New Guy on the Street (Larry)

Chapter Nineteen: Spicy Words are Said

“Louis, you did not tell me these would be this spicy!” I shriek at the older boy who is leaning over and clutching his stomach from laughing so hard. I’m sure I do look ridiculous with my tongue sticking out of my mouth and my hands flailing up and down, but he should be helping me not laughing at me. When I race to the refrigerator, open a bottle of water and nearly dump the entire contents into my mouth, he laughs even harder.

“Ha-Harry! It h-ha-hurts!” he laughs out while gasping for air. “C-can’t breathe!” I glare at him while trying to wash any trace of the spice off of my tongue. Louis had given me a chip from the bag he was eating and told me to try it. What he didn’t tell me was that it was hotter than lava and that he was trying to kill me with it.

“So does my tongue,” I snap back at him, only making him laugh even more. Where is the humour in this situation? “It’s not funny, Louis.”

“I’m sorry, Harry,” he says while still chuckling and wiping a tear from his right eye. “I didn’t know you were such a wimp.” Louis’ face suddenly becomes more serious when I cross my arms angrily at him. “Harry, come on,” he says, “I was trying to be funny.”

“I’m not laughing,” I respond, even though I’m sure it sounded like, “I’b bot bafing,” due to the numbness of my tongue. Man, that chip was hot. Even when I try to keep the angry scowl on my face, I begin to laugh too. I suppose it was a little funny.

Louis begins to laugh again too. “I knew you’d laugh eventually,” he says, walking over to me and slinging an arm over my shoulder. “Now, let’s go back upstairs. I’ll give you more chips.”

“Over your dead body,” I respond to him while I wrap my arm around his waist. The two of us walk up the stairs together and back into his room. Louis eyeballs the green bag of chips and I send him a look that clearly says ‘I’ll kill you if you try that again’ which makes him back off. Glad he understands me. I’m pretty sure that’s what matters in a relationship. Though, Louis and I have never made it official…

I wonder if we ever will.

“Hey, Harry,” Louis calls from across the room, “do we seriously have to watch ‘Star Wars’?” I nod my head at him, which makes him groan. Part of the deal to not go with my mom on her small weekend trip to my grandparent’s was to watch my ‘nerd movies’, as he calls them. “Can’t we do something else? We have the house to ourselves.” I roll my eyes.

“Lou, we always have the house to ourselves. It’s your house,” I remind him.

“Oh yeah,” Louis says sarcastically. I watch from behind as he bends over to slide the re-mastered DVD of ‘Star Wars’ into the player. Before I had gotten here with my bag for the weekend, Louis had brought a wide arrangement of snacks up to his bedroom – including the death-by-fire chips. I was actually surprised that he had mainly revolved the snacks around my favourite foods (save for the chips). It was really kind of him to go out of his way just for a movie night.

“You’ll like it,” I say to Louis’ back. I can practically hear him scoff all the way across the room.

“Sure I will, Curls,” he says. “You’re lucky I love-” Louis stops talking quickly. My eyes widen and my heart quickens with sudden nervousness.

He wasn’t about to say it, I reassure myself.

“I love your favourite candy,” Louis says quickly and awkwardly while rushing to grab a bag of the cherry twists from his bed. “They’re good.” I watch in horror as he shoves a handful of the twists into his mouth, probably so he won’t be able to talk anymore. Realization hits me.

He was going to say it.

My stomach begins to flop in excitement and in nervousness. I still haven’t said anything to him and I’m sure that’s only making him more nervous about slipping up. But what do I say?