You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 3

Louis opened Stacey's car door because he was a gentleman like that. The first thing he noticed (maybe because it had been what he was looking for, but that's irrelevant) was the car that must have been Holly's was gone. Thank fuck.

"This is your house?" Stacey asked, gazing up at the brick exterior.

"Yeah." The house always seemed to have this effect on girls, and he had no bloody idea why. Louis stood beside her and tried to see what it looked like through her eyes. Even as he looked at it, trying to mimic Stacey's level of awe, it was just a house. If anything, in the dark, it looked even plainer. Once he was pretty confident it was just as dull as he'd thought, he asked Stacey, "Do you still want to come in?"

She grabbed his hand and grinned at him. "Yeah, absolutely."

He guided her through the garden, stopping only to get his keys out once they reached the entrance. As he reached into his pocket, he was pushed into the door. Stacey pressed her lips onto his.

Louis reached for her waist and pulled her into him, deepening the kiss, trying to match her enthusiasm.

The date, for lack of a better word, had been fine. Good, even. Stacey was pretty, laughed at all Louis' jokes, had good conversations, and yeah, there was probably a bit of chemistry there.

But all he could think about was how annoying Harry was. Because the kid was really fucking annoying.

Louis could have spent the night at home watching a film if it wasn't for Harry and his obnoxious laughing.

The worst part was Louis had no bloody idea why he bothered him so much. The only thing that made sense was that Louis was jealous of him. And even then, he wasn't sure that even really made sense.

Liam, Zayn, and Niall were all attractive - arguably more attractive than Louis. Still, the times they'd gone out together, he was the one who got attention. He'd always figured it was due to his dazzling personality. But then Harry strode into his life, and it was like he had girls falling all over him.

It didn't even make sense because Harry was boring as fuck.

Except for the few times he wasn't.

There were times when Harry was playful. Never with Louis, of course, but with Niall. Occasionally hints of it with Liam and Zayn.

Louis had sometimes noticed that his eyes lit up when he was talking about tutoring students, which was kind of nice, he supposed.

And last Sunday, when Louis was watching telly before he went to work, Harry was reading on the lounge. He was curled up as if making sure he wasn't in Zayn's space (which seemed a bit stupid because Louis knew Zayn wouldn't care if Harry was in his space). Harry looked cosy, and it was kind of cute.

Also, even though Louis couldn't think of anything worse for himself, he thought it was cool that Harry was vegetarian and that it was kind of interesting that he didn't drink.

And obviously, he was fit as fuck.

But all that aside, there was nothing appealing about Harry at all. Louis couldn't understand what girls saw in him and why they gave him so much attention. Louis had always been so bloody competitive, so it did make sense that it bothered him. They were in competition now. Louis didn't fully know the rules of the competition or how to win, but he was determined to win regardless. While much of that was because of his competitiveness, he also hoped it would eliminate his weird feelings.

He was pretty sure that tonight he could win. He had Stacey, who'd made it clear that she'd wanted to shag from the moment he picked her up. Louis would get laid tonight, and he'd win and could put all this stuff behind him.