Yeah. I hemmed the black skinny leg trousers," he replies slowly, "is there a problem?"

"Of course not Lou, that’s great. So you guys just like, hang out now?"

"He comes every day on spare Zayn, that’s it. Please relax," Louis says good-naturedly.

He feels a little pathetic that Zayn is so excited that he seems to have found a friend. Even before when Louis was super outgoing he still only kept Liam and Zayn close, he’s always been okay with just the two of them. They didn’t start worrying about that until Louis stopped wanting to hangout with anyone but them. Harry had come to the studio again yesterday and they had gotten the pants hemmed but that hadn’t taken long. They spent the rest of the spare sitting at the work station playing hangman and twenty questions simultaneously.

Twenty questions was interesting with Harry because he actually thought long and hard about each question he asked and Louis often ended up just asking Harry the same question he had just asked of Louis. Louis’ sides hurt from laughing at the end of the period because they ended up swapping embarrassing stories and Harry told one about his Mum walking in on him trying on her high heels when he was a kid. In exchange Louis told the story about the time he and Liam were looking at porn for the first time when they were young and his Mum walked in.

He doesn’t tell Harry about how that was the day he admitted he was gay. He had muttered something along the lines of ‘fuck he’s so fit,’ and Liam had looked at him confusedly and asked, ‘aren’t you looking at the girl he’s doing it with?’ and Louis had shaken his head and instantly felt completely ashamed because he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Liam had seen his discomfort and shrugged, ‘no big deal Lou, if you want after this we can watch guy porn, to see what thats like,’ he had said. ‘Are you- are you sure you wouldn’t mind?’ Louis had stuttered. Liam had just smiled and shrugged again, ‘you watch Toy Story with me all the time even though you don’t like it.’

Louis didn’t tell Harry that because they haven’t discussed his sexuality yet and he really doesn’t want to scare off the first new friend he’s had in ages by being gay. So yeah, there are some things he wont talk about with Harry, like his eating habits, or his family situation, or his sexuality, but other than that he had found himself being open with Harry on Friday. He had also found himself storing every little fact about Harry away in a special little section of his brain; every seemingly insignificant idiosyncrasy, every little tidbit that Harry divulged about himself, every thought he said out loud.

"Are you going to bring him to meet Li and I?" Zayn asks, scrolling through the music until he lands on Change of Heart by The Vaccines.

"Zayn he’s not a boyfriend I have to bring home to meet Mum and Dad, you can meet him whenever you want," Louis says exasperatedly.

"Alright Lou, sorry for prying," Zayn grins.

"S’okay," Louis laughs, thankful the music is loud so Zayn doesn’t hear his stomach making obnoxious grumbling noises.

Louis heard Liam making breakfast in the morning, had heard he and Zayn talking while they ate, but he had stayed in bed, to avoid having to make an excuse not to eat, and had fallen back asleep. His stomach usually whines right when he wakes up, but eventually it gives up and shuts up, resorting to clenching and unclenching to try and get Louis’ attention instead.

They pull up at the football field and see the teams sitting in the grass stretching. The stands are only half full but they will definitely fill up before the game starts because the senior team making it to championships is a pretty big deal. Louis finds a parking spot and Zayn grabs the blanket out of the back seat to keep them warm against the breeze. Zayn slings his arm around Louis’ shoulders and they make their way towards the seating along the side of the field. Louis waves across the pitch to Liam and Zayn looks for the best seat.

"Louis!" someone calls and Louis would recognize that voice anywhere.

He turns his head and sees Harry sitting next to Niall four rows up, waving at him. Harry wears a brown leather jacket with a bit of fur around the collar, his hair looking exceptionally windblown and his cheeks rosy. Niall sees Louis and waves excitedly too, even though Louis hasn’t seen him since the day he met the two of them in the cafeteria.

"Hey Harry, hi Niall" Louis says, smiling and giving a wave before he begins to lead Zayn to an empty spot at the bottom row.

"What are you doing, why aren’t we sitting with them?" Zayn whispers.

"Oh, I don’t know- I never really thought about it. We only hang out in second period," Louis shrugs, he doesn’t want to bother Harry and Niall.

