A/N: Dedicating this chapter to the lovely Hayley (1Dreamteam) because she's perfect and her stories are amazing so like yeah. All that good crap.
“Louis!” Louis’ head shot over to where his name was being called to find a disgruntled Liam storming towards him down the sidewalk. Louis was making his way to the library but apparently his trip was going to be cut short. “What has your boxers in a twist?” He raised an eyebrow as Liam huffed, crossing his arms over his chest “You get beaten up by Mikey and don’t even care to tell me?!”
He let out a sigh and shook his head, brushing his fingers through his hair slowly. “It was nothing, Li, honestly. Harry stopped him before it could get any worse. I only ended up with a bloody nose and busted lip. Hell, that’s nothing compared to some of the beatings.” Louis chuckled but Liam was still not pleased, letting out a whine like a little child who just had a tell off from his parents. “You’re my best friend, Louis. I want to know when this happens. I get worried about you. ”
Louis pouted out his bottom lip and slung his arms around the neck of his slightly taller best friend. “You know I love you.”
Liam glanced down at the pouty-faced boy but shook his head, turning his head to face the other way “Nope. Not the pout.” Louis puckered his lip out more and Liam finally gave in with a sigh. “I guess I love you too.”
“Want to go get pizza?” Louis suggested with a bright smile after planting a wet one on his cheek.
“Actually, I need to talk to you," Liam said slowly while wiping his wet cheek with the back of his hand.
Louis didn’t care for Liam’s serious tone, this was definitely important. “Oh, well yeah. Sure. Lets talk at the park.” Louis wasn’t looking forward to whatever this talk was about, Liam was just a laid-back, funny, fatherly figure sort of guy and he knew by the tone of his voice, it probably wasn’t going to be a walk in a field of roses. Was he dying? Cancer? Parents getting divorced? All sorts of horrible possibilities ran through his head whenever he snapped out of it to realize they had arrived at the park.
They took a seat together at a picnic table, both on opposite sides of the table and Louis slowly chipped the cheap paint away with his thumb nail. “So, what is it you need to talk to me about?” He asked nervously.
“I’m . . . well I’m . . . I just . . .”
“Will you spit it out?!”
“I’m moving.”
Louis let his eyes travel away from his friend and suddenly his TOMS were the most interesting thing in the world. He just wanted to act like that wasn’t happening, and that it wouldn’t. But it would and he knew it. “W-when?” He tried to hide the sadness but it was clear through his voice.
“Next week, the day spring break starts. I knew I had to tell you sooner or later, and I didn’t want to break it to you the day I’m leaving. Are you alright?” Liam placed his hand on the top of Louis’ and rubbed his thumb slowly over the top. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner. But my dad was offered a great job offer and he couldn’t turn it down.”
Louis felt absolutely crushed by this news. Who would he turn to now whenever he had problems? Or just wanted to hang out with? Liam was his rock, other than his mum of course, but he was also his only real friend. Whenever Liam left, he would be alone to drown in his own thoughts without Liam being his life jacket.
He couldn’t answer, he just couldn’t trust his voice then and there. He’d become a blubbering mess and that was one thing he absolutely hated, crying in front of other people. His nose and eyes get red, eyes get puffy and he sputters his words. And it made him feel small and weak.
Liam sighed while pulling his hand away, running both of them down his face in a slow manner. “I’ll leave you alone, but will you at least call me later to let me know if you’re okay?” Louis answered his question with only a nod and a sniffle, which made the puppy-eyed boy look at his broken friend in sympathy.
Soon enough, Louis was left to himself to ponder on the things that would happen whenever Liam left.
~ * ~
“Honey, dinner will be here soon,” Jay smiled at her eldest child as he walked inside of the house but her smile went as soon as it came, noticing he had been crying. “What’s wrong?”
“I just want to be alone right now, mum.” Louis wiped his eyes with his hoodie sleeve and didn’t even give his mother a glance before trudging upstairs to his room where he slammed shut the door.
