If the Whole World was Watching (L.S.)

Chapter 1 (Louis)

Louis remembers the day that he decided it would he suicide to come out to his parents.

He had come home from school in 8th grade to see his parents celebrating something shown on the news. As it had turned out, it was some sort of new anti-LGBTQ law. It broke his heart to see that because he had actually been planning to come out to them. He found out he was gay in 6th grade but he was too scared to come out and it took him some time to accept that himself as well.

Now he's at the dining table with his parents eating dinner and hearing his parents talk about how bad gay people were. He doesn't even know how this conversation had come to be, he just knows that he is a gay person hearing a conversation about how bad gay people were.

Just then he got a text from his best friend, Harry. He immediately smiled and made to reply. No matter how bad his parents were, Harry always managed to make it better. He doesn't know if it's just because that's how Harry is or if it's because he has a crush on him.

Hazza ❤️: hii

Louis: hi :)

Hazza ❤️: i'm boreddd

Louis: i'm eating dinner with my parents

Louis: but they're being mean 😢

Hazza ❤️: oh noo what r they doing to my louuu

Louis did not think this through. He couldn't tell Harry that his parents were being homophobic because then he'd have to explain why that was offending him. Harry knew his parents were homophobic because it was kind of hard to know when they've known each other since 1st grade. Louis also knew that Harry was queer (he didn't like to label his sexuality but he was definitely attracted to both genders), so he needed to let him know about his parents so he could still see him.

Louis: they're lecturing me about how bad my grades are

Hazza ❤️: well... i mean...

Louis: hey!

Hazza❤️: i'm just kidding, calm down

Louis: soooo

Hazza ❤️: soooo

Louis: what's new

Hazza ❤️: nothing. that's why i'm bored 😭

Louis: ok if that's the case you're going to bore me too so byeee

Hazza ❤️: nooo don't leave meee

Louis: my parents are actually starting to get mad for me being on my phone at the table

Louis: i'll talk to you later

Hazza ❤️: okayyy

Louis wasn't lying about his parents getting mad. They had finally gotten out of their homophobic conversation and noticed that Louis was typing away at his phone.

"Louis, who are you texting that's got you in such a good mood?" his dad Mark had asked.

"Harry," Louis replied honestly.

"If I didn't know you better, I would've thought you were gay for him, what with how often you two text and that smile you get whenever you're around him," Mark joked. Louis laughed weakly.

"Nope, not gay," he said in a strained voice, "You know I'm dating Eleanor."

That was another thing. Things like these that his dad said made him think that his dad think he's gay. So he got his friend Eleanor to fake date him. Of course to the common outsider it looked like they were actually dating but he and her knew that they weren't. He couldn't even tell his friends that he was fake dating her because they might accidentally mention it to his parents and he would have to explain why to them. Which includes Harry.

He remembers the first time he met Harry. He was playing during their recess time at school with a football when Harry came running and tripped over the ball.

"Oops," Harry had said when he had gotten up and dusted himself off.

Louis had just giggled and said, "Hi." and they'd been friends ever since.

"How is she, by the way? We haven't seen her in forever," His mom Delilah asked.

"Oh she's doing fine, she's just been really busy lately," Louis answered.

"She's such an angel, she's probably volunteering somewhere or doing her schoolwork," his mom said. She's not wrong, she was pretty busy doing that. He just hasn't wanted to have her over, and she didn't really want to come over either. Not as his girlfriend, anyway.

"Well I'm going to go do some homework," Louis announced, getting up from the table.

"Ok darling," his mom said.

He went upstairs and sat down on his bed, sighing. He hated having to lie about something or the other to everyone he loved. The only person who knew about his feelings towards Harry was Eleanor, because he constantly talked to her about it. Partially because she kept asking him about it, and partially because she was the only one who knew he was gay so she was the only one who he could talk to about it.

He called Harry because he didn't feel like doing his homework just yet.

"BOOBEAR!" Harry yelled into the phone.

Louis chuckled, "Well someone's excited."

"What can I say?" Harry asked.

"...except you're welcome!" Louis couldn't help but sing.

Harry laughed. Louis loved hearing Harry's laugh. It was a magical sound that could make anyone smile.

"Yes Louis, thank you for gracing me with your amazing presence," Harry said while trying to hold back a laugh. It didn't matter though, Louis could hear the laugh in his voice.

"Of course, you're a lucky guy, you know. Not everyone gets blessed to be in my company," Louis joked.

"Oh yes, I feel so blessed and lucky. Thank you gods for sending this absolute angel to be my best friend," Harry joked back.

"You're doing wonders for my ego, Styles," Louis said.

"I know, but I have to feed every once and a while so I can keep attacking it," Harry said.

They kept talking for a few hours before Harry scolded him for not doing his homework and hung up so he could do it. He couldn't focus on his homework though, he just kept smiling and thinking about their conversation, like he does every time they talk. 

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A/N: wow. i rlly like this chapter. i'm so proud of it, idk why. anyways, i hope this is a good start to the book :)