The Accident

Chapter Seven

  “I regret to inform you that your mark in this class is below a passing level,” Mr. Morris said without even a hint of emotion or sympathy to his voice. He didn’t even look up at Harry; he just shuffled a pile of papers in his hands before neatly setting them down on his desk and then fidgeting and focusing his attention on something else of absolute unimportance. Harry wanted nothing more in that moment than to slap his hands down on the desk and demand a reason for why he was failing, but he knew that would land him nothing but an expulsion from the school.

  “But I’ve been doing all of the extra credit work you assigned!” Harry argued.

  “There’s a difference between doing the work and doing the work correctly,” Mr. Morris said with his nose snout in superiority.

  “Regret to inform me, pfft.” Harry snapped, slamming his textbook down hard on the desk and rolling his eyes.

  “I don’t very much appreciate your attitude, Mr. Styles.” He said, narrowing his eyes. Harry decided he was a villain. Mr. Morris was a villain who was out to grant ridicule in the lives of teenagers.

  “Well you won’t have to put up with it any longer,” Harry spat and turned on his heels for the classroom door. As soon as he’d stepped outside into the cool hallway, a wave of stress knocked the wind right out of him. He ran outside into the fresh air and scanned the lot for his car that he made way to. The second he slipped inside he turned the keys in the ignition and blasted the radio in attempt to drown out his angry, morbid thoughts.

  After only having been on the road for a couple of minutes, his phone began to buzz violently in his pocket, so he shifted his weight to one side and shoved his hand in the pocket of his trousers in search for it.

  “Hello?” Harry said as he pinched the phone between his ear and his shoulder, gripping the steering wheel tighter with one hand and turning the radio down with the other.

  “Hey it’s me,” Gemma said casually. “How did your meeting at the school go with your prof?”

  “Ha, funny story really…” Harry trailed off. “But I’m driving right now so I’ll have to tell you about it later. I’m coming to yours for lunch, so I can explain then?”

  “Okay, see you soon,” she replied softly before ending the call. His sister didn’t live too far from him now, so he accelerated a little more and soon passed the complex of his own flat before simply pulling into the lot of his sisters. He didn’t waste any time and trudged into the building and headed for the lifts that took him up to her floor and right to her door, where he knocked once. “It’s open!” He heard his sister call, so he let himself in.

  “Hey!” Zayn waved from his spot on the couch, where he was sprawled across every inch of cushion with the television blaring in front of him and a bag of crisps on his lap. Harry waved back in acknowledgement but he didn’t waste any time before heading to the kitchen where his sister sat at the table, picking at her lunch.

  “You will never guess just how peachy my day has been,” Harry said, his voice thick with sarcasm. Gemma pushed a sandwich on a plate across the table to him, and he took a seat across from her and calmed down long enough to bite a mouthful off.

  Soon he lodged into the story of the villainous professor and how he was failing the course. Being his older sister and in attempt to cheer him up, Gemma offered optimistic points such as “at least it’s summer break now” and “you didn’t even need that credit to graduate, it was only an elective” but Harry didn’t seem to want to hear it, so she decided to change the topic before he combusted. “So have you seen Louis lately?”