Chapter Text
He blames Lottie.
He blames her and her stupid music, and her stupid posters, and how she stupidly blasts the stupid cd in the car when she's with him. It's just really stupid. And he's stupid for enjoying it.
He's stupid for enjoying...well... Harry Styles.
He had never heard the name before his sister told him. The popstar had followed her on twitter and she wouldn't stop talking about him all day. Or maybe it was the entire week; Louis really didn't keep track of the week his like was ruined by a flawless, curly haired idiot.
So maybe he asked her to play him a song, and maybe he asked her to borrow the album, but she agreed to these things, therefore it's Lottie's fault.
The thing about Harry Styles was that he was a natural popstar and Louis wanted to die because of it. Louis didn't even like pop music, yet somehow, this Harry Styles bloke charmed him into downloading all of his albums and spending his days watching any interviews he could find. He was a grown man for godsake and here he was giggling like a teenage girl because Harry tweeted something about goddamn bananas. He doesn't even fucking like bananas.
He comes to terms with his love for Harry Styles after about one month. He hides it from his mates for a few weeks, but then Niall finds the cds hidden in Louis's nightstand and Louis realizes exactly how pathetic his life has become.
"Mate, what the hell are you doing with Lottie's cds?" Niall asks, picking up Harry's newest album and looking over it. Louis looks up from his bed, tensing when he sees the cd in Niall's hand. He plays it off, shrugging nonchalantly and looking back to his laptop screen. He's silently hoping Niall will leave the subject alone and put the cd back.
But of course it's Niall and he's far too curious to leave it.
"Did Lottie leave them here?" He presses, now looking at Louis with a confused expression. Louis sighs, facing Niall and giving him a look that could wilt the prettiest of flowers.
"Yes. Can we leave it now?" Louis pouts, as if it'll influence Niall's decision to ending the conversation.
Instead, Niall clicks his tongue and grabs another cd. "These all say LWT on them? Isn't Lottie's middle name Elizabeth?" He notices, cocking an eyebrow at Louis and waiting for an explanation. Louis clears his throat, attempting to buy time so he can think of a logical answer for everything. "Are these your cds? You like Harry Styles?"
Louis stays completely silent, hoping that maybe he'd completely disappear and it'd be as if this conversation never even happened. But of course, it's Niall he's speaking to, and Niall is always oblivious to when Louis doesn't feel like touching on a certain subject.
"Louis?" Niall says. Louis groans in annoyance (one he only seems to use when Niall is around), making eye contact with Niall.
"Yes, they're mine. Happy? Now leave alone you complete wanker." Louis rolls his eyes and returns to his laptop screen, still attempting to sign up from the stupid website Lottie had shown him, tumblr.
He had never heard of it before, but then again, he had also never heard of Harry Styles before and look where that's got him.
Niall mumbles something that Louis really doesn't care for, and it's probably along the lines of "what the hell is wrong with you". Louis doesn't exactly know the answer to that yet.
He finishes signing up for the website (choosing the url doncastyles, because while being in love with Harry Styles is fun, he's still a twenty two year old lad who needs somewhat of a life), but is met with a new challenge when he sees what's called a dashboard. It's got some weird pictures on it and he's not sure why Lottie was so hell-bent on Louis making an account.
"Are you going to sit on the computer the entire time?" Niall puts the cds back where they were, getting on the bed and lying down next to Louis. It wasn't unusual for Louis to be ignoring Niall most of the time, but it was usually because Louis was doing something productive. When Louis had free time, they were either walking about London or Niall was forcing Louis to help him pick up girls.
"You can leave if you want." Louis says, grabbing his phone and texting Lottie on what he was supposed too do after he signed up for the website.
"Lou." Niall whines, leaning onto Louis shoulder. "C'mon man. Twitter can wait. I can't." Louis scoffs, flicking the side of Niall's head.
