Sweet Taste Of Summer - l.s.

CHAPTER THREE

An "I love you too" never came.

Harry learned to ignore the missed calls on his phone, not being able to summon up the strength to talk to the boy he loved whole who only loved him back half. Maybe not even at all.

Sore limbs trudged up the apartment steps until he reached the second floor. He'd been taking as many shifts down at the local burger joint as he could in order to avoid Louis and to avoid his grandpa. The old man had started asking him about Louis after some old woman at church had told informed him that his grandson had been hanging out too much around the Devil's Child, as she so delicately put it.

Carefully, Harry turned the key into the keyhole in order to not wake up Grandpa Samuel. He stepped inside of the apartment with delicate steps, pushing the door closed as softly as he could.

"You look like an idiot trying to sneak in."

Harry swiftly turned his head around towards the source of the voice, finding his grandfather sitting on the couch with the tableside lamp dimly lighting the room.

Harry huffed out a breath, "Scared the shit out of me, old man."

The older man guffawed, eyes crinkling with an amused smile.

"Yeah, well, you've always been an easy spook," his grandfather teased before his smile faded into something more serious.

"Guess I have, huh?" Harry agreed before asking what was on his mind, "Gramps? You got something to say?"

Though he was tired and wanted nothing more to crash into the softness of his bed, Harry knew his grandfather had something to tell him that didn't have time to wait. Harry sat on the edge of the small brown couch that stood next to the couch where his father likes to splay out his whole body. He made himself comfortable and watched as his grandpa decided on his next words.

"Listen, kid... I know you get all weird when I mention your friend, but I just need you to listen, okay?"

His muscles tensed up immediately, knowing his grandfather had finally decided to lay down the law and talk about Louis. He was too tired to fight, and the worried look in his grandfather's eyes made Harry stay put, unlike all the other times he'd bolted the second he'd heard Louis' name.

"He came over today."

Harry's head bolted upright at that piece of information, wondered if he'd even heard his grandfather correctly. His mind immediately jumped to conclusions, wondering if Louis and Grandpa Samuel had argued, or if Louis had revealed to his conventional and Catholic-raised grandfather than they'd been seeing each other romantically.

"He came over dressed like..." Samuel shook his head, "Like a girl. He had lipgloss on, these red heart-shaped glasses on, and he was wearing a girl's dress. It was obscene."

Harry licked his lips, not being able to stop himself from imagining how pretty Louis must have looked. Despite the shocked look on his grandfather's face, Harry knew he himself could never even pretend to hate Louis or be disgusted, not even for the sake of his own blood relative.

"I nearly kicked him out," Granpa Samuel confessed, "but I'm glad I didn't."

"You talked to him?" Harry asked, shock laced in his voice.