Harry stayed outside all throughout the second period letting his mind wander. He sat against the brick wall of the school, trying to calm himself down. He tried breathing, but all that came out were short quick breaths that he couldn't control. Slowly, he pulled his knees to his chest, trying to push the feeling of lightheadedness away. It didn't work.
Saying that Harry was furious would probably be an understatement. He couldn't get Liam's words to stop playing in his head and every time he heard them, his fists squeezed together a little tighter. Liam had gone around, playing the role of his best friend. He really was a shit friend, wasn't he? Harry didn't know if he was putting up an act the entire time, or whatever. He didn't really care. He didn't care at all actually.
Six minutes after the lunch bell rang, Harry heard footsteps approach him. He shut his eyes, pretending not to notice them. He hoped they belonged to a random student passing through, or Louis even. It wasn't ideal to have Louis approach him at the moment, but it was infinitely better than the other option.
"Harry..." Dammit. It was the voice of the other option. He tried his best not to react at all to the voice. There was about a zero percent chance that Harry wanted to speak to Liam at the moment. Actually, there was no chance that Harry wanted to speak to Liam ever again.
"Harry, did you hear me?" Harry felt his muscles tense, then mentally cursed for letting himself flinch. "I know you heard me."
He still had his eyes shut, but Harry felt a presence right in front of him. He could only assume it was Liam standing there. Of course, his 'friend' was looking down at him. He continued to sit against the wall, ignoring the standing boy.
He heard the boy let out a sigh and sit beside him. "I honestly can't understand why you're mad at all."
Harry took a moment to lift his head and look right at Liam. The boy's eyes widened slightly before tightly pressing his lips together. Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting. Tears? Anger? Whatever he wanted, Harry wasn't going to give him any of it. He started at Liam with a blank face, expressionless and impatient.
"Harry, I don't know what you want from me." Liam let out another heavy sigh. "Can you at least tell me what I did wrong?"
"You say it like you don't know."
"I seriously don't."
"Sure," Harry let his head drop, little bits of his hair falling with it. It looked so artistic, the way the curls swung back and forth. Harry wasn't in the mood to care about that.
"If this is about English, don't you think you're overreacting a little?"
"Overreacting? Do you even know what you said?" Harry didn't know the exact words, but he remembered Liam's nod. His tiny nod that felt like a punch in the gut.
"Harry, you're being completely irrational. Do you even know what I said?" Liam threw his arms up and shook his head. He looked disappointed, but Harry didn't feel for him. No one forced him to care.
Harry thought about the words Liam had spoken, even though he truly didn't want to. Honestly, Harry couldn't remember anything but the nod. He barely even remembers the point Conner made that caused the nod. As much as Harry knew he had almost no ground, he refused to let Liam be correct.
"Seriously, what's going on with you?" Liam said suddenly.
"Excuse me?"
"You said you would tell me what's up when it was all over and worked out. The debate is over. Tell me what's going on with you." His words were demanding, but his tone was soft.
"No."
"You promised you would." Liam's voice hinted at a slight bit of annoyance.
"I promised that assuming we would still be friends. We aren't."
Harry probably should have felt guilty about that. In all honesty, he kind of did. He just couldn't admit that because he was stubborn as hell. Harry had realized Liam had the high ground, and his only defence was to be as nasty as possible.
He sat with his back against the cold brick having a silent argument with himself. Harry had always been extremely empathetic, and it took everything from him not to cling on to Liam and sob. Harry got so close to snapping and apologizing, but Liam stood up and walked away seconds before Harry gave in.
Liam had quite literally just walked out of his life, leaving Harry sitting alone on the floor. Harry didn't realize how quiet it was. By this time, classes had already started again, and the outside of the school was deserted. The only sound was the rustling of dried leaves everytime the wind blew. It was the same wind that pierced through Harry's thin hoodie and chilled his skin.
Harry also never realized how lonely he was. Sure he had his parents, but he doubted they really liked him at all. He had Jaqueline once. It was only a couple of weeks ago but it felt like forever. Maybe somewhere in his twisted up head, Harry still wished he had her.
Of course, there was Louis. Louis was amazing; he was beautiful, and he made Harry smile among tons of other things. He just figured that if Louis could even love himself, how could he expect the boy to love him? Harry just wanted to feel loved.
Harry lost himself in his own thoughts. He used his thoughts to drown everything out around him. Somewhere in the process, his tears started crawling their way down Harry's cheek without him noticing. He was sitting outside on the cold pavement, completely alone. It took all this for him to realize how truly cold and how truly lonely he was.
Harry had his head in his hand when a huge ball of warmth encapsulated him. Warmth spread through him accompanied by a familiarly comforting smell. He never wanted to seem incredibly vulnerable but allowed himself to melt into the arms that were holding him.
