Chapter 3 ~ The Bracelets
[Louis]
It was a summer day in July, and Harry and I were at our usual place by the lake. We were sitting in the oak tree, listening to the sounds of birds chirping. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, sending a wave of heat over us.
We had just gotten there, a little later than usual since mom had intended to make lunch later than she usually did. Nonetheless, the two of us were here now, and that was all that mattered.
"Hey, Lou?" Harry mumbled to me who was sitting on a branch below.
"Yeah?"
"Do you find necklaces, bracelets and such girly?" He asked, biting his bottom lip anxiously.
"Um, I guess not, why?" I replied, looking up at him.
"I just thought, since we've been friends for such a long time, that... Eh, never mind," he said, making a hand motion for me to drop the subject.
"Please Haz, tell me," I pleaded, not liking when he was afraid to tell me something. We were best friends, we could tell each other anything without having to be afraid that the other would laugh or make fun of us.
Harry hesitated for a while, scratching the back of his neck before stuffing his hand into his jean pocket cautiously. "I've got something for you," he confessed, pulling out his hand again, only this time, he had a silver chain in it. "It's nothing major, I just saw a similar one in a storefront and um... thought of you." His cheeks were flushed as he showed me the bracelet that had a link connected to it. The link had the words 'Haz and Lou forever' engraved.
I couldn't do anything but gape at my best friend as I reached out a shaky hand towards the silver chain. "Wow, Haz, it's amazing," I breathed, taking the bracelet in my hand.
I examined every single part of it before finally looking up at him again. "Could you help me put it on?" I asked hopefully, smiling at Harry with big bright eyes.
His lips twitched upwards into a smile as he helped me clasp the chain around my wrist. "I actually have the same one myself, look." He showed me his left wrist where there was indeed a bracelet just like the one I was now wearing.
"Like best friend bracelets," I beamed.
"Exactly."
I snapped my eyes open, looking down at my right wrist where the same chain I'd received from Harry three years ago still was. I had never taken it off apart from when I showered since I didn't want to wear it out. You could still see the imprinted words 'Haz and Lou forever' pretty clearly, even if they were slowly fading.
I didn't know why I hadn't taken it off yet. What the link said wasn't even true. There was no 'Haz and Lou forever' anymore. However, I just didn't have the heart to do it. The bracelet had always meant so much to me, and taking it off had never even been an option, not even now when Harry wasn't talking to me anymore.
Sighing heavily, I ran my fingers over the silver chain and remembered how we had used to show them off to people. We were proud of them for some reason I didn't know, but I guessed it was because we were such good friends and wanted to show everyone just how great friends we actually were.
I reached a hand up to my cheek, feeling how hot tears were slowly leaving my eyes. I didn't want to cry - Harry didn't deserve my tears - but it was hard not to when all these memories came flooding back to my mind.
I had actually thought that we would at least be friends throughout our entire lives. There hadn't been a reason for us not to. We went in the same class and had done so ever since kindergarten. We also lived only a few blocks away from each other, and our parents were close friends since high school.
And even though I had always thought Harry would get famous one day, I never expected to be abandoned by him. I thought our friendship was too deep to be broken, but now I assumed I had been wrong.
"Louis, breakfast is ready and school starts in half an hour!" Mom called from downstairs.
I let out a groan, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep and tears from my eyes. Without even glancing at the clock, I got out of bed and strode over to my closet to put on a dark blue polo shirt along with a pair of blue jeans. On my way out of the room, I snatched my dark red beanie from my nightstand, and pulled it over my head so my fringe was sticking out.
"Morning, honey. Sleep well?" Mom smiled warmly at me, placing a plate of bacon and sausages on the table as I stepped into the kitchen.
I sat down across from my sister, Lottie, and turned to my mother. "Um, kind of."
This made a frown appear between mom's eyebrows. "What happened? Don't tell me you had flashbacks about Harry again."
When I didn't answer her, she understood that that was exactly what had happened. "Oh, come here, sweetheart," she cooed, walking over to me.
I wrapped my arms around her, mumbling against her shoulder; "I don't know what to do anymore. He just won't leave my mind no matter how hard I try."
Mom rubbed my back up and down reassuringly. "I'm sure things will get better in time," she soothed.
I pulled away a little, shaking my head. "It's been two years, mom. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget about him."
"You don't have to, sweetheart. I know what you and Harry had was something special, something most people won't experience in their lives. It's hard to let something like that go, especially when you have to do it so drastically."
