Hearts Without Chains

8.

"I won't." I tell him. I say a small Thankyou, and when I begin to walk away he gains my attention by calling my name, signaling for me to walk back over.

"They can make you dizzy, nauseous, all kinds of things." He tells me once I am close enough, and I nod my head, basically running down the hallway to my class, feeling an extreme amount of guilt as I enter late.

**

"What are you going to do?" Tyler asks me as he walks me to my car after school. I'd taken a peek into the history classroom before leaving, and Harry wasn't there. And I didn't bother on waiting to see if he would show up.

"I can't do anything, I need to go home." I tell him.

"Oh, alright. It's just Shawn and Liv are coming over to my house to watch some movies."

"I'm sorry, Tyler, I just can't. I'm so tired, and I just feel like sleeping. But I need to go home and freaking study-"

"Woah, Joey, are you okay?" He asks me.

"Yes! I'm okay, I just-"

I take a deep breath, feeling tears coming on. I push them away, not wanting to feel stupid.

"I'm fine." I conclude, and by then we reach my car, Tyler growing silent because of my outburst.

"I know when you say freaking, you're upset." He states, because that's maybe the closest I'd ever get to saying a real curse word.

This makes me laugh as I lean against my car door, and I accept the hug he gives to me, warm and comforting and nice. I take in a few peaceful breaths before releasing him, and the smile he gives me makes me return one.

"Once school is over I'll be back to normal." I laugh softly.

"Don't worry about it." He chuckles, and in that moment I realized how much I actually appreciate him as a friend. I wrap my arms around him once more, before getting in my car and driving away.

***

The first thing I did when I got home was take just one pill after putting them in a plastic bag, and I stayed up studying until I felt like my brain was going to burst. I'd taken another Adderall at ten o'clock at night, and that caused me to stay up until two in the morning. That was the last time I remember looking at the clock, and when my alarm went off in
the morning at six, my text book was laid on my stomach and I was still in the same clothes I was in yesterday.

The very first thing I do is clamber downstairs to make a cup of coffee. My mother called in the process of that, and I answered and chatted with her halfheartedly as she told me that she would be home on Monday, and that my father would be home on Wednesday, later than he had planned.

After drinking the whole cup of coffee at the kitchen counter and then loading it in the dishwasher, I take the fastest shower I'd ever taken, running out the front door with wet hair and a headache.

Harry-

I sit at the back of history class, staring at the teacher at the front of the classroom without listening to a word he is saying. I hadn't gone to English class this morning, because I just couldn't bother to show up early today. Josephine sits at her usual spot, clicking her damn pen in that annoying way she'd done the other day. I have a stupid bag with me today, with her shit that she'd left with me Monday inside of it, as well as my board shorts and towel for when I go to the pool after school.

The bell rings and I instantly stand up from my chair, slinging the black bag over my shoulder as I walk down the aisle towards Josephine's desk. Her glasses are sitting on the table on top of her history book, and her hair makes a curtain around her face as she stares at something absentmindedly on her desk. I unzip my bag, and she doesn't notice I am there until I toss her notebook and highlighter onto her desk.

Her head snaps up, and her eyes squint; which I never realized were brown until now. She scrambles for her glasses, putting them on before looking at the crap I set on her desk.

"Thanks." She murmurs.

"You look shittier than usual." I tell her, and she sighs as she stands from her desk, making her arm press against my chest, her limb retracting from my body instantly.

I laugh, and she moves to the other side of the desk before gathering her things to put them in her bag. Her brown hair is frizzed around her face, poking into her glasses, the length falling just below her ribs, I realize.

"Are we studying more bullcrap or what?" I question her, and she glances up to me for a brief second behind lenses, before looking down into her bag again which sits atop of her desk.

She tosses her highlighter inside, and my eyebrows pull towards eachother as I see a plastic bag in her school bag with pills in them, knowing very well what those orange pills are without needing a label or asking. Its Adderall.

"You shouldn't have those out for people to see, you know." I tell her, and she looks up to me with curious eyes, before realizing what I'm speaking of, shutting the flap to her bag.

"I'll be here after school tomorrow, come then." I say, before leaving the classroom, wondering why on earth this girl can't speak simple sentences, because it isn't that fucking hard. And when she does, she stammers and stutters like there's no tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed:) and PS, it kinda grinds my gears when y'all compare everything to After. It's a great great great story and I love it and I'd never steal anything from it (which I don't see where I have) so....yeah. Just because Harry is a complete douche in this story it doesn't mean it's exactly like After:) sorry, I just had to put that out there! Love you guys!!!