Guess Who? (Larry AU)

Chapter 19

Louis P.O.V. –

“I remember,” he gasped. Harry remembered. What did he remember? Could it be… did he remember me?

I tried not to get my hopes up as I shifted my legs from underneath me so I could face Harry. Tears brimming under my eyes, I searched for confirmation of his memory. “W-what do you remember?”

Harry’s eyes were still as wide as the full moon as he fumbled around in his brain for words, comprehension, and breath. “I-I remember… th-the I remember the hospital…and the girl. She was sick, really sick. She… she made me promise to… to never leave you. A-and I agreed, but there’s something else before that.” With a violent jerk of his head, Harry’s gaze cut into me. “You… I remember you!” I felt like my heart was about to explode from all of the hope swarming and buzzing around it. My heart was beating so loudly and quickly I was surprised it wasn’t knocking against my rib cage. He was remembering me; possibly remembering us. I glanced at the sky and silently thanked the Lord for granting me some relief.

Before I could respond, Harry carried on, his voice rising in volume, “I remember the night we met. Ha-ha, those were the exact words we used. You weren’t kidding huh? Then let’s see… I remember the football game. You scored…three? Yeah, three of the five goals, even the winning one at that! Lots of confusion was going on in my mind during that time span. There was also the douche waiter, when I saw you in the hospital and you told me about Felicite, that’s when I met your mum too.” Harry stopped as if he were checking to make sure his memory was accurate. Eagerly, I nodded to him and urged him to continue. After a few moments, he bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, Louis. That’s all I remember. I know it’s not much, and it’s not what you wanted. I know you want me to remember that I… that I love you, but it just won’t come to me, but I do remember my mixed up feelings for you. I remember how I struggled to come to terms with the fact that I might have a crush on a really attractive guy of all things. At least there’s that, right? There’s some progress.” Harry must have seen my look of disappointment because he rushed to finish. “But I’m going to keep my promise to your sister. I’m not going to leave you; I’ll be here until you don’t need me. If you want to then we can try the whole…um… dating thing. I know I’m not the same Harry you fell in love with, but I hope I can be enough until he returns to you. Is…is that okay with you?”

“Yes, god yes, thank you so fucking much. I-I don’t know what I would do w-without both you and…” I choked. I couldn’t bring myself to speak her name. The pain was too real, too fresh. Just the thought of her caused me to burst into tears again until I was at the point of bawling so much I couldn’t stop. The relentless crying and hyperventilation caused me to throw up on the hospital room floor. A janitor came into clean up my embarrassment as Harry invited me to sit next to him. Hesitantly, I agreed. I had never felt so ill before in my life. Nothing would ever be the same again.

I had really lost her today. They had always told us that she would never outlive any of us, but a miniscule part of me held onto the hope that she would at least live to graduate. Never in a million years would I have dreamed she would’ve gone this quickly, this suddenly.

Harry P.O.V. –

After a half hour of sniffling, Louis had finally fallen asleep. When he had first crawled up beside me, he was clammy and cold. For reasons I couldn’t fathom, I felt a pain in my heart at seeing him so…so broken and devastated. He was in so much grief that he genuinely seemed to have gotten himself ill. Eventually, I too drifted out of consciousness from pure exhaustion.

A faint noise began to slowly pull me out of a peaceful sleep. I mumbled into my pillow for the noise to go away. The noise persisted causing me to let out a groan and slowly peal my eyes open.