Louis Tomlinson was repeatedly yelling for Harry to pass the football. Harry rolled his eyes and kicked the football over to his eager best friend, as he, Louis, Andy and Liam all stood around in the park on the following Saturday. The English sun had bizarrely decided to make an appearance, and so the boys had all flocked to the local park to kick a ball round. It was quiet, the only other people in the park were kids playing on the slides and swings at the other side of the park. Occasionally people with bikes would bike past, or dog walkers would stroll by, but that was all. The sounds of birds tweeting and singing above their heads went hand in hand with the sounds of the children playing, and somewhere, odd wafts of a BBQ flowed around them, making their stomachs rumble heavily. You knew you were British when the BBQ came out at the first sign of sun.
Louis beamed a smile once Harry had passed him the ball, and did a little trick with it before shooting it over to Andy, who had been brushing his hands through his hair, looking at Liam who was looking at Harry and Louis.
“Louis, this is just a friendly kick about, you know.” Harry informed his best friend in a half-minded trance, his green eyes concentrated on the football that was now being kicked around softly between Andy’s feet.
The sun was beating down on them all, as they stood in a square formation, kicking the ball around to each other. There wasn’t much shade in the park, which meant the boys had to stick it out under the sun. All of the boys were in as little clothing as possible. Liam’s shirt had come off by this point and was hanging around his neck, his dark blue denim shorts hanging loosely around his waist, with a complimenting dark blue snapback placed on his head as well, which Andy had kept trying to steal. Andy was in some cut off jogging bottoms and a pair of huge trainers. His cast off T-shirt had been thrown to one side as they played their game.
Louis was in a pair of light chinos, the bottoms rolled up around his ankles with a pair of white, low-cut converses on his feet. His red T-shirt was tucked into the back of his chinos, and was hanging down his legs like some sort of odd cape. Harry looked back from his best friend and ruffled his hands through his curls. Harry was regretting wearing black skinny jeans, which stuck to his lanky legs like there was no tomorrow. His Manchester United shirt was hung over his shoulder, even though he was close to throwing it down onto the green grass that he was stood on.
“Yeah but we haven’t played properly in ages due to the rain!” Louis whined, as he jumped around in his spot, his light brown hair flying around in all directions as he did so. Harry couldn’t help but chuckle a little, but rolled his eyes nevertheless. Louis was just this little bundle of energy; but Harry guessed that if he was surrounded by just his Mum and four younger sisters then he’d love the chance to get out and spend some quality boy time with his best friends.
Soon enough, Andy passed the ball to Liam, along with some banter about concentrating, before Liam gently tapped the ball back over to Harry. Harry smirked as the ball rolled over to him, and he quickly scooped it up with his foot and balanced it on the top of his foot and ankle in mid air.
“Enough of the balancing tricks, pass it!” Louis yelled, and Harry looked over to him with a lop-sided smirk, before he kicked it up and headed it over to Louis.
“Oh that Harry Styles really can do some ball tricks!” Andy called out, in a high pitch voice, fanning himself like some sort of teenage fan girl.
“I wanna see what he can do with his actual balls!” Louis squeaked, in the same high pitch voice, as he balanced the ball on his head, his blue-grey eyes looking up at the ball, and causing him to be cross-eyed. Harry rolled his eyes and flipped Louis off, before looking over at Andy and Liam who were now joined at the hip, throwing ball jokes back and forth between each other.
“Hold on, how the hell have I just become the main subject of your teasing?” Harry asked in wonder. He looked over at Andy and Liam with a slight frown, even though his signature smirk was plastered all over his face. Andy and Liam stopped and looked over to him with innocent smiles, and Harry rolled his eyes once more before he realised Louis had kicked the ball back over to him.
“Yeah, leave my Hazz alone!” Louis spoke up, before running over to Harry and tackling him with a large hug. As Louis’ body collided with Harry’s, the tall boy felt the air knocked out of him as he quickly tried to grab onto the younger boy.
“Maybe you should leave your Hazz alone, I think he’s going to fall over and be crushed by you.” Harry spoke, a little strained, before letting go of the grip of his best friend, but Louis’ vice like grip held him to the older boy. Louis looked at Harry and immediately burst out laughing. Andy and Liam came walking over, the ball in Andy’s hands.
“Harry looks like he’s going to get a hernia, get off him, Louis.” Liam laughed, and Louis finally jumped off his best friend. He was still laughing as he looked up at Harry with a wide smile, and Harry looked at him with a slight frown.
“God, Louis,” Harry huffed, as he let his thin body drop onto the grass. He stretched his legs out in front of him before he looked back up at his best friend, “You really are a fat arse.” He finished, with a mischievous smile on his face.
