Prove It (Larry Valentine's Day)

V

On Thursday, Louis realized that his life was over.

He didn't get even a wink of sleep last night because he was too busy thinking about stupid Harry Styles.

He thought of Harry's bright green eyes all innocent when he confronted in by the lockers.

He thought of how much fun they had in English class making fun of Ms. Flack.

He thought of how nice Harry's arms looked in a t-shirt, even if they looked nothing like Niall's.

He thought of how scared Harry looked in the locker room when he asked him if he liked boys.

He thought of how jealous he felt every single time Harry's attention was on someone else.

He tossed and turned all night, only to wake up with a burning stomachache and a massive headache to realize one thing:

He was in love with Harry Styles.

It sucked, and he sucked and Harry sucked, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

You would think that checking out the person you like seemed would be a pleasant thing, but Operation-Take-Down-Harry-Styles only made things even worse. Louis was constantly reminded of how many girls- and even guys- were interested in Harry, and how little he stood a chance.

And it didn't help that Harry probably hated his guts, too.

Now, Louis was definitely a jerk, because he wouldn't have challenged Harry to this whole thing if he wasn't willing to pick out other people's flaws. But he really was a decent guy underneath, so he honored his commitments and continued to watch how closely Harry interacted with others.

And if misery was the only thing he got out of it, well, it was his own fault.

***

He was buying carnations.

Even though he now knew that Harry was probably into guys, it still stung when he watched Harry flirt with the cheerleaders during lunch. And unless he was buying an entire carton of flowers, that's most likely what he's been doing over there for the past 15 minutes.

"How's Operation-Take-Down-Harry-Styles going?" Zayn asked when he sat his lunch tray down next to Louis.

"Fine." Louis replied, smoothing the top of his chocolate pudding down with his spoon.

"You sure?" Zayn raised an eyebrow. "He looks pretty busy over there." They watched a blonde underclassman shriek when Harry grabbed the end of her long ponytail.

"Whatevs. I don't really give a shit about what he does, anymore," Louis lied, watching Harry finally walk away from the table and right past Louis. He raised his eyebrows when he saw him, mumbling a quiet "hey".

"What was that all about?" Zayn asked, bringing a French fry to his mouth.

"Like I said, don't know, I don't care," Louis snapped. Why couldn't Zayn let this go?

"Geez, sorry," Zayn apologized. "But had you ever wondered if he was doing all of this on purpose?"

Louis dismissed the thought from his head. "No, he would never do that. He's not that smart."

"If you say so," Zayn shrugged.

They finished their lunches in silence.