"Come sit with us!" Niall calls, as if he and Louis are best friends, waving them over excitedly.

Zayn takes that as invite enough and begins dragging Louis up the steps to get to the fourth row. Louis meets Harry’s eyes and smiles sheepishly. Harry’s got both his dimples out because he’s smiling so big. They have to step over a few people to get to the empty spot beside Harry, and Louis is grateful when Zayn holds his hand to help him step over someones cooler without tripping. Harry slides over a little and Louis sits himself down, but with Niall on Harry’s other side and Zayn on his he finds himself pressed right up close to Harry.

"Er Zayn, this is Harry and Niall," Louis says, leaning back so Zayn can reach across and shake their hands.

"Great t’meet ya mate," Niall says to Zayn.

"Heard a lot about you," Harry grins and Louis laughs.

"Good to meet you both, and good things I hope," Zayn chuckles.

"Yeah lots of good things," Harry replies, smiling down at Louis.

"What are you guys doing here?" Louis asks him as Zayn spreads the blanket across their laps.

"Ni has dragged me to every game, he’s a bit of an enthusiast," Harry says, stage whispering.

"Oi you love it, shut up," Niall says, elbowing Harry.

"Really? We’ve been to every game too, Liam is on the team, can’t believe I haven’t seen you before," Louis says.

"Guess you weren’t looking," Harry grins, "cute beanie."

Louis cheeks warm a little and he smiles, “thanks,” he says.

"Lou theres Li," Zayn says.

"Oh yeah, we’ll be right back," Louis tells Harry and Niall.

Zayn holds his hand again as they go back down the row and then down the stairs. Zayn and Liam think Louis has balance issues so they are always reaching out to support him, keep him from toppling. They joke about what a klutz he is and tease him about watching where he puts his feet but really they just want to keep him safe. They’re always looking out for him, always so ready to catch him and steady him. They don’t know the reason he waivers so much is because he’s constantly light headed and fighting off dizziness but he loves them for caring regardless.

Liam is waiting for them at the bottom of the steps and Louis throws his arms around his neck and buries his face in. Liam squeezes him back and plants a kiss to his head. Louis pulls away and Zayn wraps his arms around Liam and gets a kiss on his hair, simply because if Louis got one and he didn’t Zayn would have whined. When Zayn steps back Louis straightens out Liam’s jersey and bends down to pull up his knee socks a bit.

"You’re going to kick ass," Zayn says, clapping Liam on the shoulder.

"You’re going to win," Louis adds excitedly.

"I don’t know, they’re a really good team and Jamie twisted his ankle so Ben is subbing in and I don’t know if-"

"You’re going to win," Louis repeats.

Liam looks down at Louis with hopeful eyes, “you think?” he asks.

Louis cups Liam’s cheeks and peers up at him, “Liam god damn Payne, you are going to win,” he says sternly.

Louis has known Liam most of his life and he knows exactly what Liam needs to hear before a game. When they used to play on the same team Louis would say the exact same thing. Liam needs all the doubt to be removed for him to be confident and for some reason Louis telling him is enough to remove all doubt.

Liam finally grins and nods, “alright, yeah,” he says.

"Just as long as you have fun," Zayn says.

"Stop being such a Mum," Louis teases.

Zayn grins and then his eyebrows shoot up, “speaking of which! I met Harry, we’re sitting beside him and his Irish friend,” he tells Liam.

Louis groans, “Niall. The Irish friends name is Niall.”

"Where is Harry?" Liam asks excitedly.

"He’s the one with the brown curls and the big teeth, in the brown jacket," Zayn whispers conspiratorially.

Louis scoffs, “his teeth suit him,” he says.

Zayn raises his eyebrows, “wasn’t insulting the guy Lou, no need to get defensive,” he says, trying to hide a grin.

Louis just rolls his eyes as Liam scans the crowd, “oh shit he caught me looking at him,” Liam says.

"What is wrong with you two, it isn’t a big deal. I’m sure you can meet him after the game too. Just relax," Louis says exasperatedly.

