Brother's Best Friend || l.s.

chapter 2

Harry was very stuck. It was very emotionally debilitating having such a major crush on his best friend's older, cockier brother, especially when they didn't catch on at all. Harry would no longer be able to even think about Liam without his face slowly morphing into Louis' in his mind.

That luscious tan covering the expanse of Louis' skin, like he was on an eternal sunny holiday; Liam's skin was paler in complexion. That was a notable difference. And Louis' eyes, they were almost too blue. Sickeningly blue, like a cloudless sky. Then there was Liam, with the generic brown eyes. Harry was in no way calling Liam unattractive - he was far from it - but Louis was just a few levels above attractive. Miles above. He was everything Harry could wish for in an attractive male, to be quite frank, and it wasn't fair at all.

And now that Harry and Niall had met Louis, Liam wouldn't have the excuse to hide him away anymore.

The second time Harry ever saw Louis, was because he, Niall and Liam were stranded at a seemingly deserted bus stop, with no sign of the midday bus ever making an appearance. And to make matters worse, it was raining; absolutely tipping it down. Harry had pathetically removed his hood-less, thin and flimsy jacket and was holding it above his head as a temporary roof, his arms aching with the effort, while Liam was trying to cower back as much as he could amongst the water-dripping bush behind the bus stop, and Niall was just allowing the water rushing down to soak him through to the skin. He no longer cared.

"This fucking bus isn't coming, is it?"

"If it was, it would have been here a good twelve minutes ago." Niall called over the pattering of rain hitting the asphalt of the road, his teeth chattering and bottom lip shaking.

"I'm just going to text Louis and get him to pick us up." Liam resolved, pulling out his phone.

All the while, Harry was internally panicking about seeing Louis again. It had been a whole four days since he had first met Louis at Liam's house, and even that had been long enough. He had been on Harry's mind ever since. Liam was chattering away into his phone, to Louis, but Harry had drowned out the noises of conversation with his overpowering thoughts about Louis' face, once again.

"Alright, Louis, thank you so much. See you in a minute." Liam concluded the call, bent right over his phone to protect the screen from water damage. He pushed the device into his front pocket. "He will be here to pick us up in a few minutes."

Oh no. An actual angel on earth was only a few minutes away, Harry didn't think that left much time for mental preparation. He couldn't see Louis again, he just could not. It was all way too much.

"I thought you hated your arsehole of a brother?" Niall smirked at the reminder. "Do you only like him when he does things for you?"

Harry wanted Louis to do things for him. So many dirty, dirty things. God Damn it.

"Exactly, he seems in one of his rare nice moods today. He didn't actually agree to pick me up until I said I was with you guys, so that shows he doesn't really care about me, he probably just wants to seem like a cool guy."

...Interesting. Louis didn't agree to pick them up until Liam mentioned being with his friends. Harry was, as Louis knew, one of Liam's friends. Was Harry overthinking all of this shit again? Most likely. He just really wanted Louis to like him too.

"Really? It's probably because of his pretty obvious crush on Harry." Niall nudged the boy in question suggestively, and Harry couldn't help but feel his cheeks flush red from the attention. If Niall had noticed something weird, surely there was something behind what Louis was saying to Harry a few days prior?

"Don't be weird," Liam rolled his eyes, "He doesn't have a crush on Harry. He has a girlfriend, anyway."

Harry experienced immediate heartbreak. It was like an arrow dart, tinged with poison, had been struck into his heart and shattered it into five million pieces. He wanted to walk away from his friends and have a really long cry at that moment. Louis had a girlfriend? Well, it was hardly surprising, but shit. Shit.