“Ooo, what’s this, eh?” Harry Styles had only just sat back down with his friends after coming out of a lunchtime revision session for his Business studies class, when he felt his friend’s hand slip into his pocket and pull out the precious, folded piece of drawing paper. Harry immediately flinched, his first reaction being quick as he turned around and threw his hand around the perpetrator’s wrist, Harry’s large hand wrapping around the small wrist with ease, before his emerald eyes looked up and met a sparkling pair of blue-grey ones.
“Something personal I see…” Louis Tomlinson spoke, looking at Harry with a testing smile. When his chestnut haired friend smiled like that, Harry didn’t know what to predict from his friend.
“Yes. Don’t bother.” Harry spoke through gritted teeth, before his other hand wrapped around and took his precious drawing back from Louis, before he looked away from his friend, folding the drawing into the inside pocket of his blazer, so it was resting next to his heart.
Louis’ blue-grey eyes continued to look at his best friend, before he slowly turned around to the rest of the boys on the table, his facial expressions showing to the others how he had somehow managed to hit a nerve with Harry. There was a sudden air of awkwardness around the tables, as the other boys looked over Harry’s sudden mood change warily. It wasn’t like Harry to just snap out like that, especially at Louis, who was now poking away at his pasta, watching Harry out of the corner of his eye. Harry picked up on this, and now wondered why the lunch table was under such a cloud of anxiousness.
“You guys…alright?” Harry asked slowly, looking at his friends. Louis’ head flicked around to the boys before looking back at Harry.
“Erm, are you alright? You kinda just, you know, pulled out a karate move on me.” Louis spoke with a laugh, causing the other boys to let out a short laugh.
“You touched my stuff, I hate when people touch my stuff.” Harry spoke, before one of Louis’ eyebrows slowly rose above the other.
“Since when have you cared who touches your stuff?” Louis asked incredulously, and Harry shrugged his shoulders a little before looking down, when he realised his best friend had a point. Harry wasn’t normally one to mind if someone ever used his stuff, or took one of his pens or something. This was different. Pens could be replaced if they were lost or taken, Zayn’s drawing couldn’t.
“Harry?” Louis asked expectantly, before there was a chuckle from the other side of the table, and Harry and Louis looked up to see their friend Liam Payne chuckling at them.
“Louis, leave him alone, it’s obviously something important from someone important!” Liam sang, winking at Harry before he turned to his friend Andy, receiving an eyebrow wriggle from him. Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head at Liam, although he knew his brown-eyed friend was too busy pulling faces with Andy to notice.
“Who, who, who?!” Louis asked quickly, grabbing hold of Harry’s arm and bobbing around on his chair excitedly. Harry looked at the eager boy with a frown.
“They’re only lesson notes, Lou. Important lesson notes, so please calm down.” Harry spoke up, and watched as Louis’ face deflated into a bored expression.
“I wouldn’t let you see them because I know what you’re like, the last load of lesson notes you looked over ended up with you sneezing all over them. I want to pass Business Studies snot free, thank you very much.” Harry started to go on, even though he couldn’t help crack a smile as Louis, Liam and Andy were all chuckling away, or trying to not laugh. Louis rolled his eyes and simply nudged his elbow against Harry’s before focusing back onto his food.
“Just cause you fancy me.” Louis mumbled with a smile on his face, and Harry looked at him with a wide smile. That was Louis excuse for everything, literally. He’d said it to teachers asking for missing homework more than once.
“Of course, gorgeous.” Harry chuckled, plying along with it before leaning over and placing a sloppy kiss onto Louis’ cheek, which made Louis yelp and push him away. Louis was wiping his cheek with his blazer sleeve urgently as Liam and Andy looked at each other with a funny look.
“You guys really are the gayest, straight people we’ve ever met.” Andy laughed, and Liam laughed along in agreement.
“Just because you fancy,”
“Us!” Harry quickly interrupted Louis’ catchphrase and beamed at Liam and Andy, and Louis sent the same wide smile, which caused Andy and Liam to roll their eyes, muttering about what weirdo’s their friends were.
They sat around and ate for half of lunch, before they all grabbed their bags and stood up to make their way outside. It was mid-May, which meant the English sun was starting to make more of an appearance, and that meant the boys had started to spend half of their lunch inside and then the other half outside in the sun. They made their way onto the school field and sat in their normal place there, a little in the sun but near some shade, because Louis tended to moan about his complexion.
The four boys all sat down, Louis safe in the shade, before Harry glanced over and saw how Zayn Malik was sat a little way away from them, under a tree with his drawing book in his lap. Harry looked away quickly, knowing if he let his gaze continue for any longer then the boys would pick up on it and question it. Harry could tell that there was something about Zayn that set him aside from the others, although what it was, he wasn’t sure. One thing he was sure on, was that he knew the stick he would get from the boys if they knew Zayn had randomly drawn him a picture, of himself, for no real reason. He wouldn’t hear the end of it, which is why he didn’t really want it going around.
