"Yo, Liam, there's your girlfriend!" Gabe hooted, clapping me on the back and almost making me deep throat myself with my burger. The entire table erupted into a chorus of loud and very obvious noises.
Reluctantly I lifted my head and sighed. Ellie looked as if she'd rather be anywhere but there. Red as a stop sign she ducked behind one of her friends with a short glance in my direction. I managed a short apologetic smile before Gabe started yelling again, "don't you want to come sit over here with Liam?"
I dragged his arse down off the table top and pushed him into the spot beside me, "quit it, leave her alone."
Gabe grinned and whispered loudly, "are you embarrassed little Lili?"
"She is," I corrected, "stop it."
Gabe sucked in a breath but I knew he wasn't going to argue. He was my best mate and there was somewhat of a deal between us about this kind of thing, I let him know when he was going too far and he let me know when I was being a tight ass.
"Sorry man," Gabe said, chucking a hunk of pizza into his mouth.
I looked around again for Ellie and her friends to make sure they weren't too traumatised. I'd made the mistake of mentioning her once to Gabe and he'd blown everything out of proportion. She was my desk partner in chemistry but Gabe seemed to think she was something else to me entirely.
She was nowhere to be seen but as I searched my gaze soon landed on another familiar mop of brown hair, this time curly. He was moving slowly through the room and my eyebrows furrowed when I realised he was limping.
Setting my lunch down I stood up and brushed my hands off on my jeans, keeping my stare trained on Harry so that I wouldn't lose him in the hoard.
"Where are you off to?" Gabe questioned.
"I'm just going to talk to Harry about something, I'll be back in a minute," I replied in a hurried voice as I stepped back out of my seat and took off, "look after my shit!"
It was nearing the end of the lunch hour which meant the cafeteria was mainly full of seniors, most of which Harry was shorter than so it was difficult to keep an eye on him as I weaved through the crowd. I almost missed him, narrowly grabbing onto one of bag straps as he limped towards the door.
He jolted away from me and whirled around, eyes wide. My hands flew up, "it's just me!"
"Don't sneak up on me Li." He sighed in relief and eased onto his other foot.
I frowned at the grimace that passed over his soft features, "I saw you limping and I thought I'd come make sure you were okay."
Harry paused before shrugging and chewing at his lip for a moment, "yeah I just- tripped. Knee's kinda sore."
"You've been to see the nurse to ice it?"
"I'm fine Liam," Harry replied, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, okay, I'm just checking Haz. I'm the big brother remember, it's kind of my job," I said with a laugh.
"Can I go now?"
"Whatever, I'll see you after school."
Harry nodded and disappeared out the door without another word.
I headed back to my friends to finish my food before lunch ended, unable to shake a funny feeling.
That afternoon I waited by my car ten minutes for Harry to appear in the fluctuation of students piling out of the buildings. He walked with one of his friends to meet me, still stumbling lopsidedly. It wasn't as noticeable as it was earlier though.
I took his bag and chucked it through the open window into the back of the car with mine as he said goodbye to his friend and climbed into the passenger set, rubbing at his eyes.
"Tired?" I said and I walked around to the other side of the car to get in.
Harry yawned and nodded, reaching forward to change the radio station. I let him chose as I started the motor, and then turned the volume up as I slowly backed out of my park. There were too many other cars and kids around to go faster than snail pace until I'd gotten a sold kilometer away from the high-school.
"How's the knee?"
Harry rolled his head to face me and then stared with a look that told me I shouldn't have asked.
I shook my head and sighed, reverting my attention to the road and putting the windows down to let the wind in as Harry began to sing along to the radio.
***
The next morning I waited in the car for Harry ten minutes, tapping away at the staring wheel impatiently. I shouted his name a few times and then huffed as I climbed out of the car, what the hell was keeping his so long?
Irritated, I stomped inside. Everyone would be waiting for me, we were supposed to be going to the cafe down the road to spy on one of my friends date.
"What's taking so long Harry?" I called, peering into the lounge expectantly. The room was empty.
I cocked my head towards the hall and heard the arguing from one of the bedrooms. It had to be Harry's.
"Oi, what's the hold up?" I rapped my knuckles on the door-frame.
