The Suburbs

s i x

c h a p t e r   s i x

c o t t a g e

h a r r y

Louis had stayed until the sun had set in the sky the night before to help Harry out with a few odd jobs he managed to find the pair to do. He got Louis sanding the cupboards and floor that he'd replaced, and busied himself with organizing things for the next day, which didn't require a lot of work, so he could watch Louis crouched with furrowed eyebrows, not wanting to dirty the dress pants he hadn't changed out of, and finding the sanding a lot harder than he'd anticipated. 

Harry had managed to scrape together a couple of sandwiches for the two when they were done, and they sat on the front porch and watched as the sun slowly sunk, chewing leisurely and laughing about anything they could wrap their tongues around. Sitting with Louis, Harry had been the happiest he'd been in a long time, and he managed to smile when he'd crawled into bed, because he knew it wouldn't be long until he got to see Louis again.

The air was dewy and warm as Harry basked in it, sitting cross-legged on the porch in his pants and an unbuttoned plaid shirt, moving the cereal around in its bowl with a wooden spoon. Harry's mind wandered as he sat in the early morning sunshine to his plans for the afternoon. He remembered when he'd first met Louis, when he'd shown him Silverstate, how he'd talked about going out on the lake with his grandparents in a canoe, and when Harry had been rifling around in the shed he'd found something covered by a dusty sheet, and after a few moments of confusion, Harry had pulled on the sheet to uncover a pristine canoe with "Josie" painted across the side in curly handwriting. 

He'd considered showing it to Louis, but instead had given it a fresh lick of paint, covering the name "Josie" to write "Louis" on it instead. Harry wasn't sure what Louis would think of his addition to the canoe, but he hoped the ridiculously handsome man wouldn't have any objections.

Harry had about five hours to kill before Louis was going to show up on his doorstep in those fitting black dress pants and some kind of shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his hair swept up all neatly and his eyes twinkling and his lips curved up, the freckles splattered across his nose obvious in the sunshine, and Harry would just stare at him dumbfounded by his beauty, and completely and utterly screwed.

"Stop it," Harry told himself sternly before getting to his feet.

The more he thought about Louis, the more his body was filled up with the man, and he knew if he kept up the way he was he had no chance in hell of ever getting a clean break. He could feel a pull, like there was a magnet in his chest, and Louis was made of solid metal, and there was nothing that would get in the way of them colliding. 

A small part of Harry leaving Holmes Chapel in the first place was because he'd get to go somewhere nobody knew him, so he'd expected to be on his own for a long time, but Silverstate had to be the most intrusively welcoming town he could have chosen to stumble into.

The morning dragged on as Harry tried to busy himself, finishing off the renovations the kitchen needed, and moving onto the bathroom where he replaced the floorboards. He was about to begin sanding them when his stomach gave an almighty protest, sending him to his feet and on a beeline for the kitchen to dig out something to eat. He checked the time while he was there, and noticed it wasn't long until Louis would be on the front porch, so Harry hurried through a sandwich before putting his grubby body through the shower, washing his thick curls and scrubbing at his skin.

Dried, dressed, and impatient, Harry tried not to pace around the kitchen as he waited for Louis' arrival. It was a little after twelve in the afternoon, and Louis had said he would get to Harry as soon as he could, and the school was a fair distance from the cottage, especially if Louis got held up with a student or another teacher.