“I hate Wednesdays, they’re my full days, we’ve got double P.E next and I’m exhausted.” Andy started to converse once more, and soon they were all talking about Andy and Liam’s P.E lessons and what they were supposed to be doing in their next lessons. Harry stayed quiet, having a battle with his conscience.
“Yes? Let me guess, you fancy me too.” Louis suddenly burst out, and Harry looked up from his hands that were in his lap, picking at his nails, to see that Andy, Liam and Louis’ attention was now on Zayn, who was sat by the other tree looking at them. He had had a small smile on his face, but it faded as Louis had shouted over to him. Harry stayed quiet as Zayn shook his head quickly and pulled his knees up towards his chest.
“Louis, leave the poor boy alone.” Liam quickly spoke, looking at Louis like his Father would have looked at him. Louis looked at him and shrugged, obviously not knowing why he was being scolded.
“Plus, you won’t ever find out if he likes you, cause you know,” Andy started, before he exaggeratedly mouthed the rest of his sentence. Liam gasped and covered his mouth, quickly looking from the mute boy to Andy, trying not to let his laughs come through, even though Louis was laughing away. Harry looked around his friends in outrage. That was too far…but what choice did he have?
Harry Styles forced a laugh, before he tried to tell Andy to cut it out playfully, even though inside, he was wondering just what the hell he had done. Liam hit Andy’s arm and then leaned over and hit Louis’ leg, telling them both to stop with a wide smile on his face, even though Louis and Andy just gave each other a cheeky look, to tell each other the joke would be carried on again soon enough.
When Harry’s green eyes wondered up guiltily to the boy sat over by the trees, and his heart broke when he saw how Zayn was sat there, back in his own world, his right hand busily scribbling across the page, his head tilting from side to side a little every now and then in concentration, but the small smile on his face was now permanent. Zayn was just in his own world, colouring away, and Harry let out a small sigh as he finally tore his gaze away from the teenage boy under the tree.
That was probably what made Harry feel most terrible about what Andy and the boys had just done; Zayn had no idea they were even making fun of him.
When Harry shuffled through his front door that night, he shouted out to his Mum and Step-Dad that he was home before kicking off his shoes and dumping his school bag next to them. He ruffled up his hair as his Mum greeted him from the kitchen, offering him a cup of tea. He walked into the kitchen, where his Mum was already filling the kettle with water. His first priority was food, and so he raided the cupboards before pulling out a bag of crisps, before he plodded over to the kitchen counter and pulled himself up on it.
“Good day?” His Mum asked, turning around to face him with a smile. He smiled and nodded, ignoring the image of Zayn Malik sat under the tree, completely unaware of the four boys a little while away from him laughing at his expense.
“Yeah, good.” He replied once again, and she smiled and nodded, before she started to talk about the housework that she hadn’t gotten up to on her day off. Harry, being the good son that he was, listened to all of her words and chatted along with her.
“So, anything new?” his Mother asked, passing him his cup of tea with a smile. He took it with a wide smile and took a sip of the hot liquid, as his Mother slowly leant back against the marble kitchen counters.
“Err, yeah, this. You remember that Zayn Malik kid? From primary school?” Harry asked, before he reached into his blazer pocket. His fingertips brushed over the drawing, his mind already seeing the amazing sketch of himself as he pulled it out from his inside pocket and looked down at it in his large hands.
“Oh gosh, what about him?” His Mother quickly asked. The slight panic in her voice caught her son off guard for a moment. Harry looked up he saw how she looked concerned. Her Motherly brown eyes were looking at him in shock. She was giving off the kind of look like she didn’t want to hear what she was about to hear, and yet had too.
“He’s…okay…” Harry felt the need to speak, to calm down his Mother. She looked relieved for a moment, but stayed quiet, as if to give him the go ahead to go on.
“He drew me the other day…look. He’s really good.” Harry spoke, before he unfolded the paper in his hands. His emeralds looked over the breath taking details that Zayn had drawn in before he finally passed the paper to his Mother. At first, his Mother seemed a little confused but once she saw the drawings she let out a slight gasp, the only noise she made for a moment as looked over the very same details that Harry had been looking over just seconds before.
“Like I said, he’s really good.” Harry spoke once again, as his Mother stared over the drawing, nodding slowly. She must have still been trying to take in the amazing drawing that had been done by a boy she last saw when he was a small primary school pupil.
“It’s breath taking. Although, I’m not surprised that he has such a talent like this.” She spoke, her voice quiet, and for a moment or so Harry was unsure as to whether she was talking to him or herself. He decided on the latter, and remained quiet. His mother finally looked up at him with a warm smile.
“I’m glad that you’re looking out for him, Harry. You’re such a good boy, and a good friend to him I’m sure.” His Mother smiled, before she leant away from the counter and took a step forward. She passed the paper back to him carefully, before she stroked the side of her son’s face with the affection only a Mother could feel for her son.
“You’re such a good boy.” She smiled, before she kissed the corner of his mouth lovingly and walked away from him, leaving him alone in the kitchen, drowning in his conscience.