The Lyric Project (Completed)

Two

~ Chapter Two ~

Ed argued with himself. Even if it had been two days after the funeral, Ed felt so alone. Something he hadn't felt for three years; something he had long forgotten the feeling of. People surrounded him, they talked to him and they sympathized for him. Yet none of them could truly know what he was going through at that moment. 

Everything Ed had learned to live for, was gone. Gone as quick as a snap of the fingers. His manager gave him another week of break, but then it was supposed to be back to business - Ed wasn't sure he could do that. 

Samantha had always been there. Either as a friend, a girlfriend or a fiancé. Even when they had a fight, he knew he could call her up and she'd be there for him in a second. He didn't know how he could get on without her.

"Ed! Mate, cheer yourself up. Come on. Get off the sofa, you've been on there for the past two days. You're going to merge with it. Let's go to the bar." A familiar voice ebbed into Ed's thoughts.

"No thanks, Harry. Go on without me," Ed waved the popstar off, not even bothering to look up from the television screen.

"You're going to downward spiral into depression. You're coming with me." Harry grabbed hold of Ed's arm, tugging him upwards. 

Ed then had a moment of childish. He grabbed ahold of that couch and held on for the life of him. "I'm perfectly content with where I am and how I am spending my time. Go away, Harold."

"You're going to lose everything if you keep acting like this. I know what you're going through isn't easy; no one said it was. But if you sit around and do nothing then you're wasting your life away. I knew Samantha, maybe not as well as you did, but I did know her for a year. If she were here right now, she would kick and hit you until you stopped moping around." Harry lectured, he continued to yank and pull on Ed's arm. 

"I really don't want to go. You'll have more fun without me." Ed tried to rationalize, his knuckles turning white from his clutch on the sofa. "Damn, Styles, when did you get so strong?"

"It's this thing called a gym." Harry shot back, finally getting the upper hand and getting Ed off his butt. 

Ed continued to grumble and complain as Harry pushed him into his closet. Harry didn't reply, instead chose a different shirt and shoved Ed into the bathroom. "Change."

"Such a pushy person. Why did I ever become your friend?" Ed said through the door of his bathroom.

Harry simply chuckled. "Because without me, you'd be lost and lonely forever." 

They fell into silence, before Ed exited with a button up shirt and looked a bit better than before. Harry gave a thumb's up in approval before taking ahold of his arm once again and steering him towards the door. Ed groaned, but didn't put up any more resistance. "I still don't want to go."

"Obviously. But if you continue to act like this, everything you've worked for is going to crumble away. I don't want to see that happen to you, you're better than that." Harry pushed him into the passenger's side of the car before crawling into the driver's seat himself. 

Ed stayed silent, in his mind many retorts were forming. Yet he managed to keep them all up there, because he really didn't need Harry mad at him. And maybe he kind of needed to hear what his best mate was saying… Not that Ed would ever admit to that.

~

"Another!" Ed declared after he downed his current shot. Harry, having only had about a fourth of the many drinks his mate had had, cut the bartender off.