Seven Years // l.s.

2. Just Simple Conversation

The first year of high school came along. Which was the beginning to finding yourself, the thought made Harry cringe. He was pretty sure he already knew he was and to think that he wasn't the quiet, keep-to-himself type of guy made him very nervous.

Who else could he be?

Harry had all honors classes, most of which were with Louis, that he actually enjoyed. He had a wonderful view of the back of Louis' head and sometimes would have the courage to say something to the boy.

The side-effects of liking someone: never having the guts to speak while around them.

Today was a wonderful day for Harry. Louis had not only glanced at him once, but three times. The feather haired boy even talked to Harry. Now of course the conversation was only .5 seconds long and Louis was only asking Harry for a pencil, but, luckily, Harry had one.

"Yeah, h-here," Harry answered, trying to give the pencil to Louis with a shaking hand. Louis smiled and said thank you then turned back around to focus on the math worksheet.

Later on, Louis turned around to ask Harry about problem #19, knowing very well that Harry had finished problems #1 through #30 in a matter of minutes. He was fast. He was good at math and it came easy to Harry. Louis wasn't as fortunate to have such mathematical skills.

"It's real easy. Just set the problems up so they equal each other," Harry said, leaning over his desk to take a better look at Louis' paper. He nodded when Louis set it up right, "now just put together the common factors," he watched as Louis messed up and shook his head, "no, no. See, you take 7x and combine it with 5x so you get 12x. Both of them are positive so you shouldn't get 2x."

Harry erased Louis' work, carefully and showed Louis how to do it the right way, "now you try for the other equation."

Louis failed again and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his hands over his face in defeat: math had struck again, "I fucking hate math. This is stupid shit that I'm never going to use in my life."

"Louis, just calm down. You got this, alright. And you were actually really close. All you have to do is watch your integers, this number has to be positive."

Louis glanced at his paper, "that's it?" He questioned.

"That's all."

"Well, screw this! It's easy!" Harry laughed at Louis' comment and Louis did too, "hey, thanks for helping me. You're a pretty cool kid."

And boy, did those words make Harry blush.

Harry sat at lunch alone that day, as usual, and studied how kids his age behaved.

A lot of them were immature idiots that he couldn't possibly stand. Others were average: not too immature, but not that mature either. Then there were those that dressed up like they were from the 50s, spoke in posh accents and felt like they ruled the place just because they were 'more mature' (yet Harry knew every one of them had a dirty secret).

He was startled when he heard a lunch tray hit the table next to him. He jumped in his seat and turned to look at whoever decided to join him.

"Hey, every table is taken and I thought 'why not sit next to Harry?' So here I am," Louis spoke, looking down at Harry with a smile.

He sat and began to scarf down his lunch as Harry nibbled at his ham and cheese sandwich.

God this is awkward.

"So," Louis said with a mouthful of cheese pizza, "you seem to know a lot about math. Where did you get these powers?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't really have powers."

"Please! No human can go through 30 math problems in under 20 minutes. Unless...Are you a robot? Or one of those cyborg things?"

Harry couldn't help but giggle to himself, "no," he spoke up, "I'm not a cyborg."

"Then the only reasonable explanation is you're an alien. You've been sent to this planet to make 15 year old boys feel like complete idiots in math classes. That's what you were sent to do, isn't it?"

Harry smiled, "no. And you're not an idiot if that's what you were trying to say. You're actually quite smart."

"Oh, and what am I smart in?"

"Well, okay," Harry said, getting serious, "you're smart when it comes to sports. You know and understand the plays. You're able to actually run as long as you do. You are your own smart. And personally, I think that your kind of smart is better than my kind of smart."

Louis laughed, "whatever you say. But I won't be the one to graduate high school with a perfect 4.0 grade point average."

"Do you want to hear a secret?" Harry asked, leaning towards Louis. Louis nodded and Harry continued in a whisper, "grades don't matter."

 Louis pretended to be shocked, as if this information was causing the world to end. When one of his friends, Dave, pat Louis on the back as he was walking by, Harry stopped laughing and watched as Louis packed up his things.

But he didn't forget to say good-bye which made Harry like him just a little bit more.

The next day, Louis wasn't there in math and he has missed English, but Harry was happy to see him in their shared human geography class.

But Louis wasn't himself. His hair was messy and his eyes seemed swollen, at least to Harry, and he was off. He didn't scream out the answer when no one else knew. He didn't smile at Harry when he sat down. He didn't even tap his pencil to the beat of his favorite song.

Though he noticed these things, Harry didn't speak to Louis about it and brushed the whole thing away.

He'd save it for another day when Louis sat with him at lunch.

Maybe Louis would open up and share with Harry a little part of his life.