Houseboy ➳ Larry AU |English|

Chapter 13.

When Louis' friends have left, he sits on the couch, thinking about Brianna, about the competition, about the chores he hasn't done, and rarely finds himself thinking about Harry too. He laughs when he remembers about the lollipops. He'd never heard that before, he'd thought Harry was adorable before because of his boyish attitude and colorful clothes, absolutely everything about him is adorable, but eating lollipops during sex exceeds the levels of cuteness. Or so he thinks. Although it's very rare for him to be tender about that, to be honest.

He shakes his head to forget they had that conversation, and gets up from the couch.

Reaching the hallway he heads to Harry's room. He knocks on the door before entering.

"Come in!" Harry shouts, and Louis opens the door slowly.

"Hi Harry. The boys have already left... Uhmm, are you feeling better?" He asks, looking at the TV on the cartoon channel. He frowns, but then smiles.

"Yes, I'm feeling much better now. I'm going back to work now." He replies, jumping out of bed energetically and turning the TV off.

"Well, uhmm, aren't you cleaning my room today?" Harry puts a hand to his head.

"Right! Thanks for reminding me. I haven't cleaned there since last week." Louis grimaces. He has no urge to see his room cleaned, but he wants to talk to Harry, and the only way he can talk to Harry without interrupting his work is when he cleans his room.

The two boys leave Harry's room and enter Louis' room. He looks all over the place to see what needs cleaning. It's not very dirty, and he's a little disappointed about that. He'll have to clean very slowly to stay longer.

"I'll get the broom." He announces.

"Yes, go ahead." Louis replies, smiling.

Once Harry leaves the room, Louis begins to subtly dirty the floor by sprinkling cigarette ashes all over the carpet. He opens a package of cookies and sprinkles them under his bed, breaking them into pieces. He also takes the cup of coffee Jimena made him in the morning, which he didn't drink, and empties it on his bed, intentionally staining the sheets. Now his room is pretty dirty, he will have plenty of time to talk to Harry. Louis likes talking to the boy, and wants to finish the conversation they started the night before, since they couldn't finish it because they both fell asleep. He also has other things to ask him, and wants to know more about him because he finds his life interesting.

Harry enters carrying the vacuum cleaner and broom, and closes the door.

"Ready." Louis smiles broadly, before sitting down on his bed to stay out of the way.

"Harry, I couldn't figure out why you didn't continue studying after you graduated." The dark-haired boy looks at him slightly surprised.

"Do you really want to know? I thought you didn't care about anything I told you last night." He lowers his head. "No one usually asks me... It's just... Forget it." He waves his hand.

Louis frowns, seeing the way Harry shrinks back. He looks very depressed.

"I want to know. And I do care. I remember exactly everything you told me last night, until you fell asleep and didn't finish the story." He's lying because he doesn't know which of them fell asleep first. He hopes it wasn't him.

"No one usually cares what happens to me. You don't have to pretend to care." He speaks crestfallen, fiddling with the broomstick.

"No Harry, I'm not pretending anything." He says looking at him sadly.

"I... I didn't continue studying because I left home. I didn't hear from my mom again, I changed my phone and came to Doncaster with Jenn. I thought I could get into college, but my salary wasn't enough, and the apartment expenses took everything, I didn't have any money left to pay the tuition." Louis listens carefully. "Then I decided to enroll in an academy...." He remains silent before saying something he might regret.