Lounsbury Prep

All during his classes the following day, Zayn looked forward to Glee Club. Even though he’d been hesitant to join in when Liam basically had to drag him out of his dorm room, he was happy that his roommate had been so insistent. It shocked him how easily he’d been able to fall into step with the other boys, how seamlessly they folded him into the tight-knit friendship they’d developed over the years. It made him feel wanted and important, something that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Ready for tonight?” Louis questioned at lunch as he slipped in next to Zayn. His blue eyes looked even brighter than they had the night before, if such a thing were possible, and he had a sweet smirk playing on the corners of his mouth.

But Zayn couldn’t stare. He couldn’t get attached. Louis was probably straight, and Zayn couldn’t take any more heartbreak.

“Yeah,” Zayn agreed, smiling. “I’m really excited to see what other people came up with. ‘Cause I found a few different songs that I think could work.” Zayn was very aware that he was lying, but he figured that a little fibbing never hurt anyone.

“Yeah?” Louis continued conversationally, reaching for the basket of sandwich rolls and dropping one on his plate before offering it to Zayn. Zayn shook his dark head to decline, and Louis deposited the thing back where it belonged. “What did you come up with?”

“I don’t really remember right now,” Zayn chuckled uncomfortably, hoping Louis didn’t notice the blush that was starting to take over his face. “One of them was more classic rock, I think. The list is in my room, so I’ll bring it tonight.”

“Wicked.” Louis finished his sandwich, replacing the mayonnaise-soaked bun to the top of his turkey and cheese sandwich. “I didn’t do any research at all. I was too busy with my homework.”

“Homework?!” Harry scoffed with a snort as he sat across from the two boys. “I don’t think so. I don’t even remember you doing homework. Ever.”

“Okay, let’s not exaggerate,” Louis laughed lightly. “I do some homework sometimes. But if it’s not worth my time, then I won’t do it.”

“So does that mean that you were too busy wanking off to find any songs?” Harry joked.

Zayn coughed uncomfortably, his face heating up dramatically as he reached for his glass of water to cover up his embarrassment. He wasn’t used to boys talking so freely about such…personal matters.

“Aw, see, you’re scaring the newbie!” Louis teased, ruffling Zayn’s hair. Normally, that kind of condescending gesture made him crazy, especially since he took so much time to make sure that his hair looked absolutely perfect. But for the first time, Zayn felt himself preoccupied by the fact that Louis’ fingers were running through his hair, and he found his mind wandering to places he’d never let it go before. “But in all seriousness, I was talking to Lottie. She’s having boy problems, you know.”

“Is she?” Harry chuckled. “Do tell.”

Louis fluffed up for a second, puffing out his chest like he was letting them in on a secret only he had access to. “Apparently, a boy has been putting love letters in her locker, and she thinks she might know who it is, but she doesn’t want to approach him and ask because she doesn’t want to embarrass herself.”

“Makes sense,” Harry agreed. “She’d be mortified if she ended up being wrong.”

“Right. Which is why I told her to write a letter back and leave it in her locker for when the boy picks her lock, and she can ask for him to reveal his identity. Genius, yeah?”

“If you say so.” Harry snorted and shook his head, letting his curls bounce around his head before settling back into place, much messier than they were before.

“Where the hell are Liam and Niall?” Louis asked suddenly, surveying the table around them. “They should have been here ages ago.”

“Oh, shit!” the long-haired brunette laughed. “I was supposed to tell you guys that they were spending lunch in the library to look up different songs they can use for the set-list. They’re being studious.”

“Studious is not the word you want,” Louis replied, taking a sip of his water. “This has nothing to do with schoolwork or any kind of intelligence.”

“I can say what I want,” Harry snuffed, sticking his nose in the air pompously. Then, the curly-haired boy turned his attention back to Zayn, as if just remembering his existence. “So did you find any songs?”

“He did,” Louis answered on Zayn’s behalf, his tone smug, like he was incredibly proud of himself to have found out about the information before Harry. “But he doesn’t remember what songs he picked because he didn’t think to memorize them.”

“Wow, Zayn,” Harry gasped, “you got a got a lot paler since we last talked.”

Louis rolled his light blue eyes dramatically, but he didn’t say anything in response.

Zayn didn’t exactly know what to say to contribute to the conversation, so he merely took another couple of potato crisps from his plate and popped them into his mouth, hoping that the crunching wasn’t loud enough for Louis to hear and think that he was ill-mannered.

Harry and Louis continued to bicker back and forth throughout the last fifteen minutes of lunch, while Zayn watched, his eyes flicking from one to the other like he was watching a fast-paced tennis match. The two certainly amused him, and whenever they tried to bring him into the conversation, he was hesitant to interrupt the rhythm they’d established.

“So I’ll see you tonight?” Louis asked as the two left the dining hall, elbowing the taller boy in the side. “And make sure you bring those notes, yeah? I think whatever suggestions you have, they’re definitely going to be incredible.”

And with that, Louis was gone, weaving through a mass of average, uninspiring boys, all clumped together, making conversation as they made their way to class.

Zayn stood still for a second, staring after his new friend, wondering how, exactly, he’d managed to pick the one school in all of England that happened to have Louis Tomlinson attending it. Because he was positive that no other boy could make him as eager to break his promise to his parents.

Yet, Zayn mused as he put his head down and shoved his way to class, he couldn’t get his hopes up too much. Louis, as far as he knew, was just a normal teenage boy. He was probably straight, maybe had a girlfriend. A beautiful girlfriend, of course, given how beautiful Louis was himself. She probably had flowing hair, a thin figure, gorgeous legs that poked out from dresses that made Louis drool with desire.

Zayn swallowed back his emotion, internally punching himself as punishment. What gave him the right to get upset about the possibility of Louis having a model girlfriend? He had no claim on the blue-eyed boy. They were barely friends, never mind anything even remotely more. He shouldn’t feel so strongly about the possibility of advancing their friendship to anything more than a casual acquaintanceship.

When Zayn walked into his next class, Liam was already settled in his seat, hunched over a paper and scribbling frantically, as if he had a mind full of ideas that couldn’t find a way out quickly enough. The end of his pink tongue was poking through his full lips, his concentration focused wholly on whatever was in front of him.

Not wanting to ruin his work, Zayn settled into his seat as quietly as possible, not making so much as a squeak as he deposited a pile of books onto the top of his desk. Before Liam finished, the professor walked into the class, shutting off any possibility of the two sharing any kind of conversation before they had to take notes for a solid hour.

And although Zayn really did want to think about the lesson, to find some kind of happiness in learning about molecular bonds, but he couldn’t get himself to dwell on the notes for more than a couple seconds before his mind decided Glee Club was more interesting and offered suggestion after suggestion of what the set-list might end up to be.