Misadventure

39

Louis' POV

Harry's song made me cry.

Was it about me? His mother? His father? Gemma? All of us? None of us?

I wasn't sure. It didn't matter. It was moving as fuck and it made me want to run on stage and hug him and never let go.

He was uncharacteristically quiet after the recital.

As planned, we had lunch together. I purchased us both up chips and chicken strips from the cafeteria, then trekked up the crunchy, snow and ice covered hill to the dorms where he was waiting for me inside.

We were in his room this time.

For some reason, the sight of it made me kind of sad.

Liam's side was decorated with family photos and football trophies and souvenirs from home. Harry's side had none of that. It was bare and unfinished and exuded loneliness.

We ate side by side on the little couch, our hips touching. I waited for him to hook his foot under my ankle like usual, but he didn't.

I waited for him to put something on the television, but he didn't.

I waited for him to say something to me, anything.

He didn't do that either.

"Harry, love. What's the matter?" I asked finally, when I couldn't take it anymore.

He shrugged, dipping a chicken strip in sauce before silently taking another bite.

I let it go for now. My own lunch had barely been touched yet, and I was actually quite hungry. We ate in complete silence. Then it was Harry who finally broke it.

"Was your song about me?" he asked sadly.

And, oh. Was that really what was bothering him?

I had to admit, out of all the possible reasons Harry could have been upset because of, that one hadn't even crossed my mind. I'd figured he was just experiencing his usual post recital blues.

I knew I had to be careful how I answered.

"Parts of it were inspired by you," I admitted.

"That I'm a sin?"

When I looked over at him, there was hurt in his eyes. Fuck. "Its not that I think you're a sin. My mother-"

"Yeah. I already knew that."

He went quiet again after that. I felt awful. While performing my song 'Daylight' for the first time, I had been so nervous about what Mum would think about it, I hadn't even stopped to consider that it had the potential to hurt Harry.

That hadn't been my intention. At all.

"Are you, like, ashamed of me?" he asked suddenly.

I nearly choked on a bite of my chicken strip. "What? No! Of course not, love." My stomach sank like a rock. "Do you really think that?"

He shrugged. His face grew harder to read. "You kept me a secret from your family. You wrote a song comparing me to a sin. You didn't want to kiss me the other day. You said you'd take me on a date, but still haven't."

"Harry, sweetheart..." Fuck. My heart was in my throat. I wanted to take him on a date. I wanted to more than anything. We'd both just got back from break, though. We'd been so busy.

"You're not a sin," I reminded him quickly, suddenly feeling extremely overwhelmed. God fucking damnit. I hadn't realized all this stuff had been bothering him. I felt like a shit boyfriend for not noticing sooner.