Bittersweet - Larry

3

"Oh, that's definitely not helping," Liam said, biting his lip as Zayn walked past us in the cafeteria at lunch, his new haircut being what Liam had referred to. 

He was practically drooling, but I had to agree with him. I had never thought of Zayn as someone I wanted sexually, but right now I wouldn't mind being the one he experimented with. It was strange how something as simple as a haircut could do something like that. Zayn was hot and there was no way around that, but his haircut made me realise it all over again, yet in a different way. Before he was adorably hot and now he was intimidatingly hot. 

"Do you mind if I borrow him?" I teased.

"He's not mine," he said, eyes following him until he sat down across from Harry at a table not far from ours. "But please let me have him."

"You'll have to convince him first, won't you?"

"I guess," he sighed. 

I had no intentions of messing around with Zayn when Liam wanted him, but it was tempting either way. Yet neither of us would get anything out of trying unless he was drunk, and Zayn usually didn't go for the same guy twice, so the chance of Liam getting another shot was pretty limited. I think he knew that himself, but if I knew him well enough, he wasn't gonna stop trying until Zayn asked him to. He wasn't gonna be inappropriate, nor was he purposely gonna overstep any boundaries, but once he wanted something, he was too determined to stop without a fight. I felt bad for him, knowing Zayn was gonna be a challenge even if he managed to get under his skin. He seemed like a good guy, but he was struggling with his sexuality, and Liam wasn't gonna be thrilled with being a secret. Right now he didn't seem to care much about the outcome and his sexual needs were getting in the way of his sensibility, but hopefully, he was smart enough to make the right decision if he had to.

"It's a bad idea to play games with people who can't commit," I said.

"You can't commit."

"That's not the point."

"That's exactly the point."

"Why?"

"You're like Zayn," he said, making me frown before he continued. "You don't want love, but you'll probably change your mind when it comes to you." 

"It's not gonna come to me."

"Why do you think that?"

"Love is..."

"Inevitable," he interrupted. "You can't avoid it, and someone's gonna get through to you eventually."

"Love isn't for me, Liam."

"I don't think you actually believe that." 

I looked away, always having convinced myself romance was nothing but a childhood fantasy and something I had daydreamed about when I was younger. I was old enough to understand the consequences of love, and I wasn't gonna get my heart broken just because I decided to fall without knowing whether or not there was gonna be someone there to catch me. 

"Whatever."

"Do you wanna know why I haven't given up on it yet?"

"Sure."

"I didn't give up on him, Louis, he gave up on me. But I know I'll find someone who won't. Not everyone is gonna break me like he did." 

Liam had been heartbroken when his ex broke up with him, and I think it was mostly because he had seen him as the love of his life.

"What's your point?"

"I don't want you to think it wasn't worth it just because it hurt afterwards."