Sucks to be Ugly (larry au)

A Year

Chapter 2

Recap:

He walks out of the club and a aching pain hits him in the head. He takes the elevator to the roof. The pain makes him dizzy. He looks in the window only to find the reflection is not him.

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He looks into the window only to find a reflection that is not himself. He gasps in horror. He touches his face. The skin there is no longer smooth and soft but replaced with odd groves and markings. He looks like a monster. He touches the scars and strange markings. He closes his eyes hoping to reopen them and see his face return to normal. When he opens his eyes again, he looks at his arms and then onto his wrist. There, he finds a tree tattoo.

"I see you found the tattoo Harry," a voice said making his head snap up. "You! You did this!!! You're going to pay for what you did to me!" He seethed and pointing his finger.  

"AWW baby. Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over yourself." She skipped around the roof giggling. "You have a year to find someone to love you and if not, you're stuck like that forever," she said walking away. The word forever scared Harry and made his head swim. His beauty was the only thing that perpetuated his popularity, the only thing he had other than money. 

"A YEAR?" He yells, still looking at his tattoo. Looking up, he sees her figure retreating into the night. He runs after her only for her to disappear midair. She was long gone. "Dammit." He shouts. In a panic, he runs down the stairs and into the streets. Not stopping to talk to anyone or let them recognize him, he gets odd stares from people as he rushes home.

He runs towards the apartment that his mum and he shared. Not wasting anytime he races up 10 flights of stairs. Heart racing, he swings open the door. Not daring to turn on any lights, he closes the door in a rush.

"Honey? Is that you?" His mum called from the kitchen. "Yeah, it's me mum. Please don't come in here," he said mumbling walking towards his room. He bumps into a side table in the hallway and grunts. His mother comes out from into the kitchen to find him stumbling around, clutching his hip. She walks closer to him. Halfway down the hall, she turns on a light. She gasps at the sight. Not stepping any closer, she pulls out her cellphone.

"Harry, we'll work this out," she calls to him before walking back into the kitchen. He heads toward his room hating himself and the way his mother had looked at him. He sits down onto his bed and puts his hands between his knees. He scratches the back of his neck before laying down. He slowly falls asleep to worries about what he will do about this curse.

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A month had passed and no one knew how to make Harry beautiful again. Harry hadn't attended school and stayed locked up in his room most of the time, angry. He lived in a new house away from his mom, per her suggestion. Harry knew it wasn't because she didn't want distractions from her work, but because she didn't want to look at him or acknowledge his existence. At the new apartment, he lived with an Pakistani care taker named Zayn. After the first few weeks of being moved into his new apartment, a blind tutor came to help Harry learn. He became acquainted with Harry, not putting up with his egotistical bullshit. 

Halloween had rolled around, the only time Harry could go out without being stared at like a freak. "You know, there is a festival tonight, I think you'll be ok to go," Zayn suggested. "Ok," he replied throwing on jeans and a sweatshirt. Harry didn't argue as much as he once might have. There wasn't as much point, he'd lost anything he cared about, his beauty and popularity. Leaving the apartment, he takes the elevator to the parking garage. He grabs his motorcycle and drives to the festival.

He was complimented on his 'costume' but it wasn't a costume, it was him, in the flesh. He caught a glimpse of Hollie and Niall furiously making out on the steps. "Hollie?" He called in confusion and anger. They pulled apart and looked around scared. "Did you hear that? I thought I just heard Harry," Hollie confessed. Niall nodded in agreement. "I hope he's doing better wherever he is. I just feel like I had to be so mean when he was around," she spoke again. Niall agreed so that they could resume kissing sooner. 

Harry became frustrated and kicked a can making a boy jump. "Hey now!" the boy shouted. He was dressed as John Lennon. "Sorry," Harry replied, quickly turning away from him. "Harry?" He asked, squinting at him. Harry didn't say anything, just stayed still with his back turned to the boy. "Sorry, thought you were someone else. I'm Louis by the way." Harry nodded. The boy glanced at the new found couple that was making out on the stairs.

"I wonder what happened to the old school love. The one where 'I love you' wasn't such a meaningless term. The one where they wrote love letters to each other," he said. Harry stood there listening to the Louis' every word. "You so don't have to listen to me anymore, I think I'll just go," he said setting his hippie sunglasses down. He walked away in mystery. Harry went and picked up the glasses. He followed Louis home. He became immediately concerned when he found out where he lived. From then on he promised himself that every night he'd come and check on the boy he found so interesting.

One night, while Harry watched him, Louis had gone looking for his father. His father was fighting off two macho men, ones who wanted their money back that Louis' dad had not payed off from gambling. Louis had found his dad and tried to pry the men off his dad before they beat him into a pulp. In the process, he'd got knocked out by the men. As soon as he'd seen this, Harry ran and pulled off the two men. "Stop! I'll pay back his debt. Just leave them alone." The two men scoffed. "Yea kid? Do you even know how much this little twat has in his debt? It's $10,000. Where is a lil bitch like you going to pay that off? Huh?" The man cracked his knuckles. "I'll get you your money," He says firmly and looks the men in their eyes. He pulls out his phone and gives the men his number. He helps Louis, disoriented and unable to see, try to stand to his feet. The men slowly start backing off. "If you don't get us the money by tomorrow, we take the little twink there," he calls, pointing at Louis. Once the men were out of sight, Louis' father exploded.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Louis' father raged. "It doesn't matter, if he stays here, he'll get hurt, you don't want that do you?" He said. "No..." "Then it'll be best if he comes and lives with me," he replies. "Fine," the dad says curtly. He nods and walks away after giving him the information.

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The next day, the father dropped off an extremely upset Louis as promised. Zayn showed him his room and after thanking Zayn, quickly shut the door and locked it. This is how Louis acted for three whole weeks and only came down when it was meal times.

Harry tried to buy his love, leaving presents outside his door. Nothing worked. This pissed Harry off more than he'd like to admit. He'd never dealt with a boy before, he'd only ever been with women who liked material things. "I DONT KNOW WHAT IM DOING WRONG!" He shouted at Zayn. "Honey, maybe, he's not one to be bought," he said nudging him. "Think," he said tapping him on the head, before spinning around and exiting the room. 

Harry stormed off into his room. He thought and thought. Suddenly, he remembered the gummy fruit snacks Louis loved to eat. In a hurry, he ran to the corner store and bought a whole crate of them. Luckily, the door was unlocked this time. Stealthily coming through the door with a ski mask on, he overheard Louis talking to a friend about running away. Louis' back was turned staring out the window, longing to be back and connected to the outside world. Harry sighed.

He set it on the top of her bed. The floorboards squeaked and Louis turned around quickly. Harry backed into the wall. "What's with the ski mask?" he asked. "I don't want you to see me," Harry said looking down.

"Thanks for the gummy fruit snacks," he said while walking back to his window. He shrugged and went back downstairs. "THANKS ZAYN!" He yelled. He shuffled to find his tutor. "Listen, I need you to make me look smart. Like we've been studying for weeks and not like we just started a week ago. Find a good poem or something and then invite her," he said. Liam rolled his eyes. He waved him off and went back to reading, feeling his way through the book.

Harry began to build a green house on the rooftop. He worked tirelessly on it while Liam tutored him. Louis didn't come down often from his upstairs bedroom. He was still upset with the idea of basically getting sold in return for paying off a debt.

When Liam invited him, he'd agreed.  

The one night he did come down, he was in for a big surprise.