White Houses- Part 1/?
Summary: It was supposed to be just the four of them, the usual crowd that spent the weekends together with a bottle or two to pass between them. It was supposed to be the four of them, piling into the car as soon as the last bell sounded, but Zayn always had last minute plans.
Based off of Vanessa Carltons White Houses [x] (Listen before or after you read, I quote it a few times and it set the mood for the whole thing.
Words: 1,700+
Pairings: Louis/Harry, small Louis/Zayn
A/N: Well fuck, I don't know how to fix the read more thing....
Read Chapter...
The summer was coming, running towards them with days too long and pavement white hot on bare feet. Coming with it’s sunny days and the breezy nights, coming full force towards them and it was all they could do not to run to meet it in return.
Harry could feel it all, every moment of it. The classrooms that were turning muggy with the tropical weather and impatient students, the doors that were just aching to be burst through, hallway floors that were waiting to be covered in unfinished assignments and graded tests that were sure to be flung by the graduating class. He could feel it all running through his veins like a live wire, lighting him up and making his feet tap impatiently on the floor, energy surging through him with no intention of letting up.
His step dad’s bungalow was the chosen resort for the first part of the summer. A little piece of land with endless amounts of booze and a pool too small to do much of anything other than relieve them of the heat on the days that it got too hot.
It was supposed to be just the four of them, the usual crowd that spent the weekends together with a bottle or two to pass between them. Harry had always been the youngest, a year behind the others, but none of them seemed to notice that they would all be leaving in the fall, leaving Harry behind to finish up school before he could join them. There was Zayn, with his carmel skin and dark brown eyes Harry was sure he could get lost in, with a voice as smooth as silk and warm honey, running sweet and sticky every time he talked. Niall was there of course, his irish accent standing out amongst the others, Niall, with that guitar slung over his shoulder so casually Harry was convinced it was an extra limb. Liam was a new addition though, with soft eyes and a sweet smile and that general air of innocence that the others had rid themselves of long ago. It was supposed to be the four of them, piling into the car as soon as the last bell sounded, but Zayn always had last minute plans.
“His name’s Louis, he’s a cool lad,” Zayn was saying, driving too fast out of the parking lot and making them all slam back against their seats.
Niall snickered and asked him what that meant, which earned him a wicked wink from the dark haired boy and a comment about how Louis was a good shag. Liam looked uncomfortable for a moment before shaking his head and laughing with the rest of them, throwing an empty can of coke out the window as they whipped through busy streets and then back alleys, not slowing for a moment, no, they would never slow down, they were finally free.
Harry leaned over Liam and stuck his head out the window, letting the wind drag through curls and yelling a string of nothingness as the hot air hit him, sending a jolt of energy through his body. Summer, it was finally here.
Then they were stopping, Liam shoving Harry back inside the car and telling him to fix his hair because he looked like maniac, opening his door as they waited impatiently for the new comer to climb in.
“Loueh!” Zayn sounded happy, happy like a little kid on Christmas as he slapped his arms around the boy in a quick hug. Harry let his breath catch for a moment as blue eyes met green, because wow, he was gorgeous, pretty like a movie star, like he should be photographed and then tucked away somewhere safe, pretty like he was untouchable.
Harry felt himself fall in love with Louis a little bit right then, fall in love with his skinny arms and his tight fitting trousers and his satisfied smirk. He let himself fall in love because, it was summer, they were free, and just why the hell not.
~
They’d been there a few weeks already, maybe more, but none of them were too sure. Days passed without realizing it, night creeping up with heavy eyelids and sleepy words. Harry felt himself start to become one of them, or maybe it was more than that, maybe they were all becoming one another, melding into one perfect bunch of limbs and beer laden breath. He stopped eating, watching the other boys with cautious envy, at their perfect bodies and easy angles. He let himself deteriorate, because he didn’t care, didn’t care about anything other than being there, with those four boys that suddenly meant the absolute world to him.
