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

part two

H

Come mid-October, with the first round of exams just around the corner, Harry spent the majority of his Sunday at the library with a few of his classmates to do revision. They'd claimed a corner on the top floor where it was the quietest and all sat around, bouncing off facts and quizzing each other. When they got hungry, they grabbed food from the small cafe on the lower floor, and somehow, Harry made it through that whole day of revision. It wasn't until the library announced they were closing that they all packed up their books and went their separate ways.

Harry walked the ten-minute walk to his flat, noticing how deserted the campus looked at night on the weekend. It was a bit eery so he picked up his pace, practically jogging the last minute to his building. When he made it inside and up the stairs, he started fishing for his keys in his pockets, only to freeze when he heard the loud music coming from down the hall. And it wasn't just any kind of music.

It was the Backstreet Boys.

The Backstreet Boys were Harry's favorite boy band and he'd grown up jamming out to their songs, pretending he was Brian Littrell or Nick Carter while lip-synching.

To his delight, the closer he walked, drawn to the music, he realized it was coming from Louis and Zayn's flat. He grinned, standing out there and swaying goofily to the music until he heard a voice singing from inside.

"Am I your fire? Your one desire? Yes, I know, it's too late, but I want it that way."

Harry knew right off the bat it was Louis singing because of how raspy and high pitched the voice was. He'd met Zayn and spoken to him enough to know that his voice was deeper. This brought a rather large smile on his face, imagining Louis probably re-enacting that Tom Cruise scene from Risky Business while singing, and he couldn't help but get excited as the chorus bit came up.

"Tell me why ain't nothin' but a heartache. Tell me why ain't nothin' but a mistake," Louis belted out at the top of his lungs.

Before Harry could stop himself, he started singing along as well and quite loudly at that. "Tell me why I never wanna hear you say I want it that way.'"

He was just about ready to go to the bridge when the music suddenly cut off and Harry realized what he'd done. He could hear dead silence from the other side of the door and he bolted towards his own flat, shoving his keys inside before stumbling in and locking it behind him quickly. As he stood there, leaning back against the door and panting heavily, he peeked out through the peephole and saw Louis poke his head out of his own door and look on both sides.

Harry felt his heart hammering in his chest while he waited with bated breath for Louis to go back inside. He felt so stupid for pulling what he just did. His cheeks were coloring rapidly and warming up his entire face the more he thought about it, watching Louis inspect the hallway like he was waiting for whoever was singing with him to come out and reveal themselves. As if. Harry would rather die than out himself. He was a fucking idiot, he thought to himself.

"Hey, Harry."

Harry jumped back, twirling around and grasping over his heart as he looked at Niall, who'd just walked into the front room. He let out a visible sigh of relief and slumped against the door.

"Fuck, Niall. Don't ever fucking say hey, Harry like that again. Like ever."

Niall gave him a weird look and snorted. "Why're you staring out our door like that? Fucks wrong with you?"

"I--uh--I did something dumb," Harry breathed out, stepping away from the door, giving it one last look and wondering if Louis was still out there. He followed Niall into their kitchen, watching as the blond boy opened up the fridge and took out ingredients to make a sandwich.