"It's tumblr, and I'm not feeling social today. Next time Ni, I swear." Louis promises, making puppy eyes and pouting his lip. He could be cute and innocent when it came to his advantage, honestly.
Niall sighed, getting off the bed and grabbing his phone off of Louis's night stand. "Fine then. We still on for Saturday?" Louis nods absentmindedly, still paying absolutely no attention to Niall whatsoever. "See ya, Lou." Niall waves, leaving without any sort of reaction from Louis.
Louis's eyes are glued to the screen until his phones goes off with a text from Lottie, He grabs it quickly, sliding the screen open and reading it.
'get a theme you idiot'
He glares at the screen for a minute, waiting patiently for it to spontaneously combust into flames or something along those lines. He's disappointed when it does nothing but fade and then lock itself. He unlocks it, sending what he considers to be a witty and sarcastic reply, and then turning to Google to learn what the hell Lottie even means. She can't just tell him these things as if he's going to actually understand what she means on the first try.
He hurriedly discovers what a theme is and where to get one. He finds the coding, sets up the rest of his blog and resumes to being unsure of what to do next.
Rather than logging off out of frustration, he texts Lottie again and she tells him to follow blogs. She gives him a list of blogs that she considers 'follow-worthy' and he follows each and every one of them. His dashboard becomes a lot more lively afterwards, and he can finally see what the big deal was.
Louis gains over five thousand followers in three weeks. He's not exactly sure why (Lottie says it's because he's a twink, whatever that means), but he believes it has something to do with all of the dim-witted text post he makes about Harry. He gets deemed as 'tumblr famous', and while he's not certain what that means, he's honored and accepts the title anyways.
He makes friends on the site easily, learning that he's not the only one on the site that has the uncontrollable ability to respond to everything in an extremely sarcastic manner. It makes him feel better whenever he accidentally responds to an anon rudely.
'have you heard harry's new single???'
Someone asks and Louis has the most offended expression because of course he's heard Harry's new single. He was up until two learning the lyrics, which is ironic, considering he was also up at two am re-evaluating all of his life choices.
'are you really asking me that? are you really doubting my love for harry styles and his music? but yeah, ive heard the single.'
He presses answer and decides to shut his laptop off and get reading for work. He had already been told off the past two days for being late and he refuses to give his co-worker, Nick, the satisfaction of him being yelled at for a third time.
"Ooh, so close Tommo." Nick taunts as Louis jogs in through the doors of Toys R Us. "Late date with Harry Styles?"
Louis rolls his eyes, shoving straight past Nick and to the break room to change into his uniform. He hated how Nick had found out about his tumblr. He was careful about it, and then Nick happens to snatch his phone one day and there went that secret.
He quickly changes, exiting out of the room and back to Nick's general area of the store. As much as the lad irritated him, he still made Louis's day entertaining. That is, when Nick wasn't constantly asking him on a date.
"So Lou, since this whole, Harry Styles fantasy isn't gonna happen soon..." Nick starts, and Louis is about ready to turn around and walk in the other direction. But the rest of his co-workers were obnoxious teenagers and he would rather deal with Nick than them.
"No." Louis says, and Nick groans.
"Right then, we get Harry's new cd next week." Nick tells him, and suddenly Louis is much more interested in what he has to say. "There's probably going to be a load of giggling teenage girls here. I'm sure you work on that day and there's no one here that hates teenager girls as much as you do." Louis grimaces, knowing the amount of annoyance he would end up leaving work with that day. Sure, the girls on tumblr were cool, but a lot of them were his age. And even the younger ones weren't as immature as the girls he sees in the store every time some pop artist released a cd.
"What are you getting at, Grimshaw?" Louis asks, knowing there had to be some reason that Nick was bringing this entire thing up. Louis had worked on cd release days, dvd release days, and a load of other release days where the store was packed, Nick's never said anything before.
