cradle to grave

walk from school

"Harry are you coming?" niall, asks Harry whose patiently sitting on the pavement outside of school.

"No, I'm waiting for lou"

"But mom's car is here, she can drive you home"

"Louis said he'd get me" Harry insisted.

"Harry, he's in high school now. Maybe he doesn't have time" niall tried to reason with him.

"He'll come, he promised" Harry says, with a stubborn frown.

Niall's mom walks up to the boys, "hey Harry, is Anne coming to fetch you?"

"No, Louis is coming"

"He's not here, and the bus already left. I think you should come with us, it's not safe for you to stay here" she suggests.

"He's going to be here soon"

Maura stared at harry hopelessly, she didn't feel ok leaving the child here by himself. But harry didn't want to move.

"Uum maybe I should call Anne, and she can talk to you?" Maura asked gently.

Harry felt tears in his eyes, it was the first day of third grade. Louis promised that he would fetch him. That things wouldn't changed that much after he went to high school.

Running footsteps were heard on the pavement. Harry lifted his head up, with a flicker of hope that it might be Louis.

"Hhhaaaarrry, I'm so-" he couldn't get the word out, harry already having thrown himself into his arms.

"You came" Harry said, squeezing his little arms around Louis's neck.  Tears of relief flowing freely down his cheeks.

"Ofcourse I came, I said I would didn't i" Louis says, wrapping his arms around harry just as tightly.

"Niall thought you wouldn't come, and then... "...hiccup..."His mom wanted to take me"...hiccup..."and i thought..."...sniffle..."I thought you forgot about me"

Louis looked at niall over Harry's shoulder, niall just shrugged.

"I'm sorry haz, walking from my school to yours isn't as fast as I thought. But I could never forget about you, never" Louis said sincerely, still holding on to the somewhat crying harry.

Maura cleared her throat, "uum, would you guys like a ride?"

Louis tried to push harry off a little bit, just so he could have a proper conversation with Niall's mother.  But the boy refused to let go.

"I'm sorry, thank you for looking out for him. He didn't want to take the bus, cause he made me promise to fetch him. Walking took longer than I thought. But I think, we might walk home. I did promise I'd walk him home" Louis tells her, with an apologetic smile on his face. 

"Oh no that's alright, I didn't want him sitting here by himself" she says, sternly.

"I know, I'm sorry"

"Maybe he should go back to taking the bus then?"

"I'll find a way to get here faster, it's no problem. But thank you for looking out for him" Louis says, tensing at her patronizing tone.

"Alright then, niall let's go"

"Bye lou, bye Harry!" Niall says following his mom.

"Bye niall, and thank you for waiting with harry"

"S'fine" niall replied, getting into his mom's car.

"Bub, you wanna maybe... let go of me and start walking" Louis asks gently.