EIGHTEEN

"You are joking." Please let him be joking, Harry begged. He turned to Louis who was laughing so hard he had no breath left. "Oh, you should have seen your face. No, we won't be going sky diving." Harry's muscles relaxed again. Thank god. "I fucking hate you." He laughed, his heartbeat was slowing down again. He almost died from a heart attack.

"But-" Only this one word completely created the tension again. "But?" Harry's eyes were still glued on the older boy, he was looking concentrated ahead onto the highway. The air brushed through his hair, making it spread in every direction. "Nope, I'm not gonna tell you." He smiled wide. Wow, thanks for nothing.

It was threatening not to know where they were going, especially when they had been driving multiple hours by now. Well, at least it felt like multiple hours. Maybe it had just been one... or a half. However, Louis stopped the car in a huge parking space of a rollercoaster park a few minutes later. Harry had expected everything... literally everything, but a rollercoaster park? Louis was carrying a wide excited smile the whole walk from the entrance over to the first rollercoaster.

"This is going to be fun."

"Sure but you know that I won't be sitting in one of those." Harry hated rollercoasters, he didn't even know why, it had just been like this for as long as he could think. "Thank you" Louis paid the woman behind the counter and turned around with two tickets in his hand. "Oh yes, you will." Before Harry could even complain, the older boy dragged him into one of the wagons.

"Heyy!" Louis pulled down the safety catch and made himself comfortable. "It's a green one so don't shit yourself." Every rollercoaster was assigned a colour, green, yellow or red, depending on its height and speed. "Great." Harry was clenching around the metal in front of him so strongly his knuckles turned white, just hoping the ride would be over soon.

Louis' knee was touching his leg with a tingle, so Harry moved a little to the side. He got anxious the longer they had to wait. His hands were sweaty as it finally started. God, rollercoasters were horrible...

Surprisingly it got more and more fun with every ride they went on, which Harry never expected.

It got dark and the colourful lights were glowing in Harry's eyes. They had been on every single rollercoaster in the whole park multiple times, laughing and screaming, until there was no breath left.

"See I told you you wouldn't regret it."

"At least I won." Harry took a bite of his cotton candy, which was the price he got for winning 'if you spill you lose'. Everyone from the wagons had to hold a beaker (filled with water) with their teeth, trying to spill as little water as possible through the ride. Louis had messed up completely, his was already empty after the first few seconds.

"You want?" Harry offered and Louis immediately took a piece of the pink cloud made of sugar. Harry slowly got drowsy, it had been an exhausting day. In this moment his phone rang, it was Niall, asking if they could bring some food when they would come back, Anne was still at work and Niall was not able to. So they made a quick stop at some random diner on the way and bought some takeouts. "I will pay you back at home," Harry whispered after a while, his head was leaning against the window, his eyes half-lidded. No matter how hard he tried to keep them open, after a while he lost the fight.

"Now we're equal." Was the last thing Harry heard Louis say before he fell asleep to the rustling sound of the rain hitting the car roof.

-

"Haz. Wake up," Louis' voice sounded through his head as the car stopped. Harry needed a few seconds to realise where he was. God, he was worn out, he didn't even really notice how he got into the house. Louis handed Niall the bag. "Sorry that it took so long there was a lot of traffic," Louis explained, Niall just nodded smiling suspiciously. "Shall we watch a movie or something?"

"I need to go to bed but you two can." Harry kicked off his shoes and jacket. Niall gave Louis an asking look who struggled at first but gave in after Harry nodded slightly. "Sure." Then the two boys disappeared into the living room and Harry went upstairs.

He quickly brushed his teeth and changed before he climbed into bed. One of Louis' jumpers was tugged under his pillow, Harry pulled it out to throw it over to the bag of his. But then he stopped eying it. It was the same one he had given Harry in the traffic jam.

Why was it tugged under Louis' pillow?

And why was he smelling it?? Harry caught himself. What the fuck?

-

It was vacation day and Harry was extremely fluttered. He didn't like long rides because they were always so boring. Ugh, he would rather stay home, but it was the last trip they took together as a grade, he couldn't miss that.

"Are you guys ready?" Anne asked entering the room with two lunchboxes in her hand. "I talked to Jay, she asked me to give you this." Anne handed Louis an envelope. "Your passport and some other personal needed stuff." She added. She was surprisingly cool with Louis staying over at their house for a few days. She knew him personally through Jay and must know what an outcast he can be, but she seemed not to care.

"Thanks."

"I made you guys some lunch for the way." Anne gave them a soft smile. Harry smiled back thankfully. She always made those little boxes when he had a vacation, since kindergarten. "Thanks, mom."

"Lads, get your stuff in the trunk, the bus arrives in 30 minutes. We're late." Niall hurried through the hall dragging his suitcase behind him. How could he even be so energetic? It was only six in the morning. He would probably say he's just being motivating.

The three boys spent the ride singing Hey there Delilah from the top of their lungs. They picked up Zayn and Liam and then drove to school, where the busses were already waiting. They made it last minute.

They took the seats in the very back making themselves comfortable with all the blankets, pillows and snacks they had brought. The first few hours everyone spent continuing their missed sleep. Harry was the first one to wake up again. It was quiet only the sound of cars rushing past and some slight snoring.

