She was in need for some real fixing, and who better to fix her than the boy next door.
***
It was 4 o'clock in the morning, Harry was endlessly scrolling down his many YouTube pages, hoping for an interesting one to take his fancy.
When his phone pinged.
Harry's eyebrows scrunched, reading the message over a few times.
Why was Willow on her way over?
Not only was it 4 in the morning, but she lived all the way in Guernsey.
They can't have been any older than 2 years when they first met. It's what happens when mothers who have stayed in contact get pregnant at the same time.
But without any sort of warning, she was heading up to the flat. Callum was spending the night with his girlfriend, leaving Harry home alone.
He was expecting to spent the night watching random videos and talking with his mates. But he couldn't complain, he never missed an opportunity to talk to his beauty of a best friend.
Within 3 minutes of the message coming through, the doorbell rang.
He got to his feet, covering his naked torso with a hoodie. He trudged along the living room floor, he anticipated just seeing his best friend stood there. And while she was, she was altered.
His face instantly dropped. Scattered across her body, were cuts, bruises, scratches. Practically everything under the sun.
Her eyes were blotchy and red, a punch had clearly been delivered to her eye in the recent days.
Without a second thought, he grabbed onto her hands, pulling her closer and wrapping his arms around her fragile frame.
She just broke down.
꧁time skip (a few days later)꧂
"Yeah she's okay, still a bit shaky though"
Harry whispered down the phone to her parents.
She was currently wrapped in a blanket, blankly staring at the tv. Whatever she was watching clearly wasn't going into her head.
Harry was currently in the middle of his daily update on the girl.
Nothing much had changed within 4 days, other than the fact that her injuries were starting to clear up, which Harry would constantly say 'at least that's something'
Other than that, nothing was improving.
If so much as the door knocked, she instantly froze. Harry would always do his best to comfort her, hold onto her hands and tell her that it was just Cal or whoever was delivering food.
She barely spoke a word after the first night.
She explained the whole ordeal to Harry, who found the conversation very hard to swallow.
He was incredibly protective of his friend, and
to hear what she had endured, made his blood boil.
"H-he started shouting at me, telling me that I was a slut and a bitch"
She sobbed into his shoulder, Harry stroking the back of her head while she spoke.
"He was complaining that I wasn't pleasuring him enough because I was always at work"
Harry shook his head, slightly tearing up himself.
He had known her now ex boyfriend for a number of years. He was slightly older than himself, and knew him from playing football together in the same squad.
About 2 years after Harry had moved to London, she had announced that the two were 'speaking'. Harry expected this to be over in a matter of months, but by the time she had come up to visit him, he was a full time boyfriend.
He can remember the slight feeling of jealousy that bubbled in his stomach. But deciding that he made her happy, he didn't say anything about it.
But after getting the full run down of everything, he was definitely ready to punch this boy till he had no sense of mind anymore.
When she left her boyfriends house after the incident, she didn't know what to do. Where to go. She had recently moved into his house, meaning her old flat was no longer hers. Her parents weren't home and there wasn't anyone she knew around.
Instead of walking to the closest house that had one of her friends, she took a 1 hour flight to London, so she could be with her best friend.
Willow still however hadn't explained the whole story. Harry knew about the verbal stuff, but was still unaware of the length of the situation.
He could assume how the bruise on her eye got there, but everything else was a mystery to him.
She tried to piece the parts together, but struggled a great deal getting all of the words out.
Harry hugged her, telling her that she didn't need to tell him anything until she was ready, which received a nod from the girl.
Harry looked over his shoulder, frowning at the sight in front of him.
She was a shell of who she once was. She wasn't Willow anymore.
He walked over to the kitchen, pouring her a mug of her favourite tea. He let it cool down, and took it over to her.
"Willow? I've got you some tea"
She smiled, taking it from him and placing it in her lap.
"Harry?"
She whispered. Her voice horse and rough. Harry turned back to her, nodding his head.
"Let me say everything else now before I chicken out and never tell you"
The longest thing she had said in the past few days.
"Are you sure?"
He questioned, not wanting to push her into saying things she wasn't ready to say. But wanting to know everything at the same time.
"Yeah, if you promise not to interrupt me"
She uttered. Harry sat next to her on the sofa, she faced forward, avoiding the possibility of looking at him during this conversation.
Harry didn't think it could get any worse than the one they had shared many nights ago, but that conversation seemed like a general catch up compared to this one.
"It started about a year ago. I don't really know what started him off. The day he first put his hands on me, I was on the phone to you, just catching up with everything. And when I said that I loved you, you know like usual, he over heard and then started yelling at me, accusing me of cheating on him with you"
She began sobbing again, her shaky hands being gently held in his. Her voice was breaking up, her words almost inaudible.
"He was just smacking me for the first few months, I just took it because I didn't want things to get worse"
Harry nodded, assuming that was it. That's all his brain wanted to imagine. But she continued.
"But when I came home from work once, he was going through my laptop and deleting loads of videos of me and you. When I got angry and started shouted him, he stood up and punched me"
Harry shook his head. What that bastard had done was hurt his best friend. His favourite person in the whole world.
He didn't know how much more he could take, but things were about to get worse.
