Across the Barriers (l.s)

Twenty Five

Harry's POV:

It's been a couple of weeks since the Zayn and Astraea incident. Trae was almost back to normal by now. She was her usual, cold indifferent self with a hint of emotions whenever she was around Zayn. So yeah, band practices were actually living hell. Zayn and Astraea tried to stay out of each other's way as much as possible. But of course, we were still one band.

Zayn, who never talks to us, actually pulled me and Niall aside to talk about quitting the band. Knowing Astraea, she would never be okay with that, so we couldn't let him quit because of the Astraea situation.

First of all, I don't understand why Trae even cares about this. I thought they had a friends with benefits relationship only. Since when did the feelings get involved? No, seriously, I'm stumped.

Presently, Louis smacked me with his notebook, "Harry! What are you thinking about?" I winced and rubbed my arm, "Ow. Sorry. Also, nothing really." Louis glared at me, "Tell me." I sighed, "Fine. I was just thinking about Trae."

Louis raised an eyebrow, "Should I be jealous?" I rolled my eyes, "No, dimwit. But on a serious note, I thought Trae didn't care about Zayn that way. They just had a benefits relationship. Right?" Louis mulled that over for a few seconds before speaking, "Well, H, look at it this way. It took you one term of sleeping with me to get completely whipped."

I protested, "Hey, you're more whipped!" He ignored that; of course he did. Idiot. He continued, "And Trae and Zayn have been sleeping around for three years. That's six terms." Oh. Yeah, that's fair. I hummed in understanding, "Yeah, that makes sense."

Louis grinned next to me, "Of course it does. I always make sense." I chuckled, "Sure you do." He pouted, "I do!" I grinned, "That's what I said." Louis sighed, "You're annoying. I hate you." I kissed him, "I hate you more." He sighed happily against my lips before going back to his books.

I peeked over his shoulder, "What are you doing?" He answered immediately, "Debate competition tomorrow." Aw, love. He really did try to sound as nonchalant as possible, but his voice still shook a little. I said knowingly, "You're going to do great, love." Louis chewed on his lips, "You don't know that! I almost made us lose last time."

I sighed, "That was just one time. It'll be fine tomorrow, okay?" Louis sighed, "I hope so." I stood up, "Anyway, I'll let you-" He cut me off, "You aren't letting me anything. Sit your ass back down, Harold." 

The sound that left my lips was a mixture of a huff and a chuckle. I sat back down on the bed, my back against the headboard. I looked over at Louis and poked him a second later, "Lou." He looked up, "Hm?" I whispered, "Tomorrow, after your debate competition, we should go on a celebratory date." Louis' lips parted on its own accord, "Celebratory?"

I grinned, "Yep. You're going to win, so yes." A shy smile spread on his face, "Okay." I kissed him once before going back to my phone. 

***

Louis' POV:

We won the debate competition! And this time, I didn't mess up anything. In fact, I made the winning point! Ah, this is so incredible. It was obviously the next day, and the debate competition had just ended. Since it was an home competition, our friends were in the audience. 

Destiny pulled Liam and I into a group hug as soon as the judges announced the winners. Liam grinned at me, "Good job, Louis." I grinned right back, "Thanks! I didn't fuck up today." Destiny beamed at me proudly, "I told you so. Aw, Lou, I'm so proud." She squeezed me, making me laugh, "Thanks, Tina." 

In the next few minutes, the judges handed out our certificates and a tiny team trophy. If the team had any other members, sharing one trophy would be kind of awkward. But it was just Destiny and Liam with me. It didn't matter who kept the trophy. We were just best friends like that.