You Think I Hate You? (Larry Stylinson AU) Stepbrothers

Chapter 17

[Louis]

Just as promised, Harry trudged down the stairs ten minutes later. Right on time, that fucker. I still had no idea why he was so excited about the idea of going to this party, though. As far as I knew, he usually didn't attend that many parties, so I wondered what made him want to go to this one so badly.

My guess was that it was because it was being arranged at Ed's place, so it wouldn't be weird for him to show up there since he knew him so well. Or, it was because he knew someone was going to be there and he wanted to meet that person. Even though I didn't want to admit it, I was afraid that it could be the second option and that the person was Niall. It could be Miranda too, but I doubted it since I had only seen them together once during the past one and a half years.

Considering I kind of wanted to know whether Harry had feelings for me or not, I should probably see this as a great opportunity to ask him questions about it, but after that little incident took place in the bathroom earlier, I wasn't very fond of doing so anymore. Well, at least not today. I would rather not see him for the rest of the day if I were honest, let alone walk with him to the bus stop.

Shouldn't he be more against it too, though? It wasn't like him to agree to hang out with me willingly. That was usually the only thing we managed to actually have the same thought about, yet now he seemed to have no care in the world that we were going to have to walk for about fifteen minutes after that embarrassing encounter in the bathroom. I could not see the logic at all.

Once we had shrugged on our jackets and slipped on our shoes, dad walked into the hallway, followed by Harry's mum. They were laughing at something, acting like every other loving couple. It made me uncomfortable. Not that I didn't like the idea of my dad finding love again (even if I wasn't too fond of that either), but I didn't like that he was together with the mother of the boy I had feelings for. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

When they caught sight of the two of us, they quieted down but kept the smiles on their faces. "Have fun tonight, boys, but not too much fun, alright?" Anne warned, sending Harry a pointed look although you could tell she wasn't being too serious. She probably knew that he wasn't one to be irresponsible.

I rolled my eyes, zipping up my jacket. "Sure. Come on, Harry. Let's go," I said, opening the front door only to be met with a harsh gust of air. This bloody weather was getting on my nerves. Sure, the cold didn't bother me that much, but when it was raining or blowing like this, I did have a problem.

"Don't be home too late!" Was the last thing I heard dad say before Harry shut the door behind us, and we started walking towards the bus stop. I brushed what he said off, knowing I would be home later than he was referring to, and wrapped my arms around my body to keep as much body heat as possible.

It didn't surprise me when a silence fell between me and Harry. I had seen this coming ever since he told me he wanted to tag along to the party. What did surprise me, however, was that he didn't pull out his phone or walk a few feet behind or in front of me the first thing he did. Instead, he was walking right beside me, his eyes focused on the road ahead of us. To be honest, it even looked as though he was trying to make a conversation but that he was unsure of how to start.

I was quickly losing my patience, though, and was just about to snap at him to just get whatever he had on his mind out when he finally opened his mouth to speak. "About what happened in the bathroom earlier..." He trailed off, biting his bottom lip hesitantly.

My body went rigid at his words, and if it weren't for the fact that I wanted to get to the bus stop as soon as possible to get away from the shitty weather, I would've stopped dead in my tracks. That was what he wanted to talk about? Couldn't it have been about schoolwork or something instead? At least that would have been a lot easier and definitely more comfortable to talk about than this. "Don't mention it. It was a mistake," I muttered, reaching into my jacket pocket in search of the pack of cigarettes I knew should be there, which it was.