Harry Styles watched as his A-level class started to walk into his classroom for the last lesson of the day. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get them to do any work on a Friday afternoon, last period, so he figured he’d stick on a film to go with the course. Harry was in a generally good mood, and he adjusted his bowtie as he played around with trying to get the DVD sorted. The class were all talking about the film and Harry was occasionally adding into the conversation, until he finally looked up and saw that there was no Zayn Malik to be seen. For some reason, he felt extremely worried, even though from Zayn’s track record it was normal he was late, but Harry just felt worried about him. But, just as he was about to open his mouth and start teaching, the door opened and Zayn stood there. He walked in slowly, his uniform ruffled and messy, his normally perfect quiff was messy and in front of his face, still looking rather perfect, Harry heard himself think, and big, clear Raybans on his face. Harry rose his hand to gesture the young boy over to him. Zayn walked over to him, but Harry could see what was coming. Zayn’s hands were in his pockets, his shoulders were slumped and Zayn’s face was full of guilt. Zayn reached him and Harry looked up at him unimpressed.
“Essay?” Harry asked, with his last remaining bit of hope for the student.
“I couldn’t,” Zayn started to mumble, and Harry sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Sit down, Mr Malik.” Harry interrupted him quickly, and watched as Zayn looked down at him, anger building in his face.
“Sir,” Zayn started again through gritted teeth.
“Sit!” Harry snapped, with a frown. He would have thought that he was being harsh towards Zayn, but he couldn’t help it, he had tried to help Zayn and thought that they had finally reached a new level where Zayn was showing progress, but he was just the same, and didn’t give a shit about it. Zayn grumbled before walking over to his desk, being watched by the rest of the class. Liam was watching him warily. Harry watched as Zayn sat down at the back of the class, separated from everyone else because of Harry’s seating plan. Zayn leaned back, arms folded across his chest, his nostrils flaring from his angry breaths. Harry felt the pit of his stomach as he watched the student, all angry and frustrated. Harry bit on his lip. Was he…turned on?
Harry quickly pressed play on the DVD to distract himself, before explain something to the class as the film started. Harry started to go through the papers on the desk as an attempt to organise his desk. He started to sort through a pile of Year Eight essays, when he saw his iPhone light up. A message from Louis.
“El’s got some girly date or something, fancy a drink down the pub, watch the football or something?:)” Harry dropped the papers back into a pile, before typing in a response of yes. He sent the message, before looking over the class again. Half of them looked bored, and one or two of them were taking notes. Zayn was sat at the back, arms folded, as he slowly rocked in his chair. As Harry made eye contact with him, he saw the two, deep chocolate marbles stare at him coldly before looking away. Harry slowly looked down at his phone.
“Hey Lou…this is a weird question, but how do you know if you like someone or not?”
Harry sent the message. He had a few other friends, but right now he was getting close to Louis, and he trusted him with a question like this. He then went back to organising his desk, piling some more handed in work into folders so he knew what was marked and what wasn’t, when his phone lit up. He sighed in frustration, still fairly angry because of Zayn, as a pile fell onto the floor. He checked his phone quickly.
“Ooo…who is the lucky girl or guy that you’ve fallen for?” Louis asked and Harry rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know if I like them or not…how do you know you like Eleanor?” Harry asked, typing in his response and then sending it to him, before realising he’d said that Louis liked Eleanor. But it was so obvious he did, even though he had no idea if something was going on or not. He put the phone back onto the desk, and picked up the pile of papers, which took a little while, before placing them onto the desk and checking his phone.
“I guess, you just get this weird connection. Even before I properly knew Eleanor that well, there was always like a connection…this conversation has gone strangely girly, Hazz.” Louis messaged back, and Harry chuckled slightly. Harry looked at the clock and realised there was only another twenty minutes of the lesson.
“Sorry, I’m just curious, haha!” Harry typed back, placing his phone back on the table and finally sorting his desk. His phone flashed up once more as Harry flicked a stray piece of pencil sharpening from his newly clean desk.
“It’s cool, Hazza. :) Need to confiscate a phone, see you at the pub at 5.” Louis texted, and Harry laughed to himself quietly at the irony of it, before putting his phone into his pocket and glancing up again at the clock. He looked at Zayn again, and felt annoyed again. His brief distraction of cleaning his desk and texting Louis had distracted him, but now he realised he was going to have to talk to Zayn sternly, which he didn’t want to do, and he hadn’t hope to do it either.
Harry stopped the DVD and told the class to pack up, and looked up towards Zayn. His head was on the desk and he was fast asleep, and didn’t even hear the noise coming from the rest of the class. This angered Harry more than anything, it was like the finally straw. Liam saw this, and threw a paper ball at Zayn. It hit him in the head, and Zayn’s head rose slowly, a frown on his face as he glanced firstly at Liam, and then Harry. As students started to leave the room, Harry stood next to his desk, with his arms folded, looking at Zayn expectantly. Zayn must have known what was coming, because he stayed sat down, staring at Harry with a nasty scowl on his face. Liam gave one last look to Zayn before leaving, and he closed the door behind him, leaving Zayn and Harry left in the classroom. For a moment, there was a short silence, as Harry gathered the words to say in his mind. The school bell rang, and the sound of the other people leaving the classrooms ready to go home filled the hallway outside. Harry was about to open his mouth to speak, when Zayn looked at the clock behind him, and swore under his breath.
