Hearing Damage // L.S.

Chapter 7

Alcohol haze disappeared from his mind and left Louis confused and stumbling. Nick was leaning on the door frame still too sleepy to fully recognize the maestro. He was wearing the wrinkled t-shirt and unbuttoned, as Louis noticed from the second glance, jeans. It was obvious, that the man just got out of bed and trough on the first thing that he found. It was also obvious that he wasn't waiting for Louis to knock on his door in the middle of the night, because the moment his eyes focused on Louis, Nick's face paled.

"Maestro!" it sounded more like a curse.

Tomlinson already forgot why he was here. His neighbor was Nick Grimshaw. The same Nick that was pushing on Louis' nerves every day with his sweet words and syrupy compliments. The same Nick that Louis was cautious to take a cup of tea from, scared for his life. Louis wasn't an easily scared person, but by every book it was a hazard to have Nick as a neighbor. This man wasn't good news.

"I didn't know that you live here?" it sounded more like a question coming out from Louis' mouth.

"Yes, I mean, no, I-"

He was interrupted with a sound from behind his back.

"Who is at the..." Louis heard a raspy voice and his heart stumbled in his chest from surprise.

Harry-fucking-Styles came into view from somewhere inside the house. Without a shirt on. But in sweats. A win is a win.

"Louis?" again, it sounded like a curse, but from Harry it had a lot of emotion behind it.

Louis felt dirty. He got to the wrong house on the wrong night and was trying to come up with some plan, really any plan to leave as quickly as possible.

"I..." he started, not sure what he was going to say now.

"What are you doing here?" Harry filled in the silence.

"Harry!" Nick whisper-yelled back like Harry was being too hostile.

It only made the teacher roll his eyes. And Louis never actually saw him do that. Interesting. And maybe Harry did sound rude, but he was asking questions, and Louis needed questions.

"I live here," he stumbled out. Noticing Harry's confusion, he added, "in the house over there, one house down the road."

And he stopped talking again.

"O-kay," Harry raised a brow. "Congrats."

"Harry," Nick mumbled accusatory. "Would you want to come in, sir?" he turned back to Louis.

Harry's and Louis' eyes widened at the same time.

"Since when do you invite people to my house?" Harry asked coldly.

And Louis finally realized what was happening here. Harry was his neighbor. Not Nick. Harry Styles. Now he wanted Nick to live here more than ever. Grimshaw was a hazard. Styles was a disaster. Only the thought of Harry sleeping two walls away from him was making him catatonic. They were neighbors! He'd be able to see Harry over the neighbors' backyard while smoking, he'd meet him on the way to school, driving the same road every morning. It was a miracle they haven't stumbled upon each other before, this street wasn't that big. Was it necessary? Didn't he had enough, seeing Harry at school every day?

"I better go," he mumbled too deep in his thoughts to listen in on the hissed fight of the two men. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to...I'm sorry."

He shook his head, not able to articulate his feelings. He had a nice evening and now here he was, crumbling under the stares. Fuck Niall. He knew what he was doing, giving Louis the idea of asking Harry for help. Louis was almost ready to walk out on the street and run for the History teacher to wipe that stupid grin from his face for such a cruel joke.