AN: just to let you know: just italics is sign language
just bold is when Louis writes
and both bold and italics is Harry’s writing.
___________________
The boy from yesterday had consumed my thoughts. I had thought about why he hadn’t answered me for the rest of the class and even after I had gone home for the night. Even in my sleep the beautiful boy had entered my dreams and gave me a restless and broken sleep. I woke up with purple bags under my eyes because the lack of sleep I had.
“Oh you look terrible Louis!” I looked at my mother, glaring. “And someone work up on the wrong side of the bed.” I sighed and walked away from her into the shower. I was determined to look better for the boy that I had started to obsess over.
Finding my classes was easier now that I knew, somewhat, how to navigate the school. But still somehow I managed to be late for English.
“Well Louis, I see you’re late again!” I sent a sorry smile towards the teacher as I made my way to the back of the class.
“I’m sorry Mr. Craig!” I said when I had finally sat down in the desk beside Liam.
“Way to go mate.” Zayn laughed at me and reached around to slap my back. I stuck my tongue out at him and turned around to face the teacher settling in for a long class.
Throughout the day we noticed that the school was especially hot. It was already hot outside since the heat wave, which was very unusual for this time of year. I was sweating by the time lunch finally came around.
“God math is just the worst.” I sighed and threw my bag on the ground beside the chair. I slumped down into the chair next to Niall and rested my head in my hands. I was over-heating in this dumb school and felt slightly dizzy at the lack of fluids in my body. I put my head down on the table and closed my eyes hoping that the dizziness and nausea would pass.
“Louis, are you okay?” Niall rested his hand on my back and recoiled with the amount of sweat on it. “Just take off your coat man, everyone does when it’s this hot. ” I cringed at the simple solution that I skipped over in my heat-crazed brain. I groaned as I started to take off my blazer. “Better?” I made some sort of noise and Niall snorted through his nose. I lifted my head as another person tapped my shoulder. My eyes adjusted to the bright room and I accepted the water that Liam handed me with a nod. My hands shook as I tried to open the lid of refreshing, cold water. Finally the lid slid open and I drained half of the bottle in one gulp. The water slid down my throat putting out the fire in my body. I sighed at the feeling and the boys looked at me with cocked heads.
“I don’t do well in heat.” I shrugged and the boys laughed at me once again. “Hey!” I laughed with them and we easily slid into a topic about the weather and whether it was going to last through the week. I sure hoped not. The bell rang signaling the end of our lunch period and the beginning of science, meaning one more period until I got to see the strange boy in music class.
My mind couldn’t focus on what the teacher was saying due to both the heat and the boy. I needed to find out his name, I couldn’t remember what the teacher had said and it was frustrating me. I also needed to find out what is wrong with him and I needed to fix him. That was something I had to do, when I saw people hurting or struggling I just felt like I needed to help and to fix people. This boy was not an exception and I felt a burning need to help him.
“Louis? The bell rang.” Niall waved his hand in front of my face and I was startled from my little daydream I had been having. “You were completely gone!” I laughed along with Niall.
“It’s the heat I tell you!” He laughed and shoved me down the hall as he turned away to head for his own class. I walked faster against the group of people than I had yesterday. Whether it was just because I knew how to walk against them now or because I wanted to see the piano boy again I didn’t know.
“Ah Louis! Welcome back! Harry is just in the piano room, go on ahead!” Harry, that was his name. His name suited him due to the amount of hair that he had, but it stuck with me. Harry, finally a name to put to his lovely face. I smiled at the teacher and walked into the piano room, sitting down and smiling at Harry. He just sat staring at me, his face blank once again.
“Hi Harry!” I said enthusiastically, waving as I did so. I smiled, my award-winning smile, and felt my heart break when he didn’t even wave. He just dropped his head and started to press the keys on the grand piano. The melody was beautiful and there was not any note out of place as he played with his eyes closed. My mouth fell open at how difficult the piece was, but yet he got every note right with his eyes closed. I was jealous. Finally the piece came to an end, but Harry’s head stayed bowed. “You’re a great player.” He didn’t look up or move or budge at the sound of my voice and I felt the frustration that I had yesterday. “You’re a great player!” I said it louder once again, hoping it would make him look up. Once again, nothing. I sighed and got up walking toward the mass of curls. When I tapped him, he jumped practically out of his skin. “You’re a great player Harry.” I said once again, my voice trying so hard not to yell. He nodded and smiled a closed mouth smile, but it was a smile all the same and I felt that I was making some other progress. “I’m Louis, if you don’t remember.” I smiled once again, taking advantage of the time that Harry decided to look and pay attention to me talk. I saw his eyes travel down to my lips as I talked and had to suppress the smile that was threatening to show. Harry nodded once again, not bothering to answer. I sighed at the difficulty that talking to this boy was becoming. I shrugged and went to sit down getting fed up with him not talking. The keys underneath me became the outlet for my frustration as I started to pound out a melody on the black and white keys. When I looked up from the keys Harry was still staring at me, his eyebrows furrowed. We stared at each other silently for I don’t know how long, but I had never been so grateful for the bell. I ran out of the piano room, grabbing my bag on the way and leaving the class so fast that I was the first one out of the room. I didn’t even look back at Harry who was still sitting on the piano. If I had I would have seen his heartbroken expression and a tear stream down his cheek.