Liam seems satisfied with that and he grins, “right, well games about to start.”

Louis throws his arms around Liam again and squeezes him tight, “you’re going to win.”

"You’re going to have fun," Zayn adds, joining the hug.

Louis elbows Zayn and it’s worth it to see Liam’s eyes scrunch up when he laughs at Zayn’s shriek. Liam jogs off and Zayn and Louis make their way back up the stands to their seats. Harry grins at Louis when he sits back down and Zayn covers them with the blanket. The game starts and Louis appreciates the way Harry’s warmth seeps into him along the side thats pressed next to him.

The second the whistle is blown the game is intense and Louis isn’t even a tad embarrassed when he’s shouting encouragements at Liam with Zayn hollering along beside him. He’s even less embarrassed because Niall really is an enthusiast and he’s bellowing at the entire team. Louis looks over at Harry once or twice and finds his eyes on him, an amused smile playing on his lips.

“Come on Styles, this is the most important game of the season,” Louis says to hide the fact that he’s blushing under Harry’s scrutiny.

Harry smiles and looks like he’s about to say something but something catches his eye on the field and he stands up, “go Liam go!” he hollers.

Louis is dazed for a second until he realizes Zayn and Niall and half the stands are on their feet as well, because Liam is streaking up the pitch with the ball, barrelling towards the goal. Louis jumps to his feet and nearly passes out from the sudden movement but he grabs onto Harry’s arm to steady himself.

“Come on Li!” Louis cries, his shouts mixing in with Zayn’s, Niall’s and Harry’s, “go, go, go go!!”

Liam zigs when the defence zags and he does a move that Louis taught him, flicking the ball up and over when one of the players lunges at his feet to steal it. Harry, Niall and Zayn are still screaming beside him but Louis holds his breath because he knows Liam and he knows exactly what to watch for to see if he’s going to score. Liam is all in his head, he doesn’t just feel it like Louis used to, he thinks and plans and calculates. Louis can watch the positioning of his hands and the swing of his leg and know exactly what Liam is planning to do before he does it. He knows Liam is going top left corner and his eyes flick to the goal keeper and he sees the keeper is going to go right. Louis cheers then because before Liam’s even swung his leg back Louis knows it’s a goal.

The crowd erupts when the ball goes in and Zayn wrings Louis around the neck, whooping for Liam. Liam beams and gets clapped on the back by his teammates, waving up and them when the rest of the crowd dies down and he can only hear the four of them yelling.

The game continues and Zayn and Niall eventually get fed up of discussing the game across Louis and Harry so Niall steps over them to go sit beside Zayn. Harry and Louis talk a little, mostly about what they did last night; Louis made the boys dinner and they played some FIFA, Niall left Harry to go out with some girl and he spent the night reading. That brings them to the subject of favourite authors and their conversation is only sporadically interrupted when they cheer on Liam. Liam has ended up with four people on his cheering squad now because even Niall is too busy talking to Zayn to cheer constantly, but they all always cheer for Liam.

It gets even more blustery by half time and Louis vaguely wonders if his lips are blue. He’s just barely fighting off the shivers because he doesn’t want to look like a startled chihuahua in front of Harry. It’s even worse because Niall and Zayn seem plenty warm and Harry is practically radiating heat as usual. Louis knows he shouldn’t be this cold but he is, and his joints are aching, and his ass really hurts from sitting on the cold bench. Harry is talking to Niall and Zayn about something over Louis’ head and he focuses the warm rumble of his voice instead of the fact that he cant feel his toes.

His eyes are trained on the pitch as the game picks up again, and the dull ache of hunger that is ever present has been switched out for the sharp pains that sometimes make Louis’ eyes water. He’s used to them though and he just tucks his hands in his pockets and subtly squeezes his sides because the pressure on the outside helps distract him from the stabbing on the inside.
“Lou you’re like, trembling. Have my jacket,” Harry says, drawing Louis out of his thoughts.

Louis scoffs, “Harry you’ll freeze you’ve got a t-shirt on underneath. Don’t be stupid, I’m fine,” Louis says, though the tension in his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering betrays him.