Nick smiles, wrapping an arm around Louis's waist. Louis's taken by surprise, immediately pushing Nick away and narrowing is eyes at the bloke. "I'm saying, that maybe someone would be willing to switch with you that day....for something in return. And maybe they'll even grab the album for you."
Louis chokes out a laugh. "Are you bribing me for a date?" Louis asks, an amused expression washing over his face. "Are you that desperate to get laid?"
Nick gives an incredulous look, crossing his arms. "It's a yes or a no, Louis." He says, rolling his eyes. Louis refrains from any other rude phrases, crossing his arms and holding back a smile.
"Will you stop asking me out if I say yes?"
"Perhaps."
Louis purses his lips, then sighs. "Fine. I'll go on a date with you. But I'm expecting that cd as soon as I walk into work the day after." Nick smirks and Louis knows that he's even going to hear the end of this from not only Nick, but Niall as well.
"Pathetic." He mutters, but he's not sure if he means Nick or himself.
The first thing Louis does when he gets home is get on tumblr and complain. It’s ten thirty at night and he's still having a hard time believing that he had agreed to a date with Nick. The things he does for Harry Styles.
'i agreed to a date just so they'd switch work shifts and buy me Harry's new album...does that technically make me a prostitute?'
He clicks posts and begins scrolling through his dashboard, reblogging pictures he had seen numerous times before, but is too far into his sulking mood to care.
After half an hour of mindlessly scrolling, he goes to answer a few questions in his ask, hoping it'll take his mind off of what happened at work.
It's the usual - anons asking about all of Harry's scandals and gossip. He answers a couple of those in his usual tendency, then comes across an unexpected message from a blog he's never seen before.
'Hey, one of your posts came up on my dash and you seem really funny, ha. I'm not really into pop music, but I like your blog.' -sleepingalone
Louis smirks as he reads the last line of the message. He wants to respond with some snarky comment on how this person's url is a lyric from one of Harry's songs, but he decides to be polite for a change.
'hm, what post could i possibly make so funny that it overthrows my love for harry styles?' -doncastyles
He clicks answer privately and then types in the person's url into the navigation bar. He laughs to himself when it loads, taking note that this was obviously a hipster blog.
He hovers over the follow button for a couple of seconds, clicking follow then reverting back to his dashboard to see if the person had replied.
'hi Louis:) M'Harry. and it was the post about your mate Niall getting rejected 6 times while he was drunk.' -sleepingalone
Louis smiles as he reads the message, remembering the post clearly. Niall had asked out the same girl at a club six times thinking she was a different person each time.
'ahhhh, yes. that one's a favourite. and I will totally not bring up how you have the same name as Harry Styles. nice blog, by the way' –doncastyles
The response comes only a couple of minutes after Louis sent his. Louis eagerly clicks on the inbox button, reading the message quickly and thinking up a response.
‘I’ve been told that before, ha. the harry styles thing. not very often I get my blog complimented by a fandom blog.’ –sleepingalone
‘well, not very often I get messaged by a hipster blog. theres a first for everything’ –doncastyles
He stays on his inbox, refreshing the page every two or so minutes after he replies to each of Harry’s messages. This happens until about twenty minutes to midnight, when Louis forces himself to go take a shower and go to bed early for once. Staying up until five o’clock in the morning isn’t good for you, he’s learned.
‘im off to bed, maybe. talk to you tomorrow?’ –doncastyles
He presses answer privately for the last time that night, shutting off his laptop and heading into the bathroom for his much needed shower.
' right then, goodnight louis!’ –sleepingalone
Harry swiftly clicked the answer privately button, pressing the home button and scrolling through his dash again.
“Harry, are you even listening to what I’m saying?” He flinched, grabbing his phone off of his nightstand. He had completely forgotten that he was on the phone with his manager. This Louis lad was distracting. Or maybe it was just Harry.“Yeah, yeah Zayn. Interview, tomorrow at nine, then LA?” He answers, placing his phone on the pillow next to him.
