Falling

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

(LOUIS POV)

I slid my key into the lock, hearing the familiar click as it turned smoothly and letting myself into the dark, silent house. It was evening now, and the sun was casting long shadows over the furniture, making everything seem gloomy somehow.

Inside, though, I felt like I was bubbling over with happiness. Just thinking about just now made me feel so happy. Call me silly, but that was the only way I could describe it. Just happy, for now. Harry had asked me out to McDonalds’, and then told me that he liked me. Really liked me, as in, like-like.

I made my way to my bed, literally skipping into my room, and immediately and flopped down onto the soft mattress. Lying there just facing the ceiling, I began to think, and I realized, maybe this wasn’t such a happy occasion after all. I mean, it was actually a total mess.

On one hand, I felt like I had just done the stupidest thing in my life. I told Harry I might feel the same way about him too. That I might actually like him.

I wasn’t sure about that, but yet as I thought about this huge mess I couldn’t get the stupid smile wiped off my face. Just thinking about the words: I really like you. It was enough to send me into some kind of happy little dance. It just made me feel all tingly and happy, and I was behaving like a total idiot right now.

I was wondering if I had made a mistake, telling Harry that, because the last time I’d told Niall that, and now I realize I didn’t really like him in that way.

I felt different when I was around Harry. Everything felt so normal around him. It was like I didn’t have to pretend to be anybody else when I was with him, I could be me, and I knew he would accept me for who I was. It surprising, because I didn’t even know him for long, but it felt so comfortable, like we were long-lost friends, so soul mates or something. Cheesy, but the truth. I felt almost as comfortable with him as I did with Niall – as a friend, of course.

At the start, when I first got to know him, I did find him a little strange. Strange, but nice. What normal person would be willing to help a total stranger on the street who was injured, take him to a café to get all warmed up, then to the hospital and back home? Granted, Harry hadn’t actually managed to do that last one he’d promised, but what he did was already more than enough.

The second time we’d met, he had gotten mad at me, and I wasn’t going to lie and say it didn’t hurt me, because it did. That was probably part of what had troubled me right from the start. Why did I even care if someone who was almost a complete stranger to me flared up at me? It was one thought I had been more than ready to avoid and leave for later, but now I knew that the more I dragged the issue the worse it would get.

Then the next time I had seen him, I was the one who had made the move to talk to him. I was the one who steeled myself for another angry outburst and walked up to apologize anyway. I was the one who had asked for his number. I might not have been the one to send the first message, but who was to say I had to reply it? I had started this whole chain of events leading up to now.

Undeniably, even back then, buried under a heap of conflicting emotions, was actually, unconsciously, some form of love.