Chapter Six

"You're amazing," Louis said softly, looking up at Harry. Harry had set the guitar down at some point, Louis didn't even remember him doing it. "Do you sing too?" Louis asked.

Harry nodded, biting his lip.

Lou saw his teeth graze past where the little silver lip ring wove through Harry's soft petal pink lips and he thought about what it would be like to have that cool hoop of metal brush against his tongue and...

"Should we go inside?" Louis asked, interrupting his own thoughts. He couldn't let himself think about things like this while he was alone with Harry and it was dark out and God it was like Louis didn't have any willpower.

It was like Harry didn't have a boyfriend.

"It's nice out," Harry replied. He was so close to Louis, Lou could practically feel the flutter of Harry's words as he spoke. Before Louis could prepare himself, Harry's head was buried in his shoulder, his long curls tickling his skin. "You're warm," Harry murmured into Louis skin. Harry's soft pink lips kissed a small spot onto Louis' neck and Lou let out a feathery sigh that melted into the moonlight.

The door burst open, and Harry lifted his head off Louis' shoulder. Lou felt a rush of cold air filling the empty space.

"Tommo, we're on soon," Liam said with a pointed look, propping the door open with his foot, waiting for Louis to follow. Lou picked up the borrowed guitar and let Harry slip past him, back into the cafe. Liam stopped Louis from going inside.

"You can't do that, Lou," he said, his voice low, making sure Harry was out of earshot.

"Fuck off," Louis muttered, trying to step past Liam.

"I'm being serious, Lou. He has a boyfriend."

"Oh even you can tell that relationship is dead," Louis said, rolling his eyes. "His boyfriend's probably just waiting until reading week to break it off like every other long distance couple."

"Yeah?" Liam challenged. "What are you gonna do then? Lose your job over it?" As much as Liam tried to keep Louis in line, he could never pretend to be mad at him for more than a few seconds, and he broke into a small smile. "At least if you lost your job I wouldn't have to be putting up ads for a roommate," Liam laughed. "I'm not ready to live with some stranger from Craigslist."

Louis glared. "I'm not going to get fired over this, Lima Bean, and we're not talking about this now," he said, and Liam let him pass.

"Lou, I'm sorry, alright?" Liam sighed. "I just don't want to see either of you get hurt here, 'kay? We're good?" he asked.

"We're good," Louis said, squeezing Liam's shoulder. "Also, I'm sure your Craigslist roomie won't be a murderer. Hopefully."

Louis hurried up onto the stage, setting himself up at the keyboard as Liam adjusted the mic stand.

Louis started playing, looking over at Harry as his fingers brushed the keys. Harry sipped his coffee, smiling over at him and Liam.

Liam hopped off the makeshift stage when they were done, but Louis took over his mic. "Harold! Up for it?" he called out.

Harry looked around, and pointed to his chest. "Me?" he mouthed, like there were a bunch of Harrys in the room Louis could be taking to.

"Yes, you, you idiot," Louis smirked, getting someone to hand over their guitar with a few snaps of his fingers and an eyebrow raise in the right direction.

Harry was a little scared of Lou's power.

They played the same song they did on the stairwell, but Harry sang with Louis this time, his low raspy voice sinking into Lou's high breathy voice. Harry felt bathed in the applause when they were done.

Harry was on top of the world as he hugged Liam goodnight, exchanging numbers, and as he stumbled through a weird pathway overgrown with vines in the dark with Lou because "It's a shortcut, Harold"- giggling on about nothing as Lou grabbed his wrist to steer him in the right direction.

He fell asleep with the buzz of the applause still pulsing his veins and Lou's soft voice humming through every out-breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So school's going well then?" Gemma asked, her voice a little tinny over Skype, but still familiar and relaxing.

"Mhm," Harry said, resting back onto his bed, turning up the brightness on his laptop so he could see his sister better. "I just handed in my first essay," he said, "but I think I did well, so it's not too bad."

