You get me dizzy

Chapter 4

There’s a lot of anticipation for Steve Aoki’s set and Leo holds on to Zayn for dear life as he pulls him by the hand, trying to get as close as he can to the stage. He’s seen Steve three times before and didn’t get caked once. Not even once, for f**k’s sake. Today, that’s going to change. It has to change.

“Here’s good.” He says and turns around to see Zayn’s face. They’re both tipsy and ready to get some cake in their face. No pun intended.

Noah, as well as his entire group, completed by Levi and Harry, are all behind him, sipping on drinks and talking about something Leo can’t really hear.

The lights go out, leaving them in complete darkness for a second, before the beat picks up and a cartoon of Steve appears on the screens. The crowd goes wild and Leo starts jumping, that’s how excited he is.

The set starts and Leo is drunk and f*****g loves life right now. He gets to see one of his favorite DJs right now, and it can only get better if he gets caked. For once in his life, he just wants to get caked.

“Your glitter looks so pretty in the lights.” Harry says against his temple a few songs later and Leo feels something in his stomach. It’s not butterflies; it’s a weird…warmth. Like the one he usually gets when a really attractive guy is whispering into his ear. Harry’s breath is hot above his ear and he’s really close, one hand on the small of his back.

“Fine.” He groans and rubs his palm against his glitter and makes sure some of it came off before he slowly drags his hand across the left side of Harry’s face, from his temple all the way to his cheek.

“Better now?”

Harry checks himself with the front camera of his phone. “Yeah.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Leo shakes his head, head snapping up when he hears the first beats of Tremor through the giant speakers.

The crowd goes nuts, singing along to the beat, and since they’re pretty close to the stage, people already start pushing to create a giant circle in the middle of the crowd.

“It’s a mosh piiiiit!” Noah yells from behind him.

Leo has been in a mosh pit once before, during Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike’s set a few years ago, and he swore to himself that he’ll never do it again, because he came out with a black eye and bruises down his arm.

Noah, Levi, and the rest of their friends make their way to the sides of the pit, ready for the beat to drop.

“f**k no.” Leo mutters and steps back, falling into Zayn, who isn’t a fan either.

He watches Harry go up to Levi and shakes his head, because f**k.

“Three two one go!” Steve yells into the microphone, before the circle closes and there’s people jumping everywhere. Leo feels his stress levels going through the roof, because mosh pits are truly something wild.

When the song finishes, the crowd has shifted and they’re even closer to the stage, so close Leo can see where the front row is.

The guys come back one song later and Harry’s not wearing sunglasses anymore.

“Lost something?” Leo jokes and Harry frowns, leaning his head down so Leo can repeat what he said.

“Yeah. My sunglasses fell off. They were my favorite ones.” Harry pouts and Leo realizes that his eyes are shiny. So he’s not the only one on the way to being drunk.

Kolony Anthem starts and Leo looks at Zayn at the same time Zayn looks at him. It’s their song. They laugh as they jump up during the song and Leo subtly tries to get even closer to the stage.

Steve turns down the volume once the song is finished and grabs the microphone. He calls two people on stage with him for the crowd control and asks everyone to grab the person next to them by the shoulders.

It’s just Leo’ luck that Harry is on his right and Zayn on his left. The crowd starts jumping once the arrows appear on the screen and Leo already feels trampled.

Once everything calms down and the next song starts, Steve goes back to the DJ booth.

Now, Leo’ seen him enough times to know that the caking part is starting soon.

“Cake Face is up next, I swear.” He excitedly tells Zayn. “Lift me up on your shoulders.”

“What? I can barely carry my own weight.” Zayn laughs. “You lift me up.”

“Exfuckingcuseme?” Leo dramatically gasps, placing a hand on his chest.

“I could give you a shoulder ride if you want.” Harry offers and Leo looks at him. Harry’s really pretty, he thinks, with the glitter on his face and his green eyes sparkling in the stage lights.

“You sure?”

Harry nods, laughing. “Pretty sure.”

Levi then offers to take Zayn on his shoulders and Leo sees that Noah is already on one of his friends’ shoulders, snapchatting everything.

“Alright.” Leo nods and spreads his legs. He watches Harry disappear from his line of vision as he crouches down and grabs into Leo’ thighs as he pushes his head between Leo’ legs. Then he stands up, taking Leo along with him.

