Friends. // l.s.

Chapter 1 - "Brace yourself."

Louis' POV

"Louis!" Louis heard his name being yelled through the school hallway, but instead of slowing down and talking to the person obviously wanting to talk to him, he sped up and ignored the boy like he had been all day. Unfortunately, as Louis' arm was grabbed and he was yanked backwards, it seemed that this time he was unsuccessful in his plan to escape him unlike the many times before.

"What the hell?" Louis growled, wincing at the tight embrace at which Harry was holding his arm, causing Harry to let go instantly. As soon as Louis' flesh was no long present in Harry's large hand, he averted his gaze quickly to the floor while scratching the back of his head.

It only took a few short moments for Harry to let go of his natural awkwardness and for anger to build inside of him as he remembered exactly what brought them to this situation. "I just want to talk to you, but you're avoiding me!" Harry accused angrily, never missing a beat and making Louis forget that Harry had ever even felt sheepish at all.

"Why would you think that?" Louis snapped back in a sarcastic manner while rubbing his arm at the place where Harry had been holding it only mere seconds before. Harry had been chasing after Louis all day and Louis had escaped him several times by slipping into the boy's restrooms every chance he got. He had correctly assumed that Harry wasn't desperate enough to follow him in there.

"Ugh, just listen, yeah?" Harry asked irritatedly as he ran one of his large hands down his face in agitation. Louis didn't care for whatever he felt was important enough to use as an excuse to talk with him though and shoved him back into one of the lockers that was placed right behind Harry.

The collision sounded loudly throughout the hall and a couple of lingering students turned around, probably expecting a fight, but Louis wasn't in the mood for anything that involved Harry. Unless Harry kept on with his annoying self, which he doubted Harry could be anything but, then he might change his mind.

"No thanks," Louis stated coldly, watching Harry squeezing his eyes shut at, what Louis assumed was, the pain. Harry recovered quickly and gripped Louis' shoulders tightly while looking at Louis with angry, blazing green eyes that seemed to match Louis' blue ones.

"You're always so difficult!" Harry pushed Louis against the same locker he had been crashed into only moments before and let a low growl form at the back of his throat. Surprisingly, Harry was a lot stronger than Louis remembered and the impact actually hurt. The pain wasn't anything Louis couldn't bear though and, anyway, who did Harry think he was, shoving him into lockers?

"Can't you just fuck off? I really wanna get this over with and you're ruining my, so far, not-so-bad day with your existence." Louis tried to leave Harry with those words by turning his face away from Harry's lanky frame, but was forcefully yanked back once more.

"You do realize that, since our parents are engaged and all, we're going to be like brothers now, right?" Harry questioned with a light smirk dancing on his lips. However, Louis found the situation to be anything but amusing and, not being able to contain himself any longer, he furiously punched Harry's lower stomach, causing him to stumble backwards while clutching it tightly.

"We are not brothers and we never will be!" Louis semi-shouted while glaring at Harry. Harry began straightening himself slowly at Louis' words, shaking his brown curls and pushing them back in the process.

More people were now watching the two of them from the safety of their own lockers, but they didn't make any attempt to dissolve the argument. They were used to Louis and Harry's fighting by now and seeing the boys yelling at each other wasn't anything to get excited over. So, they simply entered their classrooms, occasionally glancing at the arguing boys, before leaving Louis and Harry alone in the
now empty hallway.