Let Me Teach You Something (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 4

The next couple of months were tense to say the least. Louis and Niall were getting on swimmingly. They'd been seeing each other constantly. Louis had only slept with two other people while they were dating. Which is good considering. He'd told Niall about both. Niall wasn't excited about it, but he'd said that they weren't exclusive and he understood. But they spent many afternoons at the smoothie shop. Louis was learning to like smoothies. Louis even took Niall out on a few proper dates. Movies, dinner, even a carnival. But whenever the whole group got together things were uneasy. Louis and Harry would stare intensely at each other; sometimes with anger, sometimes with something else. They rarely spoke directly to each other but they always had an opinion about what the other was saying.

"We need to go more in depth on the background research," Louis contemplated.

"Liam, I think you're idea about expanding our solution paragraphs was better," Harry spoke to the brown-eyed boy.

Things like this were the basis of all the group work. One day while the boys were all at Louis' house, Zayn had had enough. Louis had just made a back-handed comment about Harry's lack of preparedness when Zayn spat out, "Will you two just fuck already?"

Everyone stared, stunned, at the normally calm and collected Zayn. Except Liam who smiled wide like he was proud of his boyfriend.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked incredulously.

"You heard me. I'm tired of the tension between you two. The way you look at each other. And Li says you talk about each other constantly when you're separated. And we all know Harry is Louis' type," Zayn rambled while Louis blushed furiously. "You two are practically begging to fuck each other you just won't say it."

"Zayn, I don't know if you've heard mate, but I'm straight," Harry offered.

Zayn scoffed, "Yeah. And I'm Michael Phelps." Before Harry could interject again Zayn added, "Plus, like Liam said, you wouldn't be the first boy Louis' turned."

"Hello? Don't I get a say. If you haven't figured out, I quite like Nialler here. And he's not an asshole," Louis said glaring pointedly at Harry. Niall was beaming with the confession.

"Which is why I don't get why he's with you."

"We're not with each other, I mean, it's not like..." Niall stuttered.

"It doesn't matter Ni. It's none of his business." Louis still wasn't looking anywhere but at Harry.

Silence stretched over the group until Liam muttered, "Zayn please, for the love of God, can we leave?" Before Liam had even finished the sentence Zayn was grabbing up their books and pulling Liam behind him. The two exited Louis' house and left the other three to deal with the tension.

Niall squeaked out, "Lou, do you want me to go?"

Louis finally looked away from the curly-headed boy to the blond and sighed. "No Ni, you don't have to. We still have a lot left to do. I'm not going to fail this class because of one bad apple." Niall nodded.

Harry squeezed his lips into a thin line and breathed slowly out his nose. "Fine. Let's finish tonight's work."

Niall smiled then, "Good," then mock whispered, "I actually rather like you Harry."

Harry smiled back genuinely. "I like you to Niall."

The three kept working until rather late and Niall finally hit his hand on the table and said, "I'm done. I'm tired. And hungry. And I'm going home."

"You drove right?" Louis asked.

"Yes, dear," Niall mocked. "I'll text you later." Niall leaned into Louis and Louis offered his cheek. Niall kissed it quickly, gathered his stuff, and left.

Harry was nose deep in a large textbook when Louis sighed heavily.

"Do I need to leave?"

"Yes. No. I mean you don't have to, but aren't you tired?"

"I don't sleep much. I do my best work at this time of night."

Louis nodded slowly. "Well I'm famished," he tried, "I could make you something."

Harry saw Louis was actually trying to be civil so he nodded his head and said, "That'd be great."

Louis headed to the kitchen to put tea on and make some sandwiches. "You drink tea?" Louis called to the dining room.

"Constantly," Harry called back.

"Thank God! Niall doesn't drink tea."

Harry was silent for a minute. "So Niall? You guys are really like a thing?"

Louis ignored the worried tone of Harry's voice and answered. "I don't know. I don't really do-"

"Relationships. Yeah, I know," Harry said irritation almost apparent in his voice.

"Yeah. So it's just sort of weird to want to actually be around him when we're not like..."

"I get it," Harry said quickly.

Louis walked back to the table with food and drink. "No actually. I mean we haven't. Not yet. He won't. Not that I have to. But it's like he doesn't. I don't know." Harry wondered if Louis even knew he was there anymore when he added, "He swears he's gay, but I'm not sure," and looked up to Harry who was looking back, shocked. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I just told you that."

"No it's, I don't mind, I mean," Harry paused to take a big gulp of tea, "Why are you still, I don't know. Why are you still with him, then?"

Louis laughed at that. "Because Styles. Believe it or not, I'm not all about the sex. Niall's great. Sweet, and funny, and so nice to me."

Harry seemed to consider that. "Well, so is Liam? You wanna date him?"

Laughed barked a laugh and said, "Yeah, no! But I don't want to kiss Liam either."

"You want to kiss Niall?"

"Yeah of course I do," Louis answered quickly.

"Really?" Louis looked at Harry confused. "It's just. I see you guys together sometimes. And actually it seems to me that you're the one whose straight."

Louis burst then. Laughing like that was the funniest thing he's ever heard. When he finally caught his breath again he said, "Oh honey. I'm gay. I'm so gay. I love men and their di-"

"Yeah I know!" Harry said quickly. "What I'm trying to say is that maybe it's not the gender, maybe it's the person." Harry shrugged. "Maybe you're just not into him."

Louis went to answer but stopped and thought. Maybe Harry's right?