I forced myself not to let any more tears leave my eyes. I was eighteen years old, and yet here I was, crying over my ex-boyfriend who had been out of my life for two years now. How pathetic. "Harry managed, mom," I reminded her, looking down at the table.
She went quiet then. She knew she could go on and tell me how busy Harry was with his life now, that he just didn't have time for things like contacting me anymore, but I think she knew that was not really much of an excuse. If he wanted to, he would have contacted me.
Thankfully, the silence that had occurred didn't last long because half a minute later, Fizzy entered the kitchen.
"Morning guys," she muttered, sitting down next to Lottie, completely unaware of the silence that had taken place just a minute ago.
"Hello, honey," mom sighed, walking over to kiss her forehead.
"Um, Lou?" Lottie said kind of awkwardly since she'd been there all the time.
"Yeah?" I asked confused.
"Hannah called just before you came downstairs, informing that you don't have go over to hers for school today. She said she'd tried to call you but that you didn't answer. That's why she called me."
Hannah was my new girlfriend. Or well, more like a friend kind of girlfriend. We did kiss and such occasionally, but most of the time we just hung out with each other to have fun. She was really nice and sweet, but I couldn't picture myself being together with her in the future. I liked her, yes, but I didn't love her like I loved Harry.
"Why?"
She shrugged. "She didn't exactly tell me."
I nodded in acknowledgment, digging into the breakfast mom had made.
"Louis?" Mom called a few minutes later, sitting down next to me.
I sighed, gulping down some milk. "Hmm?" I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, before turning to her.
"You okay?"
I nodded my head. "As okay as I can possibly be, I guess." With that said, I blocked everything out and only focused on the food I was eating.
-
[Harry]
"Harry, have you packed everything yet?" Paul called from the other side of my hotel room.
It was the same day I had been in the interview, and instead of heading to Birmingham - as first planned - Paul, Liam and I would now be heading to Holmes Chapel in the afternoon instead. Paul figured we'd better leave sooner rather than later so I would get as much family time as possible.
I was packing my bags eagerly, but despite that, there were still quite a few bags that weren't packed yet. "I've only got two left, so unless you don't want to help, I'd suggest you wait in the lobby," I called back, already knowing he would choose to wait in there instead of helping me.
Paul might be a great manager who cared for me more than anyone else in my crew did, but when it came to helping with boring chores, he always declined, implying his back hurt or what not. I didn't mind that though because I liked to have orderliness, and I felt as though I didn't if someone else touched my stuff or in this case, packed them for me.
"Eh, you know what, I'll wait downstairs. Just don't forget to hurry. We're leaving in ten minutes."
A few seconds later, I could hear fading footsteps, and that was when I knew that he had left.
I quickly finished packing before walking out of the hotel room just to lock the door behind me. However, I made sure to look myself over in the mirror before that, just to make sure that my curls looked okay. Yes, I was kind of obsessed with my hair, and of course I was aware of this, but I didn't think that was a problem now, was it?
Pulling the suitcases behind me, I made my way to the lift and went down to the lobby where Liam, Paul and the other people in my crew that had been staying here were waiting.
"Finally, babe. We should've left ten minutes ago," Liam said, shaking his head while chuckling.
Paul, on the other hand, didn't look so pleased with this fact though and had his lips pressed into a tight line. I gave him an innocent look, sticking my bottom lip out in attempt to look cute and innocent. "You could've helped me if you didn't want me to be late, Pauly."
He folded his arms over his chest, shaking his head determinedly. "No, you should learn how to be on time without anyone's help."
"Fine, I'm sorry, okay? It won't happen again," I apologized, rolling my eyes.
I was just about to walk past Paul when I felt a hand grab my arm, pulling me back. "Not so fast, mister. You've been late twice this day. I don't want this to become a habit, is that understood?" Paul hissed, not liking the way I was behaving.
If there was something I should know by now, it was that Paul absolutely hated it when I was late to stuff, and being so twice in one day was absolutely pushing his limits.
Rolling my eyes, I nodded my head. "Alright, I understand."
He shot me another stern look. "Good."
I walked out of the hotel with my boyfriend by my side. "Geez, babe. What exactly was that? I've never seen Paul get so mad before," Liam said, a little surprised by the scene that had taken place before his eyes only seconds ago.
"I don't know, Li. I guess he just got a little upset at my behavior," I shrugged, looking straight ahead as I walked on the uneven sidewalk towards the garage where the SUV was parked.
"I gue--" Before Liam could finish that sentence though, loud shrieks and squeals were heard from afar, interrupting him.
