Scared (L.S)

forty four

 It was okay at first, it really was. Louis was distracted by his classes, they were hard, and Jack and Alif are good friends. They took Louis out on the weekends because they knew he was sad and they brought him dinner on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Those are the nights that he Skyped with Harry.

And Harry was okay too. He texted Louis all day, every day, but he also befriended one of the new girls and a few of the guys from the football team still say hi to him in the hallways. Stan's little brother, who is two years younger than Harry, greeted him a few times in the hall which is nice. They talked about Stan once or twice.

Except then September ended and it was getting chilly, the sun began to set at five pm and some of the guys that beat Harry up the year before had figured out his class schedule and started to follow him between periods. Teasing and taunting him, occasionally shoving him.

And as much as Louis loved living in London and loved his new friends, new life, he missed Doncaster and the life he had there. He missed Anne and his sisters and maybe even missed his mum a bit. He missed Harry so much. He missed Harry even when they were on the phone together but he would never say a thing because Harry always looked like he was having a good time and his eyes were bright and his voice was happy.

Louis didn't want to bother him.

"Hi Lou," Harry greeted one night through the screen.

"Hi baby," Louis smiled at the boy and Harry felt better immediately, "How was school?"

Harry held back a frown. School had been shit. This one guy who was probably double his weight had pushed Harry into the wall, leaving a bruise all over the right side of his torso.

"It was good," He said after a moment. He doesn't want to bother Louis. "Syeda," She was Harry's new friend, "and I partnered up for this project in psych. Which is good 'cuz I don't wanna work with anyone else."

"Replacing me?" Louis said with a chuckle, glancing away from the screen when the door opened. "Hey Jack."

"Hey Louis, Harry."

"Hi Jack," Harry said loudly so Jack could hear. This is what happened most Tuesday and Thursdays. When Jack or Alif would stop by with Louis' dinner, they would all have a quick chat. Harry loved it, loved the way that he was able to throw himself into Louis' world, even if it was from 300 km away.

After Jack left and Louis had eaten his dinner, Harry doing the same on his side of the camera, they both took their laptops and lay down in their beds, turning off the lights and sitting under the covers so that all they could see was each other, illuminated by just the light from the screen.

"I miss you," Louis whispered, breaking their silence.

Harry frowned, "I miss you too, but it's not that bad right? You must be having such a great time in London."

Louis almost told Harry the truth. He almost told him that he wasn't able to go an entire day without feeling homesick, that he kind of hated going to class and that, yeah, his friends were great, but no one was as great as Harry.

"Yeah, I guess," Louis replied quietly.

"You're coming home next weekend, yeah?" Harry asked. Louis thought in his head, next weekend would be the first weekend of October. They had planned it before he even left Doncaster.

"Oh shit," Louis swore with realization, "I have a midterm on Saturday."

Harry's face fell immediately, Louis pretended not to see it.

"It's okay, Lou."

"I'm sorry," Louis said.

"It's not your fault."