Louis slid down his bedroom door, tugging at the ends of his hair gently while tears escaped his eyes and slid down his reddened cheeks. How could Liam do this to him?! There would be no one that honestly understood him like his best friend could. Not even his parents understood the things that went on with him. Louis was anything but an open book. Staggered breaths left his chapped lips as he constantly licked them, soon tasting the salty substance of his tears.
His eyes darted over to his closet, knowing something that could take away the raging pain in his chest almost instantly.
He got up, stumbling at first but gripping onto the doorknob to regain balance. His feet padded slowly against the floor and he grabbed a small carved box that was under a pile of clothes. Louis opened it up to find 3 razors lying there, just calling for him to use them. He shuddered and grabbed one out of the velvety inside of the box and twisted it slowly in his fingers. ‘Do it now, do it now.’ Those words repeated over and over in his head but he gathered them all and threw them in his trash can, sinking down onto his bed with his face in his hands.
“LouBear.” His mum’s voice was heard at his bedroom door and he took in a deep breath, telling her to come in. “Hey, Lou. Are you okay?” Jay sat beside her son and rest a gentle hand on his back, caught off guard whenever he leaned fully into her arms. “Shh,” she cooed in his ear as his broken sobs filled the room, her arms wrapping securely around him. “L-Liam, he’s . . . m-moving away.” Louis spoke after a few minutes after his crying had settled down and he involuntarily started to hiccup.
Jay shut her eyes and pressed a kiss to Louis’ forehead, letting out a quiet sigh that went unnoticed by her son. “It’ll be alright, okay? I . . . I promise you that. You’ll find someone that you’ll get as close to as you are with Liam.”
Louis raised his head from his mother’s shoulder to look at her, smiling weakly while wiping an extra tear that slipped. “I just really love him, he’s been there with me through thick and thin and I’ll miss him.”
“You’ll always miss the ones you care about when they go away,” she cupped the side of his face and used her thumbs to wipe his tear stained cheeks. “Come on, dinner is here and I ordered your favorite pizza from Pizza Hut.” Louis chuckled lightly and nodded, rubbing his eyes slowly in order to dry the rest of his tears.
The two went downstairs where their family was sitting at the table, waiting to say grace before starting to eat. After saying grace, they all started to eat and Louis swallowed a bite of his pizza, glancing around at everyone. “I um . . . I think I made a new friend at school.” He said hesitantly and the corners of his lips tugged into a smile whenever his family members stopped what they were doing to look at him. “His name is Harry.”
Lottie and Fizzy puckered their lips at their older step-brother while Daisy and Phoebe giggled at their sisters actions. “He’s going to get a boyfriend!” Fizzy said proudly while raising her plastic cup of Coca Cola, “to this Harry dude, Louis’ future boyfriend.”
“Hush it.” Jay said sternly to Fizzy but couldn’t hold back a smile which she shared with Louis. “Oh come on, mum! Look, he’s even blushing at the mention of Harry’s name.” This had went unnoticed by Louis but as his sister Lottie had mentioned it, the heat in his cheeks rose. Had he really blushed at just hearing Harry’s name?
“I don’t even know anything about him, you little dweebs.” Louis stuck his tongue out, Fizzy and Lottie returning the action.
~ * ~
“Thank you for doing the dishes, Louis!” Jay called out to Louis who was now making his way upstairs to his room. “Wasn’t a problem!” He called back before opening his bedroom door and letting the cool breeze hit his face. In an instant, he was curled up on his bed and powering up his laptop.
Yahoo! and Twitter were the first things he checked, then he went onto Tumblr and ended on the social media website Facebook. As he logged on, a few notifications and a friend request popped up at the top and he furrowed his eyebrows downwards. Who was trying to add him?
Cautiously, as if he thought it was some creepy pedophile, he clicked the request and it came up the name ‘Harry Styles’ and Louis bit down gently on his bottom lip. Harry?
