fine line

𝚜𝚒𝚡

"I mean, 'Don't blame me for falling, I was just a little boy'? Who else could it be about?" Louis wonders. "At least he admitted he's an arrogant son of a bitch. A little disrespectful to his mum, though."

He leans back into the plush cushions of the sofa and sighs heavily. "He regrets it. He's lonely. What do I do?"

"Stop breaking into my flat, maybe?" Zayn's voice comes from the other end of the room. "And stop talking to that joint. Why are you smoking weed in my living room again?"

Louis shifts his head to look over at his best mate. "Hiiii," he says in lieu of an answer to Zayn's question.

Zayn continues to stare at him, unimpressed. "Let me guess. Harry did something. Or you did something to Harry. Did you do something to each other? Oh my god, did you do each other?"

"No!" Louis protests immediately. "He released a new song and it's totally about me."

Zayn nods slowly. "Uh-huh," he says noncommitally, stepping forward and dropping his phone and keys on the coffee table in front of Louis. Then he collapses onto the sofa next to him.

"Give me that," he tells Louis, simply taking the joint from his fingers when he doesn't respond. "You need a break."

Louis half expects him to take a hit himself, but instead he stubs out the end and throws it away in a little trash can next to the sofa.

"Water," Zayn decides, getting up to fill two glasses with cold liquid. He comes back and physically makes Louis take it in his hand, then guides it to Louis' mouth. Louis sputters and shakes him off.

"I can do it," he insists, taking a large gulp of water — most of which he spills down his shirt. Zayn sighs as Louis starts giggling at the situation.

"Jesus. Okay. What happened?"

Louis sets down the now empty glass loudly on the coffee table — causing Zayn to flinch — and clears his throat dramatically.

"Harry's lonely," he declares. "He's lonely and sad and he's jealous and he misses my lips." A lazy smile stretches across his face. Zayn's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"What the fuck are you on, mate?"

Louis stares blankly at him. "Weed," he deadpans. Zayn snorts.

"Obviously. So how do you know Harry misses you? Did he say that?"

"No," Louis says, scrunching up his nose. "He sang it."

"In a song?"

"Yes."

"What's it called?"

"To Be So motherfucking Lonely," Louis breathes. That surprises a laugh out of Zayn.

"Really. Harry Styles put a curse word in the title of one of his songs?"

"Well, he did call his mum a bitch."

Zayn blinks. "You know what, I'm just going to listen to the song later and hopefully what you're saying will somehow make sense then."

"I'm making perfect sense," Louis counters, sticking out his tongue at the ceiling for absolutely no reason.

Zayn sits with Louis in mostly silence until Louis falls asleep on the sofa. A few hours later, he wakes up with a blanket over him — it is January, after all — and Zayn leaning on the island counter looking at his phone.

Zayn looks up when Louis stands shakily.

"Are you sober?" he asks. Louis wrinkles his nose.

"Yes, but my mouth is criminally dry and my spit tastes horrible."

"Toothbrush in the guest bathroom," Zayn calls after Louis as he walks further into Zayn's flat.

When he comes back, Zayn is just putting down his phone.

"I ordered pizza," he says. "Wanna sit down and tell me what the fuck you were on about earlier?"

Louis was kind of hoping he'd forget about that, but Zayn isn't that kind of person. He remembers, and he doesn't put pressure on people, but he asks questions and he listens. That's why he and Louis — someone who likes to talk, a lot — work so well.

"Harry dropped a new single," Louis explains when they're settled on the sofa again. "It's called 'To Be So Lonely' and there are some...interesting lyrics in it."

"Want to play it for me? Then I can hear what you hear."

Louis nods.

By the time their pizza arrives, they've analyzed the lyrics of Harry's song, eventually concluding that...they can't conclude anything. It could be about Louis, but it could be about some random person as well. Probably a girl.

On the X-Factor, Harry had told Louis he wasn't straight, but maybe he changed his mind, judging by the string of models he's been connected to, not to mention Taylor Swift, the American singer most tabloids are convinced he's "on again, off again dating." Louis is pretty sure it's bullshit, but what does he know?

"So," Zayn starts as Louis is digging into his second piece of pizza. He's really hungry, okay?

"So?" Louis prompts with a mouth full of pizza. Zayn doesn't say anything; he's used to Louis' habits by now, even the weirder ones. Especially the weirder ones.

"My birthday is in a week," Zayn says. "And I'm having a birthday party."

"Cool."

"And." Zayn clears his throat.

"And?"

"I invited this girl that I was kind of seeing."

Louis blinks twice. "Sorry, what? What happened to your gay crisis? What about Liam?"

"Shhh!" Zayn shushes even though there's no one who can hear them. "Look, she's really nice, okay? We decided we won't work out romantically but we're still friends and I invited her to my birthday party."

"Okay," Louis says, not sure exactly what Zayn wants from him right now. "What's the problem?"

"Well...I also kind of maybe invited Taylor."

Louis bites the inside of his cheek. "Taylor," he repeats. "As in Taylor Swift? As in, Harry's 'on again, off again girlfriend'?" He uses scare quotes.

He really, really hopes Zayn will say no, and he'll say he really meant the Taylor that played Jacob in Twilight or something, and they can laugh about it and it'll all be fine.

But Zayn nods. "Yeah. That Taylor."

Louis breathes out slowly. "Okay," he says after a while.

"I invited her and she asked if she could bring her friends Niall and—" Louis closes his eyes and makes a wish, but it's in vain because Zayn is already saying "Harry."

"Louis?" Zayn asks. "Are you okay? I can ask them not to come."

"No," Louis says. "No, they can come. It's fine. I'll just be as far away from Harry as physically possible all night."

A mischievous smile quirks Zayn's lips. "Now, who said you're invited?"

They have a good laugh, but Louis is still thinking about the party, and how he'll have to face Harry again, after all this time. Harry, who is now tall and sharp-jawed and gorgeous, a far throw from the sixteen-year-old boy he'd been when they met. Louis hopes even with all of that, his mind will be able to win over his heart, and he can remind himself why he truly hates Harry.

After all, it's his fault Louis was eliminated from the X-Factor, and he'll never forget that.

Dun dun dunnnnnn. Any guesses as to what might have happened, and why they both seem to blame the other?

Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?

How's everyone doing??? I haven't talked to you guys in way too long <33333.

All the love xx.

xoxo, K