“I’ve got to go.” Zayn spoke bluntly, before standing up.
“You’ll go when I tell you to go, Malik. Sit down right now.” Harry snapped again, his arms folded as he stood next to his desk. Zayn glared up at him.
“I have to go.” Zayn growled.
“I would have let you gone if I had your essay in my hand right now, but I don’t, so you’re going nowhere, Mr Malik.” Harry told him dominantly, battling with the weird feeling churning in the pit of his stomach. Zayn stood up, staring at him in silence.
“For the first time, I thought a teacher actually gave a shit about me, you’re a cunt like all the others.” Zayn spat out, kicking the chair out and sitting down on it. This made Harry angry again. He stormed over to Zayn’s table.
“Don’t you dare say that, you’re sat here because I give a shit about you, Zayn. I want you to do well, because I know you will do well in this subject, but you have to pull your leg out for once!” Harry told him angrily, looking down at him, his hands on the table. Zayn looked up at him like he was a piece of shit. Those chocolate marbles looked away from Harry and rolled in his eye sockets, before he let out a scoff.
“To think, I actually felt bad for not doing the homework, and this is what I get.” Zayn scoffed, before looking back at Harry.
“Well, you don’t have to feel bad, because you’re going to sit in here until the essay is finished, get it?” Harry demanded, before he went over to get Zayn some paper.
“I have to go! If I sit and do this essay it’ll take an hour! I’ll be late!” Zayn protested angrily, standing up and throwing his bag over his shoulder. Harry quickly walked over to him and grabbed him before he could set a foot out of the classroom. Harry grabbed both of his upper arms and turned him so they were face to face. Harry then realised how close they were next to each other now. Their noses were inches away from each other, and Harry could smell Zayn, the smell of teenage boy, but there was this intoxicating lust that came with it, and almost had Harry falling on his knees. Both boys stared at each other’s eyes. Zayn’s eyes were full of anger, as always, but for a brief moment, it stopped. Zayn looked at Harry’s eyes, before looking at his lips. Harry almost felt himself tremble as Zayn’s eyes stared at Harry’s lips, as if they were trying to make a decision, before they looked away, and the frown reappeared. Zayn suddenly pushed Harry off him, and looked at him with a cold glance, even more defensive than normal, before he went over to his seat. Harry watched him go, before finally fetching him the paper. He put it in front of Zayn.
“I don’t care how long it takes you, get it done, and to a good standard.” Harry told him before going back over to his desk and sitting down, putting his feet on the desk and watching Zayn. Zayn gave him a cold glance.
“You’re such a cunt. You know that, right? How much of an absolute cunt you are?” Zayn spat, before pulling out a pen and starting to scribble the essay out, frustrated sighs coming from him every now and then.
“That’s what you get for turning up to my fucking lesson with no homework, that I pacifically gave you extra notes for, and then fall asleep. You want to treat my lessons like shit, I’ll treat you like shit.” Harry told him sternly, and Zayn stared at him and took in a breath, before letting out a cry of anger and turning away from Harry’s view.
“Fuck off my back, Styles!” Zayn yelled, before Harry watched him continue to write the essay.
They both sat there for 45 minutes, before Zayn finally stood up, with a double-sided piece of paper in his hand. Harry watched as Zayn walked up to him slowly, a look of disgust on his face. Zayn dropped the paper in front of Harry on the floor.
“You want it that much, you pick it up.” Zayn spat out, before grabbing his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. Zayn was about to head for the door, when Harry spoke up.
“I know this isn’t your true self, Zayn. This persona isn’t working with me.” Harry sang sarcastically. Zayn threw his bag onto the floor and stormed over to Harry.
“Fuck you, Harry! You think you’re so great because you’re new and everyone likes you, but you’re just a fucking kid like me, you probably haven’t even hit puberty yet, so stop acting like you are God’s fucking gift to the world and sit the fuck down, yeah?” Zayn threatened, grabbing Harry’s collar and yanking him up off the chair. Harry grabbed hold of the lapels of Zayn’s blazer.
“Stop acting like you’re the bad boy of these corridors, you’re just the same as everyone else, and you’re just hiding it by smoking a couple of cigarettes and spitting in corridors, you’re a fucking kid just like me, so don’t try to put me in my place when you need to be put in yours!” Harry snapped back, and both boys stared at each other angrily, clinging onto each other, both ready to throw a punch. They stared at each other’s eyes, both inhaling and exhaling loudly, their blood pumping with adrenaline.
“There’s…there’s something about you.” Zayn mumbled, and Harry looked at his lips as he spoke.
“You do this weird thing to me, I don’t know what it is…” Zayn mumbled again, letting go of his teacher’s collar, obviously realising that he’d just threatened a teacher.
“Is it a weird, churning in the pit of your stomach?” Harry mumbled, his mouth going dry. Zayn looked up at him with wide eyes for a minute, before slowly walking away from him.
“I’ve gotta go.” He said quickly, looking at the time, grabbing hold of his school bag and running out of the room. Harry sank back down on his desk. He didn’t know what the hell just happened, and ten minutes later Louis came into the classroom with a wide smile.
“Did you just have to have a detention with Zayn Malik? You poor guy.” Louis chuckled as he walked over to Harry. Harry looked up at him.
“I need a really strong drink.” Harry simply told him, grabbing his own bag and schoolwork and leading Louis out of his classroom.