Lounsbury Prep

“Hey, Zayn!” A high-pitched voice called out to the boy from Bradford as he tried to make his way toward the dining hall. His heart picked up a few more beats per second as he identified the source of the call in his mind, and it accelerated even faster when he felt a gentle hand wrap around his upper arm to stop him.

“Hi, Louis,” Zayn replied as calmly as he could, trying not to sound nervous. “What’s up?”

“The ceiling, the sky,” he listed off cheekily, nudging Zayn in the side. “I’m so glad I ran into you. I thought I was going to have to be that awkward kid that sat alone at a table until his friends showed up.”

“I guess there’s no need for that,” Zayn laughed. Ever since Louis revealed that he was bisexual, Zayn felt uneasy around him. It was almost like, at any second, his mouth would open, and he’d spew out that he was gay, that he found Louis ridiculously attractive, that he wanted to get to know everything about him, and that he’d had an incredibly embarrassing dream about him the night before.

Okay, maybe not that last part. He’d keep that dream a secret until his dying breath.

“Thank God,” Louis gasped dramatically. “Oh, I meant to ask you, did you learn all the words for the songs yet?”

Zayn felt his cheeks flood with embarrassment as he shook his head. “I mean, I know most of the words to Apologize, and about half of How to Save a Life, but I don’t know Breakeven at all.”

Louis smirked, like Zayn’s response was exactly the answer he’d been expecting. “So how about tomorrow, we meet up and help you learn them? I can play all three of them on the piano, so we can practice that way.”

Zayn felt his heart race even harder in his chest, and he hoped that he wouldn’t pass out. Before there was too long of a pause, Zayn forced himself to shrug nonchalantly and say, “Oh, that would be really helpful.”

“I thought so.” Louis grinned shortly as they walked into the dining hall. “So tomorrow at…noon? Does that work for you?”

“Sure,” Zayn agreed. Really, that worked perfectly. Zayn would have time to do a bit of his homework in the morning before he went, and once he got back from the secret rehearsal, it wouldn’t be too late for him to do some more of it. It would keep his stress-level from hitting an all-time high, and he’d be able to enjoy the time he spent with Louis.

Even if that time was spent as them singing together, staying strictly friends. Maybe they’d get to know each other better between attempts to remember the words, they’d joke around, they’d laugh.

Just the thought of it was making Zayn nervous that a heart attack was close behind, so he struggled to push the thoughts from his mind as the two boys took seats at the lunch table and started to feast.



Zayn was lying on his bed, his economics book perched on his stomach as he struggled to focus on the words in front of him. Reading the chapter that preceded the homework was almost more difficult than doing the math itself. He couldn’t get his mind to keep from wandering, sometimes thinking about Louis, sometimes wondering whether he’d embarrass himself at the end-of-the-year assembly, sometimes singing the songs in his head to gauge how many words he actually knew.

His concentration got even worse when Liam burst into the room and glared at him. “Zayn, it’s a Friday night. What are you doing with that book?”

“Doing homework…?” he trailed off uncomfortably. “I don’t want to leave it all for Sunday.”

“Understandable,” Liam allowed with a friendly tone before plopping his butt down at the end of Zayn’s bed. “But this is a Friday night. One of the two nights a week we’re allowed to take a bus into town and pick up girls, and we don’t have to be back until eleven thirty at night. Eleven thirty. Do you realize how much you can do with a girl in…” He stopped and looked at the alarm clock propped next to Zayn’s head, “four hours?”

But Zayn didn’t want to do anything with girls, and he didn’t want to play along and make it look like he wanted to do things with girls to keep his friends off the trail of finding out the truth about him. “A whole hell of a lot,” Zayn replied, acting like he knew this from lots and lots of experience, when he was actually just talking out of his ass. “But I don’t really feel like it tonight. Maybe I’ll go out next week, but right now, I just want to get my homework done.”

Liam stared at the Bradford boy like the latter had sprouted another head. “If you say so, mate. But don’t be surprised if I give some girls your number, yeah?”

“I don’t have my mobile,” Zayn replied. “My mum took it when she dropped me off so I’d have fewer distractions.”

Liam’s face twisted into that confused, shocked face that it had taken to liking a few moments previously. “That’s…just sad. Then I’ll give her my number, pretend it’s yours, and when her number pops up, I’ll hand the phone over.”

“That really won’t be necessary,” Zayn responded, trying to force a light tone and a short laugh, but his voice still sounded choked.

He had hoped Liam wouldn’t pick up on it, but there was no hesitation before Liam’s thick eyebrows pulled together in concern. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Zayn replied. “This homework is just depressing me.”

“Then come out with us!”

“No, Liam. Even if it’s depressing me, I still have to get it done, and I know I won’t enjoy myself when I’m out and trying to chat up girls when I know I have piles of things to do back in the room. So go without me, and I’ll see you when you get back.”

Liam looked taken aback by Zayn’s sharp tone, but he clearly wasn’t up to argue. “Okay,” he agreed. “I guess I’ll see you at eleven thirty, then.”

“See you.” Irritation still tinged his tone, though he felt guilty about snapping at Liam. It wasn’t Liam’s fault that Zayn thought he still needed to keep his sexuality a secret. It was entirely possible that if Zayn said, “I like boys,” then Liam would have said, “Get yourself one of those, then!”

Not that it would have fixed anything. Inside, Zayn wanted Louis, not any guy he could pick in town. Zayn didn’t want some randy lad that was desperate for a quick shag, only to cease all communication with the first boy, who was all too eager to fall for people he shouldn’t. He had a feeling that if he ever tried to do a one-night stand, he’d end up developing feelings for the other person and ruin everything.

Zayn shoved the idea of hooking up with anyone out of his mind and ran a hand through his hair, trying his hardest to focus on the book in front of him and forget about his get-together with Louis the following day.

Especially thinking about whether Louis was going with the other boys to pick up somebody in town.