“LA is Sunday, mate. You’ve gotta promote your new album in the states. C’mon Haz, keep up.” Zayn says, clicking his tongue.
Harry sighs, closing his laptop and standing up from the bed. He grabs his phone, walking out of his bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. “Right. When do I come back to London?” He asks, setting his phone on the counter and opening the fridge.
“The week after. Before then, you've got a few interviews, live performances, a fake date or two…” Zayn trails off, but it grabs Harry’s attention faster than the information that came before.
“With who? If it’s Taylor Swift again, I will quit the music business.” Harry threatens, taking out a bowl of left over spaghetti. Everytime he had to go to the states for promo, it ended up being the start of a relationship he had no idea about. With his last album, he had “dated” Taylor Swift for a few months, and that was, hands down, the most terrifying experience of his life. And he’s been mobbed by fans plenty of times.
Zayn laughed over the phone and Harry rolled his eyes, putting the spaghetti in the microwave and leaning on the counter. “It’s not Taylor Swift. I’m not sure who it is, management hasn’t given me all the details yet.”
“You’re my manager for a reason, Zayn. You’re supposed to know these things.” Harry teases, taking his food out from the microwave. “But fine. These pr relationships get boring after a while, you know.”
“I know, Harry. Look, I’m pushing for management to let you come out, even explained why it’d benefit them. Nothing so far, but I’ll keep trying.” Harry scoffs. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing at midnight. Just be ready by eight, alright?”
“Yeah. G’night Zayn” Zayn hurriedly says goodnight, then hangs up the phone with a click.
Harry sighs, glancing down at his bowl of spaghetti and grimacing. He dumps the rest of it in the trash, dropping the bowl in the sink, grabbing and making his way back upstairs.
Harry anxiously shook his leg, biting his lip as his management team made the final decisions on his new pr relationship. At any moment now, Zayn would come and get Harry to tell him who he'd be dating and have him sign the new contract. Harry wasn't exactly thrilled, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
A few minutes later, the door to the meeting room opened, revealing Zayn, who had a slight smile on his face. Harry raised an eyebrow, confused. He stood up anyways, following Zayn back into the meeting room and taking a seat.
"Harry, we're sure Mr. Malik has told you our plans for while you're in Los Angeles." One of the men, Will, Harry thinks, says. Harry nods, glancing between him and Zayn, who has a supportive grin plastered on his face. "Mr. Malik has been urging the idea of you coming out to the media, and we believe that it may have a positive impact."
Harry sat up straight, suddenly much more interested in the conversation. "Wait, what?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows. Zayn had never mentioned any of this.
A woman stepped up, and Harry's not sure if he's ever seen her before. "Seeing as many other performers have recieved a positive outcome from their decision to come out, we see no reason why it wouldn't have the same effect on you." She tells him, and Harry can tell how fake her enthusiam is right away.
"I-I don't-wow." Harry stumbles over his words, still attempting to process what was being said to him. He took a deep breath, sitting back and clearing his throat. "But what does that mean? Who am I dating?"
"A new singer named Liam. Liam Payne." Zayn tells him, handing him an ipad with Liam's information on it. Harry's heard of him before, straight off the X-Factor, like himself. "Since you both have the same management team, it makes things easier." Zayn rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. "He'll be in LA doing promo for his first album. You'll meet him there and go on a few dates."
"So no girls?" Harry says after a minute of reading a bit about Liam. He had to admit, the guy was attractive.
Zayn shakes his head, grabbing the ipad back from Harry. Will slides Harry a contract, along with a pen, and smiles. "We just need you to sign in a few places and you'll be on your way." Harry smirks, grabbing the pen and signing where it says for him to sign. The woman takes the paper, smiling warmly at Harry. Harry looks away from her, turning to Zayn again.
"Are we done here?" Zayn asks, standing up from his chair. Will nods, placing the contract in a folder. Harry stands up as well, giving a small wave and following Zayn out of the room without another word.