Let Me Teach You Something (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 52

Louis gave himself a minute. He let the cool wood of the wall soothe his heated skin. His head fell back to rest against it and he sighed in disbelief.

He could still feel Harry's lips on his, his hands in his hair, his legs around his waist. He steeped in the memory of Harry's thigh against his hip as he pulled Louis in.

The words were playing over and over in Louis' head...relentless confessions of love for you. He loves me. He loves me! Helovesmehelovesmehelovesme!!

Louis could barely contain himself. He felt like a teenage girl meeting her celebrity crush. He was giddy and smiling like a loon he knew. If anyone were to see him right now they might ask if he was flying high.

He heard Harry talking in the other room and figured he should probably go in see what speech was so important that Louis doesn't have him wrapped around his body anymore.

He open the door quietly and stepped into the dim room. He didn't want to make his way through the tables to his during Harry's speech so he just leaned against the wall and listened.

"...but I'm honored that my fellow student thought highly enough of me that they wanted to hear what I had to say on such a special night," Harry paused and looked around at everyone. He looked to their table and then back to his notes. "I have so much to say," Harry looked back to the table and back to his notes.

"This school has done so much for me. Given me so many opportunities. They've given me a top notch education. Opportunities of a lifetime," he looked back to their table, but instead of going back his notes he looked around to other tables.

His face started to look more and more unsettled. Eventually he did look back at his notes. But then he shocked Louis by putting them face down on the podium and closing his eyes.

Harry took a quiet, serene breath and looked up. "This school has given me so much. Including a chance at a future. A future that I can be proud of." He looked around the room, more slowly this time, and said, "A chance to be with someone that I love."

Louis' mouth dropped.

***

Harry followed the girl up the side of the room to the front while Dean Winslow was introducing him. He slipped over a couple tables to grab his notes and then came back to wait his turn.

His lips were still tingling from moments before. He was smiling like a crazy person and didn't care.

"He has proved himself a scholar and a man of character in the time he's spent at our fine university. Ladies and gentlemen, your class elected speaker, Mr. Harry Styles!"

Harry walked on stage to a modest round of applause. He shook hands with the Dean, put on a fake smile for the man, and took his place at the microphone.

"Thank you," he greeted while everyone settled, "My name is Harry. Most of you probably know me as the senator's son," he put quotes around it, "or you're parents might work with my father, but I have made at least a few friends while I was here," he said jokingly.

"I don't know if you all even care about my parents, or who I am, but I'm honored that my fellow students thought highly enough of me that they wanted to hear what I had to say on such a special night," Harry looked around for Louis.

He wasn't at the table. Did he leave? Did Harry mess this up? And he didn't even get a chance to clear things up. He looked back to his notes. "I have so much to say."

Harry glanced at the table again but Louis still wasn't there. He continued, "This school has done so much for me. Given me so many opportunities. They've given me a top notch education. Opportunities of a lifetime," his voice sounded fake even to his own ears. He wrote the speech a long time ago, before everything, and now he realized just how ignorant he'd been.

Harry kept going back to their table hoping Louis would appear. He didn't. Maybe he sat somewhere else so he wouldn't have to try and get back to the front.

He looked to every table he could see in the dark room, but he didn't see the face he'd seen in his dreams so many nights.

He has to be here. He wouldn't leave me...would he? Maybe Harry finally pushed Louis too far. Louis must've left.

Harry let the realization hit him. He'd finally lost Louis for good. Even after he tried to make him understand. Now he'd never get the chance.

He finished checking each table and when he came up empty he looked down at his notes again. The words were hollow and deceiving.

Harry decided that if he couldn't be honest with Louis, he might as well be honest with himself. He turned his notes face down and took a breath in preparation for what he was about to do.

He looked up to his fellow students with something real to say. "This school has given me so much. Including a chance at a future. A future that I can be proud of," he looked to each attentive face in the audience and relished in the fact that their passive demeanors would soon turn upside down.

"A chance to be with someone that I love."