laugh often // larry stylinson {BOOK ONE}

chapter six

  "Like I said, I was waiting for you." He started, but I cut him off, "Why? How did you know I would come?" I asked, not looking at him as he watched me dabbing his wounds. 

   "I knew you'd want answers eventually. And that's where we've always suddenly met up, sometimes by accident. I figured you'd show up." He wasn't looking at me anymore, and I would have swore I saw a hint of red on his cheeks. 

  "Anyway, I bet you're wondering why I've been.." He trailed off, but I gladly piped up. "Avoiding me? Running away at the sight of me? Appalled by my face?" I said, pretty calmly. 

  He chuckled, "Heavens, no! Avoiding would be the only word for it. But I haven't been doing it for something you did. It's all me, Harry. I was scared." He admitted, and I pushed a little too hard on his wounds, making him flinch, and grab onto my shoulder, squeezing tightly. 

  "Oops.." I said, looking up at him, he looked back down, but didn't speak. I noticed his eyes for the first time since we've met. They were blue, but green, like mine. But only in the middle, around the pupil. They were very beautiful. 

  I tore my gaze away, and he continued talking like there wasn't the slightest interruption. 

  "Scared of what? Don't take this the wrong way, Harry. I was scared of losing you." He almost whispered, and I froze. 

  "Losing me?" I whispered back, not looking at him. 

  "Yes, not in that context, because I know what you're thinking. I don't have friends, you know. I don't make them. I.. I have more 'followers', if you wanna call them that. But I don't have friends. I didn't know how to keep them. I was thinking, maybe avoiding you, you'd realize I'm not the right friend for you." He concluded, and I stood up, now eye-level with him, although he was sitting.

  "Well, that really isn't how you keep friends. All you have to do is.." It was a lot harder to explain friendship than I thought it would be. He waited. 

  "Just be a friend to them, I guess.. Don't avoid them, be nice, do things for each other. It's hard to explain." I shrugged, placing the bloody rag in the trash as I walked by. 

  He didn't say anything, but pulled his shirt back down. I caught a glimpse of his body, and I quickly looked away, unable to hide the smirk.

  Finally, "I guess you're right.. Sorry." He whispered the last part, and I twisted around. 

  "Don't mention it." I smiled, and he returned it happily. 

  "But honestly, don't lay a finger on my sister." I said, and winked. He took that pretty seriously, by the looks of it, and nodded, chuckling.

  "No problem.." He muttered, and by his smile at me seconds later, he hadn't meant for me to hear it.

****

  "Bye, see you in school?" I asked, more of just stating it, and he nodded, waving as we walked along. 

  I sighed, and watched him disappear before I shut the door, leaning against it. We had spent the next few hours hanging out in the kitchen, mostly, then heading for the living room and flipping through a few channels, before he realized the time, and quickly rushed off. 

  "Haz?" Gemma's voice piped up from the stairwell, and I twisted around to face her, she hurried down to my side, "Who was he, anyway?" 

  "Just a boy I knew from school, I found him in the woods all beaten up, I couldn't just leave him like that." I remembered the moment I found him, twisted, and lying on the ground. I shivered.