Dad spun around on his hell to give me an exasperated look, "Harry thinks he's too sick to go to school. He doesn't look sick, does he?"
Harry stared at me intently as I scanned his figure over. His green eyes shimmered and I knew he was trying to tell me to disagree.
"He looks okay to me," I said with a shrug. Harry's pink lips twitched as he shot me a sharp glare.
"We can't make him go to school if he's sick Louis, "Papa announced, stroking Harry's hair. He smiled sympathetically at Harry and hugged him into his side.
I tapped my invisible watch, "you need to sort this out in the next two minutes or I'm going to leave anyway."
"Ni, I'm sure he'll be okay for the day, won't you Harry?"
I smirked at the stern look Dad gave Harry. He knew exactly what was going on and he was warning Harry to drop it for Papa's sake. He was already getting flustered over it, Dad mustn't have wanted him to get stressed over missing work.
Harry tipped his head back and I was surprised so see his eyes glittering when he straightened back up, building with tears. Neither Papa nor Dad seemed to notice and when I blinked they'd gone back to normal, making me question whether I'd seen anything at all.
"Yes," Harry breathed, blinking slowly, "I guess I will."
Papa frowned after him as he left the three of us in his bedroom. I noticed he wasn't limping any more at least. "That was mean you two," Papa accused, frowning at Dad and I.
Dad offered him a hand to his feet and kissed the top of his hand, "it was necessary Babe."
"Liam!" Harry called to me from the front door.
I swore and breathed out hard, so I was expected to come when he yelled but not vice versa apparently.
Harry turned the stereo up loud enough to burst our eardrums and I had a suspicious feeling he did it to avoid talking to me, or answering my questions. He sung loudly too.
Students took sick days they didn't need, I knew that, but I couldn't think of anything Harry had today that was worth lying his way out of. I used to use the whole fake sick plan to get out tests or performances in the lame drama class I took when I just started high school, but never just because I felt like it.
I took my usual park and checked my phone. It had been dinging the whole drive but with Harry in the car with me I hadn't checked it until now. I groaned and knocked my head against the head rest, my friends had left without me.
"Thanks for making me late Haz," I growled.
Harry looked at his lap, tangling his fingers together. "Sorry," he muttered softly. He glanced out the window and swallowed.
"What's up? I know there's something, so don't try lying to me."
"There's nothing Liam," Harry blurted, reaching hurriedly for the door handle as if I was suddenly infected with the plague and any longer in my company and he'd catch it too.
He moved so quickly he practically fell out of the car and I was left open mouthed and even more confused and curious than I had been before.
There was enough going on in class for me to forget about Harry's weird behaviour up until lunch time when his friend from yesterday shyly approached me at the table I was sitting at and asked me if I knew where he was.
"No, I haven't seen him since this morning sorry." I shook my head and swallowed the food in my mouth. I had some questions to ask.
"It's alright, he just said he'd meet me, and he didn't, and I wasn't sure what happened to him," the red haired kid stammered, his eyes darting around the group of guys sat just behind me. They weren't exactly scary, but this kid was small and we were not.
"You've seen him today though?"
He nodded and adjusted his shoulder straps, obviously itching to go.
"Was he acting weird?"
A fast shake of the head and averting of the eyes.
"I'll come look for him with you," I said, standing up.
Gabe groaned and whacked my shoulder, "we were gossiping!"
"Not important," I said, hoisting my own bag onto my back and turning to Harry's friend, "let's go."
He seemed very uncertain and mildly terrified of me but he let me lead him out of the cafeteria and outside where it was quieter and there were a lot less people.
I whipped my phone out and shot Harry a quick text just asking him where he was. His friend shook his head, "I've tried that already."
Frowning and sighing I stuffed my phone away and rubbed my forehead. Harry always replied to texts. It was good for knowing where he was but bad when he replied to wrong numbers and spent a whole evening texting with a forty year old woman.
This was starting to get worrying now. Maybe he really was sick this morning? I remembered the look he gave me in his bedroom. Nope, that wasn't the answer. I didn't know what it it was, but I had a feeling it wasn't good. Maybe I was over reacting and he'd just been held in class or something, but that was very unlike Harry.
"What's your name?" I asked the kid shuffling his feet in front of me.
"Joe."
