Underneath It All {l.s}

V

With holiday break coming up in a week and exams shortly following, Harry had been mildly in a constant state of stress over the past few days. Harry hated the fact that exams were the week right after break, meaning that he'd have to spend time studying while making sure he spent enough time with his family, not just being able to take a proper break. Sure, there would be those kids that just didn't spend anytime on holiday studying and then those that'd wait until the Sunday night before, but Harry wasn't like those kids and knew how much exams meant. Just because Harry skipped class (all because of a damn selfie from Louis) didn't mean Harry was planning on slacking off.

Academics before guys; always.

Speaking of Louis, Louis may have sent at least two texts to Harry asking if he was busy. Harry, knowing that no matter what answer he'd give Louis, would get himself persuaded to go on some sort of adventure with Louis because Louis was just that damn persistent and stubborn. In order to avoid this, Harry simply wasn't replying to Louis, as things were easier this way. On the other hand, Niall was texting Harry incessantly because he still didn't know what to get Zayn for Christmas and all the answers Harry and everyone else had been giving Niall were not good ones, apparently, so Niall still hadn't let up about that one. Ed had been also texting Harry over the past week trying to get him to come along to the pub again, but Harry was too busy to even get in a good more than three word reply. Harry felt a little bad because he was blowing all of them off to some extent, but the one thing he did do was promise them he'd catch up with them once everything academic died down a little bit.

"God, my heads killing me." Harry muttered to himself as he looked up at the screen of his laptop. He'd been doing some bookwork on pain management while also making a makeshift study guide to work off of over the holiday, all on a Friday night, a Friday night where he would have normally been at Liam's party, but with so much to do he simply couldn't make it. Actually, for the rest of the term, Harry promised himself no more parties, and so far, one week into this new no partying lifestyle, Harry was doing well.

Just as Harry was about to close his laptop and take a five minute break, he got a text, and the screen read 'Louis,' causing Harry to remember all of Louis' other messages he sent that Harry ignored. Harry had been so good about it, exercising plenty of self control to not check them and so he was proud of himself. Harry wasn't going to ignore Louis and his messages forever, just while he was studying, but it seemed like Louis texted Harry more when Harry was actually trying to get something done, which made things even more annoying. When Harry was trying to study, Louis was nothing more than a distraction, one that Harry didn't need, because he had things to worry about and plenty of other people bothering him too.

But anyway, things were clearly different when it came to Louis, and unfortunately so. Harry spent time trying to shrug off any feelings that could lead to trouble when it came to Louis, and Harry didn't even know how it all started, and certainly didn't find his feelings fair. Harry didn't want and he surely didn't need to be feeling crushy kinds of feelings towards Louis, and didn't know whose fault it was. Sure, Louis was nothing short of good looking, but Harry had seen plenty of other good looking guys before with nothing happening, so why was Louis different? Maybe it was Louis' personality. That could be it, because Louis' spontaneous ideas were new and even delightful sometimes.

Whatever the cause actually was, Harry came to the conclusion of his feelings (realizing what he was feeling for Louis) a few days ago while chilling in bed after studying for several hours. Harry was reading over some texts he'd received that morning but didn't read, and of course also not reply to, and when he came to Louis', all Harry wanted to do was respond, but he told himself not to. The reason why he didn't let himself was because he didn't want to start behaving in ways that would hint to anyone (and in this case, Louis) that he was starting to feel something.