You Found Me [Nouis]

Chapter 2

Louis sat with Harry, Liam, and Zayn, a few friends he'd made at lunch the day before. He remembered he'd been planning on telling the boy he'd met about them before that stupid bully teased him and drove him to running out of class and school in general. Louis hadn't seen him since then.

Louis, Liam, Harry, and Zayn were in their first class, maths. The blonde boy, the Irish one as Louis had discovered when someone had called him a diseased Irish freak, wasn't there, and that worried Louis. Was he in the bathroom, curled up on the floor, crying again, like he had been when they met? Has he even shown up today?

"What's his name?" Louis blurted unintentionally, though he was curious. The blonde boy hadn't talked to him at all. Louis wondered, hurt, if he was annoying or something.

"Who's?" Harry asked, looking in the direction Louis was looking. But Louis was only zoning out, deep in thought, and there was no one standing where his eyes were trained.

"The Irish one's." Louis said, snapping out of his mind-consuming thoughts and looking at the three boys around him. He thought about how beautiful the boy had looked, his hair a bit ruffled, his clothes a bit loose on his small, fragile-looking body, his blue eyes slightly puffy, tears on his face. It was sad to see such a beautiful boy look so upset. Louis' chest ached just to think about it.

"Niall." Liam said after a moment of thinking. Niall was the only Irish boy in their school (as far as he knew- he didn't pay too much attention to the pricks around here). "Why?"

"Niall." Louis repeated quietly. What a beautiful name. It fit him, Louis thought. A beautiful name for a beautiful boy. "Nothing, I just . . . what's wrong with him? I-I mean, why is he so hated?"

"He's not. Not exactly." Harry said, his eyes flashing around the room as he lowered his voice. "These pricks are jealous."

"What do you mean?" Louis frowned. He could see why they were jealous of Niall, but why were they so rude?

"He's the best person in this hell-hole," Harry said. "so people destroyed him, because they want to be the best. It's sickening, honestly."

Louis was silent for a moment. He looked at the ground, playing with his fingers. He had a sudden hate for everyone in this room, other than the three boys sitting around him. Why hurt such a kind person?

"Have you spoken to him?" Louis wondered, looking back up at the other boys. They'd all been looking at him, waiting for him to say something.

"No," Harry said. "he avoids everyone, flinches every time someone gets near him. We've tried to speak to him, but he has trust issues. I would, too, if I were him."

Louis was silent again, lacing his fingers together then pulling them apart. This was confusing and not confusing at the same time, and Louis wondered if he should even be asking- it seemed personal, what Niall was going through.

"I tried to speak to him." Louis didn't look up this time. "I mean, he didn't say anything back. We were in the bathrooms. He was sitting on the floor, crying. I asked him what was wrong and he just shook his head. I went to touch him and, yeah, he flinched. I asked to walk him to lunch but he shook his head again. Why won't he speak? Am I annoying?"

Liam, Harry, and Zayn were all silent, so Louis looked up. They were all staring at him with fairly wide eyes- not shocked, but pretty surprised.

"What?" Louis asked. Is it like super obvious that I'm annoying? Louis asked himself. Why are they giving me that look?

Harry dropped the look, but he was frowning, now. His eyes looked slightly pleased as well as surprised. "You don't know about him, do you?"

"Should I? I only just met him, and I told you, he didn't speak to me." Louis was confused, raising his eyebrow at Harry. "I'm not annoying, right?"