It was about three weeks and four dates later that Niall and Avril stepped into the dance hall after everyone else and Niall shouted, "Ladys and gentlemen," to get everyone's attention. When he was sure he had it he continued proudly, "Let me introduce you my girlfriend." He slung an arm around Avril's waist and pulled her closer.

She blushed as everyone cheered  and ran over to them for a group hug. Well- everyone but Zayn because he was to cool for group hugs. Perrie grabbed his arm and pulled him into the together huddled group.

"I'm getting hot." Niall complained from somewhere inside the huddle.

"I'm quite comfortable." Harry whispered and unknowingly sending shivers down Louis' spine. Louis wasn't sure if anyone was supposed to hear that but Harry's face was buried in his hair and the younger boys' curls were tickeling Louis' neck and his body was pressed to the shorter boys' back. He had to admit that he was quite comfortable with that too. 

And then it was gone. Louis kind of missed it.

He shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head to clear it and followed the others who stood infront of the mirror wall for the warm ups.

/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

"Sorry." Harry muttered as his knee hit Eleanors' leg.

"It's okay." She smiled. Harry hated how she was always so nice. Why couldn't she be a bitch so Louis has a reason to not like her?

"Harry, Eleanor, please do that again, try to move more together. Harry, you lead." Amy said. They tried again with all eyes on them. Harry wasn't really comfortable with that but it made him concentrate more. "Okay, that's it, good. One last time everyone?" Amy praised.

After Ed and Amy dismissed them Louis came over to Harry and Eleanor. "Harry, let's go-"

"Err, Louis?" Eleanor interrupted.

He turned to her, "Yes?"

"What are your plans for after?" She asked.

"You mean now?" Eleanor gave him a small nod. "Nothing, really. I thought I'd just go home and watch a movie or something... why?"

"Do you want to come with me to check the new restaurant out?" Eleanor asked but then saw the puzzled look on Louis' face since he didn't know anything about a new restaurant. So she continued, "There's a small chinese restaurant called 'soups and noodles'. About six blocks away."

Louis nodded slowly, "Sure, why not?"

Eleanor grinned, "Great, I'll meet you at the entrance when we're dressed." Then she skipped off.

Louis noticed that her behavior was strange somehow but he just shrugged it off. He grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him to the dressing room. The younger boy was upset that Louis agreed to the date with Eleanor. It was obviously a date even though noone had said that.

It was just when Louis exchanged his shirt he looked at Harry. "What's wrong, Harry?" He asked because apparently it showed on his face that Harry wasn't happy. He didn't even notice it himself.

So he forced a smile but didn't look at the inquireing boy. Instead he pretended to search for something inside of his bag. "Nothing, everything's fine." He said.

Now Louis was even more confused because not only Eleanor was acting strange but Harry was too. "Are you sure?" He asked.

"Of course, why not?" Harry asked back.

Louis hesistated a second but just went with the truth, "I don't know, you seem upset."

"Well, I'm not," Harry answered, "I'm okay."

"Okay." With that Louis went back to changing. But it was without their usual chatter and it upset Louis. Because of that he asked Harry, "Hey, do you want to come with us? To the mysterious new restaurant, I mean."

At first Harry looked at him in disbelief, because why would he want Harry to play the third wheel at their date? But then a smile spread on his face and he agreed, "Sure". This was the perfect opportunity to ruin their date and they would never want to go on a date again. He didn't even need to do a lot besides being his clumsy and awkward self.

His master plan was ruined by a call from his mum. 

Louis and Harry were back to their normal chatter after Louis' suggestion and currently they were on their way to the entrance.

Harry's hopeful mood was vanished when his mum told him to come home immediately because Gemma came home for the night. Apparently she had a free day tomorrow. Harry considered to protest but he knew his sister wouldn't forgive him very fastly if he ditched her for a friend. Besides, he had to admit that he missed his big sister. So he hadn't much of a choice but to explain it to Louis and leave him with a fake smile with Eleanor.

"Ready to go?" Eleanor asked Louis after he watched Harry leave. He nodded and they began to walk in silence until Eleanor broke it, "So you go to college? How is it?"

"Erm, it's okay, I guess. I like my subject, you know, acting and such but sometimes it's just boring and stressful." Louis answered.

Eleanor nodded, "I think I'm going to work in a kindergarden when  I'm finished with school. I mean, that's next year."

"Really?" Louis asked exitedly, "Harry loves children. His sister works in primary school. He once told me he wanted to work in a kindergarden too. I think it suits him, even though he is a little dork." Louis' voice was fond and Eleanor noticed but didn't think much of it at first...

Instead she laughed, "Wow, only teachers and kindergardeners." Like that they continued talk and walk.

Reaching the restaurant they walked in and sat into a corner booth since it was too cold to sit outside.

''''''

"When we were five or something," Eleanor told Louis while they ate, "we had two turtles but once we thought it was a good idea to feed them all kinds of shit and then they died."

