Harry and Louis said a silent drive to Louis’ house as Harry already knew the way because he drove the boys last time to check on him. “Y-you can c-c-come in if you w-want,” Louis said as he started getting out of Harry’s car.
“Okay.” Harry shut his car off following Louis up to his house. As soon as the door open Harry noticed two little girls walking by and they spotted them.
“Louis!” They both shrieked running over and each attaching themselves to a leg.
“Hey g-g-girls. H-how are my f-f-favorite s-sisters?” He winked.
“Heard that!” Another feminine voice called. A tall girl stepped in the doorway to their living room leaning against the frame.
“C-can I help-p you?” Louis said still laughing slightly.
“Your favorite sister’s eh? See if I cover for you ever again.”
Louis laughed more. “You l-love me too m-m-much. You’ll c-cave.”
“Cave on what?” Another girl asked coming in the room. “Louis!” She said happy walking over and hugging him before standing by the taller girl.
“Louis said Daisy and Phoebe are his favorite sisters.”
“Excuse me? We all know I’m the favorite,” The girl said smiling.
“No!” The two little girls screamed.
Louis just laughed patting their heads. “I l-love you a-all equally.”
“Who’s that?” The taller girl asked suddenly noticing Harry’s presence.
“T-this is H-harry. Harry t-this is D-daisy, Phoebe, F-f-fizz, and Lottie. My s-sisters.”
“Nice to meet you all.”
“Is Harry another secret boyfriend Lou?” Lottie question wiggling her eyebrows.
“Y-y-yes you c-caught m-m-me!” Louis said dramatically. Louis glanced at Harry to make sure he was okay. So Harry smirked and played along.
“We’re madly in love,” Harry nodded. He grabbed Louis and put his hand over Louis’ lips and kissed the back of his hand.
When he pulled back both boys were laughing hard while Fizz and Lottie rolled their eyes, but still smiled. “Are you guys here for tonight?” Fizz asked.
“Louis’ sleeping over at my house. Sorry to steal him away. We have boyfriend stuff to do,” Harry winked at Louis.
Louis just slapped Harry’s chest rolling his eyes. “I’ll b-be home to-m-morrow. S-sibling d-day out?” He asked.
“Yes!” All four screamed almost at the same time.
“Okay well I should go finish my homework. Have fun Lou,” Fizz said walking back into the other room.
“My show is on so yeah, I’ll text you later Lou,” Lottie said walking out of the room.
Louis starting walk then with the twins still attached to his legs. “You k-know this is q-quite hard. Phoebe, g-go get H-harry!” He said.
Phoebe nodded and ran over wrapping herself around Harry’s leg. “Why hello there!” Harry said smiling.
“Hi!”
“F-f-follow me,” louis instructed. The two made their way into the kitchen where Jay was standing. “Go on g-girls,” Louis said tapping Daisy and Phoebe. The girls let go of their legs and scampered out of the room.
“Boys. What’s up?”
“C-can I g-g-go to Harry’s tonight?” Louis asked.
“Of course. Harry I met your mum at the store today. She’s such a nice woman.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m t-taking the girls o-out t-tomorrow.
“That’s great Louis, they’ll really love that.”
“Y-yeah.” Harry noticed Louis acting kind of strange and distant around his mom.
“Let’s go get your things yeah?” Harry asked tapping his shoulder.
Louis nodded grabbing Harry’s wrist and pulling him upstairs to his bedroom. Harry sat down on Louis’ bed while he grabbed some clothes. “My f-family’s c-c-crazy. S-sorry.”
Harry laughed slightly, “It’s fine. I think it’s sweet how you and your sisters get along really well. Gem and I get along pretty well, but we have out moments where it’s like we’re in the middle of a war. I have a question though, why did you seem so distant with your mum?”
“I l-l-love my mom and a-all. S-she worries a l-l-lot and after t-tod-day I d-don’t w-w-want her on my c-case.”
“Oh. She only worries cause she loves you though.”
“I k-know.
