I Know You, Lou // l.s.

39.

- Present Day -

Louis woke up the next morning to the sounds of incessant clicking. He rubbed his eyes a little as he peered into the room, lit by the morning light coming in through the window.

After looking around, he noticed the sound was coming from Liam sitting on his bed, typing on his laptop.

"You're gonna break your computer, typing that hard." Louis commented, stretching his arms above his head.

"You're funny." Liam answered without taking his eyes from the screen in front of him. "This paper is due tonight and I need to finish it."

"Good morning to you too." Louis quipped with a grin as he kicked the blankets from off his legs.

Liam only shook his head with a smile in response, still desperately trying to finish his assignment while Louis walked across the room to the mini-fridge for a bottle of water, grabbing the remote for the TV at the same time.

He fell back onto his bed with a sigh and turned the TV to the Arsenal v Liverpool game he'd missed watching the night before.

Luckily he'd recorded it, seeing as though he'd been playing his own game of football when it was on.

As the thought about his game the night before, he couldn't help that Harry had crept into his mind. Taking a sip of water, he contemplated what to do. He hated fighting with him and wished Harry could understand what he was trying to say, but the message must've been lost in translation.

He wanted to defend Harry and he tried to! It wasn't his fault that Ed's voice was louder than his and that he ginger asshole liked to make him look like shit in front of Harry.

"Didn't think you'd be home tonight." Liam's voice interrupted his train of thought. "We all assumed you'd be with Harry."

Louis didn't answer at first, unsure what to say exactly. He took another sip of water before speaking.

"Yeah, I should probably talk to him, actually." He said quietly. He didn't really want to talk about what happened, but at the same time he wanted advice on how to approach Harry. And Liam was probably one of the best people to ask.

"What?" Liam asked. "Didn't you guys hang out last night?"

Louis waited a moment, took a breath and turned to face his friend.

"We had a bit of a fight last night, and I'm not sure where I stand right now." Louis admitted.

Realizing that it was serious, Liam closed his laptop and turned to face Louis too.

"What happened?" He asked.

"The boys were talking shit in the locker rooms, like they always do." Louis began. "And Harry was waiting for me outside. Someone said something about him and I tried to speak up, but that fucking ginger-pubed idiot beat me to it, and yelled something about how amazing Harry was. And then once we were dressed I came out of the locker rooms and saw them talking. Ed walked away and Harry was upset with me. He thinks I'm ashamed of him."

Liam was quiet, looking at the floor as he thought about what to say.

"Explain to him what happened." Liam said. "Like, soon. He's in the library right now working on something. Just try talking to him."

"That's what I was thinking." Louis muttered, standing up. He grabbed some clothes from the dresser and pulled them on while Liam went back to his assignment.

"You going now?" Liam asked.

"Yeah," Louis asked. "I can't wait too long, I don't want to lose him."