coffee stains ; larry stylinson

chapter fourteen

things were good. they were fine. they were going just fine. louis is sat on the floor of his apartment, highlighter in hand, poring over his geography book, trying not to think about harry and the morning they spent together,  and everything is perfectly okay. 

louis tells his brain to shut up, that his main focus should be on completing this chapter before bed. but his brain just simply won't listen. he keeps picturing the wind caught in harry's hair as they walked down the street, muffins in hand; how they came home and louis made harry watch 'notting hill' and he saw the ghost of a smile flick past his lips when the line came: i'm just a girl, standing in front of a guy, asking him to love her. 

he thinks of soft curls tangled in louis' fingers, face soft in sleep and it's driving him fucking crazy. inconveniently, his phone tings, signaling a message. 

harry: have you by any chance watched 'the notebook'

louis feels himself smile as he types out a response.

lou: who do u think i am styles

lou: ofc i have

harry: noah is such a babe

louis chokes on the air. he really does. because what the fuck. 'such a babe'? harry? saying that?

lou: woah there

lou: 'such a babe'?!

lou: i mean..u're not wrong

harry: 🤷🏻‍♂️

. . . . .

"it's phenomenal," eleanor says the next day at school.

"what is?" louis asks, confused.

"the sexual tension," she replies, eyes twinkling.

"between who?"

"you and harry, of course!" eleanor says, delighted. louis chokes on his water. the amount of times louis has choked ever since meeting harry is absolutely fucking ridiculous. he is literally a potential threat to his life.

"eleanor," louis manages to say between coughs, "what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"not gonna pretend i didn't notice the way y'all just made eye contact from across the room. three times. oh look, he's looking at you right now."

and the thing is, she was right. they did make eye contact a bunch of times throughout lunch and yes, harry was looking at louis right now and no, louis wasn't going to look back.

"fourth time making eye contact."

"shut up, el."

"louis, you've gotta introduce me to him. you've just gotta."

"hell to the fucking no."

"okay," she says, smirking. "i see how it is."

louis is about to retort when eleanor gets a text which is followed by a call and she excuses herself and leaves for the washroom, a small frown on her face as she types away on her phone.  louis is worried, of course he is, but decides to talk to her later about it.

right now, he's sitting alone at his lunch table with an empty apple juice box in front of him. he looks around and sees harry sitting there, phone in hand and expressionless. he takes a bite of his apple, chewing methodically and slow. he looks up from his phone and sees louis staring. louis quickly looks away, cheeks pink and heart racing. from his peripheral, he sees harry get up and make his ways towards him. louis doesn't think he's ever focused on a goddamn juice box as much as he had during those long excruciating moments harry makes his way towards them.