please don't be in love with someone else » l.s.

part one

L

Louis woke up to the sound of moving trucks outside of his window, hauling in furniture and big boxes filled with textbooks and quirky knick-knacks that University students owned these days, like acoustic guitars and Charles Bukowski poem books. He didn't mind, he thought, as he peered out his window, glaring at the ruckus. He just didn't want to be woken up an hour before he meant to. It seriously messed up his day to day routine if he missed even a half-hour of sleep. Sleep was fucking crucial if you were a student. Nevertheless, Louis knew he couldn't go to sleep anymore because the voices of loud, excited new students were now filtering in through his window, waking him up furthermore.

It was a new fall term at Manchester University and second years were moving into a few of the flats in their apartment complex. After the first year, their Uni didn't allow students to dorm anymore, so they had to get off-campus housing, instead. Louis remembered how excited he'd been to move out of dorms and into his own flat because the freedom was unlimited then. No RA's would be busting anyone's' chops and they could get as sloppy as they wanted. They could get as high as they wanted without being reprimanded for the smell. Exactly what every Uni kid dreamed of.

After creepily staring out his window for a few moments, watching parents and students milling in and out of the complex with their shit, Louis yawned and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He walked out of the bathroom, toothbrush in his mouth, and found his roommate, Zayn, eating cereal and drawing at their small kitchen table.

"Hey," Zayn said, barely looking up from his sheet of paper with some weird alien thing on it. "Morning."

"Morning," Louis mumbled, toothpaste dribbling down his chin. "What's up?"

"Drawing," he replied like it wasn't obvious enough.

Louis hummed before spitting out into the kitchen sink, something which caused Zayn to wrinkle his nose. "You seen the new sophomores moving in?" he asked, ignoring the look of disgust aimed his way.

"Yeah," Zayn nodded. "Started moving in at arse o'clock in the morning. Thought I'd get an early start, too. Have to go meet my counselor to fix up some classes."

"What's the matter with your classes?" Louis asked.

"I wanted to get Jarmon for prob/stats again, but he was all filled up when I was signing up. I'm going to go beg and see if they'll open up one more seat for me."

Louis raised his eyebrows in response. "Yeah, alright. I guess I'll see you later then?"

"You've got work?" Zayn asked.

"Yep," Louis nodded. Louis worked at the front desk of the drama department. He was basically every professor's assistant; aiding them in the filing, keeping track of their schedules, and helping any students who needed to meet with someone in the department for extra help. They were all mostly his friends, too, because he was a drama major. Not to sound cocky or anything, but Louis was very well known amongst his classmates for his performance in the production of Into the Woods as Prince Charming last year.

Zayn finished up his cereal and stood up, putting the bowl in the sink after thoroughly washing over Louis's toothpaste. "Alright. Maybe we could meet up for a late lunch? I'll call up El and Ant. See if they want to hang."

"Sounds good, mate," Louis replied, walking back to the bathroom to finish getting freshened up.

...

On his way out of his flat, Louis found that the apartment across from his and Zayn's was getting new people, too. Their good friend Liam lived there. He curiously watched as a brunette woman and a shorter blond walked in carrying boxes. Following them was a grinning blond-haired boy with a snapback over his hair, who looked at Louis and waved before going inside.