Not Again? || l.s

f i f t e e n

fifteen | other side

Now I'm shakin', drinkin' all this coffee
These last few weeks have been exhausting
I'm lost in my imagination

~ 'comethru' by jeremy zucker

ツ

The sky outside his small window went from a bright, cloudless blue to a darkening navy, stars already pricking the sky despite the fact that the sun was still feebly hanging in the air. Harry found himself staring out the window for longer than he can really afford to, but then he shook his head and got back to work.

Only, the longer he worked the angrier he got. Why did he always have to be the one sacrificing something? Why did he always have to give up something to focus on school and work and everything while everyone else got to have a good time? How was that fair? And maybe he didn't even want to go to the game. 

Maybe he didn't give a flying fuck about it, but it's the principle of the matter, wasn't it?

And that train of thought was why Harry found himself slipping into an uncomfortable plastic seat, cramped between Liam and some guy that did not look happy to see him there. 

"You came!" Liam cheered happily as he slung an arm over Harry's shoulder. "I knew you would."

"I'm going to be so fucked tomorrow because of this," Harry admitted. "But yeah, I'm here."

Liam pulled him closer, and Zayn leaned forward in his seat to grin at him and say, "Louis' number seventeen, in case you're wondering."

Harry's eyes flitted over the field. He had no idea what the fuck was happening, honestly, but he spotted Louis in the distance, his jersey spread loosely on his shoulder, the pants of his uniform hugging his ass tightly. Harry hadn't ever actually seen him in the team's uniform before but it's, uh. It's a good look on him, actually. 

"Why would I care?" he said anyway. "I'm not here for Louis."

"Sure you're not," Liam teased.

"I'm here because you didn't give me much of a choice," Harry reminded him. "And I was ready to pull my hair out from my work. I needed a break."

Despite those words, he kept his eyes on Louis the whole game. People cheered, people boo-ed, and Harry couldn't tell what made them do one or the other. 

All he knew was that Louis' a black and white blur on the field at times, and at one point someone slammed hard into him and everyone in the immediate area went quiet. Harry stood up, not exactly sure why he did, hands clenched into fists, breath caught in his throat. He didn't sit back down until Louis was back on his feet.

When the whole team converged near the benches, Louis jogged towards the group and pulled his headband off. There were so many people in the stands, and there's no way he noticed Harry out of all of them, but he was looking in Harry's direction, a grin on his face until Niall elbowed him in the side.

At some point, more than half of the people in the stands erupt in cheers, and Harry looked around, dazed, about ready to cover his ears from the onslaught of sound but he liked it. 

"What the fuck happened?" he yelled at Liam.

"We won!"

Maybe attending football games on a regular basis wasn't something Harry's about to do, but even he had to admit that there's something... thrilling about it. He was going to have to look up online later to see what he's missing, to figure out what happened on the field below so that next time —if there's a next time, he thought— he'll feel a little more in the loop.