18

2

Harry was excited to start his first class. He was the music and drama teacher, which took some planning but he loved it. This year he had decided to do a school musical, combining both his classes and he had settled for Grease. It was a classic!

His goal was to give music and drama a higher status in school, to make it cool. He remembered too well how it felt to be that awkward, insecure drama kid, the only one who was openly gay as well. He had managed to gain some confidence after that, but seeing Louis again had reminded him of that time in his life.

He had two music classes before it was time for lunch. He headed to the teacher's lounge and found his lunch box and took a seat at his usual table. The rest of the boys ended their classes in fifteen minutes on Monday's so he started to eat while he waited for them.
"Can I join you?" Someone asked and he immediately recognized Louis's voice and dropped his fork in surprise.

He looked up to find a smiling Louis next to his table.
"Of course." He managed to get out.

Louis put his lunch box on the table and took a seat.
"I just survived my first two classes. We're we really like that when we were teens?" He chuckled while he removed the lid and dug in on his food.

"You probably were." Harry couldn't help but say.

Louis laughed in astonishment.
"Hey! I resent that, no, you're probably right."

Harry just smirked and continued to eat his chicken salad. He noticed that Louis was eyeing him and raised his eyebrows.
"I do remember you from high school. I thought about it all morning, trying to place you. I don't think I ever talked to you back then, I'm sorry about that by the way. You were into drama right? And...I'm sorry if this is too personal, but you were out as well? Openly gay?"

"Yeah." Harry mustered, feeling defensive.

"That was really brave of you. I didn't have the same courage back then. I came out years later." Louis said.

Harry was drinking water and choked on it and spit it out, blushing and got a napkin to clean up the mess he made.
"You're gay?" He asked in disbelief.

Louis chuckled lightly and scratched the back of his neck.
"Yeah."

Harry smiled at him, showing off both dimples. They were interrupted by Niall, Liam, and Zayn who came and threw themselves down at the table.
"Hi, guys!" Liam greeted.

They immediately started to talk to Louis all three of them, asking him questions about himself. Harry just stayed quiet and listened. He learned a lot, like the fact that Louis was single. Soon his lunch break was over so he got up and took his lunch box with him.
"See you later guys."

"Bye Harry, it was nice talking to you." Louis answered.

They only shared like two sentences before the guys barged in but Harry smiled.
"Likewise."

He returned to his classroom and five minutes later the students started to drop in. He sat down by the piano and started the lesson, but his mind was spinning. Louis Tomlinson was gay?

Louis returned to the gym after his lunch break was over. As he made the class he was teaching run a few laps to warm up before basketball he thought about his conversation with Harry. He usually didn't blurt out his sexual orientation like that but he did remember Harry from high school. He had been kind of jealous back then that he was so courageous when he did his best to hide his sexuality. It hadn't been easy.

He had meant what he said to Harry. He thought that he was very brave back then. He also hadn't spared him as much as a glance back in high school, too busy to maintain his image, being the popular football captain. Harry was gorgeous. He would definitely try to get to know him now.

His first day at work went by fast. He went to the teacher's lounge to fetch his lunch box. Harry was there with Liam, Zayn, and Niall, on their way out. He just smiled and said goodbye to them. Niall stopped.
"Hey, Louis? We're going out for dinner to celebrate our first day back after the summer. Wanna join us?"

"I'd love to. Are you all okay with that? I don't want to crash the party." Louis said and looked around at the rest of the guys, eyes landing on Harry, getting stuck. Liam and Zayn said yes but Harry just nodded his head with a shy smile.

They went to a nearby pizza restaurant and Louis enjoyed hanging out with them. They were nice guys.

Harry didn't say much. Louis was really funny and made them laugh so much that Niall had soda spurting out from his nostrils. That made them all laugh even harder.

Louis headed home afterward. He sat down in his living room before he thought of something and got up to find his yearbooks. He looked through the first one until he found Harry. A cute thirteen years old with a dimpled smile and really curly hair stared back at him and he smiled fondly. He looked in the next one. He could see that Harry was a bit older but the smile was only half-hearted. He checked out the last one and was met by a serious-looking Harry. He wasn't smiling and he looked sad. Louis didn't like the change he was seeing. High school must have been rough on Harry. He felt bad for him. He just hoped that he was happier now. He seemed like it. A bit shy but that was just adorable. Maybe he was just making up stories in his head. He had no idea how high school had been for Harry. He closed the book with a sigh and went to bed but the picture lingered in his head and Harry was the last thing on his mind as he fell asleep.