“I can see the whole world from here!” Leo yells, looking around. He can see where the crowd ends, way back; can see all the signs people brought to the concert and wonders why he didn’t bring one himself.

He can feel Harry’s rings digging into the skin above his knee and pats him on the head to thank him. Operation ‘get a shoulder ride’ has been a success.

The beat dies for a few moments as Steve climbs on top of the DJ booth and Leo realizes that he’s close enough to get caked. This is it. This is what he came for.

“Raise your hands if you’re ready for some cake!” Steve yells into the microphone and Leo does just that.

Cake Face starts and Leo feels adrenaline rushing through his body as Steve picks up the first out of many cakes and throws it at someone on the right side of the stage.

Harry’s moving to the beat under him, making Leo move along with him and his head is spinning in a good way. He looks over at Zayn who films him for a moment, so he crosses his eyes and smiles. He’s hasn’t been this happy in a long time.

They scream along to the ‘cakeeee meee, cakeee meee’ part of the song and Steve throws five more cakes before he walks over to their side with a cake in hand.

The next thing Leo knows, the cake is flying and it hits Noah right in the face, some of it falling onto Leo’ shoulder. Just when he thinks that was it, he sees Steve pointing in his direction with a smirk and another cake is flying as the beat drops, getting Leo and Zayn in the chest.

It’s kind of poetic, really, Leo thinks, feeling the cake drip down from his chest. His fingers are sticky and his tank top is clinging to his body, but the only thing he feels is pure happiness. Some of it got in his hair as well, not much, but he can’t really get it out with sticky fingers.

“We’re on the screen!” Zayn yells at him and Leo looks up to the screens to see himself and Zayn. He’s got cake on his collarbones, cake on his left cheek and some of it is in his hair and expected, but he looks happy.

He is happy.

He licks his fingers as he watches the rest of the cakes being thrown in the crowd and people laughing on the screens.

Harry lets go of one of his legs so he can lick his fingers and look up at Leo, who’s already looking down at him. They smile at each other and Leo wonders how in the world isn’t he tired already and hasn’t put him down yet.

“Your hair’s a mess.” Leo informs Zayn, who had the bad luck of getting a lot of cake in his hair.

“Fuck.” Zayn laughs, taking his hands up to his hair to feel the cake chunks. “Fuck.”

Once Steve is all out of cakes, he goes back to the DJ booth to play the last two songs of the night. Pursuit of Happiness is Leo’ all time favorite and he’s glad that Harry hasn’t put him down, because he gets to belt it out along with Noah and Zayn, feeling like they’re on top of the world.

When the song ends and What We Started comes on, Leo pats Harry on the head, who gets the message and crouches back down.

“Thank you…really. Thanks.” Leo smiles. His smile gets even bigger when he sees that Harry’s got cake in his hair and on his shoulders.

“My pleasure.” Harry nods, smirking.

Leo wants to ask if he’s up for it tomorrow as well during The Script and Coldplay, but he doesn’t, because he thinks it’s enough for now. He doesn’t want to overstep any boundaries because they’ve known each other for about thirty hours.

During the last chorus, they already start going towards the exit because they feel really sticky and it’s getting uncomfortable.

“I think I need to go back to the hotel and shower this off.” Harry observes, looking down at himself.

“We’ve got showers in the camping grounds, way closer.” Noah informs him and Harry agrees.

“You’ve got a little cake on your face.” Harry tells Leo as they get in line for the exit.

“Yeah?” Leo asks and takes all the cake he can get into his hands before he presses them against Harry’s face. “You got some too.”

Harry laughs. “f**k you.”

“You wish.” Leo daringly says and Harry’s about to reply when two girls and one guy come up to him, asking him for a photo.

Leo wipes his hands on his pants before he takes the phone and snaps a few pictures of them.

“Thank you.” One of the girls says, blushing, before they’re off, talking about Harry in hushed tones.

“That was weird.” Leo says, crossing his arms.

“It happens sometimes.” Harry shrugs it off.

As expected, the showers in the camp are all full so they have to wait there too. Leo feels like he’s going to combust because his clothes are really sticking to his body and the cake is starting to smell.

“I’m done with this.” he mutters and pulls the tank top over his head.

Harry stares at the ‘It Is What It Is’ tattoo under Leo’ collarbones for a moment, before he shakes his head.

“So you’re in one of the tents here?” he asks Leo, making a point by looking into his eyes as he speaks, and not anywhere else.