The two boys were elapsed into silence as Louis continued to gather his things and clean up a bit. “Hey Louis?” Louis stopped what he was doing giving Harry all his attention. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I was just curious.”
“O-ok-kay.”
“I was doing a bit of research, about your stutter. Was is something that you just developed when you were young or something you got later in life?”
Louis held his finger up and grabbed his laptop. Harry raised a questioning eyebrow. “Sp-peech t-thing,” Louis provider. He used his laptop and ipod a lot when he has something long to say because it was a lot quicker. Louis typed away for a few moments before hitting enter letting the computer talk for him. “I developed it when I saw seven. Ever since preschool I have been different. Kids used to tease my interest and my mum’s friends asked why I was so strange and did things the way I do. I lost friends shortly after I gained them because people didn’t like me. I got nervous around people and had a lot of anxiety problems and slowly had a harder time speak with them. Sometime when I was seven after several months of me talking weird not only to other, but my family too my mum took me to a counselor. The lady gave me meds for my anxiety, but said my stutter would stick with me. Due to the fact that my family moves a lot I didn’t get to meet with her to work on it and get it under control. It’s gotten worse over the years and I have days where I end up in tears because I just can’t seem to get a sentence out. I was different before, but this has just set me out even more. The scary thing is, I might have to deal with this the rest of my life. It’s already set me back and become a problem in my life. I’m so scared for the future.”
The computer stopped and Louis closed the lid and played with his hands looking down. “I’m so sorry Louis. That’s just not fair. You are such a wonderful person. I’m really glad you’re willing to talk to me about this. I really want to get to know you better Louis. It’s kind of why I invited you over tonight. So we could talk.”
“T-thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Ready?”
~.~
Harry and Louis were in Harry’s living room watching crap telly eating popcorn when there was a knock on the door. Harry stood up leaving Louis by himself for a minute. Louis heard the knock get aggressive and muted the t.v to listen. He heard the door open and then Liam’s voice. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Don’t push me! What do you mean?” He heard Harry say back.
“I head what happened to Louis in the hall after school today. You were supposed to be by his locker waiting for him!” Liam shouted back.
“I know and I was on my way there but Taylor stopped me and-”
“Oh Taylor, I should’ve known!” Liam interrupted.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
“That none of us like her!”
“What?” Harry said a little more calm.
“Zayn, Niall, and I, we don’t like Taylor. She’s always stealing you away and then parading you around. She’s only dating you for social status.”
Louis heard a bit of band assume someone hit a wall or something. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. She likes me for me, not for social status.”
“Oh please Harry, how can you be so thick!”
“I am not!”
“Well you obviously don’t have your priorities straight because you left Louis by himself and you saw what happened. I get that she’s you girlfriend, but you should’ve told her to wait or walk with you.”
“Louis was fine though! He doesn’t need a fucking babysitting all the time!”
“It’s his first week of school, he only knows us, and Travis seems to have already targeted him and you know he isn’t going to give up. Louis may be a strong person, but he still shouldn’t be left alone like that until Travis learns to back off.”
“For christ sakes Liam it’s not that big of a deal. I’m sorry if I like my girlfriend enough to spend a little time with her.”
“Answer this question for me then. If you could to back knowing what would happen would you still stop with Taylor, or go right to Louis’ locker?”
Louis froze for a moment waiting for his answer, but then things got to quiet for him to hear and missed his response. If he had heard he would of heard Harry whisper, “I would still stop with Taylor, just for a shorter time maybe. He was fine and I talked to him. Like you said he’s strong and will be okay.”
The next voice was Liam’s as he heard the door open. “I’m sorry Harry, but I don’t want to be your friend anymore. Neither do Niall or Zayn.”
Louis heard the door close and open again a moment later as Harry shouted, “Whatever fine go. I was sick of you guys anyways!”
The door slammed and Louis turned the volume back on and up a bit acting like he didn’t hear anything. Harry came in dropping down on the opposite couch instead of next to Louis. Louis glanced at Harry who was still angry, but still let a few tears out. Louis shut the t.v off and went over to Harry pulling him into a hug. “Y-y-ou o-k-kay?”
