Songs For How You Taste | l.s.

Chapter 4

Harry Styles was raised to be very punctual, a skill that after growing up in a house with four younger sisters Louis didn't really learn.

However, he did value and appreciate the skill when Harry walked through the door of Rough Patch the second the clock turned 4:00 pm, not that Louis was watching the clock or anything. He especially appreciated it when he had the privilege of seeing Harry's endless legs in tight, ripped black jean.  He greeted him with a small smirk, it wasn't enough for Harry's dimple to make an appearance.

However, Louis pledged to himself silently to make sure that it would happen today.

"Hey, there." Harry said, deep honey voice coating him like the summer sun.

And Louis' question finally slips from his lips, polite greetings abandoned. "What station do you work at?"

Harry slid his sunglasses up on his head, revealing his forest green eyes. They were sparkling with humor. "Starting early, are we? There is usually some kind of monetary transaction involved."

And Louis fucking giggled. It erupted from his lips before he could fully stop it, so it instead came out as a choked half-breath. "How about we amend the rules, at least just for today?"

Harry pondered it, long fingers coming up to his mouth to capture his bottom lip. Instead of meeting his eyes when he spoke, Louis was a little distracted by Harry's red, wet lips. "What did you have in mind?"

"Let's take turns asking questions, yeah?" Louis gathered his wallet and jean jacket, already starting towards the door, no goodbye to Mitch.

"Sure, let's get some sandwiches from Den's and we can eat somewhere outside. It's pretty out. I grabbed a blanket from my truck." And Louis let his eyes wonder away from Harry's lips to his other hand. Sure enough, a bright purple and blue crocheted blanket was folded over his arm. And Louis might have noticed in that moment that Harry kind of made Louis a little less observant than he cared to admit.

Harry and Louis walked towards Den's, a deli on the same strip of shops as the record store and each grabbed their own sandwiches. Finding a place to eat outside on their campus wasn't hard at all. Kentwood was designed with nice days trying to escape looming deadlines in mind. It only took a ten minute walk for them to find tree that Harry could lay his blanket under.

In those ten minutes, neither boy really said much. But the silence wasn't awkward or weird. It was comfortable and easy. It was just as easy for the two to slip back into a conversation with Harry asking what classes Louis is taking this semester.

And although the question was simple, Louis did decide that he wanted to tease Harry a bit. "No, I get to ask the first question."

"Why's that?"

"Because you just had your turn. So, what radio station do you work for?"

Harry smiled over his turkey BLT, waited until he chewed the bite he had taken before he answered. "The school's radio station," he answered like it was obvious.

"The school has a radio station?"

"Yeah, it's not that uncommon for uni's to have a radio station, mate. And it's not like we have that much competition, not a lot of radio frequencies out here." Harry made a wild gesture with his hands, indicating the vast fields and forests of Kentwood. Not that Louis would really know anything about what radio stations were out here, the only time he ever listened to the radio was that one night he couldn't get Harry's voice out of his head. He wondered to himself what songs from Harry's set he skipped over that night.

"So, what classes are you taking?"

"Right now, I'm taking an art history and an art studio class. And geology and public speaking, with you."