this side of paradise l.s.

chapter iv.

The chapter got too long so I had to cut it in half. My favorite scene didn't make the cut :(

Remember guys, kissing someone who's intoxicated isn't consent.

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oh i still wanna be your favorite boy
i wanna be the one that makes your day
the one you think about as you lie awake

and i can't wait to be your number, your number one
i'll be your biggest fan and you'll be mine
but i still wanna break your heart and make you cry

-Best Friend, Rex Orange County

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Opening the door to their new flat felt monumental, the kind of milestone you bragged about on Facebook while the rest of your friends stared at your excessive amounts of pictures in envy. Louis didn’t use Facebook, but he did send shots of the front door and the entranceway to his best mate Stan, who was probably writhing in self-loathing because he couldn’t top that. Louis bit his lip in excitement. 

He had his own flat. 

He had his own flat at nineteen and he was sharing it with his bandmate and friend. It felt like a dream come true. He squeezed his eyes shut, terrified that once he opened it, it would all be ripped away. The band, the flat, the opportunity to make a name for himself, to be more than just that kid from Donny that always laughed too loud at the worst times and gave every one of his teachers gray hair by the second month of school. But when he blinked his eyes open, it was still there. His heart caught in his throat briefly as he wondered what made him so special to deserve all of this. 

Besides him, Harry was already chucking off his clothes. 

“Harry, what the actual fuck?” 

Harry paused, his fingers fiddling with the zipper on his trousers. His green  jumper and the shirt he wore underneath was thrown carelessly on the floor. His pale chest was in full view, all four of those pink nubs he called nipples exposed to the conditioned air. Louis blinked and looked away from them. “What?” Harry asked, his doe eyes wide with innocence. 

Louis cocked an eyebrow and gestured at where they were standing at the entranceway. The door was still open behind them, letting in the brisk September wind. “We literally just entered the flat, why are you taking off your clothes?”

“I’m christening it,” he scoffed, as if going nude in the flat you shared with your good mate was a reasonable thing to do. It might be, in Harry’s mind. They’ve only known each other for approximately a year, since stumbling upon each other in the X Factor bathroom, but Louis felt like he knew Harry better than he knew most people. It didn’t help that Harry was an open book, every thought that entered his head blurted out in that slow and deep drawl of his. Maybe that was why Louis was so eager to agree to them living together. He needed to watch the younger boy to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. 

He didn’t take into consideration Harry’s penchant for not wearing clothes. “At least wait until everything’s been unpacked, fuckin’ hell,” he mumbled, nudging Harry’s discarded clothes carefully out of the way with the toe of his Toms before fully entering their flat. It was a rather impressive space, the living room itself bigger than what he was used to. It had taken them weeks to find the perfect place to live, flat shopping with their mums before they went on tour for the X Factor. They had already moved the important bits weeks ago, and their mums had taken control of the decorating because neither boy knew shit about interior design. As long as there was a sofa and a T.V., Louis figured he was fine.