How to Survive Naughty Boy - Larry/Niam/Zerrie

Chapter 8

Harry's POV

Today is the first day of footie practice. At least for me. The team has been practicing the whole year, but the coach made an exception for me and let me join the team. Louis says I have nothing to be worried about, but he's the fucking team captain. He's never had to worry about people judging him with this kind of thing. I've never been good at sports. Ever. I might as well be a dying giraffe. Actually, giraffes are probably more coordinated than me. My main concern though, is that Louis will judge me. He's been amazing at football his whole life. He could consistently score perfect goals before he could even walk! There is not one doubt in my mind that he will play professionally one day. What if he sees me mess up over and over again and he decides he doesn't want to be friends with me anymore?

I see Louis outside waiting in his car to pick me up for school. I pull on my vans and lock the door before making my way over to the boy with beautiful eyes. "Hey Boo," I greet him with a nervous smile as I get into the car. "Hey Haz," he says as he begins to drive to school. "Everything alright?" he asks me. I stay silent for a while.

"I'm just nervous for footie practice tonight," I tell him as I feel my palms start to sweat.

"Harry, relax it's going to be fine. You're an amazing goalie," he reassures me.

"What if they don't like me?" I ask worriedly as we arrive at school.

"Haz who couldn't like you?" he asks me rhetorically as he gets out of the car.

"Naughty Boy," I reply sadly as I follow his previous action.

"The footie team isn't homophobic Hazzabear. I'm gay and I'm team captain," he says trying to convince me everything will be fine.

That doesn't mean they'll like me," I say stubbornly as he walks around the car to stand in front of me.

"Harry Edward Styles if they don't like you so be it! Niall and Liam like you, Zayn and Perrie like you, Chelsea and Riley like you, and most importantly, I like you so why should you care whether or not they like you? They aren't much fun anyways. And I know they have a lot of respect for you because no one has blocked my shot since primary school, so don't worry your pretty little face about this okay?" he yells. I feel myself blush and go to hug him and thank him over and over for being my best mate. I can't help but think this might be the last hug we share. Once I embarrass myself at practice he's sure to leave me, but he called my face pretty! LOUIS FUCKING TOMLINSON CALLED MY FACE PRETTY! "Let's go meet up with the other lads," he tells me. I reluctantly let go of him for what could be the last time and we enter the school.

School is going by so slowly and I'm still nervous. Repeating to myself what Louis said, well yelled, to me this morning, helps a bit, but not enough. Unfortunately we're still in first period. Mrs. Darby lets us read every Friday, so I don't have to pay attention to anything, but I'd really like to enjoy this book and I can't because I can't fucking concentrate! Louis, who is sitting next to me, seems to sense my distress and puts a hand on my arm and squeezes it to calm me down. I feel sparks shooting down my arm. Well that didn't help me relax, but at least it got my mind off of how he'll leave me later today.

"You okay?" Louis asked me quietly.

"I'm fine," I lie. I don't want him to know what I'm actually thinking. He nods, but keeps his hand on my arm. I manage to read a few pages before the bell finally rings signaling that class is over. I pack my bag and wait for Louis and the other lads before we make our way to our music class.

Our assignment is to write a song in groups of 8. Luckily, there are exactly eight of us, so we formed a group. We can write any type of song we want to, but it has to be at least three minutes and it is due the first day we come back. We start to brainstorm ideas about what the song should be about. I zone and think about footie practice again.

"So what do you think Haz?" I hear Louis ask me. "Huh?" I say. Louis rolls his eyes. "I knew you weren't listening," he tells me. "Sorry," I say sheepishly. "Harry what's wrong?" he asks again. I avoid eye contact with him and look down at my lap instead. "Harry, you can tell me. I promise I won't judge you," he tells me gently. I still continue to stay silent. I feel hands on my chin and suddenly I'm staring straight into a beautiful ocean of blue. "Hazzabear, you can tell me anything. Your my best mate till the end. Forever and always," he tells me staring straight into my eyes.

"I don't want you to leave me after I keep messing up," I tell him quietly. He stares at me in shock before pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. We stay like that for a while until he finally lets go and tells me no matter what we'll always be best mates. I'm not nervous anymore, so I finally participate in the conversation. They're practically finished coming up with ideas and have already narrowed it down to only a few.

"We're thinking of writing our song about love, loss, something you should live by, or hate," Perrie tells me.

"Hate?" I question.

"Yeah, about all the things that we don't like. Like a song about Naughty Boy or something," Zayn explains.

"Definitely not hate," I say with disgust.

"See? I told you he wouldn't want to go all Taylor Swift on Naughty Boy," Chelesa teases Riley. (A/N sorry no hate on TS) Riley rolls her eyes.

"What would the songs be about?" I ask.

"Well, for the song to live by, we were thinking it could be about something I heard the other day, 'Words will be just words, till you bring them to life.' It means words you say mean nothing unless you actually prove that you mean them," Liam says. (A/N This is from Another World by One Direction of course. It's the first song I listened to by them.)

"For the song about loss, we could write it about seeing someone that used to mean a lot to you and having to pretend it doesn't matter," Niall adds. (A/N this isn't really a song about loss, but I don't know how else to classify it)

"And for the love song, something about two people going to hell and back, but never giving up on each other," Louis finishes.

"Do we have time to write all of them and choose the best one later?" I ask.

"I guess we could try that. We have Christmas break and we're staying together so we should have plenty of time," Chelsea reasons.

"Great-" Liam starts, but is cut off by the bell.

"We can talk about this later Li," Niall tells him.

We stand up to go to our next to class, PE. Great now I have to survive Louis in the locker room and whatever we're going to be doing in PE class. We slowly walk into the locker room and begin to get dressed. I try not to get too distracted by Louis' gorgeous body. Damn how does this boy always look so flawless. I look at his perfectly toned thighs and then back at my muscle-less thighs. It suddenly hits me hard that even he will never like me as more than a friend. He so fucking perfect and I'm just me. He said we would be best friends no matter what, but I know somehow I'm going to mess that up. After he finds out I like him more than I should, he's going to think I'm disgusting and convince the rest of the group I am too.

"HARRY STYLES!" Coach Tyler screams into the locker room interrupting my thoughts. Shit did I mess up my spot on the team already?

A/N This chapter reminded me of the carrot days haha :) and when Zayn was here :( I hope you liked this chapter! Sorry for any grammar or spelling errors. Please send me comments about anything I can improve on. Thanks for all the reads!