[Harry]

During that day, I couldn't stop thinking about the words Louis had spoken after English class that morning. They were replaying in my head over and over again, making me both frustrated and angry because I knew he was kind of right. Sure, the main reason why he had come up to me in the first place probably wasn't because he felt sorry for Niall since I knew how he acted when he was jealous, but he still had a point.

I was being selfish and mean by doing this. It was even worse than kissing Niall at the party in order to make Louis jealous. I was just so desperate to move on that I didn't know what else to do. All I wanted was to forget about Louis or perhaps make him realize that it was worth giving us a try, as selfish as that sounded. However, it was already obvious that I was a selfish person, so it couldn't get worse anyway.

There was no doubt Niall didn't deserve to be used like this, though. I mean, sure, he was a great guy and I did like him, but not as much as I liked Louis. So, basically playing with his heart like I was doing right now was probably the cruelest thing I had ever done, and I hated myself for it. But, at the same time, I knew that if there was anyone I was going to be able to move on with, it was Niall.

I was currently heading towards my last lesson of the day; P.E. Niall was walking right beside me, his hand in mine while a big smile was gracing his lips. To be honest, I had never seen him as happy as he had been today before, and that fact only made me feel even more guilty.

"Alright, so are you watching the game tomorrow? We are playing against the best team in the series, so it would mean a lot if you came watching," he asked, looking at me with a puppy face.

He knew that I wasn't very into football, so he was aware that he had to make an effort for me to come. However, what he didn't know was that I secretly wanted to be there since that meant I would also see Louis playing, which was a sight I had missed ever since I watched them play last time. The only reason I hadn't been to another game after that was because it would be weird for me to suddenly start showing up there. So, this was a great excuse for me to go there tomorrow.

I pretended to think about it, waiting a few seconds until I finally replied. "Alright, but just because you asked so nicely," I winked, making his lips form into an even wider smile if that was possible.

"Thank you, Harry."

I gave him a smile in return, realizing right then that we were now standing outside the locker room. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

He nodded, taking a step forward to give me a hug. "Yeah. Bye Harry."

"Bye."

With that, he left me as I turned the handle of the locker room door. To my surprise, there were already a few people there. I thought I had been unusually early to class, but I guess not since the other guys usually turned up at the very last second and changed in a hurry. One student that wasn't there, however, was Louis, which didn't exactly surprise me since he was never one to show up on time.

Making my way over to an empty locker, I unzipped my bag and started getting changed. Thankfully, there wasn't any rude guy in the room that made any comment about my presence. As mentioned before, some people didn't accept the fact that a bisexual guy changed in the same locker room as them, and sometimes they decided not to keep that opinion to themselves but had to mention it to me. I hated it whenever that happened.

Five minutes later, the door opened and none other than Louis stepped into the room. His gaze scanned the area until it landed on me for a couple of seconds. It didn't last long, but just the fact that he acknowledged me made my heart skip a beat in my chest. Unfortunately, though, he didn't glance my way another time, but instead, he walked over to the other side of the room where there was an empty locker.

Checking the clock on the wall, I noticed it was only a minute until class would start, so I didn't have time to check out Louis while he changed if I didn't want to be late. Mentally swearing, I followed a few other guys to the gym and made my way to the line where Mr. Wilson was waiting for us students to arrive.

Louis emerged from the locker room right when the bell rang, making Mr. Wilson throw him a warning glance, as if it was a close one and that it should not repeat itself. To the teacher's frustration, however, Louis didn't even look at him but joined a few of his friends instead. I rolled my eyes at the scene, not surprised at all that he acted the way he did. It was Louis after all, what else did anyone expect?

After that, the lesson started. We were playing dodgeball today, something I found quite fun even if I wasn't the best at it. Sure, I wasn't worst, but definitely not as great as the students who played a sport consisting of a ball were. Thankfully, I wasn't on the same team as Louis this time. Though, I wasn't sure that was better because now he could make eye contact with me since we were opposite each other, and the glares he threw my way had me swallowing hard and averting my gaze.

He didn't even seem to hide the fact that he was out to hit me with the ball. Even if I wasn't the closest one to him, he still aimed my way and tried to hit my body. It was pretty ridiculous, but I did kind of understand that he was mad at me.