Gemma pulled out a bottle of nail polish, and Harry rummaged through his desk drawer looking for his small box of polishes. "What colour?" he asked.

"Sorry, I'm Fizzy Today?" she asked, already rolling the bottle in her palms to warm up the polish.

"Oh, I like that one!" Harry said, pulling out the soft pink. He didn't like colours that were too dark, he mostly stuck to pinks or pastels.

"So you went to a coffeehouse thing last week right?" Gemma asked as she shook up the bottle.

"Yeah," Harry smiled. He smiled so much he may have giggled a little. He hoped his sister wouldn't notice it over Skype.

She noticed.

"What?" Gemma asked, looking up from her toes. "What happened at this coffeehouse?"

"Um... really good coffee?" Harry tried, painting a basecoat over his toes. He wiggled them a little as he waited for the first layer to dry.

"Did you meet someone?" Gemma asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Gem!" Harry said. "I'm still with Cameron!"

"He told you he wanted a break," Gemma said. She fanned her feet, trying to get the polish to dry faster. "No offense, but what do you think 'break' means?" She looked up, turning her attention carefully to Harry as though she were trying to judge whether she'd taken things too far.

"It's just a break," Harry muttered. He started in on his first coat of polish, loving the cool feeling of the brush on his toes. Gem always got their mom to paint her toes when they were kids; Harry got jealous and cried until their mother noticed and painted his as well. When they got older, Harry still liked to paint his toes with Gem when they talked. He never painted his fingernails, not wanting anyone to see. Toes were easier to hide.

"Tell me more about this coffeehouse then," Gemma said, always knowing when to stop pushing Harry.

Harry smiled, waiting for the first coat of pink polish to dry. "I played a song with this guy," he said, hoping Gem couldn't see him blushing over Skype.

"Tell me about him!" Gemma said.

"Well he's got this amazing voice it's all soft and pretty and delicate but he's such a loudmouth in real life... we had a few pep rally things first week and my gosh does he ever have a set of lungs on him, but his eyes are like, blue but not like you know grey blue, but when you look up screen-savers from tropical places? Like those beaches that look photo-shopped? That kind of blue... kind of greenish blue, but like Windex- like an actual Windex bottle. And at first I though he was kind of all pulled together all the time, but I think that was just him trying to look professional for the first little while, 'cause he's actually all scruffy and he wears all these band t-shirts and he smokes which I know is bad for you but maybe he'll quit... not for me obviously, why would he do that...?" Harry looked up from his toes, which he'd just finished the second pink coat on. They were glossy and pretty, and he could almost see his reflection in them.

Gemma was practically beaming.

"He's just my RA," Harry mumbled, realizing he'd been rambling. "It's not like that."

"It's definitely like that," he heard a male voice mutter from off camera, laughing a little.

"Wait, do you have a guy with you?" Harry asked, peering at his computer screen.

Gemma sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I told you to be quiet or it'd kill the surprise," she said, turning away to talk to the guy that was off the screen.

"Sorry," Harry heard the voice mumble.

Niall popped up on the screen. "Surprise- I'm moving in with you!" He said, lifting his arms up and being overly enthusiastic, making Harry laugh.

"What?" Harry asked, still laughing. "I have a roommate already."

"By moving in with you, I meant moving closer to you, but like, that doesn't sound as dramatic." Niall clarified. "I'm bad at surprises. But like, same town though! I'm about a twenty minute bus ride from you? I thought I'd come on Gemma's Skype and surprise you, but I don't know if you're that surprised," he laughed and Gemma wandered off into a different room to let them catch up.

"No, I am!" Harry smiled. "Where are you gonna live?" he asked.

"Found a place online, some guy around our age needs a roommate 'cause he can't afford the rent alone," Niall said. "It sounded legit?" he shrugged. "There's this amazing tattoo parlour just a few blocks away from there that said they'd take me in as an intern, and you know there's nowhere around here that'll do that, so," Niall smiled. "They really liked the pirate ship that I did on you," he said. "So thanks for being my portfolio."