He clicked on the name and ended up on the profile page, looking at the profile picture closely to see that it was, in fact, a picture of the Harry he knew. A smile formed on his lips and he giggled. Giggled. Did I really just giggle? He thought with a shake of the head. Gladly, Louis accepted the friend request and not even a 5 minutes later, a message from the one and only Harry popped up on the bottom of his screen.
‘Louis, hi! Glad you accepted my friend request. :) I was wondering if tomorrow you’d care to come over to my house and help me with my schoolwork? I’m waaaayyy behind and I don’t know anyone else and as the headmaster said, and I quote, “you’re a bright young lad,” unquote. ;) Sound like a plan? If not, let me know! xx’ - Harry
The heat on Louis’ cheeks rose as he wiggled his fingers nervously over the keys on his keyboard, not having a bloody clue what to reply. He sent me a wink and two kisses, Louis tapped on the keyboard with a groan. Even if he did have plans for the next day, he’d gladly ditch them just to spend time with his prince, who instead of wearing armor, wore black skinny jeans and a loose fitting Ramones shirt. Louis didn’t even know what the hell he was thinking or even getting himself into! He barely knew this boy but even at the mention of his name or thinking about him made him get a weird feeling, a weirdly nice feeling. It’s just because he saved me from Mikey. You’re very grateful, that’s it!
‘Hi, Harry! :) And tomorrow? Well sure, I don’t think I have anything planned. What time would be best? And NO, just forget he ever said that. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Nope.’ - Louis
‘You know good and well what he said, and I think he’s about right. ;) How about after school? Meet me in the school parking lot, black Audi R8, can’t miss it! Well gotta go, my sister is being a pain and forcing me off of the computer. Catch ya later.’ - Harry
‘That sounds like a plan then. Haha, I know how much of a pain sisters can be. See you tomorrow!’ - Louis
Louis watched as it showed a minute later that Harry was offline, and he sighed, brushing his fingers through his hair. Climbing off of his bed after logging out, he walked down the hall and knocked softly on his parents bedroom door. “Come in!” Mark called from inside and Louis slowly peeked the door open to find Mark walking out of the master bathroom with shaving cream on his face and pajamas on, his mum sitting on the bed flipping through a magazine.
“Hey, I was wondering if it was alright, that tomorrow after school I go to Harry’s house? He needs help getting caught up with his schoolwork.”
Jay smiled widely and gave him a wink which was noticed by Mark, who just chuckled and nodded. “Just no sex.” His mum said and he nearly choked on his breath, “w-what? Are you crazy? God, mum.” Louis groaned and shut the door, heading back into his bedroom where he picked out his outfit for the next day and gave a call to Liam to let him know he was alright.
~ * ~
Louis walked into school with his backpack up on his shoulder, seeing people giving him strange looks but he shrugged them off. As he walked over to his locker, he put in the combination and opened it up. He got out his binder and a few mechanical pencils before stuffing his backpack into the small locker, shutting the locker door and getting startled by seeing a figure leaning against the lockers right behind him. “Harry? Oh my God.” He breathed and put a hand over his chest. “Is it ‘scare Louis to death’ morning or something?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Harry chuckled and then appeared a cheeky smile on his lips as dimples indented in his cheeks. “Was wondering if you’re still up to coming to my house to help me after school?”
“Yeah. Of course. As long as you don’t give me a heart attack before the day is up.”
Harry smirked and crossed one of his feet over the other, crossing his arms under his chest. “So, about yesterday with that guy . . .”
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
“Whoops, sorry, gotta get to class,” Louis said and scurried off down the hall, not taking a look back at Harry who was dumbfounded. He didn’t want to explain to him why Mikey had beat him up, or how he always had. He wasn’t going to spill everything to the boy he had just met the day before. Louis was keeping his walls up and wasn’t planning on taking them down any time soon, even if he did think Harry was one mighty fine stud muffin.
The classes that Louis had with Harry felt like they were slower than ever, but in Science he definitely did not mind staring at the back of Harry's fluffy hair, glad that he didn’t have to make eye contact with the beautiful boy.
The final school bell had rung and Louis dragged his feet down the multi-colored tiled floors, going to his locker to see Mikey standing by it. Oh shit.
