Boxer (Larry)

36

"Babe, let's go look at this house." Harry suggests. I crawl out of bed, with only a few hours of sleep, and get ready. I throw on his plain black t shirt, some grey leggings, and some purple converse. After brushing my teeth and all that, I'm ready to leave.

We stop and get some food on the way to the house we'll be looking at, which is an hour away.

"So, what's up with this house? How many bedrooms and bathrooms, all that stuff?" I wonder.

"Four bedrooms, two bathrooms. It's all electric, and there's a food sized backyard. And a big tree in the front." He informs me. I nod.

"If we choose this one, I'll be an hour away from Zayn." I sigh. We've never lived within twenty minutes of each other, not since we met and became best friends in first grade.

"I'm sorry, Lou. We can forget it, if you want." He suggests. I shake my head.

"No, it sounds wonderful. It's just that, I've never lived so far from him. An hour isn't that bad, though. It could be worse." I smile at him. He nods and speeds the car up a little bit as we get onto a highway.

I look around at everything. The trees, birds, an elementary school that we pass. Tomorrow, I'll have to go back to class. And I'll have to do that every week day for two more years. I could potentially live about an hour and a half from my college.

I end up drifting to sleep about halfway there, which grants me a small nap. Still, I'm exhausted when we arrive. There's a lovely real estate agent waiting, and she gets out of her car as soon as we get out of Harry's. She greets us with handshakes and introduces herself as Isabelle.

"Let's take a look inside, yeah?" She asks. We nod and I follow them inside. Immediately, I love the living room. It's quite big, with soft, light brown carpet. It leads to the kitchen, hallway, and some stairs. We go into the kitchen, which has white tile and pretty blue counters. Next, we go down the hallway, where one of the bedrooms is at the end. It's huge, with an attached bathroom.

It takes us about thirty minutes to examine the whole house, and then Harry looks at me.

"What do you think?" He asks me.

What do I think? I consider everything, from a future in this home to living so far from Zayn and college. Even farther from my family. I try to envision our toddlers playing in the yard, Harry and I cooking in the kitchen, placing a Christmas three in the corner of the living room. I picture photographs of our family members all over the walls, our wedding, our kids.

"I love it." I blurt. "What do you think, love?" I ask Harry.

"I do, too. I think it's perfect. Soon, we can start building a future. What better house to begin?" He explains. I smile and nod.

"We want it." Harry tells Isabelle. She grins.

"Marvelous! Is there any kind of rush to move in?" She wonders. We both say no, so she smiles wider.

"Okay. I'll be in contact within the next few days! Don't worry, I won't let anybody else look at the house. In fact, I'll take it off of the website right now." She says.

"Thank you." I reply. She smiles and nods.

"Of course." She says.

Harry and I leave, and he begins planning our future in the house. He talks about the things I imagined and more, but I don't comment on any of it. My mind I elsewhere.

About halfway home, he sighs.

"Louis, what's wrong?" He asks me.

"Just thinking about the negatives. I'll be so far from Zayn and Liam. And my family and my college. I just, I really am worried about living far from Zayn. What if we drift apart because of it?" I stress. The chances of that happening are slim, and I know that they are. We've been by each other's sides for twelve years now. Surely a tiny bit of distance won't come between us.

At least, I hope it won't.