Lounsbury Prep

“Are…?” Liam closed his mouth for a second, staring at his roommate critically with eyes that had narrowed to slits from his resounding confusion. “Are you wearing aftershave?”

Zayn felt his face flood with embarrassment. He had no idea whether he should lie or not, since it was pretty strange, but it was pretty obvious. If Liam had even noticed enough to ask, then it was too far gone to pick it up. So he finally replied, “Too much?”

“Um, no. I’m just…kind of surprised.” Liam sat down on his bed, pressing his back against the wall and crossing his arms in front of his chest, his gaze still not leaving Zayn’s awkward body. “Where exactly are you going?”

Zayn’s blush deepened as he stood up and started toward the door. He felt guilty that he was keeping secrets from the first friend he’d made at Lounsbury, but the answer was a discussion he wasn’t really ready to have. “I’ll be back later,” Zayn informed the other boy before slipping into the corridor and pulling the dorm door shut behind him.

His footsteps echoed through the hallway. Almost none of the other boys on the floor had left their rooms yet, whether they were still sleeping or just taking it easy on a Saturday morning.

It took him about ten minutes of wandering, blushing, and getting flustered before he finally found the rehearsal room Louis had mentioned at dinner the night before.

The room was put there for when there was a classical music program at Lounsbury, back in the early days of the preparatory school. Although the administration had since dropped the alternate learning experience, the dean left the piano in the school because it was too difficult to move and the old instrument gave the room and establishment a bit of character. Through the years, a few talented boys had been able to seek solace there, tickling the ivory keys to relieve the stress they felt inside, but those boys were few and far between. And in the moment, Zayn was happy he and Louis would be able to use it for Glee Club purposes.

Louis was already sitting in the room, squinting down at his lap. Upon hearing Zayn enter, the blue-eyed boy looked up and grinned. “Hi!” he greeted with an excited tone. “I’m just looking up the sheet music for Apologize in case I forget. I figured we’d start with that, since you already know some of it.”

“Okay,” Zayn agreed. His amber eyes scanned the room as subtly as possible while Louis’ concentration was fixed elsewhere, trying to deduce where he was supposed to sit. The white room with one windowed wall was virtually empty besides the piano, with only a desk in the corner, probably meant for students to compose music without the distractions of the other boys in their dorms.

So without saying a word, Zayn ventured across the room and picked up the rickety, worn wooden chair and carried it over to the piano, placing it next to the bench opposite where Louis was sitting. Even though he was dying to place himself right up next to Louis, he didn’t want to come on too strong, and he figured the space would be better for both of them.

“Do you think I have cooties or something?” Louis turned and snickered at the darker boy.

“No,” Zayn answered shyly, trying to force down the blush that was threatening to creep up to his face. “I just don’t want to crowd you in case you need the higher keys.”

Louis raised his thin eyebrows as his lips quirked up in the corners. “Are you trying to say that you can hit this note?” With one slender finger, he pressed down on the ivory key closest to Zayn, the giant instrument emitting a noise much higher than Zayn could ever hope to match.

“Um, no.” Zayn coughed uncomfortably and nodded toward the phone sitting in front of Louis’ face. “But enough about my seating choices. Just start the song.”

“Feisty.” Louis smirked at Zayn one more time before turning back to the piano and starting to play the familiar tune.

Without the added backbeats and vocal effects in the background, the song felt much rawer and truer to Zayn. And when he started to sing the words, he soon caught himself getting lost in the lyrics. After all, he had enough hurt in his past to draw inspiration from.

About halfway through the song, Zayn started to slow down as the words escaped him, but Louis picked it up without hesitation, filling the empty spaces. The gentle reminders helped Zayn along, and as their two voices mingled together, Louis’ high, melodic, beautiful voice against Zayn’s more soulful, slightly deeper one, Zayn couldn’t help but grin.

“You’re a fantastic singer,” Louis said matter-of-factly after it ended. “It’s so strange to me that you don’t have any experience.”

The younger boy blushed and shrugged. “Thanks, but your voice is much better than mine.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t searching for compliments. I was stating a fact. And your voice is much stronger than mine.” He reached forward and took his phone off the stand that would typically hold a paperback book with the sheet music inside, pressing a few buttons to go back to the Google homepage. “Alright, let’s work on How to Save a Life now. I know it by heart, but I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

The dark-haired boy squirmed uncomfortably in his seat at the declaration. He knew almost none of the beloved song by The Fray, and he was so nervous that he would humiliate himself in front of Louis, once they were getting so close to growing closer.

“Just try to follow my lead,” Louis instructed kindly as he readied himself to play the song again. The melody floated through the air as Louis’ fingers glided over the proper notes, not missing a beat or messing up once. It was beautiful and elegant, and it took everything Zayn had in him to keep from staring in awe.

And then, right in the middle of the song, as Zayn struggled to keep up with Louis in the verses, Louis stopped playing. The air felt incredibly empty without the music accompanying it, and Zayn heard a quiet ringing in his ears at the sudden silence.

“Are you okay?” Louis questioned.

Zayn’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“I don’t know. You seem really…on edge right now. And I hate to make hasty judgments, but I feel like it’s been that way since I admitted in the group bonding session that I’m bisexual.” Zayn opened his mouth to protest, but Louis continued without letting the other boy speak. “I was watching you while I said it, to see what your initial reaction was, and you got massively tense. If my sexuality bothers you, then I wish you would say it right now.”

“Your sexuality doesn’t bother me,” Zayn burst out without thinking. “And I’m sorry that I made you feel that way.”

And for once, Zayn shut out all thoughts of consequences, of what would come after he acted, and he moved so he was sitting onto the bench next to Louis. His blue eyes were wide and shocked as Zayn moved forward swiftly, putting a hand on the side of Louis’ face and capturing the thin lips he’d dreamed about since they first saw each other with his.

There was a moment where Louis did nothing, and Zayn felt his heart start to pound with anxiety. But then, slowly, surely, Louis reciprocated, his mouth moving against Zayn’s in a slow, passionate rhythm.

After about a minute, Louis flicked out his tongue, which Zayn admitted into his mouth with a small sigh. Zayn had never felt so perfectly content in his life, and he never wanted the moment to end.

But then, reality crept back into his mind. What would the kiss mean for their friend group? Did that mean the whole school would know about Zayn’s sexuality? Would it ruin the friendship that Louis and Zayn had already developed?

So Zayn pulled away, his fifteen seconds of courage dissipated and his cheeks flushed deeper than he’d ever felt in his life.

“Zayn,” Louis started in a whisper, his voice crackling with emotion. God, he was beautiful. So incredibly gorgeous, and Zayn had ruined everything.

So without another word, he got to his feet and left the room without taking a second to glance back at the crushed piano player he left behind.