Louis’ laugh was easy, that chortle that came when he threw his head back and Harry could drown in it, drown himself in the sound of it. All five sat in the middle of an empty floor, the furniture long ago pushed away to make room for bottles and the occasional pillow. Niall strummed aimlessly at strings, making a simple melody that wrapped around them and mixed with the laughter and the dizziness that already filled Harry’s mind.
Harry thought it was funny, all of a sudden, to be surrounded by these boys with the gorgeous eyes and the slurred words that anyone would die to get to know, to be surrounded by these boys and to be one of them, to be surrounded by them and to want nothing more.
And then Zayn was dancing, more drunk then the rest of them, waving his drink up in the air and letting it spill over the floor when he moved too much, making every single one of their eyes follow the way his hips moved as he sashayed between them, drinking up their attention like it was the liquid in his glass. But they were all laughing, maybe not at Zayn because it wasn’t something you could laugh at, they were all a little bit attracted to the boy with too much confidence, so instead they laughed at something Liam was saying, an inside joke that the five of them understood and that no one else would ever get.
Harry was noticing the way Louis’ eyes followed Zayn though, with a little spark of curiousity but not longing, no, that had been missing for quite some time. And then Harry was thinking, maybe it’s good that I’m not like Zayn, maybe I’m leaving something to be uncovered, maybe Louis would see the draw in the mystery.
And he laughed along with all of them, but it was all he could do not to fall into his endless thoughts again, about how much he knew about these boys that no one else did, like how Niall was supposed to be back in Ireland already, and how Zayn’s mum was dying but he was dancing and drinking enough that he thought he could avoid it, about the time Louis overdosed at a party the previous winter and barely made it out alive, about Liam’s kidney failure and the pain he must be in, constantly. He laughed but he knew that he knew too much, knew that it was almost dangerous, to be able to hold it all over their heads, dangerous to have that power.
~
The time was passing too quick and Harry could see that summer was nearly over, or maybe not nearly but it was coming, they’d passed that halfway mark and it was scary, but they were all still passing beers around the small circle like nothing’d changed and ignoring the inevitable because, it couldn’t be real, it couldn’t really be ending.
Harry was laughing at Louis though, too many drinks in to hold in how funny he thought the older boy was, letting himself admire the way his red shirt fit him just right and how cute he was because, damn. And he knows it’s bad, that he was so infatuated with the boy that might not even be noticing him, that he could come undone by anything he said, anything at all.
So later that night, when they’re supposed to go get food because how much does it suck to wake up in the morning with a killer hangover, Harry crawls into the back of Louis’ car and Louis follows after him, and Harry barely has time to think about how Louis should be in the front, should be driving them to the gas station a few miles down, barely has time to think it because Louis is kissing him, and it was good, and he liked it even though he’s never kissed anyone like that before. And it’s too fast and Harry knows it but he let it happen because it was Louis, with the blue eyes that Harry thinks he might be falling in love with. He feels a spark of something that might be love, just maybe, and he prays that it stays because it was sweet for that one second and Harry wants to feel it again.
~
It didn’t happen again, Harry didn’t expect it to but he had hoped, hoped that whoever took something so precious to him might stick around after, and he knows that it was silly but he couldn’t help but wish, but it doesn’t matter because now the summer’s over and they’ve all gone their own ways and Harry is left picking school supplies for the coming semester.
And Harry finds himself missing them, and maybe he’s a little bit mad, too, because they all gave each other up so easily, walked away without a second thought, it seems, and Harry can’t do it, it kills him, because he loved them, and they all left.
But he knows that it’s for the best, knows that the next summer, when they invite him back along with a guy Zayn has just met and Louis’ new boyfriend, but without Niall because he was called back home, he knows that he won’t go back, can’t go back. Can’t go because to him it will always be the five of them, it will always be Liam as he loses his innocence and Zayn as he hides away from his family and Niall as he feels free to do whatever, and then Louis, who took what can never be given back. But Harry thinks that maybe he doesn’t care, that Louis could keep that because maybe it’ll be something for Louis to remember him by. Maybe that means Louis won’t forget.