The Boy in the Bookstore | l.s ✔

Nine

Dedicated to Ameliechris

A/N: For this chapter, I recommend listening to the song How to Save a Life by The Fray. There are references to the lyrics throughout this chapter, and I think that it would help if you listened whilst reading. Enjoy! The song is linked in the media of this chapter :)

It was 7:30pm, and Harry was logging into his skype account, ready to talk to Louis. He was nervous but excited as he hadn't talked face-to-face with him for a few days. He brushed his curls and got changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a polo shirt. He wanted to look nice for Louis. He was blushing thinking about it. He knew it was stupid, but looking half-decent made Harry feel good. He searched Louis' username in skype, and requested to be his friend. When he accepted, Harry felt relieved.

Hi, Harry! Are you ready to call?

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you again - H.

The familiar ringtone sounded from his laptop, and Harry quickly joined the call.

'H-hi Louis.' he said shyly. Louis was wearing a football shirt. It was red and white, and had the team logo on it. The quality of the boy's cameras wasn't great, but they could still see each other.

'Harry! You look nice.' Louis said, before blushing and looking down.

'T-thank you, so do you.' the younger boy whispered. A comfortable silence followed. Harry being Harry began to panic, thinking that there was nothing to talk about meant that Louis hated him. Taking a breath to calm himself, he made a mental note to remind himself to do his maths homework.

'How was your day, Harry?' Louis asked, trying to make small talk.

'It was o-okay, thank you. I s-stayed home, the n-nightmare messed m-me up a b-bit,' he said honestly. Louis looked sad when Harry said this, silently wishing that he could take the pain away from the younger lad. 'How was your day?'

'Pretty standard, thank you mate. I worked my shift after sixth form, which was nice. You should come down again. How are you doing with your book? Do you like it?' Harry nodded, curls bouncing.

The two boys talked about Paper Towns for a little bit, until Gemma walked in.

'Hey Harry, you okay?' asked Gemma. Harry nodded, wanting his privacy.

'Who are you talking to?' she asked, playing dumb. Harry let out a long sigh.

'Louis, this is my older s-sister, Gemma.' Harry said, annoyed at Gemma for interrupting his and Louis' conversation. They were talking about books again - no surprise there.

'Nice to meet you. Harry's told me a lot about you and how good you are at being a big sister.' Harry sat there uncomfortably, whilst Gemma blushed and thanked Louis.

'Harry, you know my job is to protect you whilst still annoying the crap out of you?' she said, ruffling his hair with her hands.

'I'll leave you two to talk. Louis, if you're taking over my job, you better do a good job. No one hurts my baby brother other than me.' she said with a smile before exiting Harry's small room. The awkward silence carried on, before Louis spoke again.

'I have an idea,' Louis said. 'How about we play a game? To get to know eachother better.' Harry liked the sound of that, he knew he needed to get more comfortable with Louis and getting to know him better was a good start.

'If you had to design a future for yourself, what would it look like?' Harry thought for a moment.

'I want to p-perform. I want to sing.' he said. Louis looked surprised, as if he didn't think that the younger boy was capable. This made Harry uncomfortable. He didn't know what Louis was thinking, but judging by his expression, Harry automatically assumed the worst.