Half the world away.

Chapter 4

Louis wasn't happy. At all. Apparently, the time had been around 2am when Harry climbed through the window, and he'd been cursed with Louis' constant whining about beauty sleep and whatnot.

"Honestly, I couldn't give two fucks, Louis," Harry told him after the guy started a third round of explaining how Harry fucked up his sleep schedule.

"You should, it's disrespectful and rude."

"Maybe that was the point." It wasn't, but he wouldn't tell Louis that and take away the fury in his eyes.

"You're lucky I won't tell Anne about this."

"Like she'd be more mad at me for trying to come home than you for not putting the key out," Harry huffed.

"Please, she wouldn't even think twice about being mad at me." Louis rolled his eyes at Harry's statement.

"Maybe once though," Harry snickered before leaving the room, half expecting Louis to stomp after him, but delighted to finally get some peace and quiet.

**

It went on like that, every hour of every day except for the times that Harry's parents were in hearing range. Harry avoided Louis as much as possible and tried his best to spend more time with Niall, which was hard because he was really focused on his studies this year. Boomer.

It sort of changed one Thursday morning in the middle of October. Harry woke up to the sound of his alarm but turned it off and shut his eyes again. The next time he opened them was when his phone rang irritatingly loud. He groaned and pulled it from his nightstand.

"Hello." He answered in a raspy morning voice.

"Mate, where are you?" Niall shouted at him through the call. Panic seeped through Harry and he quickly checked the time 9:03 pm. His first lesson started over half an hour ago.

"Shit, fuck. I overslept, cover for me Niall please. Tell them I'm at the doctors or something."

"Gonna be honest with you, they probably don't give a damn...but I'll tell them."

"Thank you, appreciate it man." Harry hung up and flung himself out of bed. He pulled some jeans, hanging on his sofa, on and made his way to the bathroom. It was locked, and the sound of the shower made its way into Harry's brain. "Fuck..." He muttered before grabbing a coin to turn the lock so he could get inside. He knocked to warn Louis that he was entering and opened the door.

He ignored the obvious presence of Louis behind the shower curtain, naked, and sat down on the toilet to have his morning wee. To his discomfort, the water stopped and the sound of the shower curtain being pulled to the side was heard. He held his head down and cursed himself a million times over.

"You sit down when you pee?" Louis asked and Harry became fully aware that Louis was looking at him, while he was using the loo.

"Don't look at me, man." By mistake, Harry's eyes went up to meet Louis' and he froze. It took everything in him not to look anywhere else on Louis' body than his eyes. His hair was wet and dripping down his face. In the corner of his eyes he could see the boys damp, golden skin. He realised they'd been staring at each other for way too long when Louis cleared his throat and Harry, in quicker than a second, closed his eyes and looked away.

"Why couldn't you just wait for your turn?" Louis asked once Harry had pulled his pants back up and flushed the toilet, now washing his hands.

"Because I overslept and I'm really fucking late," he explained in frustration as he bent down to open the cabinet in search for his toothbrush. When he looked back into the mirror, he saw Louis' naked body right behind him in a position he didn't usually like to be standing in when it came to people he disliked. Usually.