“C’mere then,” Harry says and he’s unzipped his jacket and is holding it open, his nipples instantly hard from the cold wind.

“No Harry I’m fine,” Louis argues, shaking his head.

“If you don’t come here I’m going to take my jacket off altogether and it will be on your conscience if I catch a cold,” Harry shrugs, starting to pull his arm out.

Louis huffs and rolls his eyes, admitting defeat. Harry grins like the cat that got the canary and scoots closer. Louis slips his arms around Harry’s waist under the jacket and Harry wraps the jacket around Louis’ shoulders and pulls both sides together. His arms are still in the sleeves and he wraps his arms around Louis’ shoulders so that Louis is essentially cocooned against his side.

Louis thinks maybe it’s a little undignified but he’s sure Zayn would have cocooned him too if he had a big enough jacket, and it’s instantly so much better so he cant bring himself to care. Harry is naturally like a sauna and Louis’ body lets out one last shiver at the sudden change of temperature and then the heat begins to pour into his bones.

He’s so comfortable that he doesn’t pull away to scream as Liam goes for another goal, and Harry doesn’t move either, though his shouts vibrate against Louis hair where his head is pressed next to Harry’s throat. He and Harry don’t talk much after that but they don’t need to and Louis likes that. He’s fallen into the same easy comfort with Harry that he has with Louis and Zayn and he commends himself a little because he may not be the most social anymore but he still knows how to pick people.

Louis looks up at Harry from his place under his chin and Harry smiles down at him, left dimple on display. Louis observes him for a second, taking in the splay of curls across his forehead, the pink tinge on the apples of his cheeks, his jade coloured eyes. Louis thinks maybe Harry has the kindest eyes he’s ever seen. He gives a small smile and looks back to the game.

Liam’s team ends up slaughtering the other and when the final buzzer goes Harry bounces up and down a little with excitement, jostling Louis and making him laugh. The teams line up to shake hands and then go off to their change rooms to shower. Louis pulls himself out of Harry’s cocoon and stands up beside Zayn to stretch, as everyone else starts to drift out of their seats.

They get down to the grass and Louis turns to Harry, “we have to wait for Liam to get out but I’ll see you on Monday?” he says.

“Actually Lou, Niall and I thought we should take Liam out for dinner to celebrate the win,” Zayn says excitedly, “he doesn’t like going to the team parties because they get too rowdy,” he adds as explanation to Harry.

Louis heart drops and he tries to keep the frown off his face. That isn’t okay. Everyone will be watching, they’ll notice if he doesn’t eat. If he makes some excuse they’ll be watching him from then on out. If he eats he wont be able to purge. He cant wait until they get home because who knows if they’ll leave fast enough and that food will sit in his stomach and be digested. Purging at the restaurant is out of the question, they’ll notice if he’s gone too long. What if someone walks in on him.

He needs to say no, he can feel the panic rising in his throat just at the thought of letting the food settle in his stomach. He needs to say no but Harry is looking down at him with that hopeful look in his eyes and its even worse when Louis turns away and sees the same hopeful expression in Zayn’s eyes.

The worst part is that he can picture how excited Liam will be when they tell him they’re taking him out for dinner. Just last week he was saying how he missed the three of them going out. He’s just won his most important game and Liam never asks anything of Zayn or Louis, never complains when he spends his nights curled up on the couch because Louis doesn’t feel like going out and he doesn’t want to leave him alone.

Now he’s hesitated too long and he can’t even think of a good excuse not to go and the three of him are looking at him expectantly and he feels guilty and he’s panicking but struggling to keep it from showing on his face.

“Sure, sounds good,” Louis says, artificially manufacturing a bright smile for his face.

They all look so excited and Louis knows he should be happy that Harry and Niall get along with Zayn so well and he’s sure they’ll get along with Liam too. He should be happy because he knows Liam is going to be happy and he can tell Zayn is happy and he’s sick of holding his friends back. He should be happy because Harry is smiling down at him like he’s completely thrilled and Niall is bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. So Louis acts happy because he knows he should be happy but really he feels like clawing the back of his throat out.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-28