"They didn't see pictures of my cat tattoo did they?" Harry asked, his lips quirking up in a smile.

Niall laughed so hard his eyes squinted closed.

Harry wriggled his toes again, lightly brushing his fingertips over the colour, trying to decide if it was dry enough for the topcoat to go on. He knew he could just do a lazy coat of polish, but he always loved doing to base coat, top coat, the filing... it relaxed him.

"Are you and Gem matching today?" Niall asked.

Harry nodded, gently brushing on the clear topcoat.

"It's a nice colour," Niall smiled.

Harry heard his door unlock, and he looked up with wide eyes. He swore his roommate's class wasn't done for another hour.

"Oliver?" Harry said, "I thought your class went later, I'm just-"

Oliver shook his head, grabbed some books off his desk and left without a word.

Harry bit his cheek and tried not to tear up, but his eyes felt like they were burning.

"Hey," Niall said gently, "Hey, it's alright, mate."

"My roommate thinks I'm a freak," Harry muttered, too sickened to look at his handiwork that he'd been so proud of a moment ago.

"Well he doesn't appreciate a good pedicure when he sees one," Niall said, and Harry smiled a little, settling back to listen to Niall gush about the tattoo parlour he was going to work for.

Harry listened intently to Niall as he spoke, but there was a tiny piece of him that was running over the words 'on break' again and again, searching for something... searching for a meaning, letting them tangle his thoughts every time he tried to push the words away.

He talked to Niall for around an hour before Gemma complained and went back to filling in Harry on her life. He texted and Snapped them both so often it amazed him that there was this much to catch up on, but somehow when they were talking it felt like they could go on forever.

His roommate didn't come back until midnight, and he crawled into his bed, turned out the light, and fell asleep before Harry could think of what to say to him.

Harry settled into bed late that night, busy writing poems in his worn leather bound notebook that Niall had gotten him for Christmas ages ago.

Just before three in the morning, Harry had settled under the covers, determined to fall asleep.

But he couldn't.

He pulled out his phone, took a deep breath, and sent a text before he could talk himself out of it.

H: Lou, what does 'on break' mean?

He paused for a second, his phone screen glaring back at him.

H: Like in the boyfriend kind of way. Like if a boyfriend says he wants a break that you need to take a break what does that mean why does everyone think it means something bad, its not a bad thing is it?

H: Lou?

Harry started at his phone screen, taking shallow breaths. He knew Louis should be sleeping right now and he was going to wake up from a bunch of stupid texts and-

L: I'm so sorry, Hazza. I'm right here now, right down the hall, okay?

H: Hazza?

L: Sorry... nickname. I use those a lot. I'll stop if you hate it :P

Harry smiled a little, snuggling himself deeper into his pillow.

H: No, I like it :)

L: Are you okay though? If you need someone to talk to, I'm just... I'm just really sorry, Haz. I know high school relationships don't always make it long distance but still, I don't like to see you hurting :/

L: You're not having a panic attack are you? You need to tell me if you're having one, okay? Promise?

H: I'm fine! I swear, I'm fine. It's just, it's not a big deal right? People go on breaks, he's not leaving

H: Lou he's not leaving is he is he leaving he said it was just a break. Lou I'm scared, I'm really scared

L: Can I just come over?

H: I have a roommate

L: Fine, come over here? Please just for a minute? I just need to make sure you're okay

Harry curled tighter into his sheets, his heart racing.

He took a moment, and then slipped quietly out of his room, leaving Oliver sleeping and oblivious.

He was barely a few steps into the hall when Lou wrapped him up in a hug.

"Are you okay?" Louis whispered. "Please say you're okay."

Harry held onto Lou like the world were ending and Lou held on like he were trying to hold all the little pieces together.