Underneath It All {l.s}

III

By now, it'd been weeks; the weather started changing, as the smell of autumn was in the air. It'd been getting colder and wetter, and the leaves were turning shades of amber, brown and even golden yellow. This time, also known as the middle of October, was Harry's favorite time of year. Harry loved almost everything about the season, with a few exceptions here and there.

The first term was halfway over, and everything had been a little bit more stressful for Harry ever since he started worrying that he'd been slacking off too much. He'd been dragged by Niall to even more parties because of Zayn and was thus always around the same sort of people; the whole party scene was getting old really quickly. The best thing to come out of it all was that Harry knew Zayn better and even Nick.

Then there was Louis, who was different than the others, as Harry was trying to befriend him after the whole spontaneous tattoo adventure. They'd been getting along a lot better after that night because Harry got to know him, a person with feelings, instead of a pothead who made snarky comments constantly. Louis wasn't all that awful and soon enough Harry felt rather neutral about Louis.

Harry was sitting out on a couch outside of Liam's place while a large party was going on as usual. It was a Friday night so what else would be going on? Harry wondered how the hell Liam even got away with these parties; maybe Liam was rich or he was related to the chancellor. If it were anyone else, they'd probably get kicked out or fined for the matter, or even both.

Harry had been sitting by himself while his mates were inside getting high off their arses and snogging against the wall with the night's guest list. Action regarding Harry was quiet, other than the text that he received from Louis asking Harry where he disappeared to when Harry left the upstairs room over an hour ago. In reality, Harry needed to get away from the smell of marijuana, as it was making him feel ill, and well he didn't want a contact buzz nor see Edith all over Louis, as it just made Harry wonder why Louis didn't show any interest to her. But then again, of course he wasn't interested in her, after all, they were just hooking up, and his body language spoke for itself when he was around her.

So Harry prefered not to have second-hand embarrassment more than the times when he had to.

"Just a few more hours," Harry muttered to himself, checking the time. He wanted to leave already because he was just kinda sitting there alone and was done for the night, ready to go back to his dorm and do a jigsaw puzzle with his favorite iced coffee, and just relax a little, as it was the weekend, thankfully. Every week he told either Niall or Ed or whomever that he was going to take the next Friday for himself and not go to a party, but come that Friday night he somehow found himself back at another one, not sure how he got himself there and also strove to avoid the next one.

Harry sucked on his bottom lip looking around the patio area as some stray raindrops hit his jumper. Everyone was heading inside the house continuing with the party to get out of the rain, so Harry slowly went inside and found it more crowded than before. Harry strolled around the living room and then into the kitchen where he saw Nick obviously flirting with some guy that looked to be around Harry's age. Whoever the guy was he was pretty, and Harry hoped the best for Nick, unless this was just some hook up, either way, Harry left the room, there was no reason to stick around. Harry made his way upstairs and felt his stomach churn because of the smell. At the top of the stairs Harry saw Niall and Zayn kissing in the corner at the end of the corridor and decided there was no point in hanging around those two. Harry's mind drifted to what Ed and Louis were up to, and he supposed Ed and Louis were getting high, their favorite past time.

The door that led to the room where the two of them usually smoked in was shut, oddly enough, causing Harry to wonder why it was closed. Harry was a little hesitant to open the door, but he did, and that's when he wished he hadn't.