Once the lesson ended, I hurried to change into my regular clothing before walking to the bus stop. Thankfully, the bus was already there so I didn't have to wait for it. I made my way towards it and hopped on. As I walked through the aisle to find an empty seat, I wasn't surprised to see one beside Niall. He waved at me happily and gestured for me to sit down beside him.

Swallowing hard and giving him a tight smile, I hesitantly took a seat next to him, placing my backpack on my lap. "Hi," I greeted.

"Hi there, beautiful."

We started talking about how our day had been and what we had planned for the remaining part of it. It should've felt awkward judging by the circumstances, but it didn't, and I had a feeling that was because it was Niall I was talking to. No matter the situation, things were never awkward with him, and that was definitely a positive skill he had.

The bus was just about to start moving when a familiar person showed up right in front of me. Well, he was walking past me to get to the back, more specifically. Louis' eyes met mine for a second before darting to Niall who was too busy staring at his phone to notice him. His eyes found mine again, and he just shook his head in disappointment. With that, he continued his way towards the back of the bus.

I let my eyes fall shut as soon as he was out of sight, and let out a deep sigh. Niall seemed to notice this and looked up at me. "You okay?"

My eyebrows were furrowed as I nodded my head. "Yeah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

He looked at me suspiciously, probably knowing that it wasn't nothing and that something actually was up. However, he didn't seem to want to push it because a second later, he slowly let his eyes fall back to his phone, and that was also when the bus started moving.

Unfortunately, it didn't take very long until the bus came to a halt again. I wanted the ride to last just a little bit longer, but of course I wasn't that lucky. I got up from my seat, sensing Niall walk right behind me as I did so. While we made our way out, he placed a hand on my hip to keep me from stumbling, which he knew I tended to do a lot on the bus. I should've felt weird about it, but to my surprise, I actually found it kind of cute. It just showed that he cared about me.

Once we stepped out in the cold weather, I turned to look at him. He was biting his bottom lip, watching me with a nervous smile. "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

I started nodding my head, seeing Louis exiting the bust right behind Niall. "Unless you would let me walk you home, that is."

My eyes landed on him again. "I'm sorry, what?"

His cheeks reddened and he looked down at the ground. "I was just wondering if it was okay for me to walk you home, but I'm not forcing you. I just wanted to be nice, and--"

I had to let out a small chuckle because quite honestly, he was cute when he was nervous. "Of course you can walk me home, Niall. It would be a pleasure since I wouldn't need to walk alone then," I promised him, seeing him relax by the second.

"Oh, that's great," he breathed out, obviously relieved by my answer.

"Sure."

And with that, we started heading towards my home. Even though it was at the beginning of February now, snow and ice were still glistening the ground, making it difficult not to slip. Therefore, I was thankful that Niall grabbed my hand and held it tightly in his own. However, I was sure his purpose of holding it wasn't to support me but rather to show off that we had something going on to other people.

Either way, his intention didn't bother me. If he felt like holding my hand to 'show me off', then so be it. We did kind of have something going on anyway, so why should it?

During our walk, I couldn't help but feel as though someone was following us, and to be honest, it was quite creepy. I kept looking behind us to see if there was someone there, but each time I checked, there was no sign of another person. I pressed myself closer to Niall's side, feeling a little uneasy but didn't say anything to him in case he would find it weird that I was freaking out over something so lame and stupid.

He seemed to sense this, though, and I could see him furrow his eyebrows out of the corner of my eye. "What's wrong?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"Is... is it just me or does it feel like someone is following us?" I asked unsurely.

He looked confused for a second but decided to turn his head to check for himself. To my surprise, his eyebrows shot up. "Louis, is that you?"

My heart literally stopped beating in my chest, and I abruptly came to a halt, causing Niall to do so as well. I turned around to see if Niall was right, and well, of course he was. Right there, a few yards behind us, Louis was standing, his gaze turned towards the ground. His jaw was clenched and I could see no trace of a smile on his face whatsoever.

"No, I think I'm a monster. Of course it's me, Niall," he said, rolling his eyes, but not seeming amused whatsoever.

To say Niall was confused would be an understatement. "You live in this area now? I mean, sure, I know you moved and rode the same bus as me, but I didn't think you lived... well, here," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

Louis' eyes met mine for a second before steadying on Niall's. "Well, I do. Actually, I live pretty close to your friend over there," he said, nodding in my direction.

