You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 4

Despite having spent two weeks rearranging his schedule so that he didn't have to, Harry had considered going to uni on Friday more than once. The main thing that ended up stopping him was that he knew Holly had rearranged her timetable so that he could tutor her on Wednesdays instead of Fridays. He had offered to keep tutoring her on Fridays and had even done so at the house last Friday, but she told him not to worry. If he went to university to study and saw her or any of the other students he used to tutor on Friday but moved around, he'd feel terrible.

He also decided he wouldn't let Louis Tomlinson force him out of his house. He didn't pay rent to have to flee the premises every time Louis was home. Just because Louis had such a poor opinion of Harry didn't mean that Harry had to place value on it. Louis was well within his rights to be wrong.

There was another thought in a deep dark space of him that he did his best never to linger on but sometimes slipped through the bars of the cell he put it in; maybe there was a tiny part of him that liked being around Louis.

He refused to entertain it because he'd need a mental health assessment if that were true. Harry had been called many things in his life, but no one had ever called him a masochist. Being around Louis, especially alone, was a form of torture, and no part of him wanted a part in that. He could still be at home and out of Louis' way. They hadn't spoken since Monday after Louis told Harry that he thought Harry was a self-righteous, pretentious piece of shit. He may not have used those words exactly. In fact, he didn't use any words, but his silence made it clear that's what he thought about Harry.

But when Louis walked into the living room with a cup of coffee, Harry had to acknowledge that if he had really intended to stay out of Louis' way, he probably wouldn't be waiting in the living room when he knew that Louis would end up in there. As the days had passed since Monday, Harry had slowly begun to wonder if he had overreacted a tiny bit. Just a minuscule amount.

"Hey," Louis murmured as he placed his cup on the coffee table and sank into the other sofa.

Harry had never met someone who seemed to hate shirts as much as Louis did. And he must hate them because he never fucking wore one. Harry had asked Niall if they could invoke a house rule where everyone had to wear shirts, but Niall had just laughed at him.

After he pulled his eyes off Louis' chest, he muttered a greeting back and turned back to his book.

Harry knew that he'd read the same sentence sixteen times and still had not an ounce of an idea of what it was about, but he hoped it would be seventeenth time lucky.

Louis cleared his throat, and Harry looked back up at him.

"Would it be okay if I put the telly on?" Louis asked.

"Oh, yeah, of course." Harry picked up the remote from the other end of his lounge and reached across the armrest to hand it to Louis. Harry's pulse picked up as his and Louis' fingers brushed, and Harry seriously needed to get a grip. He had no idea why he was even around Louis, let alone being polite to him.

He placed his book on the coffee table. There was no point even trying to read. He knew he wouldn't be able to with Louis in such close proximity. He watched the television screen while Louis was switching between streaming apps.

"Is there something you want to watch?" Louis asked.

"Oh." The question took Harry aback."No, whatever's fine. I'll probably just go up to my room soon anyway."

Louis sighed. "Tell me what you want to watch, and we'll watch it. Just no documentaries."

Harry was the first to admit he barely knew Louis, but he was fairly sure this was Louis' way of saying sorry. It wasn't good enough, but Harry supposed it was something.