You drive me round the bend - l.s

Chapter 5

A new client. Just signed a contract. Very talented. Promising.

Louis snapped to attention the second his father said, "And this is Louis, our new intern. He'll be helping out Karen and the rest of your team with some of the less crucial matters."

Harry didn't even look at him, gaze focused somewhere above Louis' shoulder as though he was a ghost. He didn't know why that bothered him, didn't know why he was still staring at Harry so hard his eyes were starting to burn.

"I was thinking he could help you with social media, Harry," Karen said. "We're going to need all your social media accounts, even those you don't use, and filter out all the things that could potentially harm your image."

"Do you... do you need, like, my passwords and everything?"

Fuck, Harry was a child. He had no idea what machine he'd stumbled into. For some reason the idea of Harry being chewed up and spit out like so many before him troubled Louis. He didn't give a damn anyway.

"I promise we'll only be using it when necessary, when you're too busy to post yourself. Mostly Twitter. Just very simple promotion posts, that's all," Dad said. "We want you to retain your own identity. Makes you more... real. Helps fans identify with you on a personal level, feel like they know you. We can set up some new accounts for you if you'd rather do that instead."

"No, that's okay."

Louis' eyes narrowed down on his father's hand squeezing Harry's shoulder, fingers twitching with the urge to push his father's hand off.

He clenched his jaw and dropped his gaze to the floor, catching the tips of Harry's scuffed up boots. Those things were practically falling apart.

They talked a bit more about the logistics of it all and building the PR buzz and what Harry should expect. Louis tuned most of it out. He was more than familiar with it now, having sat on the sidelines of enough one-hit wonders growing up to know the drill. He'd studied this stuff at the uni that he'd graduated from last year anyway and, to be honest, felt like he knew more than most of the lecturers.

Harry looked a little lost, feet curved in, fidgeting with the rings on his fingers, and trying to hide it rather badly. Maybe it was just Louis though. Maybe he was the only one who bothered to look, too aware of how he shouldn't keep fucking staring but unable to stop himself.

Harry didn't look at him once.

****

Louis grabbed Harry's wrist before he could step into the lift.

Harry's eyes finally met his, brows pulled in by a frown as he glanced down at the point of contact.

Louis let go.

"What is it?" Harry asked, mouth pulling taut in annoyance when the door of the lift closed.

For a moment, Louis felt tongue-tied, exasperated and riled up because Harry just seemed to bring that out in him and Louis had never been one for self-control.

Except he had to this time, because this wasn't about Harry. Not really.

"Karen sent me," Louis bit out, cheeks cramping from the smile he was putting on. "Asked me to set up a meeting with you so we can go through your social media, since we'd rather you're involved in the decisions as much as possible."

The expression on Harry's face suggested Louis had asked for his bloody nudes. Well, who knew? Maybe he had.

"Like... with you?"

"What? Afraid I'm gonna be shocked by all the Instagram posts of Starbucks cups and moody feet shots?" God. Half of Harry's stuff probably consisted of random artistic shit with some hipster filters put over it that Louis had always found pretentious.