“Whoa, there mate, excited to leave class or what?” I pushed Zayn slightly and followed him out of the school.
“You have no idea.” I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. I heard Zayn chuckle at me and opened my eyes when I heard more feet come toward us.
“Want to come over to my house Lou? We’re all going to play some football outside.” Niall’s smile was huge, beaming at me and I felt my heart melt. Caving in to Niall, when I really didn’t want to, I nodded my head and followed them off of the school property. The boys talked about their days while I stayed silent, staring off the boy in front of me. The massive amount of curls was what gave him up. His head was facing up not moving as he walked and his hands were fidgeting at his sides. I stared at him, my eyes straying down to look at his arse.
“Louis, you alright mate?” Zayn’s voice broke me out of the trance of Harry’s butt and my head whipped up at him. “You were zoned out.” I laughed and shrugged my shoulders turning my head straight again just in time to see Harry drop something from his binder. He didn’t stop to pick it up so I figured that he didn’t realize he dropped it.
“OI! YOU DROPPED SOMETHING!” I yelled hoping to get his attention. The boys looked at me with their mouths hanging open and their eyebrows furrowed. I shook my head at them and ran forward, grabbing the piece of paper off of the ground and sprinting to meet up with Harry. He didn’t turn around as my feet hit the pavement hard. “Harry, you dropped this.” Still nothing. Groaning, I reached out and tapped his shoulder. Once again he jumped at the contact, turning quickly to face me. “You- dropped- this.” I said still out of breath from the sprinting I had done. He took in my disheveled appearance, still not taking the folder that had fallen. “You dropped this.” I handed him the folder and he nodded taking it and practically running from me. I ran my hand over my face in pure anguish as the boys caught up behind me.
“What are you doing Louis?” I looked at Liam confused at the disgusted face that he had on. “That’s so rude of you to just yell!” I looked at Liam before bursting out laughing.
“What in the hell are you talking about Liam?” The boys all exchanged glances with each other.
“Harry is deaf Louis.” I shook my head, no way. “Yup he is deaf has been for a very long time now.” I felt like I was spiraling into darkness. I had been so rude to him! Talking to him and getting mad when he didn’t know what I was saying, I felt like the most despicable person on the face of the planet. Harry wasn’t the one who needed fixing, I was. “Are you okay?” I shook my head and walked away from them, heading home after the news that I had got. I usually didn’t take this type of news so bad but when I had been so blatantly rude than I knew I just had to fix something.
My house was silent as I walked in. The silence was too quiet and pressed on my ears as I walked around trying to make as much noise as I could.
“Okay Louis, let’s do this.” I said to myself while grabbing my laptop and looking up sign language. I needed to make an effort to say sorry to Harry. The signs were confusing and it took my a couple hours just to learn a few sentences and how to say Hello my name is Louis. But when I was done I felt a sense of accomplish at the task I had done. I went to bed in anticipation of the day ahead of me.
My sleep had been another restless one, disturbed by the haunting face of Harry, and waking up had actually felt like a relief. With my hair spike all over the place just how I liked it, I threw on my uniform and practically ran out the front door determined not to be late again. It was another hot day and at this early in the morning I could already feel the heat stroke sinking into my body. Zayn, Niall and Liam were already in English when I entered.
“Looks who’s on time today!” Mr. Craig joked with me as I walked to the back and sat down in my desk beside Liam who was being quiet. Finally after the bell had rung and the class had started the boys all turned the chairs toward me, the scraping against the floor made me wince and hope that the teacher didn’t turn around.
“Where did you go yesterday?” Niall’s voice was curious, but still concerned at the same time and I shrugged.
“Home.” My voice was probably a bit too loud for the situation we were in and I cringed once again, but the teacher never turned around. Secretly I wish he had and that this conversation would just end already. I didn’t really feel like getting interrogated.
“Why?” I shrugged once again.
“Just didn’t feel good that’s all.” Liam made some sort of noise signaling that he didn’t believe my answer to Niall’s question.
“Fat chance. Was it because we told you that Harry’s deaf? You know-” I shook my head, making Liam stop his sentence right there. I groaned quietly and rested my head on my desk, squeezing my eyes shut and licking my lips. “Louis what is the matter with you?” Liam’s voice was an angry hiss and I sat up, opening my eyes slowly. The room was full of black dots that happened when I was stressed by a situation. I took deep breaths to calm myself before the black dots ate up my vision completely making me pass out on the floor of English class.