“Yeah, I’m sharing one with Zayn.”

“So are you two like…”

Leo can tell that Harry’s uncomfortable asking that and pretends to be offended by the question. “No, we’re not. He’s my best friend.”

He pulls his phone out and notices he’s got five missed calls from Lottie, and just as he’s about to call her back, she calls again.

“Hello?” he says into the phone.

“LEO!” she screams.

Oh, so it’s one of those calls.

“Yeah?”

“Were you on Harry Styles’ shoulders?!”

“Uh…yeah.” He says and tries to turn the volume down because Harry is laughing right now, probably hearing everything.

“It’s all over Tumblr! People have screenshots of the livestream! They’re asking who you are!”

Leo rolls his eyes. “Well don’t tell them Lottie, Jesus.”

“How…HOW! HOW did that happen!”

“Uh…it just kinda happened?” Leo mutters, turning away from Harry to hiss into the phone. “Stop yelling.”

“Oh my GOD is here there right now?!”

“Mhmm.”

“Is he even hotter up close than as everyone says?”

Leo spares a glance at Harry, who’s talking to Zayn, thanking him for the towels he brought from their tent.

“Yeah he is.”

“Before you come back, can you ask him to autograph something? Anything? Please Lou, pleaseee. His shows are always sold out and the Meet and Greets are SO expensive I have to save up for a whole year.”

“Fine, I will. If you promise you’ll stop screaming when you call.”

“Okay. Have a good time!” she says and Leo hangs up.

The line moves painstakingly slow because everyone here has cake somewhere.

“So I’m even hotter in person then?” Harry teases and Leo feels like dying.

“Stop listening in to my private phone calls please.”

“It’s fun.”

“Yeah? Well…” Leo stutters, trying to pick on anything related to Harry. “…your glitter is f****d up now.”

It’s confirmed. Leo Taylor is a 26 year old with third-grade comebacks. He loathes himself.

“Good comeback.” Harry hums and Leo loathes him even more.

They finally get their turn to shower, and it just so happens that there are two free showers, which means Harry has to undress in front of him as well.

The first thing Leo notices is the f*****g giant moth on his chest. He swears he’s seen it before.

“Hold on a second.” He gasps, pointing to the moth. “Where did you get that?”

“At a tattoo parlor?” Harry answers as he pushes his jeans down to his ankles.

“Which one and where?”

“Um…some tattoo parlor in London? Something with L and W in the name I think?”

“That’s-that’s my tattoo place. I mean, that’s where I got this one. I recognize the drawing. LWTattoos, was it?”

Harry takes a moment to think about it. “Yeah, I think so. Why? You recognize the drawing?”

Of course Leo f*****g recognizes the drawing. One of his artists made it, and he knows that because his ‘It Is What It Is’ tattoo was right above that moth as part of a set. When he got his, he especially left out the butterfly/moth or whatever that is because it seemed way too ridiculous for him to get it as a full set. He remembers thinking about who in their right minds would get a moth on themselves.

Harry Styles, apparently, that’s who.

“So? Do you recognize it?” Harry pushes, and Leo remembers that he’s been having a conversation with himself and completely forgot about Harry.

“LWTattoos? As in Leo WilLevi Taylor tattoos?” Leo clarifies and it takes Harry two full seconds for his eyes to widen in recognition.

“s**t, yeah. I’ve been there last year in November or so…but I think I’d remember you.”

Leo rolls his eyes at the cheesy line. He’s about 90% sure by now that Harry’s flirting, but he’s been linked with so many women over the past few years that he’s not sure what to believe.

“People always choose to believe what they want to believe, regardless of what I say.”, Harry’s words ring through Leo’ head. It’s not even Leo’ business, who Harry dates or who he flirts with, so Leo decides to let it go.

“I was probably on vacation, I usually visit my family a weekend or two every month.” Leo explains.

“I think it was a dark haired guy with a piercing in his nose if I remember correctly, but I’ve been to a lot of tattoo parlors since then.”

“Oh, right. That’s Max.” Leo grins, ecstatic. “One of my artists. He drew the moth and this.” Leo says, pointing at his collarbones.

He analyzes Harry’s chest, shamelessly if he may add, to see if he can recognize any other drawings, but there’s so much going on he can’t concentrate. And the fact that he’s still drunk isn’t helping.

“So what other tattoos did you get at LWT?” Leo asks.

