Reason To Be (A Zouis Family AU)

Part Four, Chapter Two

A new text pings up and he sees that it's from his friend Leila from his class.

Leila
heard yelling again. need me to come over?

Harry winces at that, knowing that she has the dorm above theirs and hating that everyone else can hear when Brad starts shouting. He doesn't like how concerned Leila gets all the time - she had cornered him on the third week of them all moving in and starting the first year, demanded to know if Brad had ever been violent to him.

The answer to that is a huge no. Brad loves him, he would never go out of his way to harm him; and he'd made sure to make that clear to Leila. But she still goes out of her way to check in with him whenever he seems anything less than his usual happy self or whenever she hears them fighting.

Couples fight. Dad and Papa had fought a lot a few years ago, he still remembers vividly how Niall had called him sobbing one night because he was scared of all the shouting. But their parents love each other in a way that feels like a fairytale, and that's exactly what he and Brad have.

They fight and then they make up, and it's definitely not something that he wants everyone worrying over because he isn't worried. He's not.

(Maybe a little. Maybe his heart feels ready to burst every time Brad raises his voice and maybe he flinches every time someone gets too close to him in the halls at uni. But he's not really worried.)

Still, all that set aside, Leila is his friend and he knows that she's only looking out for him because she cares; he appreciates that. That's why he'd given her the number for the flip phone - because he trusts that she's not going to run to Brad about it.

(Not that he's afraid of what will happen if Brad finds out about the spare phone. Because he really isn't.)

Haz
everything's fine. just a stupid fight.

see you in class later??

The reply comes soon after, as if she's been waiting for him to answer.

Leila
k. upstairs if you need me.

and yeah obv.

He smiles at the blunt replies, shaking his head a little before he sits down on the edge of the bed that he and Brad have been sharing since he moved in two months ago, finger hovering over Niall's contact.

A quick glance at the time tells him that his brother would be on break from lessons by now, and he quickly presses call - the last thing he wants to do is make him worry more than he already is according to their Dad. He knows it isn't technically his fault, but he feels bad for not answering his younger brothers calls.

The call is answered almost immediately.

"Hello?" Niall sounds confused, and Harry quickly realises that it'll be because his number will be unknown since he hasn't given it to him yet.

He smiles though, at the familiar voice, the background chatter of the school hallway. "Hey, Ni. It's me," he answers, hearing the fifteen year old let out an immediate huff of breath.

"Haz! You're okay! Did you get a new number? Or a new phone? I tried calling you so many times, and even Papa says he's worried because you haven't come over in soooo long, and I'm really missing you - I was worried you were, like, sick or something because I didn't know why else you wouldn't answer my calls but it's okay if you just got a new number," he rambles, before stopping to catch his breath.

Harry laughs, because he hasn't heard his brother ramble like this in a long time and he's missed the childishness of it; the meds still had him zombified the last time he'd seen him, and that had only been a few weeks ago.