"It quickly became a daily thing. He'd get mad, he'd most likely be drunk, he'd find any excuse to hurt me, and he would"
It was almost amazing how well Harry was handling this, and even more so, how Willow was.
"I couldn't do anything without it somehow offending him and end with him hurting me"
At this point there was no stopping her. She explained everything, not leaving anything out.
"I uh, a few months ago, it was after he had, you know. And I was lying on the bed, thinking over and over that this was forever, for about 2 hours, I contemplated just ending it"
Harry looked deep into her eyes, internally crossing his fingers that what she was saying wasn't actually what she was saying.
"End it with him?"
She said nothing, only completely breaking down in his arms. Harry's tears fell as he brought her close.
"Willow"
He sighed, never ever wanting to let her go.
He couldn't believe he had no idea what was going on.
He was disappointed in himself for not realising sooner. All the times where their phone conversations were cut short or were cancelled all together.
The amount of times he had noticed little marks in pictures she would post of herself, or the fact that she would wear a lot more makeup when they would see each other.
But he chalked it up to her clumsy-ness or wanting to try new things. But now he knows it's a lot darker than that.
"I felt so ashamed for thinking about it Harry. I have so many good things going on in my life. With my family, my friends, with you. But at that point, I just didn't know what else I could do"
Harry pushed her gently forward, making the two lock eyes. He moved his hands up, holding gently to the bottom of her face.
"I love you. The bastard is gone. You can trust me when I say that you'll never have to worry about him again. You can stay here for as long as you want, I'm sure Cal won't mind"
She shook her head, clearing her throat a little.
"No Harry, I don't want to intrude you two with all of my problems"
"You won't be intruding Willow, you'd never be intruding. If it meant you were safe then you can live here forever"
She smiled softly, glad she chose to come here instead of anyone else.
She initially wasn't sure why Harry was her first choice. Sure he was her best friend, but he was a flight and a long drive away. So why go to the trouble of going all that way, when she can just go to a friends house that was maybe half an hour away.
Ever since the two were young, Harry was always the protector. And while Willow could stand her own ground, Harry was always there to step in when she was in trouble.
When she was being picked on in school, Harry, who stood no taller than 3 ft7, confronted these little terrorises, and made sure they never talked to Willow again.
But Willow was no push over, she can proudly say she is much better a football than wroetoshaw, Mr Football himself. He'd never admit it, but it was true.
She had starred in a few of Harry's football videos, often beating him. While football wasn't her main passion, she was still able to destroy him at the sport.
The fans loved to watch and the two loved to provide. All of this filming dwindled however. A certain someone found it ridiculous that a girl was spending so much time with another boy that wasn't her boyfriend.
But he was gone now. He was out of her life.
At some point during the four days she had been with Harry, he had blocked the pricks number on her phone. Right after calling him and letting him know how much he had fucked up.
It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, like she could breath again.
"Thank you Harry. I know we haven't seen each other a lot recently, but it means so much to me that you still care"
He looked at her with a confused expression.
"Of course I care. I love you"
That hit a little different.
They had said I love you, I love you too before, but there was something in his tone that made it feel more special.
Harry sighed, lowering his head.
"Look Willow, this definitely isn't the right time to be telling you this, considering what's happened to you. But, I love you, I'm in love with you"
Her eyebrows raised.
"I have for a while but I didn't want to say anything because I thought you were happy. Cal has told me so many times to tell you, in fact all of the boys have, but I've been too much of a pussy. And I know you're venerable, but if I didn't say it now, I was never going to say it"
Willow just sat there in silence, taking in everything the boy had just said. Looks like Harry had a big confession on his belt as well.
"I uh"
She stuttered, knowing what she wanted to say, but figuring out how. She took his hands in hers, holding them on her lap tightly.
"I love you too"
She whispered, leaning forward and planting one elongated kiss on his unsuspecting lips. They both closed their eyes as they sunk into the embrace.
Harry had dreamed of this moment. Admittedly under better circumstances, but her lips were just as soft and passionate as he had imagined.
Harry suddenly pulled back, his insecurity kicking in.
"Willow"
He whispered, catching his breath as she opened her eyes.
"I don't want this to be a one time thing, but I also don't want to push you into anything you not ready for"
She smiled, moving her hand towards his hair, playing softly with the strands of mousy brown locks.
"I don't want this to be a one time thing either. I can't believe it's only hit me properly now, but I'm so in love with you it's actually insane"
She giggled, causing Harry to smile twice as wide as before.
"But if it's okay, I just need a little time"
Harry nodded, happy that things were turning out for the better.
She leaned forward, kissing him softly on the cheek, a warm feeling filling them both.
From 2 years old to 24, these two have been playing a long game of will they won't they, and after 22 years,
They will.
***
Thanks for reading lads 🙏
This was a request, so I hope it reached your expectations 💖
The subject matter was a bit sad, and it's somewhat similar to my Cal story from a few months ago. If this story did trigger you in any way, just let me know and I'll stay away from these type of stories.
This one took a bit longer to write, because I started it, but then realised that I had gone off from the request if you know what I mean. So I changed that story to a Simon one, so expect that soon. So I ended up having to start from scratch. It's shorter than my usual ones, so I hope that's not a problem lovies 👍🏻
Anywho, upvote because soft Harry is the best Harry.
That's all for now.
Bye-bye
🤙💛Xx