Harry looks down, moving his arms to check. “Uhh…I think this one?” Harry asks, raising his left arm and pointing to the birdcage on his side.

“It came with some birds, but it was too much, I was twenty-one.”

“Birds…” Leo trails off and lifts up his right wrist. “These ones.”

Harry stares at them, mouth agape, and Leo’ mind is spinning because he’s got too much alcohol in his veins and his judgement is cloudy.

“Are you guys going to hold up the queue for much longer or can we shower?” a guy behind Harry asks, waving around his towel.

“No, sorry.” Harry apologizes and opens one of the doors to get in.

Leo is about to turn around and go to his shower, when the angry guy gets in first, leaving him out in just his underwear. He clutches his and Harry’s clothes to his chest as he waits for a cabin to open up.

“What are you doing.” Harry laughs when he gets out of the shower, hair dripping and sticking to his forehead, drops of water running down his- “Leo?”

Leo blinks. “s**t, yeah. That guy got in my shower, hold these.”

He pushes the clothes against Harry’s chest and gets into the shower. He takes off his briefs and places them on the door, turning on the shower. He needs to cool down right now, because he’s attracted to a guy who might be straight and who wouldn’t f**k him even in a million years.

Harry’s leaning against the wall and waits for Leo to dry off and put his clothes back on before they join the group outside.

“So here are the options: one, we go to bed and get some rest. Two, we go back to the hotel and have some drinks there. Or three, we stay in the camp grounds and party with everyone.” Noah suggests.

“I’m good either way.” Levi says, looking at Harry. “What do you want to do? Paul is waiting at the hotel, if you want to call him.”

Leo tries to keep his face straight at the mention of a guy’s name. Who’s Paul?

“Yeah I’m going to text him that he can go to sleep and that I’m going to come over later.” Harry says, already pulling out his phone.

“So you want to stay here?” Levi asks, smiling.

“Yeah, of course.” Harry laughs.

“Well I don’t know about you guys but I definitely need a change of clothes.” Leo buts into the conversation and points over to the path that leads to his tent.

“Can I borrow a shirt or something?” Harry asks, following him already.

Leo squints at him. “I’ll see what I can do.”

On the way to the tent Leo drowns out the talk about tomorrow as he tries to think of clever, not at all obvious ways to find out who this Paul is. If he’s a boyfriend or a hookup, then it means Harry’s not so straight after all.

“So…Paul.” He starts, failing.

“Paul.” Harry repeats, nodding.

“Isn’t he…worried about so many fans trying to get to you every day?”

Miserably failing.

“Not at all, he takes care of me when I need him to.”

Great, there is no bit of information in that sentence whatsoever.

“Oh…really. How…nice.”

Is that all he can do??? For f**k’s sake.

“Yeah, I met him when I was twenty-one and he’s been there for me ever since.”

Leo thinks about directly asking him about his boyfriend, but then again, it’s none of his f*****g business.

“Wow, I’ve never had a relationship that lasted longer than half a year, let alone what…three years?”

Harry nods.

Fuck, so it is his boyfriend.

“Me neither.”

Oh, wait.

“What do you mean, you neither?”

“I mean, it’s hard to maintain a relationship when everything you do is monitored and analyzed. And-yeah. Whatever.”

“And Paul doesn’t mind?” Leo asks, trying to finish the sentence for him. He’s way too tipsy (the shower sobered him up a bit) to actually give a s**t.

“Of course he doesn’t.” Harry says, and Leo frowns, because Harry’s smirking right now, tongue poking out between his teeth.

“Are you-are you f*****g with me?”

Harry bursts out laughing just as they reach the tent. “Yeah I am.”

“f**k you.” Leo mumbles, showing him the bird as he turns the numbers in the lock.

“You wish.” Harry mocks Leo’ words from last night.

You bet I do, Leo thinks but doesn’t say. He’s trying to concentrate on getting the numbers right, but Harry’s close and smells like good cologne and it’s-it’s.

“I know you were trying to figure out who Paul is the moment you heard his name being mentioned, so I thought I’d leave you hanging.” Harry laughs.

“Aren’t you the psychologist.” Leo sarcastically says. “Reading me and everything.”

“It’s like a light went off in your head when Levi mentioned it.”

“Like f**k it did.”

“Can I…” Zayn interjects, and it’s only now that Leo realizes he’s been there the whole time.