He took in a deep breath and walked over, trying to do his combination but he was way too nervous. “Glad you could finally make it, Louis.” His deep Puerto Rican voice rang in Louis’ ear and made him cringe.
Louis shuttered and slowly turned Mikey’s way, fidgeting nervously with his fingers. “W-what do you want, Mikey?”
“It seems that, that Styles guy is nowhere to be seen. And . . .” Mikey turned around a few times then stopped, shooting the frightened boy a smirk, “I don’t see the principal around anywhere. Really think you're going to rescued today?”
Louis gulped, licking on his chapped lips nervously. “I-I don’t want any trouble. Please.” Louis felt pathetic for begging his bully not to hurt him. People gave strange looks as Mikey forced him up against the locker, but did nothing about what was happening. The lock dug into his backside and Louis let out a yelp in pain. One punch to the gut was all Louis needed to crouch down in pain and let his binder drop to the ground with a ‘thud.’
“This isn’t over, Tomlinson.” He spat with force, yanking Louis’ glasses off and throwing them down onto the ground. “Remember that.”
Crunch.
Louis could see without his glasses, just . . . not as clearly. Everything he looked at seemed to have a slight blur to it.
He listened to Mikey’s footsteps and whenever they were gone, he shakily stood up and wiped furiously at his wet eyes. No, I’m not going to cry at school.
After 5 minutes of fiddling with his combination lock, Louis got his locker opened and instantly went for his backpack. Taking out a case that had a spare pair of glasses in them. He slid them on and sighed, stuffing his binder into his backpack before pulling it onto his shoulder and slamming the locker door shut. He needed to get out of there.
The 3 minute walk down a flight of stairs then down a hall to the main entrance seemed like forever to Louis as he thought about the things to come. When Liam moved, when Harry got popular. Louis wanted nothing more than for this school year to be over. Months wouldn’t go by quickly, they’d drag on forever and the school days would drag on forever and he wasn’t sure if he could handle that or not.
Louis walked into the parking lot where more teacher cars were parked then student cars. But Harry’s black Audi R8 stood out more than anything. It was shiny and fancy looking and Louis had to admit he was a wee bit jealous. His eyes travelled to where Harry’s figure was leaning against the hood, but he wasn’t alone. There was another boy leaning beside him on the car, Harry’s age - if not older - pulling a cigarette from his mouth and exhaling smoke.
He inched closer and watched the two pass the cigarette back and forth from each other. Harry smoked? And who was this guy?
“Harry?” Louis squeaked and both of their heads instantly turned to look at him. The tougher looking guy was wearing tan chinos, a white wife-beater tank top and black Converse, with his hair up in a quiff. He raised an eyebrow at Louis while Harry smiled widely and passed the cigarette back to the other guy. “Louis, hey! I was hoping you’d make it, you were taking quite a long time.”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry about that,” Louis scratched the back of his neck nervously. The other guy who was puffing on the cigarette was staring at him and it made him shift uncomfortably. “Well gotta get going, mate. I’ll catch up with you later!”
The guy nodded with a small smile playing on his lips and leaned up off of the car, Louis watched as he walked away. Who was he, anyways? Not that it was any of his business but he was majorly curious. Louis could have sworn he knows who it is! The dude was from around here, but he couldn’t quite put his tongue on who the guy is. “Louis, I asked if you’re ready to go?” Harry’s voice snapped Louis out of his concentration and he nodded shyly, about to open the door but Harry’s hand on the top of his stopped him from doing so. “I got it. You’re the guest in my car.” He smiled cheekily and the heat on Louis’ cheeks rose from about 10% to 315%.
Harry opened up the door, allowing Louis to slide himself into the car and start to buckle himself in before the door was shut. The car was extraordinary and the seats were comfortable but Louis could faintly smell the stench of cigarette smoke which made his stomach churn.
Not even 15 seconds later, Harry was already in the drivers side, buckled in and starting the engine. “Ready to go?"
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”