Poise and Poison

ii

With the knowledge of the inability to perfect the developpe, Louis could barely sleep that night. He awoke to the sunlight from his window shining through.

He could already hear Liam and Niall laughing in the kitchen whilst their fourth roommate, Ed, was trying to order breakfast for everybody. Louis closed his eyes to further adjust to the harsh sunlight, that seemed now to be blinding.

His door opened, and there stood a frazzled redhead with rounded black glasses upon his face. He had the phone up to his ear, looking at Louis with wide eyes as if to ask, 'what do you want?' Louis shrugged and whispered a quick,

"Pancakes?" To which Ed nodded and repeated into the phone, leaving Louis' room. Louis remained in bed until he realized he couldn't go back to sleep. A long drawn out breath and Louis was out and gathering his clothes for the day, settling on a pale pink hoodie and a tighter black jogger than yesterday. Their breakfast came surprisingly quickly. Stretching out his tense muscles, he exited his room to see a few clothing items from Liam's suitcase thrown around the room, with an empty suitcase upon the floor near the couch.

"Bloody hell, can we keep anything clean around here lads?" Louis questioned, grabbing a few shirts, and beginning to fold them. The two other boys ignored him whilst Ed came over to help fold.

"It'd be a miracle if one day they did." Ed laughed, displaying a disgusted look at Liam as he threw a pair of his boxers upon the coffee table, then launching it at Liam. Louis believed it was the sarcastic bickering that kept the four being friends, that and simply having no knowledge of anyone else at the school yet. Ed and Niall had other friends, but Louis and Liam had only come around four months prior and were too focused on their studies to socialize. Louis was unsure of the plans his ballet teacher had today, probably to review the performances from last time, which Louis slightly dreaded. Louis glanced up at the analog clock upon the wall, stuffing one of the pancakes into his mouth, the other in his hand, he grabbed his backpack and ran out the door. He made sure he had everything in his bag heading down the stairs. He had never been late before and wasn't in the mood or mental capacity to start today. His first class was dance history, which for some reason was a required class to get a degree in dance. It was boring and half the time Louis wasn't paying attention.

His knowledge of the course was already done previously in his early years and plastered around his bedroom. So, in truth, he really didn't need to pay that much attention. Louis got to the linoleum floored classroom and sat in his usual seat in the back. Louis folded his arms and slumped in his chair, his eyes fluttering close as exhausted wracked over his small frame. He could hear the distant hum of the sewing machines behind him, where the fashion department was.

Unlike any other day, he saw a figure come and sit beside him. He was rather pale, taller and had black curly hair. Louis peeked at the male through his long eyelashes. The boy turned to Louis, giving him a polite smile.

"I'm Nick." He held his hand out for Louis to shake. Louis gave him a small smile, hesitant to return the hand gesture, but decided to take Nick's large hand in his. Louis opened his mouth to speak, but before he could,

"Louis, isn't it? I saw your performance yesterday. Wow, it was amazing." Nick let out a long breath. Louis smiled and immediately took recognition of Nick's face. He was standing the one who had distracted him and made him mess up. The other tall one. Louis' smile disappeared and he turned back to face the professor that was now standing at the podium. Louis had gotten a good look at the distractors face, but never could put a name to it. He just hadn't known too many people. Louis noticed that Nick smelled of cigarettes and cola. An odd combination that somehow smelled good. Finally, after too long of his professor babbling about well understood topics, Louis grabbed his bag and left to head to the dance studio. Louis felt rejoiced as he entered and saw his teacher waving at him. He gave a large smile and waved back.