Brother's Best Friend || l.s.

chapter 29 (Final Chapter)

Harry made a mental note of who knew of his relationship with Louis, and who didn't. They'd told Niall and Gemma... that's it. There was still Louis' mum, Harry's set of parents, and Louis' friends. The hardest, by far, was going to be Louis' mum; Harry's parents didn't care about his life, quite frankly, so they would support it generally; and hopefully Zayn would get over it without making some crude comments about it. Harry was prepared anyway.

He had been extra perky at school, his friends could tell his mood had brightened lately, as in the past he would have been carrying the burden of his parents' latest argument on his shoulders. During their lessons, he saw Liam looking his way a few times, caught in a thoughtful state of mind as he stared into space in Harry's direction, before smiling slightly once he saw he'd been caught. He was clearly still very pensive about what he had uncovered, unsure how to properly accept it, and probably couldn't get it off his mind.

Liam was hospitable enough to invite Harry and Niall round after school on Friday afternoon, throwing himself in at the deep end, knowing he would sooner or later have to face Harry and Louis being around each other. And added to that, Louis was going to have his own friends round - Zayn, Aaron and Zachary. It was a pretty intimidating scenario on Harry's part, but he knew Louis would protect him and say what had to be said.

"I'm pretty sure Louis is going to tell his mates today," Liam noted, as he drove he and the other two to his house. "He was talking about it this morning. Not sure when he's going to tell my mum."

"Zayn's definitely going to be there?" Harry stressed, noticing that he had been picking the print off the detailing his backpack again, something he did when he was massively nervous about something.

"Yes. Don't worry about it, he's actually matured quite a lot lately since he got a girlfriend." Liam informed. "Bit surprised somebody would want to date him, actually, he's a bit of a dick."

Harry hummed in thought, deciding to stop the vandalisation of his own school bag, his mind shifting to Zayn's looks. He was tremendously attractive, dark-eyed and holding a sexy aura, but his personality definitely had to be worked on. Harry preferred his angel Louis, any day.

Liam pulled into his driveway, only just managing to stick it right on the edge, as Louis' car plus another were already crammed in the pebbled space. Harry wanted to stay in the car, but Niall was opening his door up and tugging him out, knowing he wouldn't come along otherwise. Liam threw the front door open rather dramatically, kicking off his shoes by the other scruffy pairs, whereas Harry (shakily) pulled off his Chelsea boots and set them on the shoe rack.

There was practically a stampede of footsteps coming down the stairs, Louis and his three mates, and delight seemed to erupt behind Louis' eyes when they found Harry gawkily stood there. He dropped a sly wink, one only he, Liam and Niall saw, which caused Niall to giggle to himself from witnessing, and Harry to blush (still).

"Little Harry!" Zayn exclaimed, that smugness still laces in his tone, before he sauntered off into the kitchen, quite freely, as though it was his house too.

"He's changed, has he?" Harry muttered in Liam's ear, and he just shrugged in response.

Louis shot a sorry look Harry's way, despite Zayn not having done much wrong, and led Aaron and Zachary the way Zayn had gone.

"Follow if you want, guys!" He called to Harry and his friends over his shoulder, and it was blatantly a hint. Liam set foot first, nudging his head to call Harry and Niall to follow, until everybody had piled into the kitchen.

Zayn was casually pouring himself a glass of Pepsi from the fridge into a glass, chugging a third of it down immediately and returning the bottle to the fridge. He casually leant on the kitchen counter, slurping the drink rather ungraciously and setting the glass on the counter. Just being in the room with him was ominous enough for Harry; how did the man's girlfriend cope? God.