You get me dizzy

Chapter 16

Harry’s on the couch in his London apartment, bowl of Nachos on his belly, when the door in the hallway slams shut. He pauses Netflix because he knows that Levi and Noah won’t be silent enough for him to be able to continue his binging marathon.

Ten seconds later, Noah and Levi appear in the living room, loudly conversing about how much Noah had to drink.

“How was it?” he asks, although he knows the answer to it already.

“I got shitfaced.” Noah laughs, not even hesitating to take the bowl from Harry and dig his whole hand in.

“Shitfaced enough to not show up to the airport tomorrow night?”

“Psh, please. Isn’t the flight at like, midnight? I won’t even have a hangover tomorrow. But I can’t speak about everyone else at that table.” He turns to Levi. “Leo will definitely have a hangover tomorrow hahaha.”

Harry absentmindedly scrolls through his i********: feed.

“Well, I read something about how people with light-colored eyes are lightweights. Especially light blue ones.” Levi adds. Harry looks up.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Leo, you know him.” Noah suggestively says.

Harry locks his phone. Yes, he knows Leo. How can he forget. It’s not every day that he gets off on a table in public next to portable toilets.

“I think he might have a thing for Levi.” Noah adds, and Harry’s stomach gets weird. Levi looks just as lost as Harry does.

“Why?”

“He asked me if you’re straight.”

Levi looks at Harry in a weird way, as if to say that he has no fault in this whatsoever.

“And what did you tell him?” Harry finds himself asking.

“That you’re open to experiences with other genders.” Noah states.

Levi opens his mouth to protest and then closes it. All three of them know that it’s true, because Levi once fell for one of Harry’s opening acts and even though it didn’t go further than just kissing, he would’ve done more.

“I’m not interested in Leo though.” Levi says, more to Harry than to Noah.

“Why not?” Harry and Noah ask at the same time, but Noah continues. “I think he’s really good looking.”

“Then why don’t you date him?” Levi asks.

As an answer, they both look at Harry, who suddenly finds his i********: feed very interesting. He looks up and gives in.

“You know that just because I…fooled around with him, that doesn’t mean I own him or that I’m going to get jealous. People can have casual hookups, you know.”

Levi c***s his head in a ‘cut the bullshit’ way. “Is that why you called his tattoo place and tried making an appointment after hours? Or why you gave him free concert tickets?”

“Well, that still doesn’t mean I own him. Or that I’m in love with him.”

“Yeah, but it means you want…something.”

What is Harry supposed to say? That he’d love f*****g Leo into the sheets until tears stream down his cheeks and that maybe he’s been having involuntary dreams about it ever since Leo got him off just by basically doing nothing?

“He’s handsome, I’ll just leave it at that.” Harry says and makes a point by looking back at his phone. He decides to scroll through his message requests on i********: and Twitter; a thing he does whenever he’s bored and doesn’t know what to do with himself.

On Twitter it’s the usual ‘marry me’ or ‘Harry can I lick your chest’, so he moves onto i********:.

The fact that Levi and Noah pressed play on the episode of Suits he was just watching goes right past his head when he sees a message in his Primary mailbox from Leot91. s**t. If he clicks on it, Leo will see that he saw it, since Harry followed him in April. Does he delete it? Does he read it?

He chooses to turn off his Wifi and click on the message.

Leot91: helkfoo

Leot91: lest hve some siwxu tine

Okay, so Leo is definitely drunk. What is lest hve some siwxu tine supposed to mean?

“Hey, Levi, did you follow up on that reservation I made for tomorrow?” he asks, locking his phone.

“Yeah. I was told you’re going to be at the same time with two girls and it’s only after eight, so I cancelled.”

Harry looks back at his dark screen. “Alright.”

“What.” Levi says when he sees Harry just staring at his phone.

Harry shakes his head. “Oh, nothing.”

He goes to his contact list and searches for Elliott’s name. Elliott is a guy he met before he became famous, who came to the bakery he used to work at one day, all smiles and green eyes. When he finally asked for Harry’s number, Harry didn’t really know what to say because even though he had been flirting with him (unknowingly, maybe), he never actually went out on a date with a guy. One thing led to another and they became friends with benefits, which continued (occasionally), even after Harry’s fame skyrocketed.

He’s called Elliott every single time he’s been in London and needed some kind of stress relief. When he flew back to London for the concert two weeks ago was the first time he didn’t, and Elliott didn’t question it, maybe didn’t even notice.

Harry: you up?

It takes five minutes for a reply to come through.

Elliott Dane: yeah

Harry: want to come over? Leaving for Italy tomorrow

Elliott Dane: sure

Elliott Dane: still live @ Dumont?

Harry: yes

He stands up from the couch, makes a mental note of what episode he’s at, and then announces to the lot that he’s going to take a shower.

“Is Elliott coming over?” Levi asks, and Harry doesn’t have to answer for him to know the answer to the question.

Half an hour later, the elevator in his apartment chimes, since he’s given Elliott a key about two months after he bought the apartment two years prior in 2016.

Their mouths meet before Elliott can even say hello, and as they walk over to the master bedroom, Harry thinks this may work too.

When he wakes up the next day around noon, Elliott is on the other side of the king-sized bed, sleeping. He turns on his Wifi and goes on i********:, but then remembers Leo texted him some time around 2am last night and therefore can see that Harry’s read the message and didn’t reply.

He clicks on his messages, but the conversation with Leo is gone.

***

Leo wakes up, sweating. He’s in his clothes from last night but through some type of miracle, his head doesn’t hurt and the room isn’t spinning. First thing’s first, he has to brush his teeth. Then take a shower. Then sue the f*****g sun, since this heatwave is really uncalled for.

As usual, Zayn’s in the kitchen on his iPad, smoking a cigarette and sipping on a cup of coffee.

“Good morning sunshine.” He smirks. “I could’ve sworn on my life that you wouldn’t wake up before noon.”

Leo ignores him as he pours himself a cup of coffee. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he mumbles and sits down at the table in a fresh pair of briefs.

“Do you remember what you did after you came home last night?”

“Crashed on the couch. That’s why my neck hurts.”

“Check Instagram.”

Leo does just that, and the whole world comes crushing down on him, embarrassment and panic settling into his bones.

“HOLY f**k. ZAYN! Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I did.”

Leo runs a hand through his hair. “You know that he can see this, right? It’s not going to go into his requests.”

“Hasn’t he already?”

“No.”

“Then just unsend the messages.”

“You can do that?”

This might be the best news Leo’ ears have heard in the past twenty-six years.

“Yeah, you can. Do you actually think I would’ve let you embarrass yourself like this?”

“Uhh, yes? What if he had already seen the message?”

“Well he didn’t, did he? So just click on the message and unsend it.”

Leo does just that, without saying anything else.

“Next time don’t even let me text him.” He says when they’re on the way to the subway station, not far from their house.

“Noted.” Zayn agrees.

“Because, next time, it’ll be an eye for an eye.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Leo grins. “I guess if you don’t want to find out, don’t test me.”

Zayn rolls his eyes as they enter the subway station. They only have to wait three more minutes for the next metro, so Leo squeezes in through the crowd to get as close to the doors as possible.

“You know I meant I’ll sabotage something to do with Levi, right?” Leo checks and Zayn nods.

“Figured that-“ someone pushes past Zayn, who doesn’t waste a breath before he swears at the man “-much.”

The subway arrives and only a few people come out, but an entire hoard of desperate commuters try to get inside.

Leo looks at Zayn. Zayn looks at Leo. They both know it’s coming.

“We should really invest in a car.”