He Could Be Mine

Chapter 19: Safe and Sound

Here's the update! This story is coming to an end. I am thinking about making a sequel. After all, the story can't be over if Harry and Louis aren't together, right?

Louis' POV

I was happy. Well, I was as happy as I had been since the breakup with Harry. My life was going well. I had my moments of confusion, like always, but I made it through. I had to decide what was important to me and what wasn't.

Being with family was nice, but they were a bit smothering. They treated me like one of their own, and they watched me like a hawk. But I needed to be smothered. I knew that. I was in therapy. Each session was becoming more and more vague. I wasn't willing to go into detail about why I was even in the sessions. My uncle told my therapist that I was "in one bad relationship too many" and that I "just needed a little boost."

What he meant by that last bit was the most confusing. I'd only been in one "bad" relationship. My uncle didn't have any details. He probably didn't know why I was there. My aunt told him that I "needed to get away from someone dangerous." That could've meant anything from drugs to domestic violence, and I think my uncle assumed all of the above were true.

My uncle didn't have a wife. His name was Lionel, and he cursed his mom every chance he got for naming him that. He said that he would've been married ages ago had she named him something cool like "Brian." Yes, he actually said that. No, he didn't know that the person I was running from was named Brian. He was just that kind of guy. He always said the wrong thing without realizing it.

He didn't know I was gay. Half my family didn't know. That half lived in the middle of America and were more concerned with storm cellars than romance, so I didn't mind. I barely spoke to them, so I didn't see the point in calling and announcing my homosexuality. About one-third of the way into one of his rants about that "damned grocery selling queer who can't count change to save his life," I came out.

It wasn't an extravagant affair. I just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You so know I'm gay, right?" I asked. I knew that he didn't. Why would he?

He looked shocked, and walked closer to me. He seemed to be examining my whole body, as if he was expecting a small rainbow to appear somewhere.

"Well, I never." he gasped, and for a second I thought maybe a rainbow had appeared. Something must've changed because his face changed. He looked even more shocked.

"A queer. Right in front of me. All this time. You don't even look it." he breathed. He seemed amazed by my hidden homosexuality.

"Look it?" I asked. I hadn't come out to anyone in years. They just picked up on it. I guess Lionel didn't have the chance to pick up on it because I wasn't talking about boys, or anyone for that matter. I was barely going to school.

"You know. Gay?" he said it like a question.

"Well I am. Is that a problem?" I asked cautiously. I realized then that he could have been very homophobic.

"Now, your auntie ain't tell me about none of that," he sighed, "I didn't know queers rollerboarded."

He did that a lot. He got lost halfway through a sentence and then started talking about something totally different. Just I. case you're wondering, rollerboarding is not a thing. I skateboard. The board rolls, so I get where Lionel was coming from.

"That's why I didn't notice. The rollerboard made you seem tougher. Queers ain't usually tough." he shrugged. I could see the small, rarely used, wheels in his head turning.

"Gay people are tough all the time." I frowned.

"In my 56 years I've never know one to be tough." he shrugged again.

I wasn't that surprised. Looking back, in the month I'd been there I'd only ever heard him speak of gay people negatively.  And I don't even think that he realized that he was doing it.

"I'm gonna go." I sighed.

"Rollerboarding? Don't go by Ms. Green's house 'cause you'll scare the chil'ren" he called behind me, "they're frightened of queers."

And that's when I knew that I had to get out of there. I'd spoken to Ms. Green's kids. They were always outside. She was inside drinking. Those kids had no reason to be afraid of gay people. They should have been afraid of alcoholic moms who forget to feed them some days. They should be afraid of the fact they would probably end up just like her. They missed too much school, and the oldest boy was always high as a kite. But they were afraid of gays.

I was afraid of dying alone and hated in the middle of Nowhere, USA. So I left. I only had one place where I could go. The only place I could ever go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry's POV

Niall was becoming ridiculous. He took whatever opportunity he could get to touch me.  He was casual about it. With school finally done, we were practically living out of each other's houses. We spent more time at Niall's house than mine, because his mom was a teacher in a district that still had school.

We were three days into our first summer as something other than high school students. The excitement of graduation and prom were long gone. So we did what any bored teens would do: each other.

I'm kidding. Kind of. You see, Niall had this effect in me. I called it the "Horan magic." I joked that he could bring out the wh*re in anyone. It was funny, but true. I had to stop myself from having sex with Niall so many times.

After his tenth failed attempt he stopped trying, for two weeks. Everything we did was consensual. Niall knew that. He also knew that each time I saw him we would go farther and farther. Eventually I would have sex with Niall, that was something that we both knew. The question was when, not if. We spent the whole summer together, and it was hot. I mean the weather. And Niall. But mostly the weather.