Meet Me In The Hallway // H.S. ✓

Chapter 5

~I gotta get better, gotta get better,

I gotta get better, gotta get better,

I gotta get better, gotta get better,

And maybe we'll work it out~

Twelve weeks. That's how long Harry was to be inside the correctional facility. He would be getting out at the end of November.

At this point, they were just six weeks in. Harry had gotten into no trouble, had stayed on top of school, but still cried himself to sleep every night. Nothing changed about that.

Anne and Gemma never called him, and they never came to visit him. Harry had no idea why this could be, and it was one reason that he cried every night. He feared that they had gotten in a horrible wreck on the way home from dropping him off and everyone was waiting to tell him until he had served his time there. This haunting theory he could not shake for the duration of his stay.

Nick and Harry were close friends by the two week mark. Nick was out of school and did not attend as many classes as Harry did therefore. So he hung out with some rough and tumble people while Harry was at school, and whenever there was free time, the two of them hung out together.

Harry was glad to have one friend, at least, on the inside. He even hoped that the two of them would stay friends long after Harry had left. After all, Nick had about a year inside. He had been caught street racing multiple times - a repeat offender, so he was to be there for a long time compared to Harry.

He never doubted the strength of him and Nick's friendship, although Nick sometimes did. He wondered why the little kid was so fascinated with him. And why he genuinely cared. Nick did have parents and siblings who loved him, much like Harry did, but he always felt apathy from his family. Like there was a disconnect.

That was an issue he would have to discuss much later in life with a therapist, but for now, with Harry, he did not feel that. Harry was just kind and Nick liked having a friend like that.

Befriending Harry proved to be a good thing the day of the riot.

---

Sometimes tensions run high and stress needs to be relieved. And in a place like a correctional facility, the only solution for them is violence. Sadly.

So six weeks into Harry's three month sentence, a riot broke out in the yard. There were toothbrush shivs and fists aplenty. When Harry saw that something was happening, he immediately tried to run back towards the door that led inside, but several fellow inmates blocked it from Harry and the others who didn't want to fight.

Harry turned around in circles desperately trying to find anywhere to stay safe. He was sure that he was now in the apocalypse and that today was his death day. Until his eyes spotted Nick. Blue eyes looked forward, into the eyes of a dangerous adult with a sharp toothbrush.

Harry had to help him.

You don't just let friends die in a prison riot.

"Nick!" He yelled, like an idiot. Nick's concentration was torn away from the fight for a moment, to Harry standing in the middle of the yard. Then he was dodging and trying to fight back.

Gunshots rang out in the air at the other side of the yard, but that wouldn't help Nick in the next thirty seconds.

So Harry picked up a stick that was on the ground and chucked it at the toothbrush-wielding maniac. It hit him in the head, startingling him long enough for Nick to bolt to Harry and pull him to the safe side of the yard. They got on their knees with the rest of the inmates who were good eggs. The others were subdued.

"Thank you, Harry," Nick said. Harry could see his pulse jumping and hear his heaving breath.

"That's what friends do."

"I hate this place so much."

"I know. I do too."

---

The remaining six weeks passed like a knife through warm butter - easy. The last time Harry saw Nick for a while, he promised to write him a lot - since that was one of the things that they could do from in there. Nick promised to write back, even if he had bad handwriting.

"I will try to make it legible," He had smiled at his friend.

"You better, because I won't have the time to have a cryptographer over to my house." Harry rolled his eyes, and bid his friend goodbye for now. For nine months at least.

His clothes were returned - luckily he still fit into them, although the pants were becoming a bit short. Harry was going to turn into a very tall man. All of the last paperwork was filled out, and Harry was brought outside by an officer and put into the hands of his mum.

"Harry!" She yelled, and all of his worries wooshed away. She was alive, well, and still loved him.

"Mum!" He yelled back, running across the parking lot to hug her. By the time he got there, the both of them were already crying. "I missed you so much."

Neither of them talked about the elephant in the room - she hadn't called or visited him for the entirety of the three months. He eventually figured out that it was because she thought it necessary for him to learn his lesson. He definitely learned it - and it scarred him for many years to come.

He got into the car, listening to everything that his mother said. She caught him up on her life, Gemma's life, and what would happen when he returned to school in January. He just smiled, feeling glad that he was home.

Anne and Harry went out for dinner, eating and talking the night away. Eventually, they left the restaurant, each with a milkshake in hand. Strawberry for Anne, chocolate for Harry.

When they got to the house, she left him to his own devices. To settle in. But laying in his own bed, he was unable to sleep because he felt unsettled. He felt like he would wake up in his cell in the morning, and the day would've been a dream.

So he went to Anne's room with his pillow and crawled into her bed, sleeping besides her for the night. He really was a mummy's boy.

She sung him little lullabies to get him to sleep since she could feel the anxiety coming off of him in waves. And once her curly-headed teenager was asleep, she kissed his head. "I missed you so much, Harry," She said. "So much more than you'll ever know."