I Know You, Lou // l.s.

6.

Harry decided to wake Niall a little earlier than he'd asked for, because even after only knowing the boy for a short while, Harry figured he was going to have to shake him awake more than once.

But eventually, he did get up and get ready in time, so the two boys found themselves walking to class together. They were crossing the park, walking down the pathway as they passed students studying in the grass, and others also making their way to classes.

Even though it was almost 9, the weather was quite nice so there were quite a few people in the park already.

"How was the book?" Niall asked with a smile. "It was Tom Sawyer, right?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "It was good, I like re-reading it. It reminds me of-" Harry broke off, as he looked across the lawn, and his throat went dry.

Louis and some guys were playing football, using some t-shirts as goals as they played shirts vs skins. Unluckily for Harry, Louis was on the skins team. He was so beautiful, even more so than he remembered, which only made it all harder.

Harry shook his head and quickly looked away, suddenly blushing as he realized what he almost said, and that Louis was nearby and shirtless.

He sped up a little, and Niall followed, crunching the gravel as they walked in silence.

"Um, like Old times, yeah?" Niall suggested, trying to ease the tension. "Childhood and stuff. Just having fun. That's why I like the story, anyway." He shrugged as Harry nodded, offering a small smile, before his frown returned.

Harry didn't understand why it hurt so much to see the person that Louis had become.

Niall watched him curiously, before he looked up and saw Louis laughing with his mates. He rolled his eyes as he understood and came to the realization that Harry must have anxiety or something similar, because he was just so shy and nervous in a lot of social settings.

"You alright?" Niall asked, and Harry nodded. But Niall wasn't quite convinced. However he didn't want to push Harry into talking about something that he didn't want to talk about, so he changed to subject to something more cheery instead.

"Um, so I saw a flyer the other day for a water park down near London that just re-opened." Niall said, and Harry nodded.

"Y-Yeah?" He asked.

"Well, I haven't been there before. And I'm guessing you guys haven't been there since they re-did it all, so maybe we could all go this weekend?" He suggested. "While its still warm out? We could make it into a really cool road trip."

"Sounds fun." Harry answered with a small smile as he pulled out his phone. "I'll ask Liam and Zayn if they want to come too-"

"And Louis." Niall interjected, making Harry stop. He started to shake his head.

"A-Are you sure?" He asked.

"Well, he's Liam's roommate, isn't he?" Niall asked, and Harry shrugged.

"Yeah, but-"

"Then he should come," Niall smiled. "Gives us a chance to all hangout and get to know each other more, considering we're all friends."

"I don't know-"

"We should invite him, Harry." Niall pressed. He understood Harry's nervousness, but from what Niall knew about the boy, Louis didn't have too many friends at the uni and Niall wanted to have a solid group of friends, which meant they were going to have to all hang out at some point. Besides, Niall also knew that Harry secretly wanted to spend time with him, whether he'd admit it or not.