Catfish [l.s] (boyxboy)

IM Anna

hi guys. so, i thought for this story all the chapters would start with IM, as in the abbreviation for instant messaging but it also doubles up as 'I'm', so it would be like I'm Anna for this one. I dunno, thought it was clever. 

most of the chapters will have IM conversations and those will be italicized. 

Happy reading!

(also these chapters are undergoing editing so sorry if some of the information doesn't add up right now, i'm working through this story and changing some things. 6/27)

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Harvey: Good morning, Anna!

Anna: Hi. :) How did you sleep?

Harvey: Soundly, thank you. What about you?

Anna: Oh, you know. 

Harvey: Do I?

Anna: The usual.

Harvey: Wait, knock knock.

Anna: Who's there?

Harvey: Honk sh.

Anna: What?

Harvey: Honk sh!

Anna: alright, alright... honk sh who?

Harvey: You snore? :)

Anna: Idiot.

Harvey: Heyyyy. I thought that was a good one!

Anna: Yeah, maybe if you were a six-year-old.

Harvey: Sass? :(

Anna: No. 

Anna: I mean

Anna: Sorry, I loved your knock knock joke, Harvey.

Harvey: I knew it! 

Harvey: So, tell me more about yourself. We haven't really gotten into this yet.

Anna: Well, I'm... an aspiring musical artist. 

Harvey: Really? Me too! What are the odds of that?

Harvey: wait, hold on. i have another message to respond to.

Anna: okay.

Anna: wait

Anna: from who?

Anna: is it another girl? 

Anna: what is she saying?

Anna: does she know that you're talking 2 me?

Harvey: Calm down, Speedy Thumbs. It's just this girl named Paige. She's into me, I reckon.

Anna: Are you into her?

Harvey: No. I mean, she's pretty. She seems nice. She, like. She's okay. Just not my type.

Anna: You have a type? 

Harvey: I like

Harvey: Well

Harvey: I like people who make me laugh, I like people who are lighthearted. I don't like to feel like having a conversation is work, u know?

Anna: Yeah, I know. 

Harvey: I'm not really into anyone at the moment. it kinda sucks. :(

Louis slumps, sighing as he reads over Harry's latest message. He's made sure to pretend to be asleep in his bunk with a headache while Harry is somewhere - with Niall, most likely - to keep his identity hidden. He doesn't like sneaking around Harry, but four days have passed and Harry is still as oblivious as ever.

Anna: Not anyone at all?

He's desperate for Harry's attention now, it's kind of pathetic. And if he laughed at Harry's stupid joke, no one has to know about it.

Harvey: Nah.

Harvey: You're nice, though. You're my first lady friend in a while.

Louis nearly snorts at the word choice. God, Harry is such a dork.

Anna: Lady friend? srsly?

Harvey: Yeah. do you not like lady friend? i can call u woman friend, or bff, or i can call you my gf. as in friend-girl, like a friend that's female. not girl friend.

Anna: Friend girl? Jesus, why don't we just stick to Anna?

Harvey: Okay, okay, deal. But you have to call me H.

Anna: K...

Harvey: All my friends call me H, and if you're my friend now I want u to get the same treatment :)

Anna: ok, shit head.

Anna: H*

Harvey: :*

With that, Louis closes the app and lets his phone fall onto his stomach with a stupid grin on his face. He should probably learn to not take it personally, because Harry thinks he's talking to a pretty blonde girl - he'd stolen some photos from one of his old childhood friends, which is not at all creepy - from London. Not Louis.

But it's... Louis.

It's Louis' personality, Louis' words; it's just not Louis' appearance. Or back story. Or life. But, it's still Louis. It's confuses the hell out of him, but at the same time it makes perfect sense. Well, kind of. The only thing he's certain of is that this is fucked up, this is really  fucked up.

He knows he should just delete his account now before it really really gets fucked up.

He opens the app again, goes to settings, and his finger hovers just over the 'erase account' button. It hovers. It thinks, reconsiders, lowers, goes back to hovering, lowers, moves away, moves back; Louis is conflicted between his own selfishness and desire to be Harry's source of happiness on one end and his conscience on the other. His conscience is telling him that this is wrong, this is so wrong, but he decides against it and closes the app again, account still running.

Again, no one has to know.

From now on, as soon as he signs into that app, he's no longer Louis Tomlinson.

He's Anna Grace Montgomery.