Harry opened his eyes and immediately blinked the water off of his eyelashes. All he could think was that thank goodness this was Louis because if it was anyone else, Harry would be extremely concerned.
It suddenly hit Harry how selfish he was being. Conner's comment should have hurt Louis a lot more than it hurt him, but he was the one bawling on the floor. He was supposed to be comforting Louis, but the younger boy was here, worrying about him. The fact that he was so close to Liam shouldn't have made a difference.
"Shit Louis, I'm sorry," Harry spoke quietly, letting guilt take his voice. "Are you alright?"
"Yea, of course," Louis whispered softly, convincingly. "Do you want to go back to class?"
"No."
"Okay."
"Do you want to come over?" Harry offered hopefully, lifting his head up to look at the younger boy.
"Right now?"
"Yea"
"If you want me to." Louis looked down. Harry chuckled sadly at the self-doubt.
"I always want you to." Harry smiled, suddenly much happier. He wiped a quick tear from his eye and grabbed the other boy's hand.
Harry looked back at the school one more time before walking away, Louis beside him. The boy managed to have so much effect on him, he couldn't even explain it to himself. Sometimes, he forgets just how perfect Louis is until he does the perfect little thing. Not only is he beautiful, but he's also a little angel.
"What are you thinking about?" Louis asked curiously. Harry decided to tell the truth.
"You." Harry was a little embarrassed admitting it, but the blush the shorter boy gave was oh, so worth it.
~
Louis chucked when Harry turned the key the wrong way.
"Shut up!" Harry hit his arm playfully. "I swear! It was unlocked."
"Of course it was." Louis smiled, before letting out another lovey chuckle.
The two boys walked into the front foyer, still laughing. Harry took another step forward, then froze, eyeing the set of keys hanging on the mail hook. On cue, his father walked out of the kitchen to see the two boys.
"Hello Harry, what brings you here?" His father spoke with a smile, but Harry could hear the hint of distaste under his voice. He also realized that he had just come home, unannounced to his father, in the middle of a school day.
"Some school thing. They told us to go home. Wouldn't tell us anything else." Harry lied blatantly. He was no stranger to lying to his father. Harry didn't even know why he was at home, the older man was usually at work until early in the evening.
"Alright, who's this?" If he didn't accept the answer, the man gave no indication. He responded right away, nodding his head in Louis' general direction.
"Hi sir, I'm Louis." Louis stepped forward before Harry had a chance to open his mouth.
"So you're Louis?" The man smiled softly, a sour look in his eyes. Fuck, Harry forgot that Jaqueline had told his father about Louis. The younger boy didn't notice, he just smiled back at his father.
"Welcome, Louis. Stay as long as you want." He spoke slowly.
Harry took Louis' hand and pulled him up the stairs, not missing the bitter frown from his father. Once they were safely in his room, Harry shut the door quickly and flopped gracefully onto his bed.
"Your dad seems nice," Louis commented.
Harry groaned loudly into his pillow. He felt the bed sink as Louis sat on it.
"Seems is the key word," Harry spoke bitterly.
"Oh."
They stayed quiet for a few minutes, waiting for the awkward moment to pass through. Indeed, it did pass, and suddenly Harry was giggling again.
"What's so funny?" Louis asked slightly confused. The look was so adorable that Harry couldn't help but giggle again.
"Seriously? Why are you laughing?"
"You are," Harry paused to giggle, and roll over, closer to Louis. "so cool."
"Harry, I swear, are you drunk or something?" Louis furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the boy rolling across the bed.
"Louis." Harry sat up. "When exactly did I have time to get drunk?"
"Oh, good point."
They laid on the bed, face up, on either side. They stayed like that for a while, thinking about the events of the day.
"I feel like I'm looking at the stars." Harry sighed.
"There are no stars."
"Doesn't matter."
"Harry," Louis rolled over to look at the taller boy, who was still staring at the ceiling. "Do you want to talk about today?"
"Not really."
"At least give me one word," Louis asked.
"What kind of word?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows, intrigued.
"Tell me how you're feeling."
"In one word?"
"Yes"
Harry thought for a second. He thought about what he said to Liam, and how he was avoiding the problem. How he was being difficult with Louis.
"I guess..." Harry breathed deeply. "Guilty."
"Do you mind me asking why?" Louis asked reluctantly. Like he was too afraid to pry.
"Yes."
"Okay." Louis rolled onto his back once again. slowly, he raised his arm up, pointing to the top-left corner of his ceiling. Harry took to notice how he grabbed sleeve with his last two fingers, careful not to let the sleeve drop.
"What are you pointing at?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.
"See that?" Louis asked. Harry nodded. "I think that's Orion's belt."
"The constellation?" This time. Louis nodded. Harry smiled, quoting the boy from earlier. "But there are no stars."
"Does it matter?" Louis asked playfully.
"Of course not." Harry breathed out. He smiled and rolled over, taking Louis into his long arms.
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