“The jury agrees, rather you then me underneath him, Harry.” Andy added, as he sat down opposite, and Liam followed suit and plonked himself down as well. Louis looked down at them all with a frown, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“I am so offended, I can’t hug my best friend without being bullied for it!” Louis let out. Liam rolled his eyes at his best friend’s behaviour as Andy reached out and hit the back of Louis’ knee, so that he tumbled down to the ground as well. Andy and Liam burst out laughing, although Harry stayed quiet. This wasn’t bullying, this was just a few friends sat around, playing around with each other, throwing jokes around; boys being boys. It was harmless. He knew what bullying was like. He’d never been bullied, but he was on the other side of it, he admitted, as he thought of the two big brown eyes that had seemed to be on his mind a lot recently.
The boys all sprawled out like cats under the sun, chatting along about anything on their minds. Well, it was mostly Louis and Andy bickering over something or other. Harry zoned out as they both started arguing over items of clothing, and looked across the park with lazy green eyes. He watched as a couple of birds flew along the footpath and off into the bright blue sky, before his green eyes landed on a figure which he recognised for some reason. He had been laid out on his back, his elbow propping him up, but as he saw the figure he sat up a little more. Those big brown eyes were back.
Harry watched as Zayn Malik walked down the park path, stumbling a little as he did so. His footsteps were heavy, and the young boy seemed to scuff his heels along, with no care for his scuffed up trainers. He had a pair of skinny jeans on, and then a plaid shirt that was buttoned up to the top. Harry had no idea how the boy must have coped wearing those with the heat. Suddenly, Zayn stumbled and tripped over a little, but quickly managed to regain his balance. Watching him walk was like watching a newborn giraffe try to walk, he was so unsteady, and his balance was all over the place. Something was wrong.
“Isn’t that…isn’t that the Malik kid?” Andy spoke suddenly, and Harry looked around to find that the other boys were all staring at Zayn Malik intently. Harry felt his insides start to boil up, he didn’t like the thought of his friends staring at Zayn. They always ended up picking on him when they were near him, and Harry didn’t like that. Not one bit.
“Yeah, he’s not wearing glasses though?” Louis picked up, and Harry sat up a little more, and realised that he wasn’t. Well, that would explain why Zayn wasn’t walking very well, but there was something else…something, off about it.
“Malik!” Andy suddenly yelled loudly, and Harry quickly shot around and looked at Andy with a warning look, even though it was unseen. Zayn flinched a little as he walked, and his head quickly darted around to look at the four boys in the middle of the park’s grassy area. Zayn’s feet seemed to trip and tumble over each other again, which caused Zayn to trip over a little once more. He regained balance, but one of his hands was holding his head.
“Think you need a guide dog, mate!” Andy yelled over, which made Louis and Liam burst out laughing at Zayn’s expense. Louis was howling on the top of his lungs, whereas Liam was trying to be subtler, which meant hiding behind Andy and laughing into the boy’s bare back. Zayn looked over to them, wobbling a little, his brown eyes lost and confused, as they bore into Harry with a silent plead.
Harry sat in silence, his conscience screaming at him to run over to the poor mute boy who was in desperate need of help. He knew something was up; Zayn didn’t really seem like the type to just not wear his glasses even though it caused him this much bad balance and loss of body control. Zayn was rather sensible, he just wouldn’t put himself through this. Harry’s body seemed to burn into the grass. As much as he wanted to run and help Zayn, his friends were around him. He couldn’t be seen helping Zayn Malik in front of his friends. Why couldn’t he just be a man?
“Can he even hear? Do any of his fucking senses work?” Andy cried in laughter, Liam fully hiding his face in Andy’s side from cracking up so much.
Harry’s fists clenched together strongly, and he looked down away from the big brown eyes that were crying out for him. His big hands quickly picked aggressively at the grass. The sounds of his friends’ laughs seemed to get louder and louder as they echoed around his head, and he could still see those two chocolate brown eyes cry out to him in a silent plea, even though he was staring furiously at the ground below him. His hands started to shake the more angrier that he got with himself. Loud laughs and self hate echoed around his head, before he snapped.
“Ow! Jesus!” Andy yelled, when the football came out of nowhere and collided into the side of his face. The laughter immediately died. The side of Andy’s face was quickly becoming red and inflamed, and Liam looked from Andy to Harry in confusion.
“Oops.” Harry spoke sternly, before picking up his United shirt and leaving the park, not being able to sit with his friends anymore.
He also couldn’t deal with the puppy dog eyes that Zayn was sending him. He sent a silent prayer that Zayn wouldn’t follow him out of the park, before he rushed off, without another word to anyone.