~Harry~
A few days after the party, Harry finds himself coming down with a cold. His nose won't stop running, throat is dry, eyes water constantly, a pounding headache that won't go away, and the cough finding its way out of his month isn't pretty either.
He hates nothing more than feeling weak in his own body, especially when there is nothing he can do to stop it.
He forced Louis to go to the nearest drug store with him as he is still not talking with his mum, knowing if he did he would say something he would regret and seeing that she was all he had left, he wasn't ready to cut that tie too.
"Bloody hell Harry just pick any," he hears Louis huff with an annoyed tone in his voice as he looks through the medicine shelves with Harry.
"You didn't have to come with me you dick," he croaks out as loud as he could before ending up in a coughing fit.
"Jesus," Louis mutters as he swats his hand, "If I get sick I'm killing you in your sleep."
Harry rolls his eyes as he tries not to pay too much attention to the glass feeling he has in his throat every time he swallows.
He coughs a few more times before Louis aggressively takes a pack of unopened cough drops off the rack, tearing them open, and shoving one into Harry's hand.
"Holy fucking shit," the blue eyed boy says under his breath.
Harry turns his head to side to see if anyone saw, which to his luck, an old lady looking at the kanes at the end of the aisle saw the whole thing. Her eyes were opened wide as she watched the two teens.
"We're paying for them lady, cool it," Louis says loudly to the women as he takes a brand of cold/flu medicine, ripping the cough drops out of Harry's hand and walks to the register.
~
As Harry stands at the front of the car watching the people who walk in and out of the drug store doors, he couldn't help but notice the women standing at the corner, shaking violently as she paces back and forth as though she was worried about something.
Normally he wouldn't be so facisented by the movements, but it was something about the familiarity of the women that drew him in.
It was as if he had seen her somewhere, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
When she finally had turned around Harry instantly knew who she was.
Fuck, he thinks to himself as he watches her crawl at her arms while running her fingers through her hair.
While watching her with such intensity, he doesn't hear Louis walk over to him, standing next to him as he lights one of his own cigarettes, joining Harry.
He just continues staring at her, letting his cigarette burn out before even getting a chance to smoke it.
Her brown hair had looked as though it had never seen a brush, her clothes baggy on her body... as if she had bought them 15 pounds ago. The light blue jeans that she was wearing had holes running down the leg that matched the dirt and slashes that flooded her white tee shirt.
The last time Harry had seen the woman at the corner of the store she looked as though she was on top of the world, granted he was only eleven years old, but the fact that she had changed in such a way was almost frightening for him to look at.
She was clearly on something, and for some reason - unknown to Harry - he couldn't help the feeling in his gut turning knowing what it had meant for her.
Her, he thinks to himself... the last person Harry had ever thought he would take pity on.
"Marley said that she was clean for about 7 months," Louis says quietly as the lit cigarette dangles in between his lips, causing Harry to jump, just now noticing the boy to his left, "But her dad's birthday was last week and apparently she fell off the deep end. She hasn't been home since."
Harry turns to look at him, making sure that he had heard him right.
"Sucks," Harry mutters as he digs his hands into his pockets.
He knows what it was like watching a parent go through drugs.
One minute they are home promising that they are better, that everything will be better and they are there to stay. The next they are stealing money from their kid's piggy bank to pay for a new batch of Meth to cook while their eight year old son is in the next room over.
The rehab centers do shit. All they do is take the money from desperate families knowing that there is no hope for the one they are admitting. They use fancy words and shove brochure after brochure down their throats that promise the person they love will come back. They promise that there won't be anymore drug deals at three am that go wrong, promise that there won't be anymore walk-ins on them shooting themselves up with a needle.
But yet the promises always seem to find a way to get fucked up, leaving those who believed them just like the promises... broken.
"You okay, H."
Harry didn't even realize that he was still staring at the corner of the store, the one who he had been watching now out of sight. He looks around hoping to catch a glimpse of her one last time, but has no luck as he only sees an old man and woman walking out of the doors, hand in hand.
He blinks a few times as he notices freshly formed tears have made their way to the surface. He quickly shakes his head as he coughs lightly, thinking how being sick was the perfect excuse for the tears.
"Yeah," he says, still shaking his head as he wipes his eyes with the pads of his fingers, "Let's go."
He makes his way to the passenger side of Louis' car as the two drive in silence, Harry wondering where they were heading.
~
"Where the fuck are we?"
The drive had only been about twenty minutes, Harry carefully watching the surroundings past him as they made their way to a familiar part of town, the part where he is able to put a face to the nightmares, the face to the demons he never seems to be able to run away from.
