Lounsbury Prep

“I’d say he took that pretty well,” Zayn voiced as he got to his feet after Harry disappeared back into the hallway. “I mean, he didn’t start chanting the Bible at us or anything to try to relieve us of our sins, so that’s good.”

Louis stared at Zayn sideways before laughing. “Why in the world did you think Harry would start chanting at us with a Bible? Does he really strike you as religious?”

“Uh, no, not especially.” Zayn looked down at himself and realized his pants were still undone, so he zipped up the fly and re-buttoned them, flushing slightly.

When Louis got off the bed, his shirt still off, displaying his tanned muscle, he walked straight over to Zayn, cupping the taller boy’s face in his hand. “I’m kind of sorry we got interrupted,” he whispered, his blue eyes roaming over Zayn’s face.

“I’m sorry, too,” was all Zayn could reply. He would have tried to say more, but he was incredibly afraid his voice would crack with emotion, which would have been wholly embarrassing.

The kiss that Louis planted against Zayn’s lips was soft and caring, a stark contrast from the lustful snogging they’d been doing on the bed. Zayn melted under Louis’ touch, and he hoped to God that Louis felt the same way. He didn’t want to be the only one free-falling into the dark hole of mystery that was their relationship. He didn’t know what to expect, how to act, but he knew that things could possibly be okay if Louis was right there with him.

“We should probably meet the others before they come looking again,” Louis laughed as he pulled away from Zayn, his warm breath fanning across Zayn’s face.

The younger boy nodded and picked up his shirt from the floor, tugging it on over his torso to hide his lanky body that almost looked laughable next to Louis’. Not that Louis had really seemed to care, but Zayn couldn’t help but dwell on the fact.

Louis followed Zayn’s lead, punching his hands through the sleeves of his shirt and turning to grin at Zayn. “So to the common room?”

The darker boy nodded and followed Louis’ lead into the hallway. A few boys were talking outside of their rooms, and they barely paid Zayn and Louis any mind. After all, it wasn’t uncommon in the least for boys to hang out in each other’s rooms, to watch television or movies, study, or just talk. That was one of the perks of going to an all-boys’ school-administrators didn’t think to instill rules about going into other boys’ rooms because they didn’t think anything would happen.

They were wrong, of course, but Zayn wasn’t exactly rushing to let them know that they should put rules in place that make sure no boys had opportunities to have sex with one another.

When they finally reached the common room, Liam, Niall, and Harry were already gathered around Harry’s laptop. Since they weren’t going to stream the show, it didn’t really matter whose laptop was used to view the DVDs.

“Is it all out of your system?” Harry asked nonchalantly, while Niall and Liam shared a confused look. “Are you set now?”

“I dunno,” Louis teased, plopping down next to Liam so Zayn had to take the seat by Niall. “I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see if I jump over the couch and tackle Zayn in the middle of a scene.”

Niall snickered and shot a look at Zayn, who flushed deeply and buried his face in one of his hands.

“Okay, enough sex talk.” Harry leaned forward and started the first episode, which Zayn already knew by heart. The first season of Glee had been the best by far, and so he’d spent a lot of time over the summers back home where he’d sit in his room and re-watch the best episodes. Granted, there wasn’t a lot of dancing in the first episode, considering the Glee Club was still new, but he didn’t want to crush Harry’s dreams. Plus, if they watched the first episode, they’d know the characters better for later episodes they could watch.

Zayn had to admit, he was somewhat grateful for the seating arrangement. Not having Louis so close to him allowed him to focus more on the show and what was happening in front of him. After all, he wasn’t hyper-aware of everything Niall did, and he wasn’t watching Niall every second to see if he’d make a move. Because, well, he wouldn’t. Plus, Zayn wasn’t attracted to Niall that way.

At the conclusion of the episode, Zayn could hear Louis sigh from where he was. Liam looked amused as he turned to his friend. “I can tell someone is Glee’s biggest fan.”

“It’s just a dumb show,” Louis responded with a roll of his eyes. “But we’re watching it for choreography ideas, so let’s keep it coming.”

“Shouldn’t we watch the episodes with the most dancing, then? Or the really good numbers?” Everyone turned to stare at Zayn when he spoke, and he could almost feel himself retreating back into his shell. “I mean, all the episodes have dancing, but there are some episodes that have way more, and I think it would be beneficial to watch those ones.”

“I second and third that,” Niall agreed enthusiastically before reaching forward and grabbing the three seasons on the table in front of them. While Liam, Harry, and Louis chatted in low voices to keep from distracting anyone that walked by, Niall and Zayn brainstormed on which episodes would be the best to use for studying purposes. It was a little difficult, since Zayn was really only an expert on the first season, while Niall had watched all of the seasons more times than he could count, but they came to a consensus in the end.

“Great,” Harry exclaimed when he heard that the two boys were done. “Write down the episodes you’ve decided would be best, and then we’ll watch them tomorrow. Because I’m tired, and I don’t want to sit through another episode of singing and whining.”

“See? It’s an awful show, right?” Louis looked absolutely vindicated that someone agreed with him, and Zayn had to hold back the laughter that threatened to burst out of his mouth. He’d never seen someone dislike a show so much, and instead of offending him, it just made him think Louis was that much cuter.

“Well, I don’t know about awful, but it’s certainly not on my list of the best television shows of all time.” Harry got to his feet and brushed off the front of his khakis. “I’m off to bed, guys. Goodnight.”

“’Night,” they all called, waving as Harry made his way into the hallway and disappeared.

“So what, exactly, did Harry walk in on?” Liam asked with a teasing tone, his full lips quirked up in the corner.

Zayn flushed a bright shade of red as he stared down at the sofa cushion, while Louis shook his head, “Not anything as bad as he made it seem. We weren’t having sex or anything.”

“Oh, then he can quiet down. Unless you were, uh, close?”

It was so strange to Zayn, how casually they could talk about their friends having sex, even though two boys were involved. He knew that none of the guys back home would be able to be so calm about the possibility. They could talk and gossip forever about a guy going all the way with a girl, or however far they actually got, but if they were talking about two men snogging, then it was a whole different story.

“We weren’t that close.” Louis shrugged. “I mean, Zayn’s pants were coming off, but he still had on his boxers.”

“Oh, so you were going that direction,” Niall laughed. “Whatever. Harry can get over it.”

“He will. He just probably won’t let me live it down for the rest of my life.” Louis turned and grinned at Zayn, who sheepishly reciprocated the gesture. God, the whole situation was mortifying.