Louis bursted out laughing, "This is so stupid." He laughed, "Just like the one time Harry wanted a swan to leave and thought it was a good idea to feed it. It followed him and I just laughed so hard when he ran away."

Eleanor smiled at Louis' story but it wasn't a real smile anymore. "Mmmm." She just hummed and Louis continued, "I apologized after because he claimed I was mean. He said he would ignore me but I couldn't let him do that, could I?" Louis laughed at the memory of their day at the lake.

Due to that he didn't notice Eleanors' lack of reply nor the increasingly unpleasant expression on her face. She tried to change the topic after a few minutes of silence. "So, do you like table tennis?"

Louis shrugged, "Not really, I'm not really good at it. Better than Harry though. We played-"

"Okay." Eleanor interrupted, "Are you in love with him or something?"

"With who?" Louis asked stupidly and Eleanor looked at him like he was.

"Harry, of course."

Louis let out a short laugh, "No, why would you think that?" He was clueless.

Eleanor sighed and said with an annoyed tone, "When you talk it's always Harry this, Harry that. Every second word you say is Harry."

"It's not-"

"It bloody well is."

"It's not. Harry said-"

"Do you even listen to yourself?" Eleanor exclaimed. Then she calmed down a bit and said, "I think you're in love with him. Or at least crushing on him."

"But... I'm not gay." Louis protested, confused, and his voice gave away his uncertainness.

"Are you really not?" Eleanor asked. She laid her chin on the palm of her hand. "What about your past relationships?"

Louis looked at her, confused, "What about them?"

"How many did you have? How were they? How did they go?" Eleanor asked.

"Why do you want to know that?" Louis asked back.

"Just answer the question."

"Technically it were three questions."

Eleanor sighed slightly annoyed, "Can you please answer the questions?"

Louis shrugged because, if she insisted... "Okay, well, I had three but one was when we were twelve or something and we did almost nothing together and it was awkward so it doesn't count."

"And the others?" Eleanor inquired.

"One was when I was seventeen. It was my longest, a bit over a year or something. And the third was like a half year ago. But it only lasted two month or something, I think."

"Did you sleep together?" Eleanor asked, drawing a blush on Louis'cheeks which he tried to cover up with a laugh.

"Wow, that's kind of personal, isn't it?"

Eleanor sighed impatiently, "I'm just trying to help you. And before you ask, please just answer the question."

Louis looked like he wanted to protest but he saw Eleanors' half pleading half stern expression and nodded slowly, "Okay, well, we, errr...yes, well, not with the first but the other two. But Sarah broke up with me because, well- she said I wasn't into it enough or something." Louis shrugged uncomprehending before continuing, "The last, her name was Hannah, well, I kinda broke up with her. We slept together after two weeks already, but I- well, for me it just didn't feel right. So at first I tried to avoid her and then it just- there wasn't a fight or something, we just decided that we didn't fit together, I guess."

Eleanor didn't interrupt once during his story but after he finished she asked, "Why do you think it didn't feel right?"

"Well, maybe she just wasn't the right person."

"Have you ever thought of boys that way?"

Louis narrowed his eyebrows at the question, "Not really, no, well, except for this one time when Harry-" He broke up the sentence and looked at Eleanor with wide eyes. She had a satisfied smirk on her face. "That doesn't mean anything." Louis grumbled. "It's the same as the time I was fourteen and thought my highschool friend Stan was attractive. I was simply comparing him to myself."

"Did you want to touch him?" Eleanor inquired.

"Yes, but everyone gets guy crushes once in a while." Louis defended.

Eleanors' voice was soft as she said, "You can deny yourself as long as you want but you'll only be truly happy when you accept yourself. There's nothing wrong with being gay. And everyone who has eyes in their head can see the way you look at Harry. So think about it, do you like him?"

Louis was silent for a long time, just finishing his noodles and staring at nothing. Then he said quietly, "No, I don't think so." He stared his plate, inhaling a deep breath, "I think I'm in love with him."

Eleanor smiled softly. "I'm glad you realized that."

Louis looked at her and his bottom lip trembled. Then he stood up and slung himself at her. Eleanor let out a surprised sound but just hugged him back and let him cry into her shoulder in this awkward position.

It just felt so good to be honest to himself. He never had something against homosexuality but it was a whole new level to be hit by the realization that he was gay himself. It was all so overwhelming that Louis didn't even exactly know why he cried.

"Thank you, El, thank you so much." Louis whispered.

"For what?" She whispered back, still hugging him.

"For making me realize that." Eleanor smiled to herself. So she couldn't have Louis now but at least she helped him figuring himself out and now she had a gay best friend.

Louis pulled back and wiped his tears with an awkward laugh, "Wow, this is so embarrassing."

Eleanor laughed too, "Let's get home, boys' loverboy."