Chapter Nine

Harry walked out of the lecture hall, squinting from the sunlight, smiling a little to himself as he slipped his headphones on. He'd just handed in an eight page paper on ethics in psychological research, and he'd spent enough time on it to know he'd done well.

Harry was still smiling a little as he keyed in the passcode for his residence floor and slipped in. He bumped into Louis, who was on his way out, and also wearing headphones. Louis noticed Harry and spun around to say hi.

"Barely seen you this week!" Louis said, pushing his headphones off. "What have you been up to?"

"I had a paper due this morning," Harry said, popping his earbuds out.

"Oh right, you have a Friday class," Louis grinned. It had been a week since they'd gone for breakfast together before his morning lecture, and him and Louis had been just running past each other all week, both swamped in essays and research papers, texting occasionally about how bored of studying they were even though they were just down the hall from each other. "Happy reading week, eh?" Louis smiled. "Are you still on for Liam's tonight?"

"Of course," Harry said, his stomach knotting a little bit. Louis was wearing a black and white baseball tee with a rainbow and skeleton hands on it. The fabric was worn a little thin, and Harry wanted to grab onto the hem of his shirt and pull himself against Louis' chest. Lou's curvy legs were hugged by black skinny jeans with rips in the knees, and his hair was a tousled mess with his stubble making him look scruffier than usual. Harry bit his lip a little. "Um, how do I get to Liam's?" he asked, trying to focus on something other than how good Louis looked.

"It's just one bus from campus to his place," Louis said, "It's pretty easy, I'll text you the address so you have it in your phone and just look up the bus route. Maybe come around seven?"

"Okay," Harry said, smiling and looking down at the ground, hugging his textbook to his chest. His heartbeat fluttered a little bit as he looked back up at Lou.

"How are you doing?" Louis asked, his eyes searching into Harry's. Harry hadn't had a panic attack in a little while, he'd been fairly steady. He was getting a little bit better at working through his daily anxieties, not letting them shake him up as much, but he was still always on guard for panic attacks.

"I'm good," Harry said softly, his eyes flicking down to Lou's lips.

"Yeah?" Louis asked quietly. He stepped a little closer to Harry, and trailed his fingers down Harry's arms. "Good," he whispered, and shifted his weight onto his toes so he could kiss Harry quickly on the cheek. "See you tonight!" he smiled, stepping past Harry and out of the residence building.

Harry's cheeks blazed like a fresh sunburn, and he watched Louis as he left, his curvy body so entrancing, his phone straining to fit in the back pocket of his jeans- Lou's curves already filled out the jeans so perfectly there wasn't much room left.

Harry's phone buzzed a moment later with the address and a 'see you later, cutie ! ;)'

Harry walked absentmindedly into his dorm room, still staring at Louis' message as he unlocked the door. His phone buzzed again and he nearly had a heart attack. He flopped onto his bed and opened the message, but it was just Niall.

N: My roommie's having people over tonight- save me!! !

H: Thought you said you got along? ?

Harry scrunched his brows together as he tried to recall anything Niall had told him about his new roommate. He'd moved in sometime in the middle of the week, but Harry had been too busy with his paper to visit or talk to Niall about his new mystery Craigslist roommie.

N: Yeh HE'S rad but I don't know any of his friends can you come over so I'll know someone? you haven't seen my new place yet, its sick haha but still mate you gotta see me sometime I've been here a few days already quit slackin

H: I want to! but Louis asked me to this thing, sorry Ni :/

N: Urghffhfgdfak;ad why are there so many parties this week I havnt slept well since I got here is it always like this? you college lads are crazy mofos

H: Its the start of reading week tonight so people are probably just celebrating early

N: kay well you should ditch loverboy louis and come see your best friend coz I mean youve known me longer I should be your first choice haha

H: Buuuuuuut he's hotter Ni ;)

N: Pffffft doubt it, but fine just come see me tomorrow if youre not too hungover

H: Of course :) xxx

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"Really?" Louis said, "Red solo cups, Payno? What is this, after-prom?" He was sitting on a kitchen stool, watching Liam gather up the things they needed for the party. He was under the pretense that he was helping, but Louis was better suited at delegating than actually doing any work, delighting in telling people exactly what they were doing wrong.

"Hey," Liam said, snatching the bag of cups out of Louis' small hands. "We can be twenty somethings and still use solo cups."

"So classy," Louis smirked, rolling his eyes, his blue irises glinting.

"The party's gonna stop being classy the second you start drinking anyway," Liam said, grabbing bags of chips from the pantry and setting them on the cluttered kitchen table. "Don't fuck any of my friends this time, please- it just makes my life awkward."