"Alright, Joe, I'm Liam. Tell me everything you know right now because I need to find my brother," I said, hoping that the fear he had of me would make him tell me the truth this time. I knew he knew something, it was only a matter of getting him to talk.
Joe's eye widened and he let out a shaky breath, fidgeting with his feet, "he doesn't tell me a lot, Liam. He'll tell it much better if you ask him."
"Yeah, well, he's missing so-"
My phone vibrating in my pocket cut me off and I watched Joe intensely as I dug it out and answered it.
"L-Li?"
At first the sound of Harry's voice made me slump in relief but then I registered the shakiness and the heaving breathing and my heart just dropped. I hated hearing Harry cry.
"Hazza, Joe and I are looking for you, tell us where you are," I said.
He hiccuped and sniffled, "just you, it's, um, I don't want him to see."
"Way to make it sound like you've had a toilet accident Mate," I snorted, hoping to making him laugh some. All I got was a sob.
"Where are you H?"
"Bathroom, R bl-block."
"I'll be there in two seconds."
I hung up the phone and gave Joe my most overly sweet smile. I felt kind of bad, the kid really just wanted to make sure Harry was alright.
"He'd prefer if it was just me Joe. Is there someone else you can go hang out with? Go sit with my friends if you like."
Hurriedly Joe shook his sharp head and rambled put a quick reply, "no, I've got other people to- tell Harry to text me later if he wants to, I'll just- bye Liam."
I waved awkwardly as he stumbled away.
"R block, R block, R block. . ." I mumbled to myself as I walked briskly towards the shorter building on the far left of the school. I ended up jogging, bag swinging ungracefully and shoes slapping the ground just so that everyone could see how much of an idiot I looked like trying to run with my textbooks on my back.
I reached the R block toilets panting and went inside before trying to get my breath back.
"Hazza, you in there?" I knocked on the only closed stall.
"Yeah. . ." Harry whimpered from the other side of the door, and I heard toilet paper rustling.
"Do you wanna maybe. . . Come out?" I frowned, leaning on the delicate framework. Maybe a better adjective was cheap. If I weight too much more the entire thing would probably collapse.
Harry sniffed and the lock slid open. I pushed the door to reveal a hunched Harry with his hair a complete mess and tears running down his face. That's what I noticed in the first second, the second and thirds seconds I spent staring the the bruise blossoming on his chin and the bleeding cut across his jawline.
Harry let out a loud and heart breaking sob and barrelled into my chest, hiding himself in my shirt. I mouthed a few swear words at the ceiling, not wanting to scare him with how fucking awful he looked, and rubbed his back.
"We're going to stand here and hug for three minutes and then we're going to the nurse," I muttered.
I felt him shake his head against me but he didn'ttry to go anywhere.
Around the three minute mark I gently tilted his face up to meet mine. He winced and another tear leaked from the corner of his eye. "Did somebody do this to you Haz?"
He nodded and whimpered as my finger grazed the warm cut.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, I know it hurts." I bit my lip, unable to wipe the sad look from my face. "Pass me your bag, chuck your hood up."
"I don't wanna go Li," Harry said, hiding his face again.
"I know you'd choose it over going to next period though, we can't stay in here for the rest of the day," I replied and hooked his school bag over my shoulder. Thankfully that convinced him and we headed off to see Mrs Campbell. Her office was close and although we got some strange looks Harry had his head down so he didn't notice much.
Mrs Campbell cleaned up the cut on Harry's face and handed over an icepack for his jaw before scurrying off back to her computer to play solitaire as if that's what she was paid to do.
Harry whimpered as he pressed the ice to his face and I sat down on a chair across from him, "so what's the story here? Who do I need to have a friendly chat with?"
"It's just stupid people," Harry replied quietly, "from my PE class."
"They hit you? Why?" I frowned.
Shrugging, Harry shook his head, "they didn't hit me, I was pushed and I fell onto a shelf in the shed."
All the pieces fell together.
"You didn't want to come to school today! Your knee yesterday! Why didn't you tell me Harry?" I exclaimed, my hands angrily flying everywhere.
"I don't want you to get in trouble," Harry said with a knowing look, "your friendly chat would probably end in bruises like these and you'd be suspended or something."