I shot him a glare, having no idea what his intention with this was at all. I mean, sure, there was only a bathroom separating the two of us, so yeah, you could say we lived pretty close to each other, but what the hell was he doing?

Niall turned to me in surprise. "You do? How come I didn't know this? I mean, my best friend and crush are pretty much neighbors and I had no idea?"

I could see Louis roll his eyes at the word 'crush', but I didn't put too much attention to it. Instead, I focused on Niall and just shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. It never really came up, I guess. Besides, Louis over there is not one I usually want to talk about," I muttered, shooting the brown-haired boy a pointed look.

That was when Niall seemed to remember that Louis and I were quite the enemies, or well, as far as he knew at least. His mouth formed the shape of an 'o', and all of a sudden he turned almost awkward. "I see..." He trailed off. "Well, we should probably get going then. It's freezing out here, and it's getting pretty dark."

I looked up to the sky and noticed that he was, in fact, speaking the truth. It was getting dark, and the fact that my fingers were starting to go numb didn't make matters better. "You're righ--" I started, but was cut off by none other than my stepbrother.

"Would you mind if I joined you guys? I don't live that far away and as you were saying, it's getting dark and I wouldn't want you guys to get lost," he spoke, and I had to let out a snort. We getting lost? If anyone would get lost here, it was him and his bad sense of locality.

Thankfully, Niall didn't seem to notice the sound I let out but just looked at me questioningly. He knew by now that I wasn't very fond of Louis, so he probably wanted to make sure that it was okay if he joined us the last bit. The worst part was that I didn't want to seem like a jerk to Niall, so I unwillingly nodded my head and let out a sigh. "Sure, why not?"

Louis' lips turned into a small smile then, and I wanted to punch myself for feeling my heart skip a beat at the sight. I hated the fact that I liked him. "Great."

During the rest of the walk to my house, Niall and Louis did the most talking while I was just there with them, still holding Niall's hand. Sometimes Niall would ask me things, but Louis would always cut him off by questioning him something else then. I knew he did it on purpose, and I also knew that this had been his intention when he asked to join us, but hey, he just couldn't help himself, could he?

Once we were outside my house, I stopped and turned to Niall. "Thank you for walking me home, it was very nice of you."

He flashed me a smile, missing the look Louis was giving him from behind. I could see it very well, though. "No problem, sunshine. I'll do it again, just ask me."

I gave him an appreciating nod, stepping forward to wrap my arms around him in a hug. He reciprocated it immediately, his arms going around my waist. When I made a move to pull away, he took his chance and placed a kiss on my cheek, causing my skin to turn a light pink. "See you tomorrow," he grinned and turned towards an angry-looking Louis who had his hands clenched in fists at his sides.

His reaction made me want to smirk, but since Niall was still here, that would be weird and rather cruel, so I composed myself. "You coming, Louis?" He asked, not quite noticing that Louis was not very happy at the moment.

Maybe I was being mean to him for doing this, but he said he would still be with Eleanor, so why couldn't I try to move on with Niall? Sure, I didn't need to stick it in his face, but he was the one who had asked to join us in the first place, so he could only blame himself... right?

And yes, I knew I was being mean to Niall too, seeing as I was trying to be with him while I still had strong feelings for Louis, but if the feelings were ever going to go away, I had to at least try to move on, right?

Louis nodded his head curtly, turning around to follow Niall as I stayed there, wondering what lie he would make up about where he lived to Niall. I was thankful that it was his concern and not mine.

With that, I walked up to the front door and entered the house, welcoming the warmth with ease. By the sounds of it, no one seemed to be home, but since the front door wasn't locked, I knew better. "Gemma, you home?" I called out through the house, knowing she was probably in her room.

I could hear laughter coming from it, and assumed she had her boyfriend, Devon, over. Rolling my eyes, I shrugged off my backpack and put it to the side. I then took off my jacket and slipped off my shoes before walking to the kitchen where I hoped there was food waiting for me. Before I had even gotten to the room, though, the front door opened again, and I instantly knew it was Louis.

Well, this was not going to end well, I could definitely tell you that.

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I know, I know; "You haven't updated in ages and now you leave us with a cliffhanger?!!!" Yes, I am *hides in a corner*. I'm sorry that it's been such a long time since I updated, but guess what? I have finished school and I have found motivation to continue writing this story! The next chapter will hopefully be up a lot sooner than this, so be prepared guys xx

Pauline .xx