"I haven't like, done any of that in a while anyway," Louis mumbled, opening a bag of sour cream and onion chips.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Liam asked, as he finally stopped flitting around the kitchen. He rested against the counter, and held out his hand for the chips. Louis thought he was going to bitch at him for eating them before their friends got there, but he just grabbed a handful and gave the bag back. "Like, how long has it been? Like a few weeks, or...? Cause you haven't really been at the bar lately."

"Missed me?" Louis mumbled though a mouthful of crumbs, stuffing more chips into his mouth as he talked.

"You never tip me," Liam said, "So no." Liam had been working as a bartender since he turned nineteen, and Louis had frequented the bar since Liam started work, using that as an excuse to get drunk on the weekends and go home with a stranger. "Not that I want to talk about your sex life," Liam added, giving Louis a warning glare (Lou had a habit of wildly oversharing), "But, like, how long has it been?"

"Um, like," Louis said, pretending to think about it. He didn't have to think about it at all. "Like maybe just over two months I guess." He tried to make that sound casual, even though two months for Louis was anything but typical.

"So, just before you met Harry," Liam said.

"I mean, I suppose," Louis said, digging his hand into the bag of chips. "If you want to relate those two things."

Liam gave Louis a long look. "I don't like this."

"Literally, Payno, if anything ever happens between us, all we do is fill out a little form saying he wants to switch roommates, then he's off to a different floor, or different residence building, I'm not his RA anymore, no harm no foul."

"I'm not worried about your job, Tommo... I'm worried about Harry," Liam said. "He's got anxiety- what makes you think he wants to be uprooted like that in the middle of a semester?"

"He'll be fine," Louis said. "I mean, if he wants anything with me... I mean, he said he was into me, but he seems like the take it slow type."

"Which you're not," Liam pointed out, drumming his fingers against the kitchen counter.

"I could be!" Louis said defensively.

"When's the last time you didn't sleep with someone the day you met them?" Liam asked.

"Harry," Louis said pointedly, his blue eyes glaring.

He locked eyes with Liam. Liam had always looked out for Louis, watching over his drinks carefully when Lou was too drunk to notice someone spike it, taking Louis to the hospital that time he got a piece of glass stuck in his foot as Louis clutched onto Liam's shoulder and let out a blasphemous string of curse words the whole way to the ER, and now Liam was determined to make sure Louis wasn't going to get hurt from this.

"Just be careful, okay, Lou? I worry."

"I know," Louis said, fidgeting on his chair. "I'll be okay though."

They were cut off by a knock on the door, which Louis was grateful for, because their conversation was taking a turn for the sappy.

Liam welcomed them in, and sent them off to the backyard with a beer, promising he'd be out in a minute.

"Are we good?" Liam asked.

"We're good," Louis nodded. "Where's this new roommate of yours by the way? I've heard nothing about him, I want to see if he meets my standards."

"I think he's hiding," Liam said. "He said he only knows one person from around here and he couldn't come, so I think he's just gonna stay in his room all night." Liam sighed. "He's really great though- wicked guitarist too- I just think he feels a bit awkward at a thing like this right after he moved in... I feel bad though."

"Well, I'll drag him out later, okay?" Louis said, checking his phone as Liam headed out to the backyard. It was a little past seven thirty and people were starting to trickle in, slowly filling up the backyard.

He was just about to text Harry to make sure he didn't get lost when he heard a timid knock on the door.

Louis jumped off his chair and rushed to answer the door.

He opened the door to see Harry, looking relieved that he'd made it to the right house.

"Hi," Harry said, smiling at Louis.

He'd changed since that morning, and he looked really fucking good. Louis sucked in a small breath when he saw him. He'd have to get really drunk tonight if he wanted to take away the ache that came from being in the same space as Harry and not making a move.

Not that vodka would solve his problems, but it couldn't hurt to try.

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Author's Note: Hey everyone! This is the first half of the chapter I meant to post today but it turned out WAY too long so I split it up, the next part of it should be posted on the weekend and you definitely will not want to miss that one (HINT HINT AWKWARD WINK). PS. I LOVE your comments, feel free to go crazy in the comments section, it's really entertaining for me!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This story is about college/university students (who are adults), and the book will be getting a bit more mature from now on, (I don't have it all planned out yet, so I can't say specifics) but if you're not comfortable reading about that or if you're young, it doesn't bother me if you stop reading it at any point, I don't want anyone to read about things they don't want to!

As for the rest of you, you should really like the next few chapters, the story's really picking up now and going somewhere interesting, thanks for reading this far! :)