Meet Me In The Hallway // H.S. ✓

Chapter 7

~Running with the thieves,

'Cause you left me in the hallway~

Harry sat at a desk in his room at the boarding school, writing a letter to Nick. It would most likely be his last one before he got out of the correctional facility. It was the middle of November.

He liked the boarding school. More than he thought he would. He got into choir, and had two great roommates, Will Sweeney and Brad Nevinson. The three of them really dreamed of being in a band. Harry would sing, Will would play guitar, and Brad would play the drums. They would often stay up late listening to music from a little CD player and talking.

Brad had gone to the boarding school for the duration of his schooling, Will had only gone there for around two years more than Harry had. The three of them had good grades too, which surprised everyone who thought they were the bad boys. They were more like nerds.

"Writing letters again, mate?" Will asked, laying on his bed and working on homework.

"To this mysterious Nick?" Brad laughed.

"Shut up," Harry said half-heartedly, trying to finish his letter. "It's the last one I'll ever write to him."

"Anyone want to sneak out tonight?" Will pushed the paper back into it's folder, not interested in completing it.

"And go where? It's winter," Harry commented, folding the letter into the envelope and finding a stamp. It was his last one.

"We could steal a teacher's car. I know how to drive." Will boasted.

The two of them knew nothing of Harry's driving background. That was probably for the best, since Harry wanted to forget that part of his life. He was now old enough to legally be able to drive in the UK, but he now realized that the squeaky clean lane is where he wanted to be.

"Let's do it, Harry!" Brad said, jumping off of the bed.

The two convinced him easily - Harry never wanted to be left out of anything. And so, that night, Brad and Harry got a lesson in boosting cars from Will. His backstory was as mysterious as Harry's was, and no one wanted to dive too deep into that one.

Brad and Will could have been twins. But they came from different backgrounds, but were still pesky little rodents. Brad had taken up smoking already, and Will had connections across the school for whatever you needed. Harry was scared of them many a time, before he got to know them. They were his roommates, so it was inevitable.

The three of them stole a car that night and Brad drove into town. With twenty dollars of Will's, they decided to get coffee and then go right back before being caught. But Harry hated coffee, instead getting some hot chocolate with whipped cream. "Are you going to get sprinkles too?" The other two jostled him, and he said yes out of spite, changing his order.

"Medium hot chocolate, whipped cream, and extra sprinkles." He said with a grin, causing the other two to giggle. Harry didn't think it was funny. "I happen to like sprinkles, you dunces." Harry was also experimenting with nail polish at this time in his life, and was very defensive of it.

The drink was delicious, even more so because they had snuck out to get it.

---

The next time Harry received a letter from Nick, Nick was out of the correctional facility and happy to be so. Nick looked forward to seeing Harry when he came back to Holmes Chapel over winter break. Harry was also happy.

But as the nights got colder, Harry grew more restless. He didn't want to wait months and months to be able to be out in the world. He wanted to form a band with his friends and travel the world now.

He told the other two this much.

"I want to be in Paris performing at a pub!" Harry yelled, jumping on the bed. "I just don't want to be here any more!"

It was December. Snow was on the ground. The need to get out had been planted into Harry's head.

"That sounds great." Brad said, sitting on the window sill and blowing smoke out the window. "We'd be dropouts, though."

"We can always get credit later," Will shrugged. "But I think that we should just go! Go as far as our feet and our dreams will take us!"

So they began planning the rest of their lives, and Harry called Nick to ask if he would come with them. He called him the next day, on one of the official phones. "Nick," He started.

"Hi, Harry." His friend's voice rang out.

"Wanna run away with me and my friends?" Harry held onto the receiver, waiting for Nick's response.

"I thought you'd never ask, Harry Styles. I've been waiting my whole life to run away."

"You'd really do it? Drop everything to become a backup singer in our band and travel Europe with us? You'd do it for me, Nick? There's no one else I'd want to travel the world with."

"Yes, I'd do it for you, Harry."

After the conversation ended, Harry rushed back to his room to tell them. December 10th. The dead of night. Then they would run away.