No judgement

10

He couldn't wait to get to school on Monday to see Louis. Hopefully, he wouldn't flip him off now but he wasn't so sure about that. He said goodbye to aunt Amelia and hurried inside. He saw him as soon as he approached his locker. Louis was leaning against a wall, looking like he was deep in thoughts. How could he leaning against things be so sexy? Harry shook his head to clear his mind.

Louis looked up and gave him a once-over before he met his eyes. That must be a good sign, right? He walked right up to him and Louis didn't run away.
"Hi." Harry smiled.

"Hi, nice outfit." Louis greeted.

It didn't sound like he was being sarcastic so Harry's smile widened and he popped both dimples.
"Thanks! How are you?"

Louis stared at him and blinked slowly.
"Ehm, okay. You? How was the hangover?"

"Brutal." Harry chuckled.

"Yeah, that's the downside." Louis smiled.

"Yeah." Harry didn't know how to proceed.

They just stood there staring at each other.
"Okay, I'm gonna go. I'll see you around." Louis finally said and started to turn around.

"Wait!" Harry called out.

Louis looked at him again and waited for him to continue. Harry gulped nervously.
"Ehm, would you maybe like, wanna hang out after school? Get a coffee or something?"

Louis gave him a pensive stare.
"Okay." He agreed and then he turned around and walked away.

That went better than expected. Harry felt excited. He got his books for biology class and Niall was waiting for him outside the classroom.
"Hi mate, how was your weekend?" He asked.

Confusing. Wonderful. Weird.
"Good, yours?"

They small talked until class started. The day went by slowly. He sat at his usual table at lunch, talking to the guys. He looked up and met Louis's eyes. He was sitting by himself as always. Harry tilted his head and tried to wordlessly invite him to join them but Louis just shook his head and got up and left. Harry sighed.
"Are you okay?" Liam asked.

Harry nodded his head and continued to eat his lunch. When the school day finally ended he hurried to his locker to get rid of his books. He looked around but he didn't see Louis anywhere. He decided to look outside instead.

He spotted Louis leaning against a tree on the parking lot and walked over.
"Hi."

Louis opened his eyes and looked at him.
"Hi."

"So, where do you wanna go?" Harry asked and played with his hair.

Louis's eyes followed his motion.
"Doesn't matter."

"Oh, okay. Let's just walk into town then and see what we'll find." Harry suggested.

"Okay." Louis answered and started to walk.

Harry tried to keep up with him.
"Did you have a good day in school?" Harry asked, trying to spark a conversation.

"Not really." Louis sighed.

"Are you sure that you really wanna do this Lou? We don't have to hang out if you don't want to." Harry said softly.

Louis stopped abruptly and turned to look at Harry.
"I said yes, didn't I? Why? You don't want to?"

"I was the one who asked you out in the first place." Harry reminded him.

"You asked me out?" Louis smirked.

"What? No, not like asked you out on a date...I..." Harry started to stutter.

"Relax Hazza, I'm just messing with you." Louis chuckled.

He called him Hazza. The sound of the old nickname made him all warm and fuzzy inside. He broke out in a dimpled smile.
"What?" Louis questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

"You called me Hazza." Harry said softly.

Louis rolled his eyes at him.
"Yeah, well, you called me Lou so..."

"I did? Oh." Harry couldn't stop smiling. He hadn't even noticed.

"You're being silly. Come on." Louis said and started to walk again but Harry could see how he tried to hide his smile.

Things became less awkward between them after that. Harry asked about his sisters and Louis lit up like a lighthouse and started to tell him about them. Louis stopped in front of a small coffee shop when they came into town.
"This one has good coffee."

"Great!" Harry beamed. He held the door for him and paid for their coffee despite Louis's protests. They sat down in a booth.

Harry analyzed everything Louis did or said. Alex and Steven had told him that guys flirting were subtle and you had to look really closely for the signs.
Louis was constantly pushing his fringe to the side. Alex had told him that a man touching his hair could be a sign that he was nervous in his company. But it could also mean that Louis needed a haircut.

They had talked about scanning someone's body to check out the goods but they were sitting down so Louis couldn't do that. He did, however, give him a once over earlier in school. That had to count for something?

Steven had told him that if he complimented your flaws it could be a sign that it was more than just the physical to him. Louis had called him beautiful last Saturday but that wasn't exactly complementing his flaws. Why was this so hard?

They had tried to explain 'the lean' but that only made him more confused.
"Harry, are you even listening to me?"

He realized he hadn't.
"I'm sorry. I zoned out for a bit. Can you repeat that?"

"Apparently I was boring you out." Louis sighed.

"No, absolutely not! I'm really sorry Lou. It won't happen again. Promise!" Harry said and showed off his dimples when he smiled.

"I always liked those dimples. Remember how I always used to poke them when we were kids?" Louis said out of the blue and his cheeks turned pink from his own words.

"I remember." Harry smiled. Could that be a complement of his flaws? Interesting. Harry decided to stop obsessing over everything Louis said and just go with the flow instead. Time would reveal if this was something more than just a platonic friendship. 

He just had to be a little patient.