The Perfect Match (L.S.)

Ch.3

word count: 1507

After the initial greetings, Harry and Louis started asking each other questions to get to know one another. Louis found out that Harry lives in Chelmsford, which as he said on his profile was just outside London, it was exactly on the other side of the city from where Louis was studying, but it wasn't too far, just about 40 minutes by public transport. He also found out Harry was very passionate about coffee, he didn't really understand what is there to be passionate about, but he didn't say that to Harry.

Louis was happy that Harry was mostly the one leading the conversation, he felt too awkward to be the one to start talking about anything. He gladly answered all of the Harry's questions – that he was second year student at West London University, he was majoring in English and Creative Writing, but he wasn't really a fan of the studies. This major was his backdoor option in case he didn't get into his dream college, which was International College of Musical Theatre to study Drama and since he didn't get in, he picked the university his best friend Niall got into.

Both Niall and Zayn were curious and were asking Louis what did Harry text him, he always let them take his phone and read through the messages. They've been texting for two days now, most of it was just small talk, asking each other what and how were they doing, Louis asking him about the café and if it's a lot of work, simply basic stuff to get the feel of one other. It almost felt a bit awkward sometimes to Louis, here he was chatting with some guy he had never met and talking about nothing really. He made himself believe that it was normal for it to be awkward and not knowing what to say all the time, after all, they didn't know each other.

He also still couldn't believe that Harry is even talking to him, he was so out of his league, Harry was so lovely, and he seemed so confident, Louis on the other hand couldn't see anything he'd like in the mirror, apart from maybe his eyes, he always got a lot of compliments on those. Otherwise though he never saw anything worth liking, his belly poked out, his thighs were too big, his arms weren't muscular enough, he tried to hide his insecurities with a lot of tattoos, but he still saw them all. He always tried to hide himself in his clothes, wearing baggy shirts and sweats most of the time.

>>>

It was about a week into their texting when Louis was sitting in one of his classes, not really paying attention because of the professor's monotone voice, which was slowly putting him to sleep, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He sneakily took it out, making sure the professor wasn't looking at him and checked who was texting him. Hoping it would be Harry he automatically opened Tinder without looking at the notification at the top of the screen. He saw no new message though, so he rolled down the notification bar and instead of tinder, he found an Instagram follow request form Harry. Louis instantly started blushing. He didn't post much, there was a few selfies, but mostly pictures of him with his friends or his big family back home in Doncaster.

He was shocked that Harry made the effort to find his Instagram, he did not have complicated username to be honest, @louist91, but still, just the fact that harry took his time to get hold of it. While once again making sure the professor isn't looking in his direction, he showed the follow request to Niall and Zayn sitting next to him. Zayn just smiled and patted his shoulder in supporting matter, while Niall nearly screamed, he contained himself though when he remembered he was at school, so just happily stimmed by flopping his hands and squiggling in his seat.

Louis, still red in cheeks, accepted the follow request and followed Harry back, he had public profile and thousands of followers, there was so many photos of him, some of them even looked professionally shot, he liked the newest three posts, one of them of Harry standing behind a coffee bar with cash register with both of his hands leaning one the counter and his curls flowing down his shoulders coinciding with his dark brown apron with a little yellow embroidered sunflower in the middle of the chest area, Louis assumed this was taken in the Sunflower Café he owned. It was cute, the café was in muted warm colors with quite a few seating areas, it seemed really cozy. He could see himself sitting in the booth closest to the bar and chatting with Harry as he was making coffee for his customers.

H: Well, well, well, shouldn't you be focusing on your morphology seminar instead of stalking my Instagram ;)

Louis got even redder as he read the first message coming from Harry on Instagram. He gave Harry his schedule as they were talking about his major, so he knew that right now he was at his morphology seminar.

L: Well, aren't you supposed to be taking care of your customers instead of texting me? And if I recall correctly, you were the one stalking me :P

H: Nope, the shop is empty right now, no customers, and also, I wouldn't call it stalking, it wasn't too difficult to find your profile xx

Louis felt butterflies flutter in his stomach when he saw the two exes at the end of the text. Kisses. Louis thought. He was in awe of Harry.

L: Your username isn't exactly cryptic either, 'harrystyles' :D

They were texting back and forth for a few minutes; Louis had a giddy smile on his face. Suddenly he felt Niall poking him with his finger, she shoot him a look, but when he noticed Niall tightly staring at the front of the classroom he quickly looked over and saw the professor standing there with crossed arms and scolding look on his face directed on him. He slowly put his phone back in his pocket and mumbled an apology to the professor. He felt his phone vibrate multiple times during the rest of the period, but he didn't dare to check.

After the class ended and all three of them headed to the campus canteen for a quick lunch in between seminars, the boys teased Louis about the incident in the class and he was just sitting embarrassed at the table, eating his sandwich. He shoot Harry a playful message, that he got scolded in the class for not focusing on the class and that it was his fault for distracting him, therefore owing him an apology.

H: Oh, is that so? Am I that distracting? ;)

Louis got so flustered, was Harry flirting with him? He wasn't too sure what to make of it, but he took the chance Harry presented him with.

L: Yes, you are, haven't you seen yourself?

H: Am I that pretty? ;P

Harry was being playful, and obviously wanted Louis to say that yes, he was that pretty. But louis didn't want to give him the satisfaction so fast, so he stubbornly texted 'No.' thinking he was being smug about it. His smugness quickly faded though when he received a notification for a photo sent by Harry. With a deep breath he opened the chat and almost fainted when he saw the photo. Harry looked so gorgeous, he was wearing a smug smirk on his face, his hair was tied up into a bun, one of his dimples was on display and he was wearing a white shirt with that cute brown apron with little sunflower on it indicating he was at work. His eyes were sparkling with mischief and playfulness. Text underneath the photo read 'Are you sure? I can basically see you blushing over the texts ;)' and in fact, Louis was profusely blushing, hell, he was so red the boys next to him were laughing saying he looked like a tomato.

L: You can't know that, I'm perfectly okay, that cute smirk of yours doesn't affect me at all xx

He tried to play it cool, but he knew he was failing. Harry continued to tease him until he gave in and acknowledged that yes, he was pretty, he couldn't help himself though and in the next text added that he's a pretty frog.

H: Frog?? Haven't heard that one yet, people usually say I look like a bunny :d

L: Nah, you look like a frog :P

H: In that case I think you look like a hedgehog. Yeah, hedgehog Lou, that sounds right :)

Louis took a few seconds to register that Harry just called him 'Lou.' Only his close friends and family call him that, but it sounded so right from Harry, made him feel warm all over again. He didn't know what to think about it, they haven't even met yet and only been texting for a brief time, but he did like it. Maybe a little too much.