As usual, Louis finds himself scrolling through Facebook that night. He's trying his best to avoid doing his homework for as long as humanly possible. It's not like Louis has a lot of work to do and it isn't dire, so Louis doesn't feel that bad for skipping out on it. Besides, it's not like Louis' actually going to use calculus in the future anyway. 

Louis scrolls through his feed and likes a few of his friends' pictures. He stops as he sees the 'People You May Know' bar. He huffs and decides that he could use a few more friends. The first name Louis sees is one that makes his mouth go dry. 

Stanley Lucas. 23 mutual friends. Add friend?

Louis clicks the 'x' next to his name and has to put his phone down for a moment. Stan and Louis were an on-again-off-again kind of couple. They first got together sophomore year. For a while, they were the 'It' couple and everyone figured they'd be high school sweethearts. That was before the abuse started. It only took a few weeks for Stan to go from sweet to horrible. Stan became paranoid and obsessive. He looked through Louis' phone and would call him a whore and hit him for every guy Louis texted, even if it was just a friendly conversation. When Louis threatened to leave Stan, Stan would sweet-talk Louis into staying. The cycle continued all through sophomore and junior year. Just last summer, Louis swore off the guy for good. 

Louis scrolls through the recommended list and stops as he sees a name he recognizes. 

Harry Styles. 2 mutual friends. Add friend?

Louis takes a moment to examine Harry's profile picture. The boy is standing in front of a brown-brick wall and wears a large smile. His hair is curly and brown and looks incredibly soft. Louis wants nothing more than to tangle his fingers through it. He wears a purple 'Jack Wills' sweater and his eyes shine. 

Louis attempts to click on Harry's profile and casually look through it but accidentally clicks the 'add friend' button. His heart rate increases as he sees the request went through. Shit. He sucks in a few deep breaths and tries to come up with a plan. If he takes back the friend request it won't do anything, Harry'll still get the notification. If he blocks Harry he, probably, will still get the notification. Shit, shit, shit. Louis' heart races and he's sure this is what a heart attack feels like. 

His phone dings and Louis almost drops it. His heart hammers in his chest as he opens the Facebook notification. 'Respond to your 1 friend request'. 

Louis opens the 'Find Friends' bar and sees that Harry Styles' name is sitting at the top. Louis clicks confirm just as he gets another notification. 'Harry Styles has confirmed your friend request'. Shit. This is good right? 

Louis' heart continues to race as he sees he has a message. He clicks on it and opens the notification to see a message from Harry. 

Harry Styles: Hey! Ur profile picture is so cool

Cool. Cool is good. Louis wants to seem cool. He takes in a breath and tries to act cool. 

You: Thanks Urs is 2 ig

Louis thinks that sounds cool enough. He doesn't want to seem clingy or too excited. 

Harry Styles: Thanks! Mine's alright. Urs is super mysterious. The eyes, the lip pout, totally going to make every1 fall in love with you xD I kind of look like a baby in mine lol

You: no! U look cute 2

Harry Styles: Lol ig. wycm? 

You: I don't have ur #

Harry Styles: 1 sec

Louis' heart hammers as Harry sends Louis his number. Louis adds Harry as a contact in his phone and calls him soon after. 

"Hey. Sorry, I'm not the biggest fan of texting," Harry says. Louis laughs quietly and imagines Harry texting him. 

"It's fine. I don't mind calling," Louis replies. Neither have anything to say and, for a while, they just sit and listen to each other breathing. Louis suggests, "Why don't we ask each other questions? I'm shit at listing things about myself." 

"Okay, I'll go first. What's your favorite color," Harry asks. Louis shakes his head. Rookie mistake. Everyone goes for the color question first. Louis likes to go in strong for the first question to really get things going. 

"Blue. Have you ever had a girlfriend before," Louis questions. The word 'girlfriend' sounds foreign coming from Louis' lips. He can't remember the last time he's said the word out loud. Usually, the word reminds Louis of middle school, when he was still in the closet and dated Eleanor Calder. It was an awkward two weeks. 

"Um... no. I'm not actually... uh... no girlfriends... I mean I'm... not into girls. So, no, I haven't had a girlfriend," Harry stammers. Louis' heart skyrockets. That's good. If Harry's gay then that means that if Louis wanted to get with Harry then it was a possibility. It's not like there's a ton of gay guys in their class and having one more adds to the pool of things. 

"Oh, cool. Me too."

"Serious? That's... I didn't expect that," Harry responds. 

"You actually thought I was straight," Louis asks. He doesn't know how anyone sees him as straight. Everyone always assumes it's because Louis' into sports, but gay guys can play sports too. He guesses that it also has to do with his personality. Most people expect gay guys to be loud and feminine, but Louis' far from it. 

"Yea, I don't know. I don't like to assume," Harry says. 

The two spend the rest of the night talking. When they finally decide on hanging up, Louis notices that it's half-past three and he doesn't even feel a little bad. 

~_~_~

Hey guys! The media picture is Louis' profile picture on Facebook. I promise I hate the texting as much as you do, but it's 2010. I almost vomited while writing xD. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! ~B