Rivals with Benefits

Chapter 10 - boys are complicated

Louis' POV
     After some tea and talking with the boys I've determined that they in fact, do not know that Harry is the captain of Holmes Chapel's football team and they also seemed to have forgotten about all the flirting between me and him. So, that's all good things so far and I've made sure that everyone's in a good mood before they see Harry on the field.

We're currently walking back to the pub talking about our drunken stories as we go to get our cars out of the lot. Stan basically had to give us his whole closest so we'd have different clothes to wear so we could go straight to the pitch. Everyone seems to have the rest of their football stuff in their cars or enough extras for others and although we're showing up a bit of a mess we'll still be making good time. We have a tournament this weekend too which I was reminded of by Harry, so we definitely have to get our shit together.

Speaking of Harry I'm going to have to have a business meeting with him about the whole shared bus and hotel situation. We'll probably be spending a lot of time together, way too much time for me to handle with my little crush on him. Okay, who am I kidding, it's massive but no one needs to know that.

As soon as I think that I hear all the boys shouting, "Harry!"

My head shoots up and sure enough I see a tired looking Harry trying to open his car door. His hair is all messy and falls in his face a bit as he turns to face us. My heart flutters when his eyes land on me and he gives a small smile, enough to vaguely show his dimples. I feel myself smile back off of instincts. I can't help it, he's so cute, I just have to smile.

"Hi," he greets leaving my eyes for a second to wave at everyone before quickly returning his gaze back to me.

I feel my face heat up at the act as one the boys, Ed speaks up, "How are you mate?"

"I'm doing well, thank you very much," Harry nods, "How are you lads?"

To that Harry gets a response along the lines of "good", "great", "fine", "okay", "alright" and so forth from everyone which makes him chuckle.

"Good, good," he smiles.

"We were just on our way to the pitch," Stan tells Harry, "What about you?"

"Oh, uh, I'm going to the pitch too," Harry informs us sounding kind of nervous.

Harry must know the boys didn't recognize him, right? This fucking sucks. I mean I really hope the boys don't react poorly when they find out. It would break Harry's heart since the whole team bonded with him last night and he doesn't really have that with his actual team. I think he just wants to be accepted and cared for by people, and it doesn't seem to matter who. I mean that's at least what I've gathered from listening to Harry, but I don't know him that well so I could be wrong.

"Really? You play football?" Stan asks excitedly to which Harry simply nods, "That's so cool! What team do you play for? I mean if you are on a team, of course."

Harry meets my eyes with a scared look and I feel my heart ache, "Um, Holmes Chapel School, I'm the captain."

I look around to all my mates to see their reactions. Most look shocked and surprised but some seem unbothered, which is basically only Niall and Liam. My palms start to sweat as I get more and more anxious for their response.

"What the fuck. Are you serious?" I spin around to see my mate Mark talking.

"Yeah," Harry answers with an unsure tone.

"So what, you thought you could just come into our team or some shit?" Mark continues raising his voice.

"This is bullshit!" Jeffrey chimes in sounding angry.