My head immediately snapped towards the direction of where the noises came from and I quickly noticed that a mob of girls was running towards us at an incredible speed.
"Shit," I breathed, my eyes widening.
Before either of us could comprehend what was happening, I could feel myself being pulled forward by a pair of muscular arms. Due to the fact they were so muscular, I assumed I was in good hands. I was pretty sure no girl could possibly be that strong.
What felt like seconds later, everything went quiet when a door was slammed shut. "What's going on?" I asked, turning around to face what I could now see was my personal bodyguard and another man who worked for me. He had taken care of Liam.
"If it weren't for us, you would've been out there, getting mobbed by dozens of fans right now," Paul said kind of emotionlessly. He was probably still pissed about me being late.
The two of them started walking towards the SUV while Liam and I exchanged wary looks. We didn't say anything as we followed the two men, only silently thanking them for saving us from possibly getting our clothes ripped off.
Even if Liam wasn't a singer, he was famous for being my so-called 'best friend'. They all found him absolutely gorgeous and sweet, so there was definitely a chance that he could've gotten jumped as well.
Eventually, we were all seated in the car in silence. It wasn't until Paul had pulled out of the garage that he decided to speak up. "I just want to tell you this in advance, Harry. You will have to go back to school once you arrive in Holmes Chapel," he informed without turning around to look at me.
My eyes widened in shock. "What?! Why didn't you say anything about that earlier?"
I could practically see him roll his eyes in the front seat. "Because I knew you wouldn't be happy about it. You have missed a lot during these two years, so it would be great if you could catch up with everyone else a little."
Glaring at the back of his neck, I muttered, "What about all the fans, though? Don't you think they're gonna find out about me being there?" I wanted to get out of this at all costs, so whatever that could possibly make him change his mind, I was going to bring up.
He looked at me in the rear mirror, giving me a slight smirk. "Of course we've already thought about that. We'll have guards watching the gate so no unwelcome fans will be entering the school grounds."
"Of course," I muttered, rolling my eyes.
Both Paul and the other guy laughed in the front seat. "You won't escape this so easily, young man. I think this will be good for you."
Crossing my arms over my chest, I just looked out the window. I was pissed. I didn't need to go to school. I already found my way of earning money. Singing was my job, I didn't need any knowledge to be a singer. It was all just unnecessary.
From my left, I could hear Liam chuckling slightly. With a frown on my face, I turned to him. "What's so funny?" I asked kind of rudely, but what did you expect? He was laughing at me.
Instantly, he went quiet, looking at me with an emotionless expression on his face instead. "Nothing... I was just finding it a little amusing that you have to go back to school."
Paul let out another small laugh. "Well, you shouldn't make fun of him, Liam. You're attending school together."
His eyes widened by the second. "What?! But I've already finished school. Why would I have to--"
"Because you can't tag along and think you can go around doing nothing during the days. Besides, Harry is probably going to need someone who knows him there with him. His old friends might not act the way they did before when they meet him now."
"Look who's laughing now," I joked, winking at my boyfriend.
Liam rolled his eyes, but you could still see that he, just like me, was pissed about this fact. I understood him. I mean, he had already finished school considering he was a year older than me. I would have refused to go back there if I were him. Though, I guess he didn't have much of a choice now.
We all went quiet again. Liam and I looked out our separate windows as we fiddled with our fingers. It wasn't until about half an hour later that he turned to me, a questioning look on his face.
"Who's Lou?"
I instantly tensed at the name, turning to meet his gaze slowly. "Where did you get that from?"
He lifted my right hand, motioning towards the silver chain that was around my wrist. "This link says 'Haz and Lou forever', and I figured you are Haz, but I don't know who Lou is," he said, dropping my hand again.
I swallowed hard, looking down at my lap. "It's no one. No one important, at least," I mumbled.
He raised an eyebrow. "If this 'Lou' isn't important, then why are you practically wearing their name?"
I shrugged. "They're in the past. I don't even know why I'm still wearing this stupid thing," I muttered, contemplating whether I should just rip it off right at this second or wait until we arrived in Holmes Chapel.
I had never really taken it off. It just fit like a puzzle piece around my wrist, as if it was a part of me. And just because it felt so right, I decided that no, I wouldn't take it off now, nor when I would arrive in Holmes Chapel either for that matter.
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Annnnd, chapter 3!!! I'm absolutely enjoying writing this story so far. It's as if my fingers work without me even trying to make them move. Everything just comes so easily, I don't even know.
However, thank you for reading, see you soon.
Pauline .xx