Rivals with Benefits

Chapter 13 - mixed signals

Louis' POV
"Louis don't you dare go back to the candy aisle!" Harry warns as I'm already half way to the aisle.

I turn on my heels and hop back to where Harry is with the trolley, "But Hazza, we didn't get enough chocolates," I whine.

I watch his face break into a smiled for a second before he quickly becomes stern again, "I think we're quite alright," he says gesturing to our things.

I look into our trolley to see we've already gotten a mountain of candy and chocolates bound to give us diabetes. We've also gotten the "essentials" as Harry calls it, of fruits and vegetables. And then a bunch of other things that I let Harry pick out since he's way better at this stuff than me.

It's actually been really fun to shop with Harry mostly because he's the cutest shopper to exist. He took control of the trolley after I let it fly into the shelves when I got distracted by all the sweets - I got a bit of a lecture for that one. He's a bit of a health freak but he makes up for it with how cute he is about it. He kept reading every single ingredient for every single item we came across. For the first few he even looked up some of the ingredients that he didn't know. I got him to stop eventually saying that we'd be here for days if that's how we continued to shop.

To say I'm fonding a little bit too hard is a fucking understatement. I watch with so much adoration and interest when Harry so much as moves. He does trip a lot though which I just find adorable. God I can't escape any of these fond thoughts for him. And trust me there are a lot.

I look back to meet his eyes and grin, "A few more couldn't hurt."

Harry shakes his head with a dimpled smile, "Let's go get cereal."

I beam at that and I'm about to sprint to the aisle when suddenly Harry wraps his arm around my waist. I stiffen at his touch and look up at him to see he's kept his eyes dead ahead. Maybe he's scared of my reaction. I quickly relax at his touch as Harry keeps his arm around me and continues to push the trolley with his other.

I feel him grip my waist tighter as he moves me so I'm in front of him. He places his hand back on the handle so now I'm in between him and the trolley. He moves in closer and drops his chin on my shoulder.

This feels so familiar. Only this time we're not drunk. But I might as well be because his touch is so intoxicating. I can already feel myself getting addicted and I've only had a little taste of it. I can't imagine what it'd be like if Harry was mine. What it'd be like to touch him and hold him. To whisper sweet nothings to him and to kiss him whenever I want. Shit, now I'm thinking about kissing him. Not that I don't do that all the time already but I really should try to get it together. Because Harry isn't mine, for all I know he could belong to someone else. But I guess for now I don't mind if people mistake us as a couple. I don't mind at all.

I slide my hands onto the handle in front of me. I place them at a teasing distance from Harry's as they're on the inside of both his hands. Close, but not touching.

"What cereal did you want?" Harry asks in a quiet voice since he's already right next to my ear.

I suppress the urge to shudder at the feeling, "Coco Pops," I say a little bit louder than Harry.

He chuckles softly which makes me smile, "Coco Pops it is then."

I hadn't even realized we were in the aisle until one of Harry's hands was leaving the handle to reach up to get the cereal box. I think I was too focused on my Harry thoughts to notice, which seems to be the new normal for me. He places the box in the trolley and his hand back on the handle. This time it's even closer than before, which I didn't think was possible, but we're still not touching.