“I just feel like a right prick. I didn’t know that Harry was deaf so I just kept getting really mad at me when he wouldn’t answer my questions in music class.” I made a strange sort of strangled noise with my throat and felt Liam place his hand on my shoulder.
“It’s okay man, you didn’t know. We’ve all been there.” I nodded in appreciation at Liam’s words and sighed slightly.
“Now if you turn to page 109 you will see what I mean by…”
The first half of the day hadn’t passed quick enough. I was anxious to see Harry again and use my new sentences to maybe make a better impression.
“Louis, want to sit outside for lunch?” I nodded and followed the three boys to a spot on the grass where I took off my blazer and let my skin soak up the sun. I felt too nervous to eat anything so instead I shut my eyes and let the sun heat up my skin. The feeling of the sun on your skin is such a wonderful feeling; like it’s heating up your entire insides and that you could never been cold. Eventually I opened my eyes and the colours seemed faded due to the fact that my eyes had been closed. I looked around the field and saw multiple groups of people lounging around in the sun. My eyes scanned around before landing on one curly hair boy in the middle of the field. Even from here I could see how long his torso was without the blazer covering him up. My eyes roamed his body in appreciation at how gorgeous he actually was. His head started to turn my way and I quickly whipped my head back around to the boys to avoid an awkward situation. The boys were talking about the time they spent together last night and I was able to zone out once again.
“We should get to class before the bell rings, come on Louis.” I groaned and stood up, stretching my body as I did so. In comparison to outside the school was freezing and I had to put my blazer back on the cover up the goosebumps on my arms. In science we were handed goggles and lab-coats as we entered the class.
“Experiment day class!” I smiled at the distraction from the nerves that were building in my stomach at having to see Harry next period.
Science class passed faster than I would have liked, meaning it was time for music class and ultimately time to see Harry once again. I walked in to class and waved at the teacher before walking straight in to the piano room. Harry was already there once again, bent over the keys with his fingers flying all over them beautifully. I walked over and placed my bag down by my piano. I half expected Harry to look up from the keys, but he never would because of the fact that he was deaf. I waited until the song Harry was playing was finished before tapping him on the shoulder. His head came up slowly, obviously he had been preparing. I smiled at him once again, before moving my hands. He didn’t look at first so when his eyes finally strayed down to look at my hands I restarted what I was saying.
Hi, my name is Louis. I’m sorry that I’ve been mean.
Harry’s smile was huge and breath taking. The perfectly straight and blindingly white teeth that were put on display because of his smile made my heart flutter. The dimples on his face were gorgeous and I felt my face start to match his with the smile. Harry’s hands were flying with sign language trying to communicate with me and I felt my eyes widen and my smile fade as I tried to understand what he was saying. I shook my head and placed my hands on top of his to stop him. I held up one finger to signal one second and walk to my bag to grab out a notebook.
I can’t read sign language. I learned those words last night to say sorry.
I scribbled quickly on the paper, feeling a bit stupid at how I hadn’t learned any more words than those two sentences and a couple letters from the alphabet. I handed Harry the sheet back and watched his smile grow slightly.
Seriously you did that for me?
I felt my heart contract slightly at the doubt that this boy had. I wanted to say how sorry I was about everything and how I wished that I had learnt more sign language.
Of course! I was going to learn more but I had a lot of difficulty learning just those! But I’m sorry about the past two days, I’ve been extremely rude to you.
My handwriting was nothing compared to Harry’s. Mine was messy and ugly while Harry’s was loopy and quite pretty if I did say so. I looked down at the ground, my hands fidgeting as I did so. I heard the noise of pencil scribbling on the paper and looked up to see Harry smiling at the paper while he wrote. I smiled once again feeling like I was making some sort of headway with him.
Thank you so much. You don’t even know how much that means to me. No one has ever done even that for me.
I smiled at his words before my smiled turned into a frown at what he was saying. Was he saying that no one cared enough? But what would he do for his friends? Clearly they wouldn’t be able to communicate with him.
What about your friends?
I handed him back the note pad, watching as his smile was wiped off and replaced with a frown.
Well I don’t have any.
His smile as he handed me back the paper was heart breakingly sad. I felt my mouth open slightly and watched as one single tear fell from Harry’s eye. Without thinking I bent forward and wrapped my arms around his thin torso. He tensed underneath me immediately, but I stayed holding on to him. He never relaxed in my arms and I sighed giving up and moving away from him. He looked at me, his face blank and his eyes guarded once again. I had finally gotten him to speak to me and now all I needed to do was break the code that was Harry.
When the bell finally rang I found myself with a new mission.