Piano Lessons

0.9

The sound of his ringing phone interrupted Harry from his thoughts.

The lad reached over and clasped his hand around his cell phone, wanting to go back to thinking about Louis instead of sitting outside in the cold during his lunch break.

"Hello?" Harry spoke when he'd answered the phone.

"Hello, Harry. How are you?" Harry's father spoke and Harry grinned because his dad, Des, was his absolute favorite person. Besides his mum. And maybe even Louis, who took up all of Harry's mind recently.

"I'm doing good, Dad, how about you?"

"Swell. I hope I'm not interrupting any classes or anything-"

"No, sir, I'm on lunch break," Harry replied, picking at his pretzel. The twisted dough was one of Harry's favorite foods.

"Hm. Are you eating on campus?"

"Yes, Dad. They have pretzels here," Harry responded cheekily, grinning, even if his father couldn't hear him.

"Oh, that sounds delicious about now. However, I have to take lunch at an Italian restaurant. I can assure you that they do not sell large soft pretzels there," Des responded, making Harry chuckle.

Harry honestly missed silly conversations with his father.

"Have you met a girl you like, Harry?"

Harry flushed red because, no, he liked a boy. Not a girl.

"Harry?"

"Well... No, I haven't... I..."

Harry was scared.

His father has always accepted his choices in life, but something such as Harry liking a boy? No father wanted their only son to be gay.

Harry wasn't actually, fully gay, but he already knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his blue-eyed piano instructor.

"I, uh... Dad, we can talk about this another time. Please, sir."

"Of course, Harry. I'll be visiting in April for your spring break, correct?"

"Yes. I'll talk to you about it then. I promise."

"Alright, Harry. My lunch appointment has arrived, I must go. Have a good day."

"You, too," Harry said quietly before hanging up.

Other students were wondering around the lunch grounds, talking to one another and getting their food. Normally, Harry went off campus during lunch break, but today Harry didn't feel like it.

Harry wondered what it would be like to live in a dorm on campus. To have grown up constantly eating fast foods. To have parents who weren't top-notch people.

Slowly, Harry finished his lunch before grabbing his messenger bag and heading to his next class.

~~~

After Harry's lesson, the two lads went back to Harry's apartment, where the younger lad made baked chicken and peas for dinner.

After eating, Harry put in a movie and sat on the couch with Louis, smiling shyly as Louis gave him a look.

"Lilo and Stitch?"

"It's a classic," Harry responded, defending himself as he pulled the blanket he kept over the couch into his lap, unfolded it, and wrapped it around his lanky shoulders.

"That it is, Harold."

"You do know that isn't my name, correct?"

Louis shrugged, smirking a bit and focusing on the television.

Finally, Harry braved up and asked the question he'd been wanting to ask, pausing the movie.

"So, Louis, y-you... You came out as gay?"

"Yeah," Louis responded, blue eyes darting to Harry's.

"Was it... Is it hard? When people don't accept you?" Harry mumbled.

"Why would that be hard?"

"It's only that... I don't want people to judge me, Louis. If only you knew my parents-"

"Would they hate you?" Louis interrupted, bringing his eyebrows to meet in the middle, concern etching his pretty face.

"No, I don't think so. It's only that... Well, I'm already not a business man like my father. My mother and my sister are both in the medical field. I study music, Louis. It's not guaranteed that I'm going to get anywhere with my music and I have nothing to fall back on except my writing, and that won't get me anywhere."

Harry had began to ramble and his face was red. He looked close to crying and he was

f
a
l
l
i
n
g

Falling apart, falling to pieces, falling from the top all the way to the bottom, and, most importantly, he was falling in love and it was ruining him a bit more than it should all because he was a

Boy.

And Louis was a

Boy.

"Harry, please breathe," Louis requested, his tiny hands coming to rest on Harry's shoulders.

The younger man was breathing at an alarming rate but Louis was okay because his younger sister had anxiety and suffered from panic attacks on a regular so he knew what to do.

"Harry, look at me."

Harry's eyes of emerald locked with Louis's of blueblueblue and Louis didn't even have to say anything else before Harry's breathing was slowing back to normal.

"Are you okay?" Louis whispered, moving his hands to cup Harry's jaw.

"I wasn't. But... You make me okay."

~~~

Hello! I was unexpectantly grounded, sorry, sorry.

It doesn't happen often. I haven't had my phone taken for more than twenty-four hours in... Literally, like, a year.

I'm back and I rather like this chapter.

QOTC:

Is Harry being reasonable about why he doesn't want to come out? How do you think Harry's father will react, now that you've 'met' him?

PQOTC:

Favorite Disney movie and favorite Disney princess?

MA:

It's a tie between Aristocats and Lilo & Stitch. Aristocats, if I absolutely had to pick one. And Belle is my favorite, personally, because she's not just pretty, but she's smart. However, my close friend, who drowned this past summer, called me 'Pocahontas' because I look a lot like her so I rather like her as well.

Xx