***Louis Tomlinson***
Saturday, February 11th, 2012 – North London

We had a meet and greet with the fans a couple hours from our house, so the tour bus drove us and we mingled with the fans and signed autographs and took pictures. We got back on the bus and headed home, planning to hang out with the guys that evening since it had been awhile since just the five of us had been together, without Liam or Zayn’s girlfriends around. We didn’t have a problem with Danielle or Perrie, but we needed some guy time. It was funny how much we had gotten used to being around each other – it felt weird when we weren’t.

Harry had taken it upon himself to tease me the entire meet and greet. He took a page out of my book and made obscene gestures with any object he could find – water bottles, pens, etc. By the time we got back on the bus, I just wanted to tackle him. He got up and walked to the back room of the bus, where there was a couch and TV. I glanced at the other guys – they were all distracted by their phones, so I got up and followed Harry to the back, quietly sliding the door closed behind us. He was standing there with a smirk on his face, as though he’d been waiting for me.

“You win this time, Styles,” I told him, then ran over to him and kissed him. The force of my weight caused him to stumble backwards a few steps, and then he wrapped his strong arms around me and we kissed each other. We didn’t even hear the door slide open; we were too preoccupied with each other’s tongues.

“Uhh,” Zayn’s voice pierced through our bliss. Harry and I jumped apart. Zayn was standing in the doorway, Liam and Niall peaking over his shoulder – apparently they’d decided they wanted to watch TV.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Harry said quickly. I stared at him, incredulous. Even I couldn’t get us out of this one.

“It’s not?” I asked him. He sighed.

“Okay, it is what it looks like,” he muttered to the others. My stomach churned at how not proud he was of that fact. The three of them stood there, pale faces, mouths ajar, shocked. I rubbed my face with my hands.

“Okay,” I took a deep breath. “Harry and I are…dating,” that last word was hard to say. Zayn rubbed his temples.

“Come in,” Harry said, and the guys stepped in the room, shutting the door behind them.

“How long has this been going on?” Zayn asked us. Harry and I glanced at each other.

“About a month,” he muttered, staring at the floor.

“You’ve been lying to us for a month?” Niall asked.

“We didn’t exactly lie…” I trailed off, realizing we had.

“Wait,” Zayn said. “When we caught you guys in bed after Harry’s birthday party, that wasn’t a mistake, was it?” I shook my head.

“Why didn’t you just tell us?!” Liam exclaimed.

“We didn’t want you to get upset like this,” I replied.

“We’re not upset that you’re together,” Niall said.

“You’re not?” Harry questioned, finally looking up at our friends.

“No,” Zayn replied. “You guys do gay things all the time, it’s really not a big surprise, now that I think about it. That’s not the problem.”

“You kept it from us for so long,” Niall said, clearly the most hurt out of all of them.

“And you lied to us,” Liam said.

“I know,” I said. “I know, and we’re sorry, we just weren’t sure how you guys would react…” I trailed off.

“We thought the band would break up over it,” Harry added.

“If that’s how you guys thought we’d respond, then you really don’t know us very well,” Zayn said. He had a point.

“You’re right,” I told him. “We’re sorry, we really are, it’s still new to both of us.”

“Does anyone else know?” Liam asked.

“Just our families,” Harry replied.

“How’d that go?” Zayn questioned.

“Uh, well, mine were great about it,” Harry said, then glanced at me to see if I wanted to tell them what had happened with mine. I figured we’d lied to them enough for one day.

“Mine, um, told me they didn’t love me anymore and kicked me out of the family,” I said, a lump forming in my throat. I had been acting like it didn’t bother me, but it was still a touchy subject when it came up. Harry squeezed my shoulder.

“Oh, Louis,” Niall said, forgiving us that easily. He came and gave me a hug, and then the rest of the guys came and hugged Harry and I. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“We’re not going to do that,” Zayn promised. “We’re not kicking you guys out. You’re still our best friends.” Liam and Niall nodded in agreement.

“Good,” I said, perking up. “We don’t want anything to change, either; just carry on, like normal. And we don’t really want the public finding out.” I could only imagine what would happen if our fans knew – we might lose a lot of them.

“Absolutely,” Liam said. “But we’re going to have to tell management, at some point.”

“We will,” I nodded. “We wanted to tell you guys first. We were going to last week, but…” I shrugged.

“It’s okay,” Zayn squeezed my shoulder. I smiled appreciatively at them, and then we went on like nothing had happened.

The tour bus took Harry and I back to our place, and the guys said they were still planning on coming over later that night. As soon as we walked in the door, Harry looked at me.

“You’re angry,” he told me, as if I didn’t already know.

“I just worry that if it’s that easy for you to lie to them, then I won’t be able to tell when you’re lying to me.”

“I don’t lie to you, Louis!” he stressed.

“Then tell me why you’re always so embarrassed to let people find out we’re together!”

“I’m not embarrassed to be with you, I’m embarrassed to be gay!”

“Oh, are you? Because last time I checked, both times you’ve come out to the people who love you have gone exceptionally well. Did your family turn their backs on you, Harry?!”

“I know, I know this whole thing has been a lot harder for you than it has been for me, I get that, but it’s still not easy on my end, either, Lou!”

“How is it not easy? You’ve been dealing with it your whole life I’d think you’d have it down by now!”

“You can be so ignorant sometimes!” he exclaimed, and then stormed up to his room and slammed his door shut. I had no idea what had just happened.

Notes

Directioners,

What would you do if got to meet the boys?