It had been the run down side of town, where the lowest of lows lived. Rats roamed the roads like they were dogs being taken on a walk by their owners. Kids sat on the side of the road, clinging to one another so nothing would happen to them. Gang signs spray painted along the bricks of buildings as the members held their ground.
"I need to tell her that we saw her mum, she's worried about her" Louis says as he parks the car outside of an old, rundown house that looks like it hasn't been lived in for years, "You can stay in the car if you want, I'm not in the mood for the two of you to get in a pissing match at the moment."
"Marley lives here?"
He was in complete disbelief, he had always wondered how the perfect Marley Jeen lived her life, but he had never pictured this. He may hate the girl but he doesn't want her to live in a part of town that has the most crime in all of manchester
Louis simply nods his head as he heads out the door, turning back and signals Harry to follow.
As soon as he steps out of the car he is hit with the smell of weed, normally he wouldn't be bothered by it all, in fact he would go to find the bloke and buy some, but he knows Marley has a younger brother much younger than them, one too young to be caught up in all this.
He's only a year younger than you were, he patronizes to himself, who gives a fuck if he's surronder by this shit... you were.
As they make their way up to the steps, he notices the way Louis is oddly calm about being here. Before he had left, Louis was the more skittish of the two, not being a fan of Harry finding himself on this side of town so often. Yet here he is, walking up to the door and placing his finger onto the buzzer as if he had done it a thousand times before.
"It doesn't really work," he says nodding down to the lock, "But I like ringing the bell so that way she's not nervous when I knock on the door."
He didn't quite understand what Louis meant until he saw him open the barred door and knock on the wooden on behind it with ease.
"It's weird being on this side of town without Dean," Harry says to Louis as they wait on the outside of Marley's door.
This makes Louis quickly turn to him with a harsh expression, "Don't say that name."
"Don't tell me what to do," he retorts, narrowing his eyes at Louis.
"Seriously Harry, fuck off."
Harry just lets it go not really caring that much to fight with Louis about it.
They stand there for a few more moments until he hears footsteps coming towards the door.
Harry assumed that Marley would be the one to open the door, but he was surprised when the door opened and he found himself looking down at a young boy, being no more than 7 years old.
"Lou," he says happily as he rushes towards the boys, not even noticing Harry as Louis bends down slightly to pick him up.
To say he was shocked would be a complete understatement.
Why the fuck is this kid so obsessed with Louis, what is going on?
"Hey buddy," Louis chuckles as he cocks him onto his hip, making his way into the house.
"Cole!" a voice yells from the bedroom across the hall, "I told you not to open the door by yourself-"
Her hair is wet, naturally assuming that she had just gotten out of the shower. She had on a pair of grey sweatpant joggers with a light purple jumper that had been cut as well. She had a white scrunchie on her left wrist, making her tan skin stand out.
"What are you guys doing here," she asks, making wide eyes at Louis while slightly nodding her head at Harry.
"I'm not blind dipshit," he says harshly as he narrows his eyes at her.
"Noted," she deadpans.
They look at each other for a second with venom in their eyes before she turns back to Louis, "Why the fuck is he here?"
Louis quickly stands in between them, making sure he faces Marley as he says, "We saw your mum today."
Silence.
Not a single word was said as the four of them looked at each other.
Harry found himself looking at the boy that he now knows is named Cole, learning that he was the kid she was watching the other night.
The young boy looks confused as he looks at Marley, before turning to Louis and saing, "I thought you guys said she was on vacation?"
Instead of saying anything Louis just looks at him, before sighing as he turns to Marley.
"I'll tell you later, big guy," she says with a small smile.
What she does next surprises Harry, her full attention is turned to him as she asks, "Was she..."
He doesn't need her to finish in order to know what she was asking, he knows.
He simply nods his head as she sighs and runs her fingers through her hair, looking at Louis who has a sympathetic look on his face.
"Where was she?"
"Corner of the drug store on Market Street," Louis says, putting cole on the ground as he stands next to him, not wanting to leave his side.
"Okay," she says slowly, tucking a few pieces of her brown curly hair behind her ears.
"Luke will be home soon," she says to Louis, "When he gets back I'll go look for her. Thank you for telling me."
"Mar," he says softly, taking a step towards her.
"I'm okay Lou," she says reassuringly with a small smile, "Erm- thanks for telling me."
~
Shorter chapter. A lot is going to happen in the book so if seems like things are moving kinda fast... it has too lol.
Thoughts on the story so far?