“Yeah. Liam and the others just don’t want to be my friend anymore,” Harry shrugged.
“I’m s-s-sorry. My f-f-fault.”
“No no Louis it isn’t your fault. It was a long time coming probably. I still got you right?” Louis smiled and nodded. “Good. Now, it’s been a few hours, can I ask you more questions?”
“C-can I writ-te the a-answers?”
“Course. Here.” Harry leaned over grabbing the notepad and pen on their table and handing it to Louis. “Okay first question. You said to me during our computer class that you thought about it a lot. Can we talk about it?”
“N-not r-r-right off. L-lead up to i-it.”
“Okay fair enough.” Harry thought for a moment trying to come up with something else. “This isn’t meant to sound rude or anything but, if you have always been pushed aside and everything, how did you know you were gay?”
Louis watched Harry struggle to get the question out. He seemed quite nervous about it. He was playing with his hands which were folder over his crotch showing that he was distressed about this subject. Louis didn’t exactly want to talk about it, but the way Harry was acting made Louis think he should answer because it could help the other boy. Louis pulled the notepad close and started writing. He looked up after a moment to see Harry staring at his mouth. “W-what?” Louis asked.
Harry smiled and looked up at his eyes, “Your tongue pokes out when your concentrating.”
Louis blushed and looked back down. He glanced up a second later and saw Harry acting kind of weird, like he was having some kind of internal battle. He didn’t want Harry to feel weird about saying something so he commented back. “W-when you g-g-get nervous you p-play with your hands and r-retreat into y-y-yourself like a l-little kid, it’s c-c-cute.” Louis shrugged and continued writing down, but certainly didn’t miss Harry blushing. Louis sighed a few minutes later and handed Harry the notepad.
Like I said, I’ve always known I was different from everybody else. All the boys went through that oh girls have cooties stage, but that only meant they secretly liked them or thought others were cute. I didn’t deal with that though. I was very friendly with the girls, and nervous with boys. I kept that thought in my mind and noticed as I got older the way my classmates saw girls, I saw boys. Obviously I didn’t want to believe I was gay or even want to be because I was already strange enough. When I was 13 I went to camp over the summer. No body knew me and no body judged my stutter for once. I met this boy there named Ed. He was perfect. He was so nice to me and was a true friend. The two of us got a bunch of guys to sneak out of their cabins and come play truth or dare with us. We all sat around on our cabin floor taking turns blah blah blah. Then someone dared me to kiss Ed. It was a harmless action in theory, but for me it was different. Ed just shrugged scooting closer to me. He leaned in and kissed me and it was the greatest thing ever. I never wanted it to end. The next night Ed and I were just hanging out talking and...I kissed him again. He pushed me back and talked to me saying it was only a dare, he wasn’t gay, and he didn’t like me like that. After that night I shut down and spent the rest of the summer alone. Ed tried talking to me again because he felt bad, but I was too heart broken. When I turned 16 I met a guy named Josh and we dated for about 6 months, but then he dumped me because of my stutter. It’s not that it bothered him, it just got in the way and we couldn’t have long conversations and we couldn’t go hang out with his friends because I didn’t want to and when we did I wouldn’t talk. I was heartbroken after that and haven’t been with anyone since. People can be nice to me sometimes, but I know eventually my stutter will get in the way and it can become annoying. So I liked that we moved a lot because then people would remember liking me, not how annoying I could get.
Harry read over the words carefully before responding. “I’m so sorry Louis. That sucks. I promise you wont get annoying to me or the other boys. If it ever does some to that. We can always take a break too or something. You’re too amazing to hate Louis. Also that Josh guy is an ass.” Louis laughed as Harry’s phone started to buzz. He quickly looked over it before turning back to Louis. “Hey Taylor is having a party tonight. Want to go?”
Louis didn’t want to say no because he would feel bad for keeping Harry from his girlfriend and he knew if he said Harry could just bring him home and he could go he wouldn’t so just nodded. “S-sure.”
“Sweet! This will be fun I promise!”