[ a.n. // for some reason, wattpad isn't letting me use italics. so bear with me. ]

Louis' POV
Waking up the next morning, I was greeted by the bright light of my phone and a new text message from Liam that, according to my time, was sent around 2AM.

Sliding the notification over and punching in my passcode almost blindly, the screen lit up with Liam's message inbox.

Liam: Okay, so my friend was assigned this 'pen pal' project to do for graduation. If he doesn't do it, he won't graduate this year. Could you help a buddy out and be his pen pal for a few months? I just don't want him replacing me.

My eyebrows narrowed at the message, still being half asleep and drowsy.

Louis: No one could ever replace you, asshat. But.. is that really my problem, Li? I mean, the kid should've kept up with his grades. I don't wanna feel like I'm being used just to receive a diploma.

Regardless of probably being in school, I got a reply almost instantly.

Liam: Please, Lou? Harry's one of my best mates. He was one of my first friends to make here in Cheshire.

I could already imagine the pouty face he had on, resembling much like a puppy. As if on cue, in attached images, Liam quickly sent a picture of himself, with the 'puppy dog face'.

Louis: Oh come on, mate, that's not fair!

Liam: Pleaseee? Pretty please, with a cherry on top?

Liam: I can imagine you rolling your eyes right now.

I rolled my eyes, but a smile still made it's way to my face.

Louis: Fine, fine. Your stupid face won me over.

Liam: Yay! Who knows, you two could could end up getting on /very/ well.

Louis: The hell is that supposed to mean-

Liam: I'm just joking, mate. I know you're straight and all.

I could feel my throat go dry, licking over my lips as I felt them become chapped.

Louis: Yeah. Right. I have to get ready for my lesson at 10, so I'll talk to you later.

I assumed after I received no reply to that message, that Liam had either put his phone away or a teacher took it for being on it during class time.

I went through with the typical daily routine, making sure the books I needed for class were packed into my bag.

Slinging my laptop bag around my shoulders, and my normal bag for schoolbooks, I headed out, with the struggle (of course) of hailing down a taxi cab.

I should really save up for a car.

Within just ten minutes I was on campus, heading into the building where students were scattered throughout the halls. Thankfully, I only had two lessons today before I could head back home.

I headed to my first lesson, Poetry Writing. Out of everything I sucked at most, poetry was definitely in the top five. The only poetry form I was decent at was free verse.

Walking into the classroom, I spotted Niall in the corner with his best mate, Zayn, who was also his dorm-mate. They were seated at our usual round table, black stools surrounding it.

I set my laptop case and bag down onto the table, causing the guys to snap out of their conversation with one another and look over at me as I sat down. "Mate, you look like shit."

"Thanks, lad." I laughed at Zayn's comment, who gave me a cheeky grin and playful wink.

The teacher soon enough walked into the room, holding a mug in his hand and his stack of papers in the other. "Good morning, class. I hope you all submitted your free verse poems that were due last night."

Some people groaned, while others stayed quiet to themselves. I thankfully remembered to turn in the poem after I returned home from my lessons yesterday. It was complete shit, but decent enough to get a good grade.

"I know a lot of you are having exams this coming week and big projects that need to be done to finish off the first semester," Mr. Seth started, placing his mug and papers down on his desk. "To make things a bit easier, I won't assign an exam."

A few people cheered, sharing a high five with their friends sitting around their table.

"Don't get too excited, there's still an assignment." He chuckled, walking to the front of the room to the sliding whiteboard. He slid the board across, which had another whiteboard positioned behind it.

On the whiteboard, wrote in Mr. Seth's cursive handwriting, "Love."

I furrowed my eyebrows at the black ink on the board as he explained what was to come. "In replacement of an essay, I'm going to have you guys all write a poem about, as you may have guessed by now, love. You all are older and I guarantee much more experienced when it comes to relationships than compared to when you were all freshman. So this assignment shouldn't be too difficult. You can use any form of poetry as you wish."

I let out an internal groan at the main topic of the prompt, having to resist the urge of rolling my eyes. I didn't have much of this so called "experience", considering I haven't been in a relationship since freshman year itself, and even that was an experimental fling.

