Not Again? || l.s

t w e n t y - s i x

twenty-six | not too late

And it comes rushing back
As the moment passed
Make me wanna grab your hand
And pull you back

~ ' love again' by new hope club

ツ

"Hey," Louis said pleasantly.

"Did you leave those chocolates on my bed?" Harry demanded.

Louis blinked, a frown tugging at his lips. "Maybe."

"Why?"

Louis shrugged and pulled open his dresser drawer. He riffled through it, pulling out clothes, and then he gathered up his stuff for the shower. Distantly, Harry noticed the sweat covering his skin, and he figured Louis was at the gym. If Harry ran away to the library, Louis' escape was in the gym. He rarely even worked out on their floor anymore.

Just before he's out the door, Louis hung back and asked, "Did you like them?"

Harry pressed play on his show and ignored the question.

ツ

"You could have just told him that you didn't," Niall pointed out. "You didn't have to ignore him."

Something Harry's learning quickly about Niall —in the short time that he's pushed his way into the threesome of Harry, Liam, and Zayn— was that he wasn't as naive as Harry thought. In fact, Niall seemed possibly more aware of anything than any of them, saw straight through all the bullshit. And he hadn't been afraid to call Harry out on it, unfortunately. Not that Harry didn't like the guy, because he did. A lot. But he liked living in his happy little world of denial a lot more.

"What was I supposed to say, though?" he demanded. 

He's on the floor of Liam and Zayn's room, Liam and Zayn on Zayn's bed playing a word puzzle, Niall sprawled out on Liam's bed with a bag of chips. Harry wondered, distantly, why Niall wasn't with Louis. Louis was probably missing his best friend, right about now, and it almost made Harry want to snap at Niall for abandoning him. But he had a feeling there's a reason Niall's with them and not Louis, and he wasn't about to ask what it was, so he let it go.

"Uh, thank you, maybe?" Niall suggested. "'s the polite thing to do, mate."

"I don't even know why he gave me the damn things," Harry grumbled.

It's been fucking with his head all week. The —now empty, Harry couldn't control himself— box still sat in his drawer of the desk, and every day, at some point, he'd open the drawer, see it, and it would confuse him all over again. 

What's Louis playing at? What kind of game was this? Psychological warfare? Was he pissed at Harry for pushing him away, so now he's pretending to be all nice just to screw with Harry for it?

"Because he's in love with you, dumbass."

"Dumbass!" Liam said loudly. "Three down, two across."

"I'm pretty sure the word dumbass isn't used in crosswords," Zayn said patiently. "I think the word is dumping."

Harry ignored them in favour of blinking confusedly up at Niall. 

"Why would you say that?" Harry frowned.

"Say what?" Niall asked.

"That Louis— that he is—", Harry waved a hand, unable to repeat those words.