He read a few pages of the book he found laying on Louis' chest, he forgot to take his own. Liam woke up next, after him Niall, and then Zayn. Louis was sleeping the longest out of all people on the bus. Harry felt the desire to stroke along his small hand or the outlines of his tattoos. "How long do you think it will take?" Liam asked chewing on some chocolate. Harry just shrugged, actually, he didn't care it was pretty cosy at the moment. And it had nothing to do with Louis head leaning against his arm. Okay, maybe. A little bit.

In the lunchbox was, like every time a little not saying.

Have fun sweety, mom :)

Harry knew he should be embarrassed by those little things because he was nineteen but it was just too cute his cheeks started hurting from his wide smile. "Did she write one again?" Niall yawned, Harry nodded folding the small piece of paper letting it slide into his back pocket.

After Louis woke up as well and they all have had breakfast, they started playing little games or talked about stupid things like weird habits or funny experiences they have had, to waste some time. The bus took some toilet stops and a big lunch break in which the boys went to Mc Donald's. Three hours later they finally arrived, totally exhausted. Harry's back was hurting from the long sitting, and it hurt even more when he let himself fall onto the bed next to Niall.

Luckily they shared a room, otherwise, he would have gotten to share one with either Stan or Luke. Luke was nice, he really was, but he reminded Harry of that incident in the diner. He shook the picture out of his head.

"I don't ever want to get up again."

"Same, but we need to unpack." Mr Johnson gave them 30 minutes to unpack and get comfortable in their rooms before everyone had to meet at the cafeteria. "Ugh." Harry groaned as he sat up.

"You should check your phone sometime." Niall grinned putting the last stack of jumpers onto his side of the closet. Harry drew his eyebrows questioning.

He took his phone and immediately opened the camera roll. Every time Niall made an allusion that he did something with Harry's phone it mostly was weird pictures. And Harry was right it were pictures, a whole lot, and they all looked the same. His face dropped, it was him and Louis in the bus, cuddling while they were asleep. "You-" Harry didn't even know what he wanted to say. "I had to catch it, it was just too cute." Those pictures sent a tingle through his belly.

"Oh, you are gonna pay for that."

He chased the blonde boy all the way through the halls, upstairs and through the second floor. "You wanna give up?" Actually, Harry was hoping Niall would because he was totally out of breath, his chest and throat were hurting like hell. "Never." Now seriously how could he have such stamina? He was never practising or something like that.

Harry didn't even know where exactly he was, but it seemed to be the second or maybe the third floor. Some voices were coming out of the rooms next to them. Then suddenly one of the doors swung open. Harry tried to dodge but it was already too late and he hit Louis with full force.

Seriously?! Why did it have to be Louis there were 157 other people in this building and Harry had to run-over Louis out of all people? "Ouch." The older boy groaned deeply as Harry landed on top of him. "Fuck, I'm sorry." Harry apologised, watching Louis rubbing his head with an in pain scrunched face.

Liam and Luke who seemed to have been with Louis, said something but neither Harry nor Louis listened, they were too focused on each other's eyes. Harry could feel Louis heart beating against his chest and he could swear it was rushing.

The rest of the day consisted of awkward looks and trying not to be obvious. Louis had thrown some looks at him during the information at the cafeteria, unfortunately, Harry had looked back, and not just once. The same was at lunch and while the city tour. Harry was just happy to be back in his room again, all alone.

He went through his phone trying to distract his mind from always getting back to Louis. But no matter how hard he tried, he failed. He ended up looking at the pictures Niall had taken. He was right, they did look cute, and Harry hated to admit that to himself.

He caught himself smiling like an idiot as suddenly a text message popped up, saying.

Meet me in the hallway, We need to talk

Harry struggled a little while but then got up peaking through the door and immediately spotted Louis on the other side of the hall. He was just standing there waiting, Harry made his way up to him. "What do you wanna talk about?"

Louis cleared his throat, "You need to stop doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Looking at me like that, it's weird."

"I-huh? You started it." Harry replied offended. "However, the reason I wanted to talk to you was, ugh." He cleared his throat again. "I, uh wanted to apologise." Harry watched Louis' facial expression change as if he was surprised by those words himself.

"You know, for being such an 'ass', like you would say, to you." Harry was confused, was that really Louis talking? Sure their terms had changed a lot through the last past months but it still surprised Harry.

"And uhm," He scratched the back of his head. "Thank you for letting me stay at your's."

"Sure." Harry's couldn't even listen to the rest Louis said he was just staring at those lips again, like every time Louis spoke since the kiss at the party, he just couldn't get it out of his mind. No matter how hard he tried. "You're doing it again," Louis whispered and their eyes met.

"You too." There it was again, the tension, Louis' eyes wandered down to his lips and he slowly came closer. Harry's eyes were about to close. Finally, he could feel it again, the tingle that bloomed in his chest rushing into his fingertips, his lips wanting to feel Louis' against them.

"There you are, we were looking for you Lad." It was Luke and Liam. Louis immediately pulled away overacting the fact that they nearly kissed. Liam knew as Harry could tell from the look on his face.