Harry's POV
"Fresh meat alert!" the post's title read. Harry skimmed the rest of it, becoming increasingly confused and irritated the more he read. What do they mean by "newest tease"?! I'm not a tease! And I'm not "spicy" either! Also, where the h-e-double hockey sticks did they get this photo?
And then came the comments. Oh, lord, the comments.
"OMG he's so hot!!!" said eleanor_dog_walker. Replying to her, gg_hadidz said, "gril!! what about your'e bf!" Harry was somewhat flattered that the user thought he was hot, but he was more concerned with gg_hadidz grammar.
"looks gay" commented bigboi_59. Harry nearly made an account of his own just to fight that obnoxious person over their stupid comment, but he restrained himself. He took a deep breath and continued to the next one.
"hope he's a baller! just look at those arms 🥵" said payno93, and Harry wasn't sure what to make of that.
That's enough of that, Harry thought and closed out of the post. Another one caught his eye soon after: something about one Zayn Malik's drug problem. He read it, then the comments, and quickly got stuck in a loop of dramaticized gossip. For a trashy school in the middle of nowhere, it seemed like a ton of stuff went down.
Harry became familiar with Eleanor Calder's frequent visits to her history teacher for supposed "extra help". He read rumors about a secret relationship between Gigi Hadid and an unknown guy. He saw how anonymous sources regularly leaked information to the website's author, who was also anonymous. Harry was left to wonder who had given the site his information, because that picture was definitely taken before he had even arrived at the school.
The next time Harry glanced at the time, it was 4:07 AM.
4:07 AM, and his weird roommate wasn't back yet. Odd, Harry thought, but shrugged it off. He was probably just off with that annoying girlfriend of his.
Except, as if on cue, Louis barged through the door, the girlfriend nowhere to be seen. Even though the lighting was less than good, Harry noticed his reddened eyes. He was high, no doubt about it.
"Why're you still up?" Louis asked, throwing a duffel bag onto his bed. A few bundles of money slipped out of it.
Harry eyed the money disdainfully. "None of your business," he said, reverting his eyes to the screen. Then he realized that Louis definitely knew way more about the site than he did, so he brought up the post about him and turned the screen towards Louis. "What's this?"
Louis snorted. "Oh, that's WPAP. What's Poppin' at Popolopen. It's a gossip website."
"No kidding," Harry said sarcastically. "I mean, why am I on it?"
Putting the stray piles of money back into the duffel, Louis said, "Everyone here is on WPAP. It's basically a news source, except less fake news and more nip slips. Did you see Gigi's? It literally looks like someone photoshopped a piece of salami where her nip should be."
Harry stifled a snicker. Louis wasn't wrong, but... "How did I get on that website?"
"Someone found out you were coming here and sent that info to the Popolopen Preacher. Simple," Louis said, shoving the duffel under his mattress, then sitting down on top of it. "It's kinda creepy when you think about it, but no one really cares."
"I care," Harry muttered.
Louis shrugged. "Well, try to get used to it. Everyone here is pretty high on the stalker scale. If you're gonna do something risky, do it carefully or it's gonna end up on WPAP. And then the whole school will know."
"But I was just existing! I didn't do anything risky," Harry said angrily.
"Not my problem," Louis said with another shrug. Then he lay down and promptly went to sleep.
Harry glared at Louis' back and reluctantly did the same. It was late—early, rather—and he had football tryouts in the morning. He might as well get all the sleep he could.
・・・
Harry's alarm went off at exactly 6:45 in the morning. The sun had just started coming up, and of course it decided to shine right in his eyes.
"Ugh, turn that off," Louis groaned from across the room.
Harry rolled over and stretched before getting up and taking in his surroundings. Louis was now sitting up against the wall and glaring at him, making him very uncomfortable yet... oh boy, the tingles were back.
"You slept in yesterday's clothes," Louis noted, looking Harry up and down.
"Yeah, I must've forgot to change. It was four in the morning anyway." Harry said. "And now I have to attend football tryouts."
"Redboffee's in the fridge if you want some," Louis said before turning back onto his side.
The heck is Redboffee? Harry wondered as he made his way over to the ratched kitchen they shared. He opened the minifridge and saw a 12 pack of water bottles. But it couldn't have been water inside, because the liquid was an opaque and slightly chunky brown. He opened one of the bottles and took an experimental whiff. It smelled like coffee... but what were the chunks? And when he listened closely, a faint fizzing noise came from inside the bottle—carbonation?
Against his better judgement, Harry took a long swig and immediately felt the invigorating effects of the mysterious "Redboffee". He downed the entire bottle, ignoring the foul taste, and walked over to the disorganized bathroom. There, he splashed some cold water on his face and began getting ready for tryouts.
By the time he'd finished showering and was dressed, Louis was awake and already lighting a joint. He set the lighter down and took a long pull.
"A bit early for that don't you think?" Harry asked judgmentally.
"Never too early for some good old Mary Jane in a place like this. You want some too?"
"We've been over this, mate. I don't smoke—nor will I ever—so keep the moldy grass to yourself."
Louis just laughed and took another long drag.