I sighed, knowing that he was probably right. However, I would've much rather known yesterday so I could prevent this from happening today. Harry rested against my side and closed his eyes,
"What about Papa and Dad? Why didn't you say anything to them?"
"They'll start pushing me harder. . ." Harry squeaked after a moment of hesitation.
"I'm going to tell them now, tonight," I said.
"No Liam!" Harry protested, roughly sitting up, "you can't!"
His icepack fell to the floor, forgotten.
"You're happy to just carry on being bullied like this?" I gritted my teeth. I didn't want to shout at him, not after the day he'd had, but he was making it friggin' hard.
Harry's bottom lip wobbled, "it'll get worse, please don't tell anyone!"
"Half of your face is purple, what else are you going to tell them!?"
Well, there goes the calm I was trying to keep. Out the window it went.
Harry stopped and sniffled, blinking back tears, "I fell."
"Yeah, you did. Because some little fuckers pushed you!"
"Language!" Called Mrs Campbell from her spot in the other room.
I dropped my face into my hands and took a deep breath. I really didn't want to yell at him anymore.
"Please don't," Harry repeated helplessly.
"Let's just forget about it for now. I'm gonna drive you home." I nodded my head and picked up the icepack off the floor. Harry caught it when I biffed it at him and Mrs Campbell didn't even notice us walk straight out the door. Either that or she didn't care at all.
For the first time in a long time, Harry didn't sing along with the radio, he sat stiffly in the passenger seat and fingered his bruised jawline, grimacing and flinched when he hit a tender spot.
"Don't touch," I murmured. In my peripheral vision I saw his hand slowly lower to twist in his lap with his other one.
"Icepack."
He lifted it to his face again.
That was all the communication that happened during the drive.
I parked next to Papa's car a peered through the windows into the house. Papa was just getting up out of his seat behind his laptop at the kitchen table, a confused look on his face. We were home a couple of hours earlier than usual. He disappeared and as I got out of the car the front door opened.
"Early finish?"
"No, Harry-"
"Fell, I fell," he cut me off. For what it was worth I was going to cypher it, I wasn't just going to blurt out exactly what he told me not to say. Either we'd talk about it first, or I'd tell the rents when he went to bed that night.
"Oh baby, that looks painful! How did you manage this?" Papa rushed forward to cup the side of Harry's face that wasn't messed up. He tilted it so that the shadows didn't hide it and gasped, "that's gotta hurt Haz."
"It does," Harry agreed.
He said nothing about it for the whole night. Every time the topic came up he changed the topic as fast as he could and whenever it sounded like I maybe be about to say something he didn't want me to he finished my sentence and turned it into something else entirely. I wasn't going to be able to convince him to tell Dad and Papa, so I decided I'd just let them know later on when he was asleep.
The time cam quickly and I muted the TV.
"Oi!" Dad complained.
"Some kids on Harry PE class paused him, that's why hell fell. And yesterday he hurt his knee because they tripped him," I blurted. "He doesn't want you guys to know because he's terrified they'll just bully him more but I feel like somebody else should know, somebody who can actually do something about it."
Whew, feel that weight lift off my chest,
"What?" Dad stood up, eyes blazing in anger.
"Not Harry. . ." Papa blinked slowly and shook his head sadly.
"Did he tell you any names?" Dad asked.
I listed off the couple he'd given, hoping that I'd remembered them right.
"Well, guess who I'm getting kicked out of your school," Dad huffed, grabbing his phone roughly from the coffee table.
I nodded eagerly, "just make sure you do, because Harry won't ever talk to me again if this really does make it worse for him."
"Lou's a scary phone talker," Papa told me, smiling. "They'll be gone by tomorrow."
This was a pretty quick three and half thousand words so I'm pretty pleased about that, but some of my pieces just feel jarring and stilted and this is one of them. I feel like there's too much dialogue without descriptions or anything in between and the story feels like it doesn't flow. Hopefully it's just me being a weirdo because I really liked how different this request was to anything else I've done
Sorry about the username, my requester, I couldn't find your changed one and I already had this chapter titled from when you requested it so I just left it.
The next request is for: Jasmin822648 and I'm really sorry love but it probably won't be up until tomorrow because I'm gonna be studying for biology all day.