Balance

Chapter 2

Oi, welcome home!" Zayn called out from the couch as he took a large bite of his Chinese takeout.  Louis had just walked in the front door and was peeling the white jumper off over his head.  As he entered the living room, he shot the younger boy a pleasant smile, tossing the garment onto the back of a chair.

"Thanks, mate," he offered as he kicked off his Toms to free his bare feet from their stifling heat.

"I got you an order of rice; it's still on the counter and it should be warm still," Zayn added as Louis made his way into the kitchen.  Sure enough, a white box from their favourite Chinese restaurant was sitting invitingly out in the open.  Louis snatched it up along with the chopsticks it had come with.  He also made sure to grab a spoon, in case his dexterous fingers failed him.

"Cheers," Louis said, collapsing into a leather chair back in the living room, loving the way the material felt against his exposed back.

"So, tell me about your day?" Zayn prompted conversationally, kicking his legs up onto the center coffee table.

Louis sighed, tipping his head back as he reflected on the day's events.  "Show's being announced at the end of the week," he began, deciding that was the most important piece of news.

"Oh, cool," Zayn replied, obviously not having any clue of the tidbit's significance.  Louis fought back a laugh.

"What it means, if you'd asked, is that we'll be getting our leads and principals clarified.  I probably won't be allowed to continue my lessons with Marius."  Louis frowned, realizing the latter sentence for the first time.

"But if you're a lead, you'd get to, yeah?" Zayn questioned, holding another forkful of stir-fry to his lips.  "So you have nothing to worry about."  Louis did laugh at that, spearing a clump of white rice with a chopstick.

"I'm one of the newest dancers there, Z," Louis explained, "I'll be lucky to get a supporting role, maybe a feature dance if I'm lucky."  Zayn rolled his eyes and gave Louis a look.

"Honestly, it's as if you think you have no talent."

"Speaking of talent," started Louis, eager to get the conversation off of himself, "I saw a kid at the skate park today who actually managed to impress me.  Only for a moment, of course, but still."

Zayn's eyebrow quirked up with interest.  "Oh yeah?  Not one of the usual scum?"  Louis shook his head, chewing on his food thoughtfully.  The boy had been peculiar, that's for certain.  A vague memory of the curly-haired lad's face tipping up in his direction washed over the forefront of Louis' mind.  He narrowed his eyes in thought, trying to pinpoint details about the stranger in his mind.

"Eh," Louis shrugged, not deeming the encounter worth more than a few minutes of his time.  "Probably won't see him again; he seemed to be skipping school and I didn't see him in the afternoon.  Poor lad was probably caught."  Louis distinctly didn't mention the sound of wheels that had echoed off the buildings for a full block on his walk home.  It couldn't be the same stranger, right?

"I remember the days I used to skip school," Zayn reminisced fondly.  Louis gave his roommate a look.

"You mean last week?" he accused with an arched eyebrow.

Zayn laughed, leaning forward to pick up his bottle of beer.  "I meant before Uni, you twat."

"So last year, then.  That must be pretty hard for you to remember such a long time ago given your partying ways," Louis teased.  From his seat on the couch, Zayn gave his roommate the finger.  Louis chuckled, tucking back into his food happily.  Zayn switched on the telly and the two settled in to watch the nightly news.