"It'll be due next week on Friday. You can submit them through the class website, you guys know the drill." Mr. Seth nodded with a smile, before heading back to his desk to grade papers. "Today I'll let you guys get started on your poems. Put your best effort in, it's worth a lot of points."

I sighed and pulled my laptop out of it's case, opening it to let the device boot up.

Staring at a blank Microsoft document page, my fingers hovering above the keys as the taunting blue line flickered on the white page, I heard Niall speak. "So, Louis,"

I looked up from the screen, my eyebrows raising. "Yes?" I pushed my glasses up better on my nose as they managed to slide down a little.

He smiled hopefully. "Football tryouts are tomorrow after lecture hours." He had that hinting tone to his voice.

Huffing, I crossed my ankles and dropped my hands from the keyboard. "You aren't going to give up on trying until I try out, huh?"

"Basically."

"Fine, Ni. I'll try out, but I doubt I'll even make it onto the team-" I was planning to speak more, but the Irish fellow cut me off.

"Are you insane? Louis, you're great at football. We've had plenty of kicks around the field during the afternoon and I've seen your skills. You'd be a great addition to our team. Coach'll love you." He encouraged, nudging my foot underneath of the table with his own.

I gave him a crooked smile, "Where do I go for tryouts?"

"The field, coach is going to be there," Niall explained. "I'll go with you, if you want."

"Please." I chuckled, shutting my laptop screen when deciding that this poem wouldn't be getting started on today.

"Of course. We can meet up outside of the dorm building and we'll walk there together. Around five, tryouts officially start then." Niall suggested as Zayn typed away on his computer. I swear, that boy always had some spark of creativity in him. He was also good at the arts, as Niall showed me some of his paintings in their dorm room. He had an entire stack of canvases hiding underneath of his bed.

After lectures, I headed into the city for some late lunch down at a small little restaurant I absolutely adored.

The waiter took my order for my drink, before walking off to go fetch the glass. My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket, making me pull it out to see a text message from Liam.

Liam: So I'm clearly a knobhead because I completely forgot to give you Harry's number.

Louis: Clearly.

In the next reply, Liam sent through this Harry lad's phone number, and I could tell he was definitely from the UK just from the amount of digits.

I saved the phone number into my contacts for future references, before staring at the lit up phone screen. Was I supposed to text him first? I mean, if he really needed to, he'd message first, right? It was all for this pen pal project, anyways.

While eating my garden salad I had requested just moments ago, my phone buzzed, the screen facing downwards as it sat on the table. Popping a crouton into my mouth with my fork, I picked up my phone to see the notification.

Harry: Is this Louis? Really hoping Liam gave me the right number..

Louis: No, this is Patrick.

Harry: Well, shit. Fucking hell, Liam.

Harry: Wait.

Harry: Was that just a Spongebob reference.

Louis: Indeed.

Harry: Oops.

Louis: Hi.

There was a few moments of silence after that, before another message came through.

Harry: This is Louis, right-

Louis: Yes. I'm assuming you're Harry.

This lad seemed pretty easy to mess around with, and it was quite entertaining, if I'm honest. Other than that, he didn't seem too bad. I think we could get on pretty well once we got to know each other better.

Harry: That I am.

Louis: So I was told about a pen pal project.

Harry: Oh, right. Yeah. I'm failing English and it turns out if I don't pass the class I get held back.

Louis: Well damn, that sucks.

Harry: Very much so.

Harry: So, instead of these being one of those conversations that easily end within a few minutes because the two have nothing to talk about, tell me about yourself.

Louis: I mean.. there isn't much to tell.

Hardy: I highly doubt that.

Louis: Well.. I'm twenty, I guess that could count towards something? Ehh.. I'm attending university at the moment in New York City.

Harry: What are you majoring in?

Louis: Creative Writing and Journalism.

Harry: Oh, cool. I don't think I'm gonna go to college. My mum wants me to but, eh.

Louis: Why not?

Harry: The extra two to four years of extra schooling? Ick.

Louis: Could help with getting a good job later down the road, y'know.

Harry: I don't know. I guess I'll see what happens.

Louis: Yeah, of course. Enough about me. Tell me about you.

And as I sat and ate my garden salad, I couldn't help but feel genuinely intrigued by this other lad that lived halfway across the world.

-

they finally met, aye.
vote for chapter five.
-a