Curtain Call

Eleanor tells him as they walk out of 5th, fingers toying with the edge of her collar, and that’s how Louis knows it’s a big thing, because Eleanor is the baddest bitch around and she never gets nervous, but he never expected 

this

.

“Harry Styles asked you about 

auditions

?” he repeats, halting abruptly in the hallway, a few underclassmen caught in his wake. “About 

our auditions

?”

Eleanor shrugs, but she’s still got a hand on her collar. “It’s just, we have Gym together, and I guess he didn’t make it on the football team again—“

Louis interrupts. “He tried out this year too? He’s shit Eleanor, they never let him on.”

“Yeah,” Eleanor shrugs again. “Well, he told me he thought maybe they’d let him on this year because they felt bad, but they didn’t, so he signed up for auditions.”

And this is a whole different situation now because she had not mentioned the actual act of 

signing up for auditions

, which is as permanent a commitment as anyone in theatre can make, but sure enough when he drags Eleanor down to the auditorium, Harry Styles’ name is written neatly in slot number seventeen.

“Why is this happening,” Louis says, “What is he doing.”

Eleanor scoffs. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s actually interested in trying out for the play, Lou? God, you’re so weird.”

He’s got a hunch that Eleanor has never truly forgiven him for dumping her four years ago because he’d realized he was gay, but their similar drive to achieve notoriety and avoid the general populace of high school has kept them too drawn together, and it’s difficult to hate someone when you’re so busy hating everybody else, so Eleanor is his sort-of-best-friend and they just let it sit like that.

Zayn is disappointingly nonplussed by the whole situation when Louis recounts it to him at lunch, choosing to roll his eyes and continue eating his chicken wrap without much excitement, only offering a regurgitation of Eleanor’s sassy response: “Maybe he’s just exploring new opportunities, Lou. What are you freaking out about anyway?”

And the thing is that they’re right, honestly; it’s not as if auditioning for a school play is something so violently out of the question for anyone, it’s just that it’s 

Harry

, and he’s 

that guy

, the one who always volunteers for everything and once kissed a donkey for charity and slums it with the cool kids like it’s no big deal, and Louis’ had a crush on him ever since he wore red sequined shorts in a pep assembly last year. He’s tall and dimpled and happy, and people like him the way people like puppies—wholeheartedly and without question. But Harry Styles venturing into the theatrical realm, 

his

 realm, the proverbial D-List of the educational system, could mean so many things. Could mean possibilities that had previously never been more than a passing math class daydream for Louis.

It’s just that he so desperately wants for his life to be exciting and fun like the movies, and he thinks that maybe this break in the status quo could be just that. Harry, in all his bushy-haired glory, could be A Thing that shifts Louis’ otherwise mediocre teenage existence into